Kampung Cempaka @ Petaling Jaya

Design Pre-thesis 1 | Social Culture

Kampung Cempaka is a name translated from Mandarin, means ‘Thousands Hindered Homes’ and when it started, most residents came from Bangsar and Setapak. Colloquially, the place was known as ‘Big River’ (Da Gang), and until the late 2000s, the village roads did not display any signs denoting the road names or number.

Kampung Cempaka, is a suburban village, consist 898 lots with about 4500 residents, as sub-divided by Petaling Land office in 1950s. Estimated area of 38.7 hectares, Kampung Cempaka sitting in the heart of Petaling Jaya bordered by rapid development areas such as Dataran Prima and Aman Suria at PJU1 district of Petaling Jaya, Selangor which is currently under the control of local authority Majlis Perbandaran Petaling Jaya (MBPJ). Even though it is surrounded by commercial developments, the village feels like it is caught in a time warp with its haphazard mix of single-storey wooden houses and multi-storey brick houses. Just like a village, it also has narrow roads which enough cater for one -way traffic.

In the past, Kampung Cempaka is said to have been started in 1969 when 1000 families were resettled here after the May 13 riot that happened on the same year. As time goes by, 1000 family’s lives together and built their own house with the environment which caters their own need. Kampung Cempaka started to create their own culture of social living as well as a unique lifestyle. In the time between past to current, there are many families with different races and culture moving in and leaving from Kampung Cempaka. Hence, social culture and activities become rich and valuable which is worth cherishing.