Project 1B : The Image of the City (Cognitive Mapping)

THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE & URBANISM (ARC61303)

PROJECT 1B : COGNITIVE MAPPING _______________________________________________________

B R I C K F I E L D S (Zone B)

NAME : EDWARD CHENG MUN KIT STUDEN ID : 0313466 TUTOR : MR.NICHOLAS NG SUBMISSION DATE : 6th JUNE 2015

TABLE OF CONTENT 1.0 IntroducEon………………………………………..…………………………………… 3-­‐5

1.1 Site Intro 1.2 CogniEve Map 2.0 Findings of CogniEve map…………………………………………..…………. 6-­‐8 3.0 Discussion in relaEon to Kevin Lynch’s The Image of The City . 9-­‐11 4.0 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………12 5.0 Reference………………………………………………………………………………… 13

1.0 Introduction The aim of this project to understand the people’s perception and the spatial behavior in cities today. By drawing a cognitive maps and critical analysis on the cognitive map to understand the urbanism in the selected KL City space with relation to Kevin Lynch’s theory of imageability and people’s perception of the city.

ZONE B

Figure 1 : The location of the site.

1.1 Site Introduction In this research project, Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur is our macro site. It is located immediately to south of Kuala Lumpur’s historic town centre and Kg Attap. Where Brickfields are bounded by Jalan Scott, the Klang River, Midvalley, Kg Abdullah Hukum, Jalan Bangsar, Jalan Travers and Jalan Damansara. The population of the area swelled when junior rank civil servants, many of whom came from various other Indian and Ceylonese communities, moved here and this created a sense that Brickfields was an Indian enclave. There are several religious institutions, residential enclaves of government quarters and other private homes which were permanent brick buildings, interspersed with urban village mainly housing people of Indian ethnic origin, whose dwellings were largely temporary or semi-permanent structures. The rapidly

development of Brickfields as a futuristic self-contained city within what was originally the railway yard, has begun to dramatically encroach and overwhelm the scale and character of this neighbourhood. However, for the present, its traditional spaces and activities continue, but whether it will wholly embrace the futuristic trajectory set by KL Sentral or hang onto its diverse cultural identity remains to be seen.

Zone B are selected for micro site, (Figure 1). The site is located at the south of brickfields where it is next to the major primary road Jalan Tun Sambanthan. The development of Zone B is a slow growing development area compared to the central of Brickfields where the development mainly are residential building and shoplots. The paths are clearly identified where the primary pathway Jalan Tun Sambathan and Jalan Bangsar are bounded the area of Zone B. Along the Jalan Tun Sambathan, Little India act as a major landmark but the unsympathetic intrusion of new development into traditional character areas like Little India Brickfields can be seen and this creates an awkward inter-relation of new development with existing development. Jalan Thamby Abdullah situated at the central of the through different mix-used development which are mixture of building typology ranging from pre-war shophouses to modern high-rise residential buildings.

1.2 Cognitive Map Cognitive mapping is the selective representation and mental image of an individual integrated from the observations gathered over the time ad the recalled interaction integrated from the observations gathered over the time and the recalled interaction with the city. According to Jiang (2012), the two major important issues concerning the cognitive mapping are the external representation of the place and how thee have been processed mentally and form an image or map about its physical environment. In positing the importance of postmodern spatial theory, which takes into account a diverse range of qualitative epistemologies, Kevin Lynch’s use of cognitive mapping, as expressed

in

Image

of

the

City

(1960),

is

of

groundbreaking

importance. Despite being rooted in the modernist desire for coherence and unity,

Kevin

Lynch’s

application of cognitive mapping, with its emphasis on image and

perception, is an important step toward postmodern spatial representation. By taking into account the plurality of ways in which citizens experience urban space, cognitive mapping can serve as a method for a progressive practice

of

urban

planning and design which considers the needs of a diverse citizenry. Thereupon can cognitive mapping be an active tool for deconstructing top-‐down, modernist representations of space and the planning outcomes that have accounted for various historical urban inequities.

