THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE & URBANISM [ARC 3323]

PROJECT PART 2: ANALYSING AND THEORISING ARCHITECTURE

THEORY APPLICATION OF REM KOOLHAAS' GENERIC CITY

NAME: MUHAMMAD ZHAFRI AIZUDDIN BIN AZMAN

STUDENT ID: 0308303

LECTURER: DR. LAKSHMI PRIYA RAJENDRAN

ABSTRACT
The norm of present day cities in Malaysia are associated with urban planning to maximise
the quality and efficiency of the urban environment and infrastructures. The township of Mont
Kiara is not excluded from this as the orderly development of the town is one of the key to its
rapid growth. There are several theories that are commonly used for urban planning with
some being straightforward while others are more radical. One of the latter profound theory
being The Generic City by the architecture firm OMA's architect Rem Koolhaas. To date, the
theory has not been successfully implemented in an urban planning strategy, hence this
essay intends to explore the theory in a given context of a singular residential building in
Mont Kiara namely '11 Mont Kiara' and serves to show how the theory would be applied and
its impact towards the existing urban environment.

Keywords: urban planning, the generic city, Rem Koolhaas,

MONT KIARA
Mont Kiara is a small town recently developed and is located on the outskirts of the city of
Kuala Lumpur. It is positioned adjacent to Sri Hartamas and is similar in the sense that the
majority of the town consists of luxury residential condominiums such as the '11 Mont Kiara'
and office complexes while shop lots, shopping centres and landed residential makes up the
minority. Mont Kiara can be classified as a high-class area due to the high land value
coupled with a picturesque view of its environment and a calm, serene and peaceful
atmosphere. The development of high-class amenities provides attraction for the rich and
social elites who could afford it. In terms of infrastructures, the town is well connected to its
surrounding neighbours as there are several expressways available, making connectivity
convenient and easy such as the North-South Expressway which links Sri Hartamas from
Bangsar to Petaling Jaya and the Jalan Duta exit which also leads to the site. There are also
future plans to include a Monorail Rapid Transit stop inside the town which further increases
connectivity.

11 MONT KIARA
11 Mont Kiara is a luxurious modern condominium which is made up of five 43-storey
residential towers spread over a 6.7 acre site. With two units occupying each floor, the five
blocks boast a total of 339 units with each units having 4 private lifts. There are four separate
types of units ranging from normal units to penthouses but it mostly has a typical floor plan.
The residential building is designed with modern city architecture in mind and tries to blend
with the tropical greenery landscape. It tries to take advantage of the view by arranging the
important spaces to overlook the sceneries.
The residential building are equipped with high class amenities such as sky lounge, tiered
swimming pool, gymnasium, sport courts, and gardens(11 Mont Kiara, n.d.). To make it
pedestrian friendly, the urban planning have already included external nearby amenities such
as international schools, shopping malls, offices and restaurants. So far it would seem that
11 Mont Kiara is designed according to contemporary urban planning strategy. It would be
interesting to see the application of Rem Koolhaas' theory towards 11 Mont Kiara.

REM KOOLHAAS
Born on 17 November 1944, Remment Lucas Koolhaas is an influential Dutch architect as
well as an architecture theorist. He studied at the Architectural Association School of
Architecture in London and co-founded the architecture firm Office of Metropolitan
Architecture. Throughout his life he was commissioned to build several famous buildings
such as the Seattle Public Library, De Rotterdam, CCTV HQ and many others(OMA, n.d.).
Although his career as an architect is successful, he is better known for his theoretical
position. As a theorist, he had put forth several theories in books, quotes, and in some of his
architecture. Amongst his published works were Delirious New York and S,M,L,XL. His
theories in Delirious New York was his stepping stone for his career. In S,M,L,XL, he
describes theories such as 'Bigness' and 'The Generic City' which would later on become
controversial.

THE GENERIC CITY

The Generic City is one of the theories proposed by Rem Koolhaas which talks about the
globalisations of cities and how the planning of urban cities around the world (whether the
cities were planned well or badly) makes no difference whatsoever. This is backed up by the
reasoning that in the end, a city flourishes or perishes unpredictably due to the nature of
human and cities constantly evolving and the end product is that cities will become (whether
unintentionally or intentionally) similar and faceless(Koolhaas, 1995).
A generic city is antithesis to the traditional city; existing cities are governed by rules and
codes of behaviour while generic cities, having zero character, is free of established patterns
and expectations(Hajer, n.d.). Generic city is also a move away from traditional concentric
form of a city (the constant act of modernising inner cities to keep the role as centres of
society). These are cities that make no demands and subsequently create freedom; sprawl,
sameness and repetition are the characteristics of generic city which stands against every
contemporary urban theories. The reasoning is because the theory promotes adaptability
whereby a building is flexible and can easily embrace change in terms of function or
importance. For example, a shop can change to become a house or an office without much
hassle from authority regulation or design constraints.
In the book S,M,L,XL, Rem Koolhaas stated that generic cities despises pedestrianisation
that is in line with today's urban planning strategy. This is because pedestrianised cities
creates proximity which in turn can create centralisation. Therefore a city should resort to
highways and vehicle uses as well as sprawling, uncontrolled placing of buildings to keep in
line with the theory of zero character.

