Urban rejuvenation

HOW do you get Malaysians to re-engage with parts of Kuala Lumpur that have largely been forgotten? That is the question that urban renewal body Think City Sdn Bhd is tackling with its three-year rejuvenation programme. Launched last year, the programme is aimed at the heart of the city, defined as a 1km radius from Masjid Jamek.

Drawing on its experience with urban regeneration efforts in the Unesco Heritage city of George Town, Penang, Think City, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Khazanah Nasional Bhd, is injecting life back into specific parts of downtown Kuala Lumpur with community-driven projects, events and performances.

A focal location has been the refurbished Dataran Medan Pasar, situated just behind Pasar Seni, where four events have been held, jointly organised with Kuala Lumpur City Council and LabDNA’s Nani Kahar with funding support from Citi Foundation. There was the well-attended Tempatan Fest, a retail fair featuring local brands, and Buy Nothing Day, a free market to promote a break from buying while educating the public on consumerism and creating a sustainable economy.

A night of wayang kulit had a double bill of a traditional showcase by Kumpulan Wayang Kulit Sri Warisan Pusaka from Kelantan and a Mandarin shadow puppet performance by ACX Productions. The Sama-Sama Food Fair celebrated the diverse cuisine, culture, and communities of Southeast Asia, including Melanau, Peranakan, Kelantanese, Vietnamese and Nepalese, to name a few.

“It’s about starting new conversations in spaces that have lost their joie de vivre,” said Lee Jia-Ping (pictured, right), Think City programme director and corporate communications head. “If you come on any other given day, Medan Pasar is quite empty. We basically did a proof of concept to say that with the right programming, you can actually draw the younger crowd back into the city, which has been largely forgotten and replaced by the likes of 1 Utama Shopping Centre, Bangsar, Publika and so on… We wanted to make the city relevant again, especially for young people, and to say what else can we do to the city?”

Lee said, “Tempatan Fest and Buy Nothing Day collectively had over 30,000 people who attended. We were taken by surprise. I think the new generation is ready to restart the conversation. But as with everything, you can’t just do something and leave it, you have to keep the momentum going, keep it somewhat sustainable. We would like to expand the programming of the city and invite corporates to be involved as part of their corporate social responsibility efforts.”

For instance, organisers of this year’s creative arts festival Urbanscapes were invited to use Medan Pasar as part of its line-up, and this Sunday, the closing party will be held there starting at 4pm. There will be live music by OAG, Fazz, Jaggfuzzbeats, The Otherside Orchestra and The Fridays, comedy by comedic acts such as Prakash Daniel, Mat Sabah, Brian Tan and Sulaiman Azmil, as well as an array of street performers and art installations.

Lee also said, “This shows how we can work together with people. If you have a rakyat’s agenda to create new conversations, new events, and new exciting spaces, we’re happy to work with you.”

This month, Think City rolls out another pilot project called Arts on the Move, this time at the Masjid Jamek LRT station. The 220ft-long tunnel that connects the Kelana Jaya Line to the Ampang Line has been turned into an avenue to display art — at present, it is highlighting the ongoing Love Me in my Batik exhibition at Ilham Gallery. In June, there will be a photography exhibition by Studio DL. “We want to make art accessible … it is our way of bringing art to the masses,” said Lee.

That is not all — the turnstile area of the station on the Jalan Melaka side will be turned into a mini performance space. Shanthini Venugopal and Eddie Zachariah will serenade commuters with ballads and golden oldies on Monday, while on May 12, the Hady Afro Trio will play classical and Latin music. Expect to hear traditional dikir barat on May 18, then on May 26, look out for Prakash Kandasamy and Selvendrrah Krishnan who will perform classical Indian music. Watch a butoh showcase by Nyoba Kan with Lee Swee Keong on May 30.

“We are trying it out,” said Lee. “We are working with Susie Kukathas on the programme. If it is successful, we will launch it in other stations — the next test site will be Pasar Seni.”

Think City hopes that efforts like these will create a domino effect and rouse others into action. “We really want to see the young getting creative in the space. We want to invite owners of buildings in the core zone — better still if it’s a listed or old building — to come to us and see how we can together do an adaptive reuse or reinvigorate it in a way that is really creative, and that will start drawing a new kind of audience back into the city.”

Start your search for a condominium of your choice HERE.

This article first appeared in the “Live it” segment of The Edge Financial Daily, on May 4, 2016. Subscribe to The Edge Financial Daily here.