Observations by a Malaysian studying in Australia
Midvalley Megamess
Over the years, shopping has become an obligatory routine in Kuala Lumpur, one, because there’s not much else to do here, and two, because there are so many places dedicated to serving this purpose.
It all started with the opening of The Mall over a decade ago, then the biggest shopping centre in Southeast Asia. Although it is no longer the hip place it once was, The Mall started the trend of building the supers-sized malls we see proliferating in the city today.
Out of all the big malls, the one I very diligently try to avoid is Midvalley Megamall. First, there is the poorly-planned traffic dispersal system which in my opinion, however uneducated it may be, is one of the worst I’ve ever encountered. Cars coming into the mall have to make either a half-circle or a full circle drive around the mall before they can even get into the car parks. That is not a problem, although it is a bit troublesome.
Cars coming out from the mall also have to make a full circle before they reach the exit roads. This is a problem, because it means that, assuming the rate of cars coming in equals that going out, half of the cars on the road encircling the mall should not be there in the first place. They are the major cause of traffic jams in that road. A properly planned traffic dispersal system would ensure that cars going out of the mall reach the exit road and get out of the way of cars coming into the mall as soon as possible. A good system would not make the outgoing traffic “linger” with incoming traffic.
Another thing which unsettles me is the severe lack of greenery in the area. If Malaysia was a desert country in the middle of the Sinai Peninsula, this would be tolerated. For such a massive urban development to not pay attention to adequate landscaping, in spite of the lush tropical climate we enjoy, is almost criminal. The only significant landscaping detail included in the Midvalley development, so far, is a boulevard situated between the mall and a row of office buildings, which is really just an oversized road divider. The boulevard has since been transformed into an open-air car park, and the only remnant of greenery here are a row of trees planted into oversized vases.
To the casual observer, the Midvalley development appears to be a humongous chuck of concrete in the middle of asphalt and tar. Only an industrial complex on the outskirts of Bayan Lepas could look less welcoming.
Upon entering the shopping centre, one would quickly notice (or not, depending on how observant/picky you are) the uncharacteristically low ceilings of the first 4 floors or so. We Malaysians may not be as tall as Europeans, but that doesn’t mean you should reduce the height of the ceilings. The low ceilings result in a visual stuffiness about the mall, despite its sheer size. On the top floor however, the layout dramatically changes as the ceiling reaches all the way to the roof to create an airy, spacious, cathedral-like feel. However, the pipes and foil-wrapped vents have been left uncovered for all to see. C’mon guys, that warehouse-cum-factory look is so 10 years ago.
The one thing I’m fundamentally uncomfortable with is the name of the mall itself. Midvalley Megamall. ‘Midvalley’ is a pefect choice of name as it aptly refers to the geographical location of the mall, but there is something about the –Mega prefix that lends a sense of tackiness to the whole place. Remember Mega-TV? That was, in my mind, the worst name you could choose for a cable TV service. Whatever happened to Mega-TV anyway?
posted by: Tembaga2 at 02:55 |
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