Petaling Street

The Southern Gate of Petaling Street in the time of humans

Petaling Street is a Chinatown located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The whole vicinity is also known as Chinatown KL to the locals. Haggling is a common sight here and the place is usually crowded with locals as well as tourists. The area has dozens of restaurants and food stalls, serving local favorites such as Hokkien mee, Ikan Bakar (barbecued fish), asam laksa and curry noodles. Reggae Bar Chinatown is located here. In 2003, Petaling Street underwent a major RM11 million facelift when two large Chinese arches to welcome visitors were placed at either end of the street. A green roof cover was constructed, covering the whole road, dubbed the "Green Dragon". The street is now totally pedestrianized and transformed into a pedestrian shopping mall. Now, with humans absent from the planet, can the green dragon be the savior of this historic area, or will it turn into its ultimate demise?

1 day after people: Not far from the tallest skyscraper in the country, the once bustling Petaling Street now falls silent, with no more buyers or sellers left to trade, or tourists to watch the unorganized chaos unfold. Along the street, food and merchandise are left abandoned, they themselves having an expiration date set by either insects or animals. The green roof that spans the entire length of the street continues to absorb and reflect the majority of the heat, keeping the street below relatively cool. But this layer of protection will not last forever. As night falls, the bright lights of the shops of Petaling Street light up Chinatown. But, the failing power stations put an end to the bright lights, leaving the street shrouded in permanent darkness, signaling the inevitable that will soon come.

1 week after people: In Petaling Street, new tourists have arrived. But these aren’t people, they are ants, and they arrive in droves for just one commodity, food. Several thousands ants now raid the hawker stalls of Petaling Street, completely devouring what were once local delicacies like Hokkien mee and asam laksa. It only takes nearly a week until the majority of the food supplies in the street have all but disappeared, resulting in the ants moving on to other locations, leaving rats and mice being the next customers in line to scour for leftovers. The merchandise like fake handbags and cheap sunglasses still remain untouched, but not for long.

1 month after people: Only a month has passed, and Petaling Street, once known for its tasty local delicacies at its hawker stalls, now has run out of leftovers, causing the rats to also abandon the area and move on to other areas to satisfy their hungry needs. But once again, a new type of customer approaches, and they choose to permanently settle in the area. A wave of migrating birds from up north passes over Kuala Lumpur, and around a hundred birds choose to settle along the length of Petaling Street, residing in every nook and cranny of the street. This spells disaster for the green roof, as bird droppings are corrosive enough to start weakening the metal columns that hold up the sections of the roof, already being battered and heated by the heat of the Sun. Birds also start settling inside the shophouses, tampering with some of the merchandise and also start to bring seeds in, but these die off due to lack of water. However, an abundance of water will soon arrive, but will prove deadly.

5 months after people: A downpour caused by a cyclone from Sri Lanka strikes with full force on Kuala Lumpur, bringing down heaps upon heaps of heavy rainfall. The nearby Klang and Gombak Rivers burst their banks and cause a river surge that spreads out in all directions. A wall of water soon arrives at the northern gate, knocking it over due to the sheer force of the surge. The floodwaters sweep away the merchandise bearing stalls and the hawker stalls, and flood the adjacent shoplots. Remarkably, the southern gate still stands despite the surge, and the pillars holding the many sections of the roof still stand firm. However, winds cause some of the rooftop glass panels to break and shatter, exposing certain areas of the street to rain and will be the driving cause of future plant growth.

1 year after people: In Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Street now has a new growing nemesis to deal with, plants. Seed growth has been accelerated thanks to the shattered holes in the roof, while birds accidentally continue bringing in new seeds. Seeds grow on the rooftops of the shophouses, creating cracks in the structure and removing the paint of the buildings in the process. Meanwhile at the southern gate, the massive TV display is beginning to get heavier for the weakening columns to support, inadvertently setting off a timer for the existence of the southern gate. The southern gate itself is suffering from the effects of corrosion, its fake green roof tilings begin to come loose while the 4-lettered chinese new year phrases on both pillars start to become unrecognizable. The decorative Chinese lanterns scattered on the rooftop of Petaling Street sway back and forth from the wind, some of them snapping off from their ropes.

