THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE & URBANISM [ARC61303] [ARC2224]

Project : The Image of the City

Cognitive Mapping

Lecturer: Ms Ida, Mr Nicholas Ng

Student: Yap Chun Yew 0309343

History of the roundabout

The junction of Jalan Tun Perak, Jalan Pudu, and Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock used to be a roundabout about 20 years ago before it was turned into a 3 way intersection. Along Jalan Tun Perak is SEGI college and Maybank Tower, while on the Jalan Pudu section sits the Puduraya Central and various hotels. Lastly on the Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock are the Mydin, Kota Raya Complex, Petaling Street, and various Schools including Confucian and Methodist.

Introduction

The part two of the analytical research study includes this essay and a cognitive map of the Juction of Jalan Tun Perak, Jalan Pudu, and Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock. The task is to create cognitive mapping of selected significant urban spaces in the city of Kuala Lumpur to understand peoples’ perception and spatial behavior in cities today. We are to make site visits to the junction of Jalan Tun Perak, Jalan Pudu, and Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock to have the pedestrians there to draw a few cognitive maps and a share of their perception of the city. Not only that, we will make our own perception of the city and draw a cognitive map relating to the human facets, spatial and temporal dynamics, architecture, and microstructures.

Site Visit Findings

The day of site visit is a Friday and the time was afternoon 2pm after the Friday prayers for the Muslims, classes are almost over and students make their way home in different ways. A good place to park a vehicle is inside a marketplace and for this site visit, I have parked my car in the underground parking of Mydin. It is a good spot as the junction of Jalan Tun Perak, Jalan Pudu, and Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock is just nearby.

Right outside Mydin is the Sinar Kota Bus Station where workers, tourist, students, and daily pedestrians come to take the bus, there is a constant flow of people and buses and people sitting on the bench waiting for their bus to arrive.

Cognitive Mapping

The immediate advantage I found about this place is the benched placed conveniently at these bus stations, People tends to stay longer at a specific spot when there is a place to sit before heading to their destination. I have interviewed two students from this exact spot where they are waiting for their bus to arrive, they are students from the Confucian Private School at Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock. Their perception of the city is a place to go to school, they will take the bus to school and take the bus home. When the classes are over, they will leave the school through the back gate and come to the junction. Some memory of the place is the Watson store, KK mart, Starbucks Coffee, and McDonald’s. On their way home they spot some elements on the road like hotels and trees along the way, these are the identity of their city.

After the students left the bus station, I make my way to the junction and a more prominent bus stop by the road. There are students waiting for their bus here too but less compared to the bus station. After that I passed the Maybank tower and crossed the street to Puduraya on a pedestrian bridge, which is linked to Puduraya itself and I entered the bus terminal station. Walking around I spotted tourists, workers, and families sitting around their terminals waiting for their buses. There are seats everywhere but the place was not brightly lit up even in the day, people were seen sitting at dark corners and tight spaces. I met an Indonesian traveler who is waiting for the arrival of his bus, he came from the hotel nearest to Puduraya where he stayed for a few days before heading back.

I bid farewell to the fellow Indonesian traveler and head to Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock into part of the Petaling Street where stalls were opened selling goods and food. Eventually I came across three university students who were buying groceries at the market nearby, they were from Taiwan and were studying abroad here in Malaysia. Their perception of this city was shopping and entertainment, but that day they simply came to do some groceries. They took the monorail from their quarters at Help Residence and came to buy some oranges and watermelons, walking around Petaling Street was a real treat for the day even if you don’t buy anything; the people and culture around the area would be enough for your experience.

Heading further down into Petaling Street was more food stalls to be discovered, I was searching for a place to sit when I spotted two ladies at a chicken rice shop waiting for their takeaways to be ready. I went to sit with them and chatted about their perception of the city. At first I thought they were university students too, but turns out they were working at a café nearby. The Merchant’s Lane, which is a concept café reviving the heritage of Malaysia. They have no trouble in getting food to eat in the afternoon here as there were many choices, no matter if it rained or shined they get to walking around Petaling Street. They really loved the weather in the city, it has been a privilege to be able to work at the city.

Merchant’s Lane is just down the road in Petaling Street on the first floor level of a shop house, you’d have to look carefully as they had not installed a café sign yet. I promised to visit one day and headed the other way back to the main street to Jalan Tun Perak where the Maybank Tower was situated. This tower was built to resemble the Kris sword of the Malayan Descendants, a landmark of the city no doubt. Its entrance is uniquely positioned as you have to go up 3 escalators to reach the lobby.

