Theories of Architecture & Urbanism

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

Theories of Architecture & Urbanism [ARC3233]

Project Part B: An Illustrated Essay With a Cognitive Mapping in Brickfields

Name: Leong Huiyi Student ID: 0319280 Tutor: Mr. Nicholas Ng

PROJECT PART B: ESSAY & COGNITIVE MAP ASSESSMENT RUBRIC (40 marks)

No.

CRITERIA

1 Unsatisfactory/Fail No relationship

3

4

5

Poor

Satisfactory

Good

Excellent

Little

Evidence of

Identified theory

Identified theory

Essay:

between theory and

relationships

some

which are

which are clearly

(Critical analysis

analysis

between theory

relationships

interrelated with

linked to analysis

and analysis

between theory

analysis

of architecture 1

2

and urban

and analysis

forms within its social, cultural and intellectual context) (20 marks) Cognitive Map

Arrangement of

Arrangement of

Images and

Images and

Images and

images and

images and

illustrations are

illustrations are

illustrations are

illustrations is

illustrations is

roughly

orderly arranged

carefully arranged

confusing.

unclear.

arranged in a

with proper

to add interest

workable order.

annotations

and clarity with correct

(10 marks)

annotations.

2

3

Mapping is unclear

Mapping is often

Mapping is

Mapping is

Mapping is clearly

because there are so

unclear because

generally clear

clearly illustrated

with no errors.

many errors.

of the number of

despite some

with slight errors

errors.

errors.

References &

No evidence of

Identified at least

Uses at least 3

Uses at least 4

Uses at least 5

Research Skills

sources. Lack in-

2 sources.

sources.

sources. Clear

sources. Indicated

depth investigation.

Evidence of

Evidence of

evidence of

rigorous

investigation

investigation

investigation

investigation with

however lack of

through

through clearly

abundance

illustration and

illustrations and

identified

illustration and

visual images.

visual images

illustrations and

visual images;

visual images.

cited and

(10 marks)

annotated.

TABLE OF CONTENT 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1

Site Introduction

1.2

Introduction to cognitive mapping

2.0 ANALYTICAL RESEARCH 2.1

Thesis behind self-drawn cognitive mapping • • • • •

3.0 CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

Paths Edges Districts Nodes Landmarks

1.0 Introduction 1.1 Site Introduction

(Figure 1.1: Location of individual zones in Brickfields)

Brickfields, located in Kuala Lumpur, is a complex merge of new and old. As one of the pioneer settlements, Brickfields used to be a small to medium size of residential areas that now have turn into Malaysia’s official Little India due to high density of Indian communities.

The famous Jalan Tun Sambathan acts as the main backbone of Brickfields can be easily spotted as a hustle and bustle wide street with many Indian stores and unique decorations with its thick essence of Indian culture once entered. Besides that, it concluded the newly built modernized glass and steel buildings such as Nu Sentral, Ascott Sentral Kuala Lumpur and others that eventually created a strong contrast and identity of the area.

Not only that, Brickfields can be seen as a vastly spiritual area with countless religious buildings such as the Buddhist Maha Vihara, Church of

Our Lady of Fatima, Sri Kandaswamy Kovil and more. It can be seen as a harmonized area as different culture come together and live in peace without any conflicts.

According to my tutor, Mr. Nicholas, the site given is categorized into four major areas and the site that I will be analyzing will be zone D. In zone D, it consists of the Little India as the main attractions and other subsidiary Indian related religious sites. Along the routes, some mamak areas can be found with the gathering of residents. Zone D also included some modern building like the Villa Scott Condominium as a recent addition over the years.

Some primary schools or colleges could be found in the area with the mixture of residential district. Students may choose to study in governed school or religious education institutes.

1.2 Introduction to Cognitive Mapping Cognitive mapping, introduced in “Cognitive maps in rats and men” by Edward Tolman, is a series of mental image or drawings of the space in a physical layout setting. According to Tolman (1948), humans are not only being able to record details of a certain space, but it includes a broader network of social, emotional relationships as how does the specific location makes the users feel. It can be generated through conscious or unconscious intent as it is usually based on human experience and habits.

By using cognitive mapping in this project, recognition of the place learning will stimulate the in-depth search of spatial quality and knowledge acquisition. "Although the cognitive map represents a set of processes of unknown physiological and controversial psychological nature," stated Downs and Stea (1980), "its effect and function are clear. We believe that a cognitive map exists if an individual behaves as if a cognitive map exists."

Factors that influence recognition and identity of places include: •

Proximity: Nearby places tend to be more familiar to us than places that are distant.

•

Size: Large places tend to be better known than small places (NYC vs.

