The Death and Life of a Tropical Landscape: Envisaging a New Melaka, Malaysia

The UNESCO heritage city of Melaka, Malaysia, is a historically rich centre, but one in which environmental, urban, and above all social crises are currently taking a heavy toll: building speculation, strong touristic spatial imbalances, reclamation work along the coast with immense dredging operations, deforestation of coastal mangroves, soil erosion, sea-water incursion, water pollution, and hydraulic risk are the heavy price paid for the city’s rapid and destructive development. In addition, it is also evident that behind the changes in the built landscape lies racial and religious discrimination against certain ethnic minorities. In this context a small fishing community, descants of the early Portuguese colonizers, merits special mention as pharaonic reclamation projects, and dredging work are destroying the marine ecosystem upon which the already severely compromised livelihood of these fishermen depends. This article aims to present a series of design scenarios to tackle complex issues at city scale. Design works start from the belief that the landscape is not only an environmental resource, but also a factor that can become an economic resource, a major driving force for alternative development of the territory and its cities and people.