I sat around at the lobby for a moment to cool my body from the afternoon heat, there is a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf café at the lobby where all the workers get their drinks. After a few minutes I went to interviewed two Indian ladies sitting near the café, they were having a chat outside their office in the tower. They usually takes the monorail to work, there is a distance between the station and the tower. By walking to the tower, they will pass by the city and its shops. Some prominent ones they pointed out were McDonald’s, Guardian Pharmacy, SEGI College, and Mydin.

The last person I interviewed is a man from Hong Kong who is taking pictures around the city, I spotted him standing under the railway overpass. He was at Jalan Tun Perak looking into Jalan Raja Chulan, he came to the city alone and stayed at a nearby hotel. For him, the city is a mixture of paths and districts formed by everyday circulations of pedestrians and transportations. The KLCC which is an even significant landmark was pointed out as he talked about the city; the contrast may be to the immediate visible surroundings, or to the observer’s experience. (Lynch, 1960)

Similarities and Differences

The definition of a junction is the state of being joined together, in this example is the junction of three main roads in Kuala Lumpur which is the junction of Jalan Tun Perak, Jalan Pudu, and Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock. It is where all the difference come together to form a single harmonious circle, the activities at these junction are different from each other.

All in all I have interviewed 5 Students, 2 Tourist, and 4 Workers. From the cognitive maps that they have drawn, there are many physical object which gives a high probability of evoking a strong image in the observer. (Lynch, 1960) Some similarities of these maps are the physical appearance of trees in the area, as it is inviting to the eye and also provides aesthetic to the city. The difference is that the people who notices the greenery are people who always visit this part of the city, meanwhile the tourist will look at buildings and their signs more than trees. There are 5 basic properties in a beautiful environment: meaning or expressiveness, sensuous delight, rhythm, stimulus, choice. (Lynch, 1960)

Another similarity is the presence of transportation roads and vehicles, they make up the traffic in the city and also the main circulation. The difference in this is the means of transport indicated, the pedestrians will notice the motorist while the motorist will notice the public transports. Each of these means of transportation has difference speed and sense of movement, but each has its motion of moving forward to a destination.

Lastly, food and beverage occurs all around that area for the workers and also tourist looking for a place to eat and buy food. These shops are usually accompanied by convenient stores like Watson or Guardian, hypermarkets also makes up part of a working city. There is a duck and decorated shed theory in the cognitive maps, some foods were drawn as they were like oranges and chicken rice while others are signified

as their title like McDonald’s and Starbucks. These are the similarities and differences of the perceptions made by the people.

Image of the city

The schools in the city are more crowded compared to those in the suburban, thus requires more path and choice of transportation. Another difference is the lack of residential housing at the district, it is mostly commercial zones in the city. So students who are studying at the city would have to travel more than students who are studying at the suburban.

Hotels mostly caters to tourist and locals who wanted to spend more time living in the city and going places, it is good that affordable hotels are available around main transportation services. Some examples are Ancasa Express, Hotel 99, and Kameleon Travelers Lodge.

Office and shops takes up the majority of the districts as businesses are the core activity in the city, these business are usually very high density and some had even been running for more than 50 years. We must learn to see the hidden forms in the vast sprawl of our cities, by repeated experience the entire pattern of perception is changed and the observer need no longer consciously search for clues or add new data to an old framework. (Lynch, 1960)

Conclusion

Since image development is a two-way process between observers and observed, it is possible to strengthen the image by the retraining of the perceiver. You can provide the viewer with a symbolic diagram of how the world fits together: a map or a set of written instructions. (Lynch, 1960)

The technique I used to interview a person is by showing them their location on an actual map first, just a glance of it and ask if they know where it was. Later that I will ask if they remember where they was and from where did they come from. Some examples of cognitive maps from the brief was presented to them as to give them a clear objective of the project, moving onto the next step is to request them to draw their cognitive map using an iPad.

My cognitive map illustrates the human facets, spatial and temporal dynamics, architecture, and microstructure of the city. It contains my memory of a specific path I have taken in the city, the different identity of people I met. Everything starts from the middle and gradually spread to it surrounding, that is how I experience the city. I did not start from a single point and reach a destination at the end, instead I begin from the center and take in every detail from a radius. For me, identity not only defines the people but also the city and its activities. Without its spatial temporal elements, the city cannot be recognizable and therefore does not exist.

Reference

1. Lynch, K. (1960). The Image of the City. Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London: The M.I.T. Press.

2. Petaling Street. Retreived from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petaling_Street