Oshkosh).

•

Location: Places on the border are better known than places in the interior (New Orleans vs. St. Louis).

•

Shape: Places with a distinctive shape are more easily recognized (e.g., the Eiffel Tower).

•

Social-cultural factors: Places with an important history or cultural distinction are better known (Versailles, Valley Forge).

2.0 Analytical Research 2.1 Thesis behind self-drawn cognitive mapping In the Image of the City by Kevin Lynch, he wrote, "In the process of way-finding, the strategic link is the environmental image, the generalized mental picture of the exterior physical world that is held by an individual. This image is the product both of immediate sensation and of the memory of past experience, and it is used to interpret information and to guide action" (p.4) Before drawing the cognitive mapping, a walkthrough around the site is a definite. With this method, the stronger images of site and how does it affects neighboring context will be stronger. I will be analyzing my cognitive mapping in the form of five imageability elements, such as paths, edges, districts, nodes and landmarks.

Paths Path is the most important and major elements in urbanscape. In Lynch’s theory (1960), path is a concentration of line motion that should have clarity of direction that goes toward something or in progression. Many will identify the main road as the path but in this cognitive map, it has me questioned whether is informal walkway certified as a path. In the zone D, Brickfields, there are plenty of noticeable pathways such as the main conjunction roads but those are risky walkways for the pedestrians, who participate majorly in the area in compare to drivers.

While walking along the site in Jalan Scott, pedestrians tend to walk on the inner pathway with the finished surface of brick pavements that is a better sidewalk than the road (figure 2.1). Not only that, the big trees planted on the other side of the walkway attracts the human in when they passed by the area. It is human nature to be drawn into a place of green (Nadkarni, 2008) like the Park Royal Hotel built by WOHA in Singapore. The unifying of green surround the building not only soothes the users inside the building, but also

makes passersby to stop and admire the vertical garden. This theory is applicable in this case along Jalan Scott (figure 2.2).

(Figure 2.1: Brick pavements in Jln Scott)

(Figure 2.2: Row of big trees planted along Jln Scott)

Another pathway that drawn people in is the five-foot walkway. While walking along the border of zone D, the roads started to get narrower and some of the pathways are blocked by the obstruction of sewerage and garbage on the floor. Hence, it forces the pedestrians to go through the fivefoot walkway (figure 2.3).

(Figure 2.3: Five-foot walkway in Jln Scott)

The usage of a series archway creates an illumination of spatial quality that makes people want to enter.

In another part of cognitive mapping, the sequence of railway stand supporter along the roadside acts as a path that has a network of pattern which implies an interspacing of direction with the ground road below it (figure 2.4).

(Figure 2.4: Curved pathway with railway station above in Jln Scott)

Edges The edges discussed in this cognitive mapping will be the contrasting of two regions in either side. This could be found in the main road, Jln Tun Sambathan where the new meets the old (figure 2.5). The contrasting of the modern Nu Sentral and Little India has certified it to be an edge.

(Figure 2.5: Nu Sentral on the right and Little India on the left)

According to Lynch’s theory, the meeting edge is laid open to view and visual attention is easily concentrated when pedestrians or drivers passed by this area. The contrasting to materials usage also enhances the consistency of line.

Another edge that is found will be the chain of mamak stores in Jalan Scott where a row of roadside hawker stall (figure 2.6) is being set up and ran by the Malays or Indians.

(Figure 2.6: Mamak stores along Jln Scott)

The mamak stores arranged in a sequence allows some sense of visual or motion penetration, which increases the accessibility through Jalan Scott.

Districts From the plan view of zone D cognitive mapping, the districts can be identified as commercial blocks, religious areas and green parks.

Categorization of district is not something that can be seen through human eye perspective but it may be recognized in some sort of level. In the upper part of zone D, many buildings of commercial areas can be found in comparison to the south that caters more religious buildings such as the Church of Our Lady Fatima and Tamil Methodist Church. These zones are bounded and surrounded by the pathway or walkway to sharpened the definiteness and closure of its clear boundary for users to know their location.

Nodes As a center of interest that people can enter or acts as an intersection of paths, many nodes are found along the walkthrough. There are some hidden nodes where outsiders may not know of but the locals love. In this case, it was the Gandhi Vegetarian Restaurant in Jalan Scott that drew my attention. The amount of people dining in the small corner lot looks nothing from far but it can be acknowledged as a hidden gem of the local interest.

(Figure 2.7: Gandhi Vegetarian restaurant in Jln Scott)

It receives attention, as it is strategically located in the end of a curved turning where people are able to notice it from both ends.

