Save Iskandar Putri?

As the title may suggests, what or who is Iskandar Putri? For those who still don't know, Iskandar Putri is the former name of Johor Bahru. Probably most of you would argue as the name Tanjung Puteri is very much associated with the city of Johor Bahru, so supposedly that would be the former name of this most southern city of the mainland for the Asia continent. Where did I get this information? From a reliable primer source for sure.

Iskandar Putri gets us together on a fine weekend, equipped with the essential gears and knowledge we have learned about our surroundings especially its built environment. We had a briefing the night we arrived for us to have a clear view of what we want to capture. We started early in the morning, tracking the heritage trail guided by our primer source.

As I observed and as a boy growing up in this city, it was a major disappointing to learn that the busy city I used to live in has now slowly reaching its death. I can feel the emptiness of it as I have once lived here and know how it was used to be. All of us had a fairly useful discussion about what has happened and ways to turn it around. In my opinion based on the facts by my source, it all goes down to political interference and interest that goes over the good judgement for the betterment of the city dwellers.

I'm not sure but do these high ranking people who occupy the seats really have a heart for the city and its dwellers or is just about their pocket that matters? This is an unofficial effort (though it was unclear at first but we hope that it will at least weigh a certain magnitude) of us, young architects to capture the heart of Johor Bahru. Though, my images still fail to capture the very essence of the city of Johor Bahru.

Anyway, let us save Iskandar Putri.