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SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Architecture

THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC2224) (ARC61303)

PROJECT PART B

NAME : …GARNETTE DAYANG ROBERT…………………………

ID:…0315491………………………………………

LECTURER:…MR LAM SHEN FEI……………………………………

 

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1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Site Introduction

Figure 0.1 – Location of Section 3 PJ, Old Town

Source: Google Maps

Petaling Jaya, Malaysia’s first planned town, PJ has become a huge

and a very busy commercial and residential hub in its own right with over

450,000 inhabitants. Massive progress and development, and today

contributed significantly to Selangor’s economy.

Petaling Jaya Old Town is basically a very ancient and treasurable

area, famous for coffee at old style coffee shop, as well as the place to buy

essential items from sundry shops that sell kitchen stoves and school

uniforms under the same roof.

 

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The buildings may not have been the most inventive for its time, but to

the locals, Petaling Jaya Old Town is a functional town centre with a divergent

character, one that has outlasted the massive and modern developments

taking place around it.

The town’s first settlement consisted of over 800 houses in Petaling

Jaya South, areas covering what is known as Section 1 to Section 8 in and

around Petaling Jaya Old Town. The first two main roads were called Jalan 1

and Jalan 2, which were renamed Jalan Temper and Jalan Othman

respectively.

Figure 0.2 –Menara Mutiara Majestic, Jalan Othman

Source: Google Maps

So this is my selected significant urban space assigned to me by my lecturer,

Section 3 in Petaling Jaya Old Town.

 

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1.2 Cognitive Mapping

During my visit to the site, I asked a few people to help show me directions to

a certain places by sketching out a map. This is also known as cognitive

mapping. Tolman introduced this kind of mapping in his article called “The

Cognitive Map in Rats and Men” (1948), which refers to the encoding of large-

scale environments into the memory and the use of such memories to aid

navigation.

Figure 0.3 –Local passer-by’s cognitive map

 

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Figure 0.4 – A local worker’s cognitive map

(He drew it based on another map that he remembered)

A clear map gives people an important sense of emotional security, as

it is the framework for communication and conceptual organization, and

heightens the depth and intensity of everyday human experience.

 

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2. INTRODUCTION

2.1 Illustrated Essay

An American urban planner named Kevin Andrew Lynch wrote a utilitarian

book called “The Image of The City” that provided with much assistant in this

research. In city planning, Kevin Lynch used mental maps or sketched them

out to reveal human knowledge of significant or large-scale complex

surroundings. During the interview, asking people of the location of places

and asking them to help sketch it out is an easy way, which would help

everyone to understand the layout of the place. To understand the layout of

this area, people make a mental map, which contains mental images around

this area. These maps are called cognitive mapping that shows what are

important and what are not.

However, a place can be viewed or seen differently based on the

difference in personal perception and experience around the site. From the

two contributors who were a local worker and a passer-by (referring to figure

0.3 and 0.4), we can see that the local worker has a broader image of Section

3 compared to the passer-by. The local worker also looked more confident

with the area as he was more familiar with it. From the map drawn by the local

passer-by, certain landmarks and paths can be identified. As Kevin Lynch

wrote in his book, The Image of The City, landmarks has its point of

reference, it makes one orient oneself, usually an easily identifiable physical

object in the urban landscape. Also, the junctions that the passer-by had

sketched show routes along which people move throughout the area and

paths. According to Lynch, paths are especially important as they organize

urban mobility.

Nonetheless, from both of those maps there are similarities in identifying

the landmarks, districts and paths. The common landmarks are Menara

Mutiara Majestic, University Teknologi MARA Kampus, Sekolah Rendah

Kebangsaan Petaling, Masjid Jamek Sultan Abdul Aziz, Hockey Stadium, and

 

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the Community Library. To elaborate more on landmarks, Kevin Lynch

mentioned that landmarks should have a clear form, contrasts with their

background and some prominence of spatial location. Section 3 is a great

example of this theory stated by Kevin Lynch. The buildings that become

landmarks appear to be depended upon how familiar the observer is with

ones surroundings.

For example, the Menara

Mutiara Majestic and the Masjid

Jamek Sultan Abdul Aziz as shown

in Figure 0.5 and Figure 0.6

respectively, marks as a landmark

for me because I’m not familiar with

this place, and I tend to remember

something that I frequently see in

those places that I visit. These

landmarks are usually part of the

districts, which can also be used as

guidance or direction. Like when I

asked the passer-by, how do I get

from 3M (Menara Mutiara Majestic)

to Masjid Jamek Sultan Abdul Aziz,

she tried to remember the shortest

way to get there and by sketching them out it helped her to help me get the

directions more clearly. By pointing out the major landmarks, it helps to lead

users to their respective destinations. Also, the path makes an immediate

impact for the users to find that certain location. However, the local worker

had a different route because he doesn’t usually take the route through the

housing area, as he tends to only use the main road. So he uses the traffic

light as a node, where people usually gather to turn into the different

junctions.

Figure 0.5 – Menara Mutiara Majestic (Own source)

 

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As we refer back to the districts,

being areas characterized by

common characteristics. Here in

Section 3 districts are very easily

divided. There are 4 districts in

Section 3. For example, the

residential districts dominate Section

3, with a pinch of religious, academic

and commercial areas. The

commercial consists of restaurants,

market, clinics, car workshops and

shop lots. I find that these

commercial areas tend to form along

the fringes of Section 3, resulting

them to have higher visibility to the

outsiders or customers. The religious area consists of two Masjid buildings

only, and the academic area consists of 3 school buildings and a Community

library towering above the blocks of residence. As Lynch mentioned, districts

are the relatively large city areas which the users can mentally go inside of,

and which have some common character.