Besides that, in the starting point in north side of zone D, people can be found to gather around as the area serves the purpose of bus stop (figure 2.8). Not only do people waiting in the area to get on or off the bus, it also acts as a place of dining for people when they are waiting.

(Figure 2.8: Bus stop point in Jln Scott)

It is so called the chained reaction where originally people are there for the bus but eventually the restaurant opens up in the region and thus attracts a large crowd to assemble in the area to dine (figure 2.9) while waiting for the public transportation. The gradient use of the area leads up to a popular node in Jalan Scott as it uses the classical concept of forming static outdoor spaces. It is easily accessible since users are able to know how to enter the node and goes outward.

(Figure 2.9: Outdoor dining area while waiting for bus in Jln Scott)

In the south of zone D where the junction of the main roads, Jalan Tun Sambathan and Jalan Rakyat meet, the area eventually becomes a popular node due to the high density of population flow across both sides.

As both sides of the road, there are many stores especially Indian stores that sell different kind of goods to cater different needs of people.

Acting as one of the major road to pass by the heart of Brickfields to either head towards KL Sentral of Little India, it becomes the busy node where many people will crowd around the area to buy things.

One of the main reasons that it becomes a node is because of the break in transportation. Different directions of transportation are centralized in the junction causing the path to be in coinciding with the node, acting as an intersecting point (figure 2.10). A series of shop lots are organized on both sides of the streets to attract local or outsiders to stop and restock before

continue to hit the road. The remarkable function of the different stores contributing in their own helps to make the area a node in different time.

(Figure 2.10: Busy junction of Jln Tun Sambathan and Jln Rakyat)

This can also be seen in Jalan Sultan Abdul Samad where SMK Vivekananda acts a node in specific time, for example during morning or evening where parents and students are the highest in numbers to fetch them to or pick them up from school.

Landmarks As the cognitive map starts from the very beginning of zone D, the Petronas gas station (figure 2.11) is located and is visible from the major highway leading along the route to cite center of Brickfields. No matter on foot

(Figure 2.11: Petronas Gas Station)

of travelled using transportation, it is distinguished as a landmark as people are able to identify immediately and can be used as a gathering point.

Some of the landmarks are not as famous as the KL Sentral but it acts as the identification of location if one gets lost. For example in Jalan Scott, there are two major landmarks to be found, which are the Villa Scott Condominium (figure 2.12) and the Sentral Vista building (figure 2.13). Both of them are large in scale and are very easy to be seen from a very far distance.

(Figure 2.12: Villa Scott Condominium)

(Figure 2.13: Sentral Vista from far)

Not only that, the Wisma monorail also acts as a major landmark where people are able to recognize from inside Brickfields or outside the region since it is located on the border. The great size is rapidly being able to let the tourists know that this is a monorail station so they won’t be wandering around to find the station (figure 2.14).

(Figure 2.14: Monorail Station KL)

While walking along Jalan Scott, a Hindu temple (figure 2.15) can be recognized from far given its bright coloured and heavy culture carvings on the exterior of the building. This historical building that shows taste of Hindu culture will not be easily forgotten as it gives a strong impact to viewers once being noticed. The spatial prominence if particularly compelling of attention since it is the most colourful building in the area and thus dominating the region.

(Figure 2.15: Kalamandapam Hall)

3.0 Conclusion The main essence discussed by Lynch is that an environmental image has three components: identity (the recognition of urban elements as separate entities), structure (the relation of urban elements to other objects and to the observer), and meaning (its practical and emotional value to the observer). In the cognitive mapping it follows these three components using the elements of emotional and structure related imagery.

Based on the five elements of paths, edges, districts, nodes and landmarks, the paths and landmarks are the two main aspects that appear the most in cognitive mapping. The reason behind this is because human tend to see things that are large in scale and be able to remember them easier in comparison to the others. Pathways are easier to recognize as human walk on the ground and is more likely to look around the surrounding, focusing on the width of street, patterns of the trees, or rows of the shop lots. Landmarks are undeniable the one that will caught the most attention given its uniqueness among all other ordinary buildings that are either smaller, or similar in tone and structure.

REFERENCES "Attractions in Malaysia." Little India Brickfields Kuala Lumpur. Web. 04 June 2016.

"Classics in the History of Psychology." Classics in the History of Psychology.

Web. 04 June 2016.

Down, Roger M., and David Stea. Image & Environment: Cognitive Mapping and Spatial Behavior. New Brunswick, NJ: AldineTransaction, 2005. Print.

Lynch, Kevin. The Image of the City. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1960. Print.

Tolman E. C. (1948). Cognitive maps in rats and men. Psychological Review, 55, 189-208.