CHEN ROU ANN 1001G76463 DR LAKSHMI PRIYA RAJENDRAN As Alexander put it, there is a timeless way of building. A town or a building should be made to last, if the town is designed in a certain way, the town will grow under ones hand, making the town alive, and also to heal itself when needed. Each town has its own characteristic, and its own culture, by events which happen in the town. Architecture connects people to their surroundings in very different way, most, subconsciously. A Pattern language described a practical architectural system, called a generative grammar. With Alexander’s 253 different patterns, some fits the criteria of Ara Damansara while some would be a good addition to the town. As Alexander said, each town would have its own pattern, which in turn, creates in own characteristics. In Ara Damansara, neighbourhoods were carefully planned to prevent clutter. Houses were planned in a tidy manner while different communities and neighbourhoodS were separated clearly. Commercial areas, industrial areas and residential areas were separated to prevent congestion and disturbance to the community.
There are different communities which thrive in it. Every neighbourhood has its own council to make each community better. They make decisions for their own neighbourhood, supporting one another, keeping themselves safe. There is then a larger community which keeps everybody together, keeping Ara Damansara in a tip top condition. Most communities are gated and fenced due to the recent increase of crime. With that said, in every neighbourhood, there are public squares and common grounds such as gardens and parks for children to play; for the neighbours to meet and chit chat, or for occasional neighbourhood gatherings or meetings. Right by every major and minor road, biking path, raised walkways and road crossings were provided for the safety of the community. Trees were planted along the sides of the roads to provide shades and to keep the town green. Not only that, Ara Damansara is surrounded by greeneries, be it along the roads, or parks and gardens. Greeneries can always be seen in nearly every corner of the town.
CHEN ROU ANN 1001G76463 DR LAKSHMI PRIYA RAJENDRAN There are public gardens that are shared by several neighbourhoods. Although it started out as a beautiful park, with a lake and garden, it has now been vandalised due to the ‘unwanted visitors’. Patrons from low cost flats near the community like to visit the park, and whilst visiting it, they tend to ignore the rules. They fish in the lake, they vandalize the playground, they destroy the facilities provided, such as the basketball hoops, and the playground swings. They ride their motorcycle in the park itself, which made it unsafe for the children and they dominate the playground. Their behaviour made the surrounding community reluctant to visit the parks and they tend to stay inside their own neighbourhood. Mine, for example locked up the gates to prevent them from entering. Every house owns a key to the garden, but no one visits it anymore.
Ara Damansara is littered with shopping areas. There are shops from car repairing shops, grocery shops, hawker centres to barber shops and clinics. The residents from Ara Damansara don’t have to step out of the area to get the things they need to survive. Everything is provided in Ara Damansara. In Alexander’s theory, Ara Damansara lacks of a close density nodes. Most of the shopping or commercial blocks are within driving distance. The street shops and shopping mall is at the edge of the town, which isn’t convenient if, say, a person needs to pop by a shop to get some ingredients for dinner. The commercial blocks were centralized in the middle of the town instead of scattered around the town where it is easily accessible. Transportation in and out of Ara Damansara is very scarce, and it is definitely not enough for the town. Apart from private transports, it’s very tedious to go out of the area, where public transports consist of only one line of bus, which pass by only every 1 and a half hour. Taxis are hard to hail from the streets too and most people, if needed, would have to call a taxi company. Although there are few things that needs improvements, it is a self-sustaining town, that hopefully, a timeless town.