5 years after people: The end’s of both sides of Petaling Street are now covered with trees and plants, as birds continue to bring in even more seeds. The metal columns supporting the roof still stand, but now have a visibly brownish-gray appearance thanks to corrosive bird droppings. The adjacent shophouses continue to stand, but the roots of plants continue to create more cracks in buildings and cause existing cracks to grow larger until sections of the shoplots collapse. The rooftops of several of the shophouses are littered with trees, essentially hiding the majority of the street in a layer of greenery, which does a bit to preserve the green dragon roof. At the southern gate, the massive chunky TV display is proving to be too heavy for the supports to hold onto any longer. They snap and the TV comes crashing down onto the southern gate, destroying it in a heap of rubble. Despite this, the roof pillars still stand, which allows the entire area to still be recognizable from the ground, but no longer from the air.

10 years after people: As Petaling Street dates all the way back to 1860, some of the shophouses are old, very old. These are the first to collapse, as nature takes over and increases the weight load of the floors that the weakening plant-infested wall columns have to hold in place. This sparks the beginning of collapses along the street. One of the shophouses that collapse in the middle of the street takes out a pillar holding a section of the green dragon roof, causing the particular section to tilt and collapse over. The inevitable has arrived, and soon every structure will meet a similar fate. Meanwhile, the green dragon roof is no longer green anymore, as dirt and bird feathers bury the once iconic green glass panels, which themselves are already struggling to maintain their grip due to their framing being loosened.

15 years after people: Overhanging advertisements on the pillars of the green dragon roof start to snap and succumb to gravity, sending them down in a massive bang, scaring away nearby birds. Meanwhile, the glass panels on the green dragon roof start to become loose, and one by one, they are soon sent smashing down into the street below, which is being taken over by plants and grass. Meanwhile, the roof pillars, though weakened, are still able to keep the roof in its place. The shophouses surrounding the street are all suffering partial collapses, with their roofs usually being the first to go. Whenever a collapse occurs, the affected section of Petaling Street will be engulfed in a cloud of dust and rubble, as debris makes its way onto the street as well.

25 years after people: In Kuala Lumpur, a once iconic heritage street will be the site of another big but partial collapse once more. Many pillars that carry the many sections of the dirt-covered roof are now starting to fail, and it shows through the visible rust. Now, bit by bit, the supports fail and topple over, and the roof sections fall onto the street below, breaking apart upon impact. The adjacent shophouses also are beginning to give up, and nearly half of the shoplots collapse due to the heavy floor loads, the majority of the collapses occuring on the older structures. Meanwhile, the nearby motels and inns, having studier structural integrities and better foundations, still stand, despite their interiors having been destroyed  and their windows broken. Despite the collapses, one section of the green roof still remains, the most southern section of the roof, where the southern gate once stood welcoming visitors to Petaling Street. But not for long.

35 years after people: Nearly all of the shophouses have been brought down to the ground, and in their place lies trees and greenery, burying all evidence that these structures once stood in these places. The majority of Petaling Street is unrecognizable, except for the most southern area, where the roof still stands over the remains of the southern gate. But now, these pillars that hold up this iconic section of the roof have also given way to Mother Nature. The metal arms that extend beyond the pillar to the roof snap off and fall to the forces of gravity, before the entire roof comes crashing down with an enormous bang on the legs of the pillar, which then also due to the enormous weight also topple over into the adjacent shophouses on both sides and bring them down as well. With the collapse of its iconic roof and other shophouses, Petaling Street is no longer a tourist attraction nor a street, it is now a desolate wasteland, filled with debris, rubble and the remains of the cheap merchandise once sold in the bustling heart of Malaysia’s largest city.