Kuala Lumpur has envisioning in becoming World Class City by the year 2020. Essential elements of form and function of the urban environment are streets. Streets showcase the community and connect people. It's one of the most comfortable social environment that provides aesthetical and interaction pleasure for everyone. Classified as main shopping streets in the local Kuala Lumpur urban design guidelines, Jalan Masjid India (JMI) has its uniqueness of shopping experience and social interaction. This conceptual paper will study the physical and cultural characteristics of the street that will generate the street character by mapping its original characters. The findings will focus on strengthening the methodology applied to promote improvements in evaluating it as a great public space. Results will also contribute to understanding the overall site context, the street connectivity, and urban dynamics. This paper is part of a larger study that addresses on transforming the sociability of public space.
IntroductionThe evolution of urban public space had multiple functions, themes, and meanings, which have been repeated through history and are still relevant today. The aim of this study is to provide evidence of physical character and patterns of use of the street that shapes the public space quality. The study will synthesize the overall site context, the street connectivity, and urban dynamics changing the use of public space. The findings will focus on strengthening the methodology applied to promote improvements in evaluating the street as a great public space. This paper is organized into five sections. The subsequent section contains the literature review of the study. The third section provides the methodology, followed by the study area, results and discussion section. The final section offers the conclusion and implications of the results.