Figure 0.7 – The fringes of Section 3

Figure 0.6 – Masjid Jamek Sultan Abdul Aziz

(Own source)

 

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In addition, another similarity from the local’s cognitive mappings is the

strong edges formed by the roads. Edges provide the boundaries that

separate one region from another and can be differentiated into man-made

edges and natural edges. To the contributors, the road that is called Jalan

Templer and Jalan Othman, (referring to figure 0.7) these are the edges

dividing lines between 2 phases.

Figure 0.7 – The edges of Section 3

(Google maps)

Kevin Lynch states that edges are the liner elements not considered as

paths: they are usually, but not quite always, more of the boundaries between

two kinds of areas. They act as lateral references, so the roads are strong in

Section 3 showing edges. These edges seem strongest which are not only

visually prominent, but also continuous in form and impenetrable which

doesn’t make the act of cross movement made easily. This is also very much

reflected in the size of the road which create difficulties for pedestrians to walk

across. It would be interesting to see how many locals would begin to draw a

map of their own area by putting down something other than the roads (Jalan

Othman and Jalan Templer).

 

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Now going onto the nodes, the streets in front of the Community Library,

Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Petaling and University Technology Mara are

the most prominent nodes in the area. The bus stop next to the school is an

invitation for people to stop by. In addition, the bustling crowd that comes in

and out of the university throughout the day is also contributing to the

prominence of the nodes also a concentration point for pedestrian and

vehicles. The residents believe that the academic facilities are the arteries of

the area, giving it a sense of development and liveliness and an area where

the children can gather within. Furthermore, the masjid also acts as a

concentration node as it occasionally crowds the area with worshippers and

fellow Muslims. This area has a high density of human and vehicle

circulations. These nodes also acts as landmarks due to their scale in

comparison to the residence. For example, the bus stop is a very important

node where all the bus and taxi gathers. Nodes may be both junctions and

concentrations of places. The traffic light in between Jalan Othman and Jalan

Templer is also a recognizable node where most of the users pass through

because of its location in between the two main areas there. Somehow, there

is two types of nodes that I can recognize in this area, one is the vehicle node,

primarily, it is at the roundabout and intersecting junctions, this places are and

will be very busy daily. The secondary junctions are only during a certain time

of the day. The other node is the pedestrian node, primarily, it is at the bus

stop, the market and the shop lots, this place are most of the time very busy

daily. Secondary, the religious and schools districts, only during the weekends

and during a certain time of period during the day. Lynch stated that although

nodes are conceptually small points in the city image, they may in reality be

large squares, or somewhat extended liners shapes, or even entire central

districts when the city is being considered at a large enough level.

 

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As for paths, the local passer-by showed me a quicker path to go

through, it is the secondary paths where lesser vehicles are on, and its more

to a housing area and where entering different district. This secondary path is

accessible by all type of vehicles except big and heavy ones. For example,

buses, lorries and trucks. As for the local worker, he showed me an easier

way but not a quicker one, this is the primary path, Jalan Othman to Jalan

Templer. This primary path is very congested during the weekdays but lesser

vehicles during the weekends and it is accessinle by all types of vehicles

throughout the day and night. However, there is one more path, that is the

pedestrian paths, where it is mainly used for getting to the bus stops and

commercial districts. As Kevin Lynch mentioned, paths are channels by which

people move along or routes along which people move throughout the city.

 

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3. CONCLUSION

In conclusion, Kevin Lynch contribution was to provide experimental

research on city planning, studying how individuals perceive and navigate

the urban landscape. Therefore by using his guide for this research has

been really helpful and beneficial for us as young architecture students.

The various techniques for enhancing and creating the “perfect city” using

these specific forms are defined as physical attributes and are

distinguished as these unique “five elements” are “paths, edges, district,

landmarks and nodes”.

Based on that, Section 3 is quite clear on the overall five elements that

Kevin mentioned. This is important as mental maps or to say cognitive

mapping helps look at how people orient themselves in these cities. The

maps that the locals drew were images of immediate sensation and of the

memory of past experience, and it is used to interpret information and to

guide action.

A few things that Kevin Lynch declared was that “people’s perception

of the city is important” and elements like those makes a city. By

understanding these problems and opportunities, we as young architecture

students could use them in designing a great city.

 

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6. REFERENCES

CANNIFFE, EAMONN, EAMONN CANNIFFE, and View profile.

"ARCHITECTURE + URBANISM: Kevin Lynch: The Image Of The City

(1960)".Architectureandurbanism.blogspot.my. N.p., 2010. Web. 28 May

2016.

"Image Of The City". Slideshare.net. N.p., 2016. Web. 28 May 2016.

"One-Way Streets To Help Ease Traffic In PJ Old Town - Community | The

Star Online".Thestar.com.my. N.p., 2016. Web. 29 May 2016.

"Review: Kevin Lynch – The Image Of The City | The Mobile

City". Themobilecity.nl. N.p., 2016. Web. 29 May 2016.

Teams, Malaxi. "Understand Petaling Jaya History And Area

Overview". Malaxi.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 29 May 2016.

Tolman E. C. (1948). Cognitive maps in rats and men. Psychological Review,

55, 189-208.

Downs, R., & Stea, D. (1973). Image and environment; cognitive mapping and

spatial behavior. Chicago: Aldine Pub.

Kevin Lynch (1960). The Image of the City.

 

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A3 COGNITIVE MAPPING