Establishment of a Center of Reference and Education for Malay Wood Carving at Kampong Kandis, Malaysia: A Planning and Design Studio in Landscape Architecture

 
Ismail Said
World Congress on Environmental Design for the New Millennium, Cultural Design, Yonsei University, Nov 17-21, 2000, Seoul, Korea

Keywords: Human Community, Crafts, Culture, Planning and Design Process

Woodcarving is one of the significant crafts of the Malays in Malaysia. The craft is the cultural products and values of the Malays that developed and evolved over extended periods of time. Wood carving is the essence on the Malay houses that draws enlightenment and beauty to the architecture and gives identity to the race. The carved components a house include door leaf, ventilation panels of door or window, wall and railings of verandah or staircase. The physical-biotic factors of the living environment and social interaction of people in a community inspire and promote the art of wood carving in rural communities. But the appreciation and knowledge of craft is fast diminishing in today’s society. Consequently, integration of people in a  community is diminishing and racial identity fades through time. Thus to hold the integration of the community, it is essential to bring back the craft through teaching and learning practices.
 
The vision to bring back the value of wood carving as craft originated by a craftsman living in a village called Kampong Kandis in Kelantan, Malaysia. His vision is to propagate the importance of the craft through establishment of a teaching and learning center in a rural community.  He allocated a site (3.5 acres) of his residence for the purpose. The studio program is to undertake the project by teaching the students landscape architecture planning and design process. Three influencing factors are considered in the process including human needs, culture, and physical and biotic factors. Integrating the factors would create a human community that relate to the environment in a sustaining and perpetuating manner.
 
The design process covers the following stages; (i) literature research on community planning, Malay culture and belief, architecture and technology; (ii) site inventory to investigate the physical-biotic and climatic factors, perceptual and sensory factors, and people and community; (iii) site analysis to determine the potentialities and constraints of site; (iv) conceptual development formulating the goal, objectives, design requirement and conceptual theme (v) preliminary master plan is the draft proposal of project; and (vi) final master plan is the finalized drawings after critique by the craftsman and studio tutor.