The Synergy of the Traditional Plant Motif and Its Cultural Values in Enhancing Place Identity of the Muslim Royal Town

Intan Khasumarlina Mohd Khalid, Nor Atiah Ismail, Osman Mohd Tahir

Abstract


The fast-changing growth of new developments in a Malay Royal Town to create new attractions with various forms of architectural expressions has given a direct impression on the street level, affecting the survival of the buildings along a heritage area. As a result, it will tarnish the original character of the place and disappear the image. A deficit of visual representation for injecting place attachment through the traditional plant motif symbolizes cultural value. This paper aims to identify the qualitative responses to the visual representation of plant motifs in enhancing the royal Town of Kuala Kangsar, conducted semi-structured interview participants based on purposive sampling, including professionals, policymakers, and skilled practitioners categories. The data was analyzed through qualitative coding using Atlas Ti 8.0. The significant findings reveal that the Kalumpang Flower motif, the Melur Flower Motif, and the Motif of Asam Batu leaf is the plant's motif element categorized under the royal image motif, which has a specific meaning related to the historical and cultural background. Most importantly, this finding contributes to assessing the details of the plants' motif representation to assist the city council in preserving the unique and valuable historical heritage of the place image of the Royal Town Kuala Kangsar, Perak.


Keywords


Traditional Plant Motif; Cultural Value; Place Identity; Muslim Royal Town

Full Text:

PDF

References


N. Ginting, N. V. Rahman, and A. D. Nasution, “Re‐maintaining Authentic Place Identity through Continuity: Sipiso‐Piso, North Sumatera,” Environment‐Behaviour Proceedings Journal, vol. 3, no. 8, p. 75, Jun. 2018, doi: 10.21834/e‐bpj.v3i8.1399.

A. Păcescu and V. Thiery, “Building Place Identity through heritage,” Postmodern Openings, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 89–101, 2015.

S. M. Shukri, M. H. Wahab, R. C. Amat, I. Taib, and M. Z. M. Rozaly, “Definition and physical attributes that characterise settings of malay royal towns in Malaysia,” International Journal Of Engineering & Technology, vol. 7, no. 3.9, pp. 55–58, 2018.

N. Z. Harun, Dg. N. Fairuz, and N. A. Nordin, “THE ROLES OF URBAN HERITAGE IN DETERMINING THE IMAGE OF THE ROYAL

TOWN OF SRI MENANTI, NEGERI SEMBILAN,” PLANNING MALAYSIA, vol. 13, Nov. 2015, doi: 10.21837/pm.v13i5.141.

G. Botschen, K. Promberger, and J. Bernhart, “Brand‐driven identity development of places,” Journal of Place Management and

Development, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 152–172, Jun. 2017, doi: 10.1108/JPMD‐07‐2016‐0051.

A. R. Othman and M. R. Mohamed, “Influence of Proportion towards Speech Intelligibility in Mosque’s Praying Hall,” Procedia Soc Behav Sci, vol. 35, pp. 321–329, 2012, doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.02.094.

M. R. Ramli, P. Milow, and O. H. Chooi, “Traditional Knowledge of a Practitioner in Medicinal Plants of Masjid Ijok Village, Perak, Malaysia,” Studies on Ethno‐Medicine, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 59–66, Apr. 2015, doi:

1080/09735070.2015.11905421.

Dewan Bandaraya Kuala L umpur (DBKL), “Draft Kuala Lumpur Structure Plan 2040,” 2020. http://www.dbkl.gov.my/klmycity2040/

klsp2040 (accessed Jan. 20, 2020).

R. Othman, N. I. A. Razak, and N. Ishak, “Ethnobotanical study of traditional knowledge on plant used in traditional bath (mandi serom)

among Malay midwives in Perak and Negeri Sembilan,” Research Journal of Biological Sciences, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 193–196, 2014.

S. M. Kamil and M. Y. M. Yunos, “Establishing Malaysia Islamic Garden‐Based On Quranic Paradise Imagery: Descriptive Analysis from

Tafsir Surah Waqiah,” Adv Environ Biol, vol. 9, no. 23, pp. 115–119, 2015.

