THE HERITAGE PLANT: THE NOSTALGIA FROM THE PAST ENHANCE THE PLACE IDENTITY FOR THE ROYAL TOWN OF KUALA KANGSAR, PERAK, MALAYSIA

1. Department of Art and Design, Faculty of Art, Computing and Creative Industry, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Tanjong Malim, Perak, Malaysia. 2. Department of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Design and Architecture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor,Malaysia. 3. Department of Industrial Design, Faculty of Design and Architecture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. ...................................................................................................................... Manuscript Info Abstract ......................... ........................................................................ Manuscript History Received: 07 January 2020 Final Accepted: 10 February 2020 Published: March 2020


Heritage Plant:
Sharp & Bloom (2011), describes "memorable" as "familiar, well-known, memorable, feel a sense of connection, feel like I know it well, feel a sense of nostalgia, evokes strong memories, reminds about childhood place and associated with some special place from the past.  Table 1 as cultural plants used in traditional Malay medicine and are adopted as the main subject for the design of motifs in traditional Malaysian craft. More than 20 types of floral motifs applied on the Malay art elements including, 'Jari Buaya', 'Kerak Nasi', 'Ketam Guri', 'Pucuk Paku', 'Bunga Teratai', and 'Kangkung'. These types of plants usually are easily found growing in their surroundings, which owns creativity and artistic style but still maintaining its distinctive beauty (Raja Fuziah and Abdul Rahman, 2000). Therefore, this paper aim to identify the heritage plant characteristics to symbolize townscape elements in establishing the place identity for the case study of the Royal Town of Kuala Kangsar, Perak.

Methods:-Site Study:
Kuala Kangsar is selected for this study because it is a convenient location; it holds a unique heritage of the Perak Malay Sultanate. It contains a much historic building associated with the royal legacy heritage. Furthermore, the town has officially declared as the Perak Royal City since 1887 (Shen, Farid, & McPeek, 2008). The Royal Town of Kuala Kangsar is located in the State of Perak and situated in the north of Peninsular Malaysia between Ipoh and Taiping. The town today is bypassed by the North-South Highway and has become a backwater of tourism. It is 35km north of Ipoh, the State Capital, and situated on the western bank of the Perak River. From Ipoh, the highway passes through karst topography dominated by rounded limestone hills blanketed in unique vegetation that can survive the harsh conditions. This study adopts a case study research. Yin's (2003) explanation of the case study has been amended for architectural research by Groat and Wang (2013). In particular, Groat and Wang (2013), believes that a case study is an empirical inquiry that investigates a phenomenon or a setting, so it is particularly useful in the field of urban design. In this study, all data are collected within the boundary of the Royal Town of Kuala Kangsar, Perak, as a site case. The focus is on the streetscapes near Bukit Chandan streets; Jalan Taiping, Jalan Daeing Sedili, Jalan Istana, and Jalan Syahbandar. This study focuses on exploring the context of place identity, originality of royal town regarding the traditional landscape elements, through the heritage plant as an embellishment of the city's streetscapes. This study identifies the importance of heritage plants used as an image to represent the people, background history, and the influences of socio-culture in the plant's selection and its characteristics.

Data Collection:
This study engaged with a semi-structure interview method. The respondents were twelve local peoples resided in the Royal Town of Kuala Kangsar. They are categorized into three groups consisted of; five professionals, two policymakers, and five skilled practitioners. The interviews were conducted over a threemonths period beginning early August 2017 till the end of November 2017. A total of twelve respondents (nine male and three female) were involved in the interviews and can be grouped according to their professions as shown in Table 2. The respondents were different groups of professionals linked to the study area. The groups include professionals, policymakers, and skilled practitioners. Each respondent was given a code according to their professional group and their number as a respondent in that group. For example, 'PR1' represent the respondent number 1 from the professional group. This study used a qualitative case study that included a semi-structured interview supported by the literature review. Therefore, to streamline the discussion, first, the respondents were asked to write down their biodata as part of the respondents' characteristics. Then proceeded to give their responses to the several discussion topics prepared previously ( Table 3).The type of plants coded based on the name of the plant provided by the respondents until it achieved the saturated data. The respondents answer the questions based on their knowledge, experience, place background, and observation of the Kuala Kangsar environment. Later, the researcher analyzed the written connection of the plants with the place at the end of the interview recorded. The essential parts highlighted, and the objective was to select phrases containing hidden ideas that would support the research and compile them.

