Physical qualities and activities patterns associated with street's identity, a case study jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The rapid growth of most of the cities around the world have been influenced greatly by the economic boom as manifested in the urban spaces such as streets which previously had their own image as places of interaction that has been exploited and slowly vanishing. The result is where the character of the street has no coherent sense of place. This paper examined the identity of place in terms of the physical characteristics and the activities that determine the distinctive features of the place; by using the street of Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman of Kuala Lumpur city center, Malaysia as a case study. The study adopted the qualitative method in data collection and analysis with quantitative data as supporting evidence. The data collected by the survey are the people’s description of the appearance and distinctiveness of the street. The qualitative approach adopted three techniques namely mental map, photo recognition interview and visual survey. The paper discusses the physical characteristics and the activities associated with street identity that generate the sense of the place