SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING & DESIGN

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONS) IN ARCHITECTURE

THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE & URBANISM

(ARC 61303/ ARC 2224)

PROJECT PART B:

AN ILLUSTRATED ESSAY WITH A COGNITIVE MAPPING OF

PJ OLD TOWN SEKSYEN 2

NAME: YAP WEI TYNG

STUDENT ID: 0314058

TUTOR: MR. LAM SHEN FEI

1.1Introduction:Site Introduction

Petaling Jaya Old Town is a suburban residential area developed and located at southern part of Petaling Jaya. It was once known as the Effingham Estate and it was built by the British to deal with overpopulation in Kuala Lumpur during 1952. Reason of overpopulation in Kuala Lumpur was the tin rush. During 1950s there were only about 800 residential houses were built and sold to residents with a 60-year leasehold period by the British. During the period there was only two main roads which was Jalan 1 and Jalan 2, and it was called as Jalan Templer and Jalan Othman now. With development and improvement have done over 60 years, Old Town has been developed into one of the busiest area in Petaling Jaya with many residential and commercial units.The site can be access through Lebuhraya Baru Pantai. In this research paper was mainly about Petaling Jaya Old Town Seksyen 2. Petaling Jaya Old Town Seksyen 2 was surrounded by residential building with some open fields, institution and shop houses. Major race that was currently living there were Chinese because there were many residential houses were full with Chinese culture decoration and god statues in their courtyard. However Petaling Jaya Old Town Seksyen 2 wasn’t only residential houses but also commercial units happening there too, which makes the area became way busier than it used to be because it provides more activity to the residents and outsiders to visit this area.

This research paper is to understand one’s perception and spatial behaviour in cities nowadays by creating cognitive mapping of selected significant urban spaces in the city of Kuala Lumpur. From the map shown above, Petaling Jaya Old Town Seksyen 2 has a significant boundary that was actually the road path of the area that divides seksyens of Petaling Jaya Old Town and it was easy to identify Seksyen 2 through the map above.

1.2 Cognitive Mapping and Architecture

Cognitive mapping is a type of mental representation that allows us to acquire information of a certain location and this concept was introduced by Edward Tolman in

1948. Cognitive maps are able to navigate us in an unfamiliar place and provide us directions with reliable information that allow us to get more familiar to the place or environment easily than the usual way. Besides having reliable information in the cognitive map, that unusual and non-related stuff are being excluded so that it won’t be confusing.

In city planning, the author of The Image Of The City, Kevin Lynch used sketches to reveal human knowledge of large-scale complex environment. With the theories that were introduced by Kevin Lynch in the book The Image Of The City, cognitive mapping is the best way to explain the image of the city. With the five elements that he introduced in the book, cognitive mapping can be easily drawn and easily being identified when using the mapping in a unfamiliar environment or location.

2.0 Analysis Method

By applying Kevin Lynch five elements into the cognitive mapping, PJ Old Town Seksyen 2 has been drawn into identifiable and informative elements by excluding unwanted elements and components without significant features that can be known as path, edges, landmark, district and nodes. Based on the explanation by Kevin Lynch through the book The Image of the City, paths are channels along which the observer potentially moves. Edges are linear elements that act as boundary between 2 phases. Districts are medium to large sections of the city with significant majority features and can be easily recognized by the observers. Nodes are strategic spots that allow observers to enter and it was an intensive gathering area by peoples from the area or outside the area. Landmarks are another point-reference which similar to nodes however observer does not enter within them but recognized them through external view and it was able to be easily recognized.

2.1 Path

According to Kevin Lynch path can be streets, walkway, transit lines, canals, railroad, as long as it was a tunnel that provide direction will be considered as path. Through the cognitive mapping, people are able to enter PJ Old Town Seksyen 2 through three main roads which are Jalan Othman, Jalan Pasar and Jalan Penchala.

Among all these three roads, Jalan Othman and Jalan Selangor were the busiest roads due to it was also entrance to other PJ Old Town Seksyen which causes lots of congestion during peak hours. Along Jalan Othman and Jalan Selangor, there are lots of commercial lots that were recently converted from residential housing. The main reasons for the congestion along the road is due to the convenient shops that was happening along Jalan Selangor which has KK supermart, restaurant and hawker shop where cars mostly stop by to buy stuff or having meals.

These main roads connect to secondary paths that were connected to the residential area and the core of the PJ Old Town Seksyen 2 which was the significant landmark in the middle which was the Chinese primary school that was surrounded by residential area. The secondary road was very narrow and it barely fit two cars in one lane. Residents usually park their car along the pathway cause minor car congestion when there were two cars that were come in from different direction in the same time. However, that area usually is very quiet most of the time, so mostly residents will walk to shop houses or students will walk to school as it was just nearby their house. There are many secondary roads that are actually confusing for outsider as most of the residential housings are very similar in terms of design and most of the paths are same in size. Excluded local people, it was hard for peoples to exits and get lost easily as there wasn’t much landmark that are able to lead people exits the area.

2.2 Landmark

According to Kevin Lynch, landmarks are buildings or objects that are significant in terms of size or shape that are unique and contrast with the context but not for observers to enter. There are many landmarks that are happening in PJ Old Town Seksyen 2. The first and significant landmark was the Chinese primary school that was located in the middle of the map. It has been listed as one of the landmark because it was the tallest and largest building in the area that stands alone on a piece of land that was surrounded by four secondary roads.

The second landmark was happening besides of the primary school which is the kindergarten. The kindergarten has a different kind of design compare to the residential building at the side which make the buildings stands out. By sitting nearby the primary school and also stands nearby a big green field, it has somehow created a education district as the area most likely for people to learn stuff as there are having the most education building within the area.