2.0 Findings of Cognitive Map

Figure 2: Cognitive Map drawn by Edward Cheng Zone B is considered as a residential district where the building typologies are categorized in the map as high rise residential buildings, old shophouses and shop lots in between the residential enclaves and government quarter along Jalan Tun Sambanthan. This zone can be said as nothing out of the ordinary if compare with other zones.

Figure 2.1 Building typologies along Jalan Thamby Abdullah

Figure 2.2 Abandoned shophouses

By observing through the map, there are too much of unnecessary future upgrading works in other zones such as KL Sentrak which cause the area to appear chaotic, superficial and unnatural, losing its authenticity. Thus, the buildings scales in zone b are different because of the building typologies compared to others zones. This project can be defined as a experiential cognitive mapping process thus five fundamental perceptional senses were used. For instance, sensors, sophisticated decoding tools that, through images and colors, signs and sensations, sounds and noises, smells and aromas, textures and patterns was used to re-read and interpret how the citizen feel and what is their experiences when staying in the places. Before entering to zone B, there is a busy and heavy traffic road at Jalan Tun Sambanthan especially during the peak hours. The vehicles will create a lot of noise. Along the roadside, there are a lot of shop lot which majority selling the Indian tradition accessory. The business people, customers and vehicles there have made the road full of vitality.

Once entering to Zone B, an obvious and a brand new building can be seen. The building is named Menara Kembar Bank Rakyat. The reason why it is ease to be seen is because most of the building in zone B were old and it is the tallest building inside the zone. It had become one of the landmark in that particular zone. The another landmark building in the area is the Global India International School. When standing at the main entrance of the international school, the aroma that made the stomach rumbling can be smell. There are few restaurants and food stalls are selling food especially the indian cuisine such as roti canai. Walk along Jalan Thamby Abdullah, some abandon building can be seen. These building including the condominium and some landed houses. Despite of the abandon building, there are also some landed houses are used to do some small business such as mini market and food stalls.

One unique thing that must be raised is that there are quite a number of dead end paths in this area such as Jalan Thamby Abdullah and Jalan Thamby Abdullah 1 which are caused by the boundary of vacant green land or the double usage of the narrow path as back lane and front lane. These dead end also create a edges towards the observer as there are no proper paths and directional guidance for the observer. However there are some pedestrian path near Jalan Thamby Abdullah which act as a guidance element where people are using the pedestrian path across Jalan Thamby Abdullah and it helps non-local to identify direction and way finding.

The socio-culture of Brickfields displayed rich cultural diversity through their people and activities and the clearly seen the improvement by the government has provided Little India Brickfields its much needed publicity in recognizing it as another ethnic enclave.

Along the Little India, there is a roundabout act as a node where this is an intersection of Jalan Rakyat, Jalan Thamby Abdullah and Jaln Tun Sambanthan. Where this roundabout also become a landmark as there is a sculpture on top of the roundabout.

3.0 DISCUSSION IN RELATION TO KEVIN LYNCH’S THE IMAGE OF THE CITY Lynch wrote that an image is “a picture especially in the mind”, and integration between the tangible city image and the intangible human perception. When studying the site (Zone B), it is interesting to note how it is made up on the whole. Generally, the residential building around Zone B share a homogeneous profile, where it is characterized by similar height, material and style. The author, Lynch argues that “the more these character overlap, the stronger the impression of a unified region.” (pg.104)

Lynch’s main argument on the physical imageability of a city are mostly based on 5 elements. Where:Path : routes which people move throat the city Edges: boundaries and beaks in continuity District : Areas characterized by common characteristics Nodes : Focus points for orientation such as squares and junctions.

Landmarks: External points of orientation, usually identifiable physical object in urban landscape.

