Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur is a diverse city representing many different religions and nationalities. Recent government policy has actively promoted unity and cohesion throughout the city; and the country of Malaysia, with the implementation of a programme called 1Malaysia. In this book, the authors investigate the aims of this programmepredominantly to unify the Malaysian societyand how these objectives resonate in the daily spatial practices of the citys residents.
This book argues that elements of urban infrastructure could work as an essential mediator beyond community, allowing inclusive social structures to be built, despite cultural and religious tensions existing within the city. It builds on the premise of an empirical study which explores the ways in which different communities use the same spaces, supported through the implementation of a theoretical framework which looks at both Western and Islamic conceptualisations of the notion of community. Through the analysis of Kuala Lumpur, this book contributes towards the creation of more inclusive places in multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious communities across the world.
Marek Kozlowski is currently a Senior Lecturer and Master of Tropical Urban Design Program Coordinator at the Faculty of Design and Architecture, University Putra Malaysia. He has worked as an urban designer on several key projects in Australia, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Poland. He has conducted visiting lectures at universities in Australia, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Thailand and Poland. He has written several publications in the field of urban design and planning including a book Urban Design: Shaping the Attractiveness of the Urban Environment with the End-Users.
Asma Mehan is the current Postdoctoral Research Associate at CITTA (research center for territory, transports and environment) at the University of Porto, Portugal. She is an editor at Architectural Histories, the open-access journal of the European Architectural History Network (EAHN), and active member of the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP).
Krzysztof Nawratek is a Senior Lecturer in Humanities and Architecture at the University of Sheffield, UK. He is an author of City as a Political Idea (2011), Holes in the Whole. Introduction to urban revolutions (2012), Radical Inclusivity. Architecture and Urbanism (ed. 2015), Urban Re-Industrialisation (ed. 2017) and Total Urban Mobilisation. Ernst Junger and Postcapitalist City (2018).
The book by Marek Kozlowski, Asma Mehan and Krzysztof Nawratek offers a well-structured insight in a multiethnic microcosm of the Southeast Asian metropole of Kuala Lumpur, one of the most important urban centers in this part of the world. Their theoretical approach towards problems they discuss is combined with presentation of KLs history and complicated, multidimensional religious, social and political structure of the place, which is the heart of todays Malaysia. The book provides a scholarly deep, nuanced, but at the same time, fascinating analysis of the urban fabric of Kuala Lumpur the city with ambitions, but also some weaknesses. It is strongly supported with information about facts concerning the present state and possible future of its broadly understood urban and social infrastructure.
Dr. Jarosaw Suchoples Senior Research Fellow,
Department of Art, Music and Culture Studies,
University of Jyvskyl, Finland
Built Environment City Studies
The Built Environment City Studies series provides researchers and academics with a detailed look at individual cities through a specific lens. These concise books delve into a case study of an international city, focusing on a key built environment topic. Written by scholars from around the world, the collection provides a library of thorough studies into trends, developments and approaches that affect our cities.
Baltimore
Reinventing an Industrial Legacy City
Klaus Philipsen
Milan
Productions, Spatial Patterns and Urban Change
Edited by Simonetta Armondi and Stefano Di Vita
Baghdad
An Urban History through the Lens of Literature
Iman Al-Attar
Istanbul
Informal Settlements and Generative Urbanism
Noah Billig
Rio de Janeiro
Urban Expansion and Environment
Jos L. S. Gmez, Zhongjie Lin and Jeffrey S. Nesbit
Kuala Lumpur
Community, Infrastructure and Urban Inclusivity
Marek Kozlowski, Asma Mehan and Krzysztof Nawratek
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
First published 2020
by Routledge
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2020 Marek Kozlowski, Asma Mehan and Krzysztof Nawratek
The right of Marek Kozlowski, Asma Mehan and Krzysztof Nawratek to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kozlowski, Marek (Urban designer), author. | Mehan, Asma, author. | Nawratek, Krzysztof, 1970- author.
Title: Kuala Lumpur : community, infrastructure and urban inclusivity / Marek Kozlowski, Asma Mehan and Krzysztof Nawratek.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2020. | Series: Built environment city studies | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019047297 (print) | LCCN 2019047298 (ebook) | ISBN 9781138207387 (hardback) | ISBN 9781315462417 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Sociology, UrbanMalaysiaKuala Lumpur. | Urban ecology (Sociology)MalaysiaKuala Lumpur. | City planningMalaysiaKuala Lumpur. | Public spacesMalaysiaKuala Lumpur. | Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)Social conditions.
Classification: LCC HN700.6.K78 K69 2020 (print) | LCC HN700.6.K78 (ebook) | DDC 307.7609595/1dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019047297
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019047298
ISBN: 978-1-138-20738-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-46241-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by codeMantra
Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, is a unique city in terms of its sense of place and identity, history and development and strong ethnic diversity. When Malaysias first Prime Minister proclaimed independence on 31.08.1957, Kuala Lumpur was a medium-size administrative city with a population of just over 360,000. It was significantly smaller than other Southeast Asia capitals, and even within the Malay Peninsula, it was overshadowed by Singapore and Penang.