H. Haron and N. A. Yusof, “Motifs of Nature in Malay Traditional Craft,” vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 169–180, 2014, doi: 10.5829/idosi.mejsr.2014.21.01.21132.

A. Bindajam, F. Hisham, N. Al‐Ansi, and J. Mallick, “Issues Regarding the Design Intervention and Conservation of Heritage

Areas: The Historical Pedestrian Streets of Kuala Lumpur,” Sustainability, vol. 12, no. 10, pp. 1–14, 2020.

W. N. Wan Ismail, N. H. Ja’afar, and N. Z. Harun, “Streets of Royal Town: Exploring the Physical Character of Traditional Street in the Malay Royal Town,” The Journal of Social Sciences Research, no. SPI6, pp. 991–996, Dec. 2018, doi: 10.32861/jssr.spi6.991.996.

N. A. Ismail, N. Utaberta, M. Yazid, M. Yunos, and S. Ismail, “Malay Cultural Responsive Landscape: Inspiration for Design Emotion in Modern Landscape Architecture,” Adv Environ Biol, vol. 9, no. 95, pp. 480–484, 2015.

I. B. Dagdanova, V. v. Kozlov, I. B. Enge, and Dresden, Center. Trade. Impulse development of the historic center. Irkutsk: IRNITU, 2015.

K. Ivanova, V. Kozlov, and S. Belomestnyh, “Preservation and development of historical heritage of gardens and parks in large

European cities,” IOP Conf Ser Mater Sci Eng, vol. 667, p. 012034, Nov. 2019, doi: 10.1088/1757‐899X/667/1/012034.

K. Abd Aziz and F. Z. Abdullah, “Cultural heritage tourism development in Kota Lama Kanan, Kuala Kangsar, Perak,” Universiti Tun Abdul Razak E–Journal, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 1–10, 2011.

M. T. M. Rasdi, Rethinking Islamic Architecture. Selangor: Gerakbudaya, 2006.

K. Lynch, A Theory of Good City Form. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1981.

M. Southworth and D. Ruggeri, Beyond placelessness: place identity and the global city. Companion to Urban Design. London:

Routledge, 2011.

H. M. Danaci, “Aesthetics in Cultural Landscape and Architectural Education,” Procedia Soc Behav Sci, vol. 191, pp. 190–195, Jun. 2015, doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.04.242.

P. Campos et al., “Bridging the Gap Between National and Ecosystem Accounting Application in Andalusian Forests, Spain,”

Ecological Economics, vol. 157, pp. 218–236, Mar. 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2018.11.017.

A. Bahauddin and A. Abdullah, “The songket motifs: between reality and belief,” Tourism and Histories: Representations and

Experiences, pp. 1–21, 2003.

H. Haron, N. A. Yusof, M. Taha, and N. A. Mutalib, “Motifs of Nature in Malay Traditional Craft,” Middle‐East Journal of Scientific

Research, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 169–180, 2014.

Ab. A. Shuaib and O. F. Enoch, “Integrating the Malay Traditional Design Elements into Contemporary Design: An Approach towards

Sustainable Innovation,” Procedia Soc Behav Sci, vol. 129, pp. 59–67, May 2014, doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.648.

V. Glăveanu, “The function of ornaments: A cultural psychological exploration,” Cult Psychol, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 82–101, Mar. 2014,

doi: 10.1177/1354067X13515937.

Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, “Sterculia parviflora: Vibrant coloured food source for wildlife,” Forest Research Institute

Malaysia Official Website, 2014.

H. Hussain, Motif Alam dalam Batik dan Songket Melayu. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2009.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.18860/jia.v7i2.14081

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2022 Journal of Islamic Architecture

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

EDITORIAL OFFICE

Department of Architecture, Faculty of Science and Technology
Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang
Jalan Gajayana 50 Malang, Jawa Timur, Indonesia 65144
Phone (+62) 341 558933,Facsimile (+62) 341 558933
e-mail: journal.islamicarchitecture@gmail.com / jia@uin-malang.ac.id

 

 Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.