1ST FACTOR - CONNECTIVITY

As a high-class residential building, 11 Mont Kiara is equipped with nearby amenities
(whether inside or outside its compound) that caters to the residents and its surrounding
community. These proximity amenities creates nodes and centralisation for 11 Mont Kiara
due to the locations being in walking distances, thus making it an independent entity capable
of sustaining the needs of the residents. This is seen as a logical move in urban planning for
the sole reason of making life easier for people. For example, not all people are capable of
driving vehicles for reasons such as underage, affordability, social incapability and so on.
Having nearby amenities provides opportunity for these people to reach the places without
being dependant on others. This creates opportunity for people to move into the
neighbourhood, thus increasing the population of the city.
The Generic City theory contradicts this strategy by favouring these amenities (nodes) being
randomly spaced apart, and only be connected by highways and vehicle use. This is
because proximity amenities are accessible to pedestrians and can cause
centralisation(Johnston, 1999). To implement this theory inside 11 Mont Kiara, such
amenities would not be located inside the compound or within its close proximity, but spaced
in a distance that would require the use of vehicles to reach. The spacing of amenities would
be at random as if there was no urban planning involved thus creating zero characteristic. In
real life, this contradiction to the norm of urban planning is seen as a hassle as everything is
spaced too far which would require the constant use of vehicles to commute to each
amenities. Those who don't commute by motorcar are left to find other ways to reach these
places.

Figure 1: Overall compound view of 11 Mont Kiara

2ND FACTOR REPETITION

As with the norm of today's high-rise structure, 11 Mont Kiara is not excluded from typical
floor plan design and its repetitive use for each floors. The reasoning for this is to make it
easier for architects and engineers to design the space without having to spend much time
thinking on how to solve the connection between each floors as well as for efficient
construction purposes.
In the theory, Rem Koolhaas mentioned that generic cities are filled with repetition whereby
everything is the same in terms of building form and function(Ouroussoff, 2008). This can be
seen in line with 11 Mont Kiara repetitive floor plans in the sense that there is no definitive
character for each floors; every floor has the same space arrangement such as living room,
bedroom, kitchen and so on. Although this is true, the theory suggest that the function of the
repetition is so that the space can be easily change whenever needed, not just repetitions
between floors. Generic rooms can be configured according to personal use whereas predesigned rooms are limited in the same sense. For example, the current designated living
room area can't be made into a kitchen or a bedroom. The theory would have the living room
capable of shifting to the function of kitchen or bedroom and vice versa according to personal
user's taste. To do this the room requirement needs to be flexible and equal in terms of
space and volume. Implementing the theory into 11 Mont Kiara, the space arrangement
would be of the same size and there would be no semi-circle rooms taking advantage of the
view. Repetition can be seen in the space of the units as well as between floors.

Figure 2: Typical Floor Plan of a Unit

3RD FACTOR DESIGN AESTHETICS

In Malaysia, one can see the physical difference between a moderate class city and a high
class counterpart. Entering Mont Kiara, the well designed buildings are a dead giveaway to
its luxurious status. 11 Mont Kiara contains design aesthetics that is in line with its status of
luxury residential apartment. One of the design is the semi circle living room and bedroom
that takes advantage of the high-rise view of the surrounding. Another is the double-deck
swimming pool surrounded by the residential apartments which are designed to complement
the view that makes 11 Mont Kiara luxurious. These design aesthetics are a major
contribution to 11 Mont Kiara being an expensive residential building.
To implement the theory into 11 Mont Kiara, The Generic City describes the feature of zero
character. Zero character buildings are buildings that are similar, faceless, and bland(Hajer,
n.d.). These character gives the building its flexibility. For example, a market that is designed
specifically for its purpose would be rendered unusable for other functions such as resident
or school. Hence it wouldn't be flexible. On the other hand, a Multi Purpose Hall are designed
to accommodate different functions such as sports court, refuge centre during emergencies,
wedding hall and so on. As with the case of 11 Mont Kiara, it is designed specifically for its
high class residents. Implementing The Generic City, most of the design aesthetics would be
removed and replaced with a similar, faceless, and bland facade. The problem with
implementing such radical feature in real life would cause the residential apartment to lose its
luxurious status as the high-class society wouldn't want to spend a fortune on an apartment
that looks the same as apartments that are less costly. In other words, Mont Kiara would lose
its character and become just another city, which is a generic city.

CONCLUSION
The Generic City is a fresh perspective to look into as it is against the contemporary urban
planning method. Although it touches several issues that were never thought of before, one
would wonder whether the radical thinking of the theory would actually remain a theory as it
poses too much of a problem if implemented in our present day society. The theory can be
considered bordering a utopian society where the set of rules governing the society greatly
differs from our own. With that being said, there is a possibility that the theory could be
implemented in a new city constructed from scratch and on an empty plane rather than
changing the norm of present day cities and building.

REFERENCE
Koolhaas, R. (1995). The Generic City. Retrieved June 15, 2015, from
https://www.ntnu.no/wiki/download/attachments/32539747/Koolhaas.pdf
Prouty, R. (2009, February 1). Buying Generic: The Generic City in Dubai. Retrieved June
15, 2015, from http://static.londonconsortium.com/issue08/Prouty-Static8.pdf
11 Mont Kiara. (n.d.). Retrieved June 15, 2015, from
http://www.propwall.my/mont_kiara/11_mont_kiara
Johnston, G. (1999). Constructing a Common-Place for the Generic City. In La Citta Nouva The New City. Georgia Institute of Technology.
Ouroussoff, N. (2008, March 2). City on the Gulf: Koolhaas Lays Out a Grand Urban
Experiment in Dubai. Retrieved June 15, 2015, from
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/03/arts/design/03kool.html?_r=0
Hajer, M. (n.d.). The Generic City. Retrieved June 15, 2015, from
http://www.maartenhajer.nl/upload/Hajer - The generic city.pdf
OMA. (n.d.). Partners. Retrieved from
OMA: http://www.oma.eu/partners