From the day I born until today, I had moved for several times due to family factors, study, internship and working. The market is one of the important places that I would visit since I am a person who used to prepare my own meal and likes to have a good breakfast before I start my day.
I used to stay with my grandparents since I was young at a new village called Jinjang Utara located at the north of Kuala Lumpur until I graduated from secondary school. Every morning, my grandpa will fetch my grandma to the wet market nearby with his old motorcycle. He will enjoy his morning tea at the “dimsum” shop or coffee shop with his friends while waiting for my grandma to do her shopping. Sometime during the weekend, I will follow my grandma to the market. She always teaches me how to choose the fresh products and tell me which stall sell the best kuih. I could also feel the strong relationship bonding between the stall vendor and my grandma during their conversation. The market is like a big magnet that attracted people to come for the fresh ingredient, and also a place for the neighbourhood bonding.
After I finished my SPM examination, I moved to Sungai Buloh to stay with my mother while doing a short-term job there before continue my study. The area I stay is near to the industrial area and there is no daily wet market near to our house. We could only get our fresh supplier at The Store Supermarket or the weekend morning market with very few stalls. I stayed there for about half a year before I moved to Cheras to continue my undergraduate studies at UCSI. However, during this period of half a year, I rarely feel I am attached to the place, probably because I am new to here, and I am not familiar with the neighbourhood.
The architecture study life in Cheras is always busy and pack with assignments and presentations. There is a tiny street market at Taman Taynton View within walking distance from our campus where I always grab my breakfast and lunch. I still remember during my final year, I used to work overnight and pack my early breakfast from the market before I continue to my class. The warm greeting from the vendors always lightens up my day after a long and tired working night. If I were to list out one of the reluctant reason to leave Cheras after graduated, the market will be on top of the list.
I had done my internship in Georgetown, Penang for 3 months. This 3 months wouldn’t be complete without the experience of grabbing meals and getting groceries from the local market with my colleagues and boss. My boss always knows where to get the best fried chestnut in town (Chowrasta Market), the freshest sea product and the best roasted pork (Pasar Lebuh Cecil, known as Chit Tiao Lo Pasar). I could feel myself engage to the place by visiting their market regularly, as the spoken language, the type of fresh product and the price is totally different from the market in KL.
After my graduation from architectural degree, I had moved from Cheras to Petaling Jaya. There is no morning market within walking distance from the place I am currently staying, neither near my office at Bukit Tunku. I have to visit the nearest supermarket again to get my groceries. Sometimes I would even take very light breakfast (hard boiled eggs / biscuit) or skip my breakfast if I were too lazy to prepare it. Luckily my workplace had moved to Jalan Ipoh after half a year, and the local market is just along the way to the office. I could finally grab my breakfast again before work and I still could remember the warmest greeting from the bakery stall’s uncle.
Even now when I am studying at UM and I already used to prepare my own breakfast at home before go to studio, I would like to visit the market at SS17 too if I am early to get a fresh pack of soy milk or pack for my lunch, or maybe just to enjoy the atmosphere of being in a market.
I think these personal experience of growing and living with the market had triggered me to think of designing a market as my final year thesis. I would really love to explore the possibility of a market could become and examine how much does a market really mean to a neighbourhood.
Architecture Design Thesis 