This was the third landmark that was significant on site; it was a gathering spot for Chinese residents. It was mainly for event and gathering spot. This building not very noticeable from view as the has nearly same height with some of the residential building however the difference of architecture cause it to became a landmark which was memorable for observer when they pass by. This landmark building also provided the information as it was located on the main path for the entire secondary path. It provides direction for people to exits by going all along straight to exits to the main path.

2.3 Edges

According to Kevin Lynch, edges are boundaries between two phases. It can be barriers, more or less penetrable which close one region off from another or they may be seams, line along which two regions are related and joined together.

For the three main path of the area, it also acts as the edges of the area. The main reasons were due to main paths were mainly for cars to travel which cause it to be wide and hardly more pedestrian to walk. It acts like an invisible barrier that stop people from walking from seksyen 2 to the seksyen 4. For the main path that creates a barrier between seksyen 2 and seksyen 1, it was actually a weak barrier as it was relatively narrow compare to the other two main path and second reason was seksyen 1 has more restaurant and service shop which cause pedestrian eagerly to cross the road however during peak hours, it will still remain as a clear barrier for them due to there are no bridges that connects these two seksyens.

Besides that there was another clear edge that was created at the end of the secondary path. It was rows of trees with a lot of plantation happening there that were surrounded by fences. From the view, it shows that there was a highway which was the main highway to enter PJ Old Town. With the fences and lots of plants, it creates a clear barrier for the pedestrians and observer by stopping them to across. It was huge and wide obstacles that block the secondary away from the highway.

In addition, there was also a building that acts as edges due to it long fences and restrict area which avoid outsiders and locals to enter which cause a huge barrier to stop them to access. That area was control by the governments and only allows related people to enter.

2.4 Districts

According to Kevin Lynch, districts are the medium-to-large sections of the city, which observers mentally enter ‘inside of’ or have some common identifying character.

First of all, PJ Old Town was main residential area. With high amount of residential building happening in Seksyen 2 cause an obvious category of the area which is residential district. With the landmark for Chinese to gather and event happening area and most of the residential housing are decorated base on Chinese decorations and the

Chinese primary school in the middle of the area clearly shown that most of the majority resident in the area were Chinese.

Second part was the commercial district; it was mainly facing the main road. According to the locals, most of the commercial buildings are converted from residential building as the history of the area was British built 800 residential housing to allocate overpopulated people from Kuala Lumpur to reduce populations in Kuala Lumpur. However commercial area is slowly expanding, due to the converting lease problem. According to the locals, most of the locals wanted to convert into semi-commercial building to earn some income for their family however, it requires them to pay a huge amount of money in order to convert their lease and most of the residents are old and poor which cause them hardly to get it done. This has shown that the poor and struggling lifestyles but trying to earn money to survive.

Third part was the education district. This district was located in the middle of the area. It has form the education district due to there was a Chinese primary school and nearby the primary school there was also a kindergarten. In front of both buildings there was a big field that provide them space to learn on the greenscape instead of just learning on the books in the steel tree world. It shows that this area was focusing in next generation’s education.

Last part was the greenscape which also act as a minor district as it covers a huge area of spaces on site and provide more greenery elements to the site.

2.5 Nodes

According to Kevin Lynch, nodes are point, the strategic spots in a city into which an observer can enter and which are the intensive foci to and from which he is travelling.

This area was full with residential building with some commercial building and landmark. So the nodes are mostly restaurant and convenient shops are the nodes for the area as most of the residents went there to buys some goodies or having their meal or maybe chit chat with friends which made those areas high density of nodes. Another high density of nodes will be the greenscape area because there were many shading areas with trees provide nice environment and also playground for kids to play and have fun. Another strong node was the main landmark of the area which was the primary school as during the peak hours there will be many parents and people around waiting for their children.

3.0 Conclusion

PJ Old Town Seksyen 2 is rather a well-planned area with less congestion of traffics however the lack of commercial area somehow causes the residents less convenient and the area will be duller and lack of interest.

By concluding according to Kevin Lynch theory, in terms of path, it was well planned and all the pathway are connected so it was easily access and exit no matter from which direction however the only problem with the pathway is there aren’t specific direction navigator shown on site but landmark was the one who act as the navigator.

Second was the landmark, the landmark act perfectly as the navigator and the resemblance of the site. There are lots of interesting landmarks such as Chinese primary school, kindergarten and Chinese assembly building. These building not only make people to remember the place more precisely, it also provides direction to enter and exit the area easily.

Next will be edges, except for Jalan Selangor doesn’t have a strong clear edges, other paths and fences create a great edges to separate each regions and create different kind of spatial experiences.

For the district part, the area separate the district area well as in they contain necessary space for the residential to feel more like home and easy for them to get educated, foods, shelter and convenient stuffs.

Last but not least are the nodes, there are a lots of nodes and the largest node will be the commercial block that was facing Jalan Pasar because there has the most convenient shops and restaurants where residents and pedestrians can visits. Another interesting node will be the greenscape where people come out and chill or children come out to have fun. Last is the period node which is the primary school as it will be only gathered lots of people for certain time.

4.0 References

Ching, B. (2014). PJ Old Town's converted commercial properties in grey area. Petaling Jaya: The Star.

Lynch, K. (1959). The Image of the CIty. United Stated of America: The MIT Press.

Matter of interest. (2015, March 5). Retrieved June 1, 2016, from Richarddagan: http://richarddagan.com/cogmap.php

San Jose State University. (2015, July 31). Understanding Neighborhoods Through Mental Mapping: An Application of Kevin Lynch's Theory Using Universal Design for Learning Principles. Retrieved 6 2016, 3, from http://www.sjsu.edu/cfd/docs/enactAIM_hilary/

Tam, S. (2012). Petaling Jaya. Petaling Jaya: The Star.