The Tropical Metropolis: A Review of History, Identity and Climatic Idealisations in City Form

Abstract

The chapter presents a series of thoughts and idealisations of a climatic approach to the urban form and layout of a dense metropolis in the tropics. Yet this must initially review the evolution of Kuala Lumpur as the capital city which is the confluence of a range of influences to urban form since it evolved from a conglomeration of modest rows of two- to three-storey shophouses to a large, dense cosmopolitan city with high-rises. The chapter discusses past theories of urban form, and how Modernist theories and ideas affect tropical preconceptions and conceptualisations of urban layout and massing in cities, and highlights a return to climatic principles that could fuse a concern for eroding cultural identity in cities yet involving climatic considerations in the making of urban spaces. These give indications of how past history can fuse with modernity and how it can integrate climatic elements and spatial forms using the principles and core consideration of climate.