Figure 3.1 LRT rail rack from far

Figure 3. LRT rail track separates Bangsar and Zone B

Using Lynch’s theory to analyse the maps, one can see the primary path and secondary path are clearly identified because there is an obvious difference of the frequency of use of the paths. According to Lynch, objects along the path can be arranged sharpen the effect of motion parallax or perspective or the course of the path ahead may be made

visible (pg,98) where Jalan Tun Sambanthan are divided with the planter box which showing a clear divider of two way vehicle circulation. Edges, according to Lynch defines as linear elements not used or considered as paths by the observer, boundaries between two phases and linear breaks in continuity (pg. 47). Edges are shown most clearly in map where the presence of the rail track and the primary path determined the edge of Zone B. The LRT rail track act as the strongest edges as lynch mentioned that edges seem strongest which are not only visually prominent, but also continuous in form and impenetrable to cross movement (pg.62). Where Jalan Rakyat also act as a boundaries for Zone B with KL Sentral where the development of Zone B and KL Sentral show a contrast building typologies and Building Height between each other.

According to Lynch, districts are the medium to large sections of the city, conceived as having two dimensional extent, which the observer mentally enters inside of and which are recognizable as having some common, identifying character (pg.47). The government quarters along Jalan Tun Sambanthan act as a government district where it is easy accessible along Jalan Tun Sambanthan and easy identified as a government district. Moreover, there are also some commercial shoplots which act as a commercial district which included restaurant and mini market

as mentioned above Zone B is

mostly surrounded by Residential building, thus, these shoplots can fulfill the daily needs of the local residence.

Figure 3.3 Food stall nearby Jalan Ang Seng

Figure 3.4 Food Stall near by Jalan Thamby Abdullah

Little India is also considered as a cultural district where the architectural style and the high percentage of indian residence and business defined a clear district with others.

Thus, few nodes are formed where nodes are points, the strategic spots in a city into which an observer can enter, and which are the intensive foci to and from which he is traveling. Where Little India have few gather spot which selling india traditional stuff and towards the end of Little India there is a roundabout which act as a node where this is an intersection of Jalan Rakyat, Jalan Thamby Abdullah and Jaln Tun Sambanthan for people to make decision of way finding. There are also a few nodes in Zone B which near by Jalan And Seng and Jalan Thamby Abdullah where most of the nodes are food stall and junction where people need to make decision in direction.

The orchestration of these elements has merged together as a powerful image, A result of the mixed intensity of the image of the site, whereby it it not just well organized but poetic and symbolic as well. The mixed typology go the buildings in the site with various historical timeline untill now, supports Lynch’s theory that the image of the city is ever developing.

4.0 Conclusion Based on the cognitive maps study, we could see that all the five Lynch’s elements are important to the user in Zone B. The five elements that Kevin Lynch proposed in his theory are proved to be the elements that improves the quality of the city’s image and those that boosts a person’s memory of a place. Moreover, there is a character of the place that is uniquely in Zone b with its blend in of the building typologies. The strong culture in terms of intangible qualities such as sound, texture and smell as well as strong tangible qualities such as the residential building typologies in the streets linking to the Jalan Tun Sambanthan are strong personalities of the sit that made the streets identifiable to be different from one another. There is also a density of information relating to the image of the site (Zone B) that depending on the observer. Where normally observer focused on the details that attracted them enough to secure it memory. The scale and area of the place was perceived differently to each participant because of their point of view and time taken and some difficulties to acquire a clear mental map. However, from personal experience it was easy to learn the environment of the area. The urban elements of the site (Zone B) is interconnected and sensed as a whole and it can be considered as imageable area with distinct elements that invited the eye to grater attraction and participation.

5.0 Reference Lynch, K. (1960). The image of the city. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

W. (n.d.). Mental mapping, Viewing the urban landscapes of the mind.

Downs R.M. and Stea D. (2011), Cognitive Maps and Spatial Behavior : Process and Products, John Willey & Sons, Ltd: Chicago Jiang, B. (2012), The image of the City out of the Underlying Scaling of City Artifacts or Locations, Sweden Mapping: Cognitive maps.(n.d.) Retrived May 25, 2016, from http://psc.dss.ucdavis.edu/ sommerb/sommerdemo/mapping/cogmap.htm