Viewing and the Art of Being Viewed : KAMPUNG BOY GALLERY

Ja’afar, Mohd Fakri Zaky and Mohd Zin, Abdul Rahim (2009) Viewing and the Art of Being Viewed : KAMPUNG BOY GALLERY. Sustainable Tropical Environmental Design Exhibition (STEDex’09), 1. pp. 36-37. ISSN 2180-0685

Abstract

This project challenges the students’ skills in interpreting a well known master¬piece into a gallery meant for exhibiting the works of the artist himself. The proj¬ect is a proposal for the design of a gallery explicity exhibiting the works of Datuk Lat, who is internationally known for ‘The Kampung Boy’, a cartoon novel depicting his experience growing up in a village. The challenge for this project is to use ideas from the novel as the main concept for the overall design. The whole development concept is based on the book. First published in Ma¬laysia in 1979, the book has been reprinted 14 times as of 2008. To date, the book has been translated into nine different languages. Although the story cir¬cles around the live of a small boy in a remote Malaysian village in the 1950s’, people of various cultures and nations found the story captivating. An interest¬ing point to note is that the reason for its appeal is the universality of the stories that people of different backgrounds in the world can relate to. The innocence of a child viewing a changing world around him gives this charm. The gallery will also display other works of Dato’ Lat and other cartoonists as well. However the concept for the building itself has to be drawn from the Kampung Boy phe¬nomenon described above. Rather than the imagery of a Malay Kampung, it is the universality of the idea of innocence, freedom and adventure that serve as the main conceptual premise for portrayal. The focus on this theme allows significant relationship to the objective of the gallery which is to gather people together in recognising that human experience is universal and that people are equal and of the same origin. The challenge posed by the site is that it is situated in Kampung Baru, a famous suburb in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. Kampung Baru has been the interest for many urban design studies due to the uniqueness of a kampung in a city. How¬ever the project will not delve into the urban issues due to thecomplexity limita¬tion at 2nd year’s studio project. The site is an empty lot at the junction of Jalan Raja Muda Aziz and Jalan Daud across a stadium. This is quite a busy road and needs consideration for vehicular access. Kampung Baru itself is a tourist mag-net due to the charm of a kampung within the city. As well as attracting visitor groups to the gallery by mass transportation, casual visitors to the area are also expected on foot. Students were required to know the history and develop¬ment of Kampung Baru as they would be helpful during the development of their design proposals. The works by the students showed refreshing definitions about a gallery. Due to an early precaution against direct imagerial transposition, none of the schemes showed the familiar traditional Malay pitch roofs. Instead, dynamic forms and patterns and non orthogonal axis seem to do the job. Urban issues, nonetheless, were tackled in most schemes by engaging existing public pedestrian lines with new ones that weave graciously into the site and into the building.

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