Data Analysis:
One of the most challenging difficulties involving case study evidence is data analysis that deals with the amount and variety of information (Yin, 2003, p. 109). According to Yin (2003), these difficulties can be reduced if the research has a general strategy for data analysis. Among all the strategies suggested by Yin (2003), this particular research considered "relying on theoretical propositions." The theoretical proposition obtained in the literature review not only led the data collection process but also helped to organize the data gathered for the research questions and the data analysis in this study. Therefore, the collected information's were further categorized and analyzed in three main areas, namely, data concerning the place identity of the royal town, information concerning the factors related to plant and its relationship with place, and the authenticity of plants as a symbolism of place identity of the royal town Kuala Kangsar, Perak.
The data analysis procedure consists of 4 stages. 1) Preparing data for analysis; 2) Exploring the data; 3) Analyzing the information and 4) Presenting the data analysis. Each step of the analysis consists of the detail process of developing the results, as shown in Figure 6 below.

Results:-City Morphology Component to Identify the Specific Identity
The criteria of the plant will visualize the city morphology components as well as the royal town appearance through the type of plant that related to local people and culture of a place. Therefore, the choice of a specific plant gradually creates the formation of identity.

The Memorable Value of the Plant
Most respondentsagreed there is a strong relationship between culture, memory and place identity (PR1, PR2, PR3, PR5, PM1, SP1, SP2). Plants have been used for remembering important events and critical moments in one's life including birth, marriage and death. Plants are also used in many other cultural ways such for medicine, as religious objects, as subjects in mythology, as food, and in many festivals, celebrations, and traditions (SP1, SP5, SP6).
Respondents also selected other plants they believed as having memorable values. The list of memorable plants are the Kangsar tree (23%), Bunga Raya (23%), the Spider Lily (14%), Mangosteen Tree (14%), Bunga Padi (14%), and the Kalumpang tree (12%) as shown in Figure 7. Respondents also agreed that these memorable plants are strongly connected with the culture and some can be considered as heritage plants. Heritage plants with unique characteristics not only attract the locals but outside tourists as well. Meanwhile, some heritage plants are selected by the royalties due to special meanings ascribed to them.

Discussion:-The themes identified in respondent's responses can be grouped as:
The

Kangsar Tree (Hibiscus floccosus Mast):
The Kangsar tree is closely associated with the study area and is found growing along one of the streams that flow into the Perak. The tree is therefore closely associated with the history of the Perak Sultanate. Almost 50% of the participant agreed that this type of plants is suitable for use to create the identity of Kuala Kangsar because of its significant, memorable heritage value. Historically, the name Kuala Kangsar (Kangsar Estuary) derived from the Kangsar trees which found in abundance growing along the Perak River. The river is significantly associated with the establishment of the Perak Sultanate, and until this day it plays essential roles in several royal rituals and ceremonies such as the installation of His Majesty the Sultan. According to local informants, the legend has it that the name "Perak" was given by Prince Merong Mahaputisat when his arrows fell into the River (Interviewed with PR1, PR5, and PM1 Besides, the feature of the heritage plant act as storytellers and memory-keepers for the historical background and to preserve the place memory. Although it told from the perspective of the heritage plant, the nostalgic tone serves a specific purpose, which is to present a private and intimate connection between the particular plant and the local people of Kuala Kangsar. The traditional plants may use as an iconic landscape, through highlighted the uniqueness of flora, the beneficial and the real character the plants equally essential to bring back the nostalgia of the traditional village garden. Hence, it is vital to re-introduce the heritageplants through planting design to highlight as a character to reinforcing the place identity of the Royal Town of Kuala Kangsar Perak.