Kuala Lumpur: Designing the Public Realm

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital, is an extraordinary city informed by multiple cultures. Largely comprised of Bumiputera (Malay) and Chinese inhabitants, the diverse constituency likewise includes Indians and subpopulations of East Malaysia. Religious affiliations include Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, and Taoist. The city’s landscape is shaped by this conglomeration and more. The option studio “Kuala Lumpur: Designing the Public Realm” focused on a complex area that contains the business district of Kuala Lumpur City Centre, part of the channelized Klang River trapped between a highway and a historic Muslim cemetery, and the traditional Malay enclave of Kampung Baru. The site, which extends a diameter of 1.5 kilometers, serves as an illustration of the city’s complex ethnic and social fabric and the pressures of rapid development in Southeast Asia.

Kuala Lumpur: Designing the Public Realm is a Studio Report from the Spring 2017 semester at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Studio made possible with the generous support of AECOM.

Published by the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Fall 2017.

Instructed by David Rubin, Rok Oman, Špela Videcnik
Series design by Zak Jensen & Laura Grey; report design by Mikhail Grinwald
Softcover, 142 pages, 17 x 24.5 cm
ISBN 978-1-934510-66-7

Available for purchase from the Frances Loeb Library and from Amazon.com.