Initiating the Essential

Maulan, Suhardi and Abdul Rahman, Asraf and Mohd Yusof, Mohd Johari (2012) Initiating the Essential. Sustainable Tropical Environmental Design Exhibition 2012, 4. pp. 30-31. ISSN 2180-0685

Official URL: http://www.vlmp.upm.edu.my

Abstract

In the middle of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) campus lay a green patch known as “Dusun Contoh” or Exemplary Orchard. The green patch provides a reminder of UPM’s long lasting legacy as a premier agriculture university. In the past, the space was bustling with teaching and learning activities as well as a centre for students’ activities. Today it is perceived mostly as a green patch providing a green look and nostalgia of UPM’s past. Nevertheless, the location of Dusun Contoh is very strategic to be reignited to be a centre for campus activities again. To reignite the space, the process of design began by trying to understand stakeholders’ vision and preferences for the space. A public participatory workshop was held involving various stakeholders and among others are the students’ bodies, alumni, development office’s personnel and staff. The findings from the public participatory clearly stated the design needs to blend the historic and nostalgia values of the spaces with the user’s needs. Therefore, to make the design essential, the designers overlapped the users’ needs onto the existing landscapes. Elevated structures, walls, signages and poles have been strategically placed to make the space more visible. The concept of overlapping the existing landscape and people’s needs showed that nostalgia and historic values of a particular landscapes can be protected together with its existing ecological system with few vegetations and landform being changed or transformed. At the same time, the concept also provides new spaces besides a positive identity and image for UPM which would essentially attract users to the spaces.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	S Agriculture > SB469-SB476.4 Landscape Gardening. Landscape Architecture
Divisions:	Faculty of Architecture and Design > Department of Landscape Architecture
Date Deposited:	07 Jan 2013 21:47
Last Modified:	07 Jan 2013 21:47
URI:	http://stedex.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/224