Planning Studio 300 : Part I

Planning Studio 300 Progress


In this entry I would like to write about the current progress of my Planning Studio 300. Early this semester, our studio coordinator, Mr Ghapar & Dr Nurwati had assigned us to apply an element of SPATIAL DESIGN onto our chosen site.Before that, we all are divided onto 12 groups out of 25 students in our studio. 


So, this assignment would be a pair work. Luckily, I got Siti Azilah as my teamwork [I don’t know how she felt when she was on the same group with me =)].  Shortly after they finished briefing about this assignment, I and Azilah discussed about the spatial element and the site that we need to choose. Finally, we came out with 2 different site and spatial elements: Transportation and Waterfront Development.



First Site: Butterworth Ferry Terminal

SITE ANALYSIS

Our first proposed site is located in Ferry Terminal, Butterworth, and Penang. It is located on the seaside of Penang, facing the Penang Island. It is located about 20km from the island and can be reached by either the Penang Bridge or by taking the ferry from the Georgetown. We found that the site (the whole Butterworth Terminal & its surround) are scattered and seems no integrated between the ferry terminal, bus station, railway station and the roads. We also found that the car park are limited, caused some serious traffic congestion in certain time.  There are also some undeveloped, abandoned areas near the terminal that can cause many negative impacts, especially social problem.

PROSPOSED

As there is no integrated transportation system here, we planned to have one integrated transportation system here, consist of ferry terminal, bus and taxi station and railway station. Plus, the multi-levelled parking lot is also proposed to counter the serious traffic congestion here.

Second Site: Bagan Dalam, Butterworth, Penang

SITE ANALYSIS

Out second site is Bagan Dalam, located about 8km from Butterworth Terminal. It is placed alongside the Sg Puyu River. There are many housing area along the riverside. Some of the areas are covered by the mangrove plant which grows here. Plus, some of the area are abandoned and left undeveloped. We also found that the rivers are polluted by the nearby industrial site. Plus, there are some housing areas near the river (Taman Bagan) which offer a great view of the Sg Puyu River.



PROPOSED


With the booming tourism industry in Penang, the site is suitable to develop as the tourist hotspot. The site can be developed as the riverside tourism centre, much likely as the Malacca’s riverside tourism. The mangrove area can be transformed as the recreational area for the surrounds community. The riverside cruise service can be also provided as one of the tourism product here. The main problem however, the polluted water can reduced the number of people from coming here. So, we also planned to purify the polluted water using the green technology available, such as the state’s mud ball programme. With this, it is hoped that the community are aware about the pollution issues here. Then, the tourist facilities such as chalet can be developed there.
After we proposed both site to our studio masters, they give us a green light on the first site: Butterworth Terminal. We felt very happy because there are so many ideas surround our mind right now on how to design and develop this site to become the main integrated transportation hub in Northern Region.




26/9/2011
On this day, we had presented our site analysis based on the site visit that we had done twice before. Both of our studio masters agree with the first site : BUTTERWORTH TERMINAL. So, started from today, we began collecting data from various sources to prepare for the next site analysis presentation. =)