By: Ng Chen Yin 1001540026
Materiality & Immateriality of Petaling Street, Chinatown
In architectural context, materiality is a concept or usage of various materials or substances in the elements of a building. Immateriality, however, is sometimes associated with the formless, an experience of space that focuses on actions rather than physical forms.
Looking at Petaling Street in Chinatown, which known to be one of the old historical centres of Kuala Lumpur, that is famed for its hawker food, clothing, leather goods and not to mention pirated DVDs, still remains as one of the most popular tourist destination in the city. Historical landmarks such as Yan Keng Benevolent Dramatic Association building, Kwong Fook Wing Tailor shop, Chan Ancestral Hall still exist as icons for Petaling Street, an attraction to history buffs and travelers.
Strolling down the streets, each of the shop houses reflects its very own architectural style. Typical shop houses with a short frontage and a five-foot walkway, are mostly built of bricks and plaster. Materials as such express the age and history of the building, as well as the story of their origins and their history of human use. Cracks and flaking paints on the walls convey the essence of materiality that enrich the experience of time on a building.
Modern architecture more often deliberately focus in transparency and weightlessness with an abundance use of glass, without incorporating dimension of time, while buildings in Petaling Street shows the significant processes of aging in natural materials such as stone, brick and wood. The sense of materiality allow us to see beyond the surfaces and enable us to become convinced of the truth of time.
Chinatown was home to tradesman, farmers and miners and also bustling restaurants and art groups. After the vast of modern-day development, Petaling Street now is flooded with foreigners or immigrants, hence the atmosphere has changed. The street has gone through a turbulent past, but one thing is certain, the visitors to Petaling Street will still have plenty to experience in this lively area. The users decides whether architecture is immaterial.
Experiencing immateriality in architecture is based on contradictory sensations, and through an active and creative engagement between the user and architecture itself, while the appreciation of immateriality in architecture focuses attention on the intangibles. Stepping into Petaling Street, the richness of food culture that closely associated with the immaterial sense of smell, leads visitors to experience what is present. The historical five-foot way, allows pedestrians to hide from the hot sun, creating social opportunities. Immateriality is formless, it is the sense of presence.
Materiality and Immateriality are in fact interdependent and inseparable.