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SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Architecture THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC2224) (ARC61303) Project Part B AN ILLUSTRATED ESSAY WITH A COGNITIVE MAPPING NAME Yap Kar Juen (Jason) 0313737 Lecturer Mr.Lam Shen Fei SITE PJ, Section 4 Page of 1 14

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

THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC2224) (ARC61303)

Project Part B AN ILLUSTRATED ESSAY WITH A

COGNITIVE MAPPING

NAME Yap Kar Juen (Jason)

0313737

Lecturer Mr.Lam Shen Fei

SITE PJ, Section 4

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Content

History of Petaling Jaya PG 3

Introduction to site PG 4

Observation and Analysis of Circulation PG 5-8

Landmark and District PG 9

Path PG 10

Edge PG 11

Nodes PG 12

Conclusion PG 13

Reference PG 14

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History of Petaling Jaya

The government of Malaysia has

established a project of emerging a

new town in Malaysia back then during

the post-war period after the World

War II. The development started off

with Petaling Jaya as the satellite town

to reduce the urbanisation problems

and was design in accordance of the

British town planning principles, the

modern ideal city. The principles followed is to understand new town development

strategies, investigation of the changes in the passage of time and most importantly

housing typologies. Hence, the development of Petaling Jaya helps to improve the

unfriendly urban and dwelling with the study of housing typologies in order to

accommodate the rapid growing population of KL in 1953.

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1950’s

1960’s - 1980’s

1990’s

Introduction of Site Petaling Jaya Old Town Section 4 ( PJS 4 )

Petaling Jaya started its expansion from Section 1, therefore the

site I’m conducting is established around the 1950’s era as well

where it all started. It has got a geographical advantage because

it was close to the railway line, which is an important urban

element. The site is surrounded by four primary roads making it

a highly accessible site. However the streets are not in grid

pattern and has got a lot dead ends, which will be explained

further in the upcoming analysis.

In Kevin Lynch’s book, The Image of the City, he came out with

five elements to analyse a city. He stated that everyone will have

different perception and thinking towards a site but there is

always a majority. Therefore this illustrated essay will be an

analysis of the site based on Kevin Lynch’s 5 elements, Landmark,

Node, Edge, Path and District. These elements can be used to

clearly analyse a city and bringing out the advantages and

disadvantages.

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PJ SECTION 4

Observation and Analysis of Circulation

The site is surrounded by rows of houses and shop lots but is easily accessible because

there are several secondary path connecting to the primary from the main road.

Arriving from the East side of SS4, which is at

Jalan Templer road, the first thing you get to

see is the roundabout which catches your

attention because you need to make a decision

on your choice of path later on. In addition,

Jalan Templer is the first road being built in

Petaling Jaya, used to be named ‘Jalan Satu',

which means road one in Malay language. People going to PJ SS4 tend to turn left into

Jalan Selangor rather than going straight at the roundabout because the they could see

Jalan Assunta, which leads them going into that

street. The Assunta Hospital is the landmark of

SS4, where people would know that they’re

already in SS4 when they see Assunta Hospital.

However, the Jalan Assunta is a one way road.

There is no space to make a turn into Jalan

Assunta and Jalan Padang at while drivers are

at the opposite side of road at Jalan Selangor,

separated by a long stretch of divider, they need

to make a u-turn in front of Caltex to access to

SS4.

There is a Kuil with unique architecture at the

site with a large open space in front of it,

providing car park and also a place for birds to

stop by and chill. This is the only place where

you get to see birds gathering around at. The

open space of the Kuil creates a welcoming

path that attracts people to turn into Jalan

Padang. Stack of rubbish dumps can easily be seen at the side walk along the Jalan

Padang.

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Rubbish dumps spotted along side Jalan

Padang.

An outstanding bright red chinese temple can

be easily spotted along Jalan Padang.

Unfortunately, turning into tertiary paths there

are a lot of dead ends, which cannot be seen

from the start of the street. These dead ends

are mainly caused by the drainage cutting

across the SS4 site, creating a huge height

difference therefore there’s path disconnectivity.

There is a huge green roof chinese temple in

the middle of the residential area.

Further up there is a tall building with huge

scale and contract materiality, which is unique

and contrast in architecture on the site where

most buildings are simple box shape with a

double-pitched roof. This leads people to turn

left rather than right because it is another dead

end.

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At certain angle, Assunta Hospital can be clearly

seen from far due to its height and scale

difference compared to the housing areas,

creating a sense of curiosity and attracts people

to go there and check the activities out at Jalan

Assuntra.

People will have no choice but to exit the site if

they are at Jalan Assuntra because it is a one

way road. Logically they will turn left at the

roundabout at Assuntra Hospital if they want to

get back into SS4.

Then the Church, with a outstanding triangular

form and architecture. There are no specific

attraction at the Jalan Templer other than the

church and Assunta hospital, so people tend to

go further up and turn left at the second

roundabout into Jalan Penchala, where the

RapidKL bus stops are located at, a lot of foreign

workers can be seen at the bus stops.

There is also a curry house at a higher level of

land inside the residential area, which can be

spotted across the field located next to the

bomba building at the primary road.

Further up turning into Jalan Othman, a newly

constructed mosque can be seen at the left but

the commercials further up leads people to go

there.

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However, most of the houses are already being

commercialised and mostly into car dealer

businesses.

There is a big market at the T-junction of Jalan

Othman, which is often jam on the weekdays

during lunch time and in the morning when

people goes to market. People also tend to turn

into an uncomfortable secondary path, which is

right behind the market because the human density there is very high with a loading and

unloading and market place. There are rows of houses along Jalan Terus, nothing much

interesting along Jalan Terus other than the market and new mosque, therefore people tend

to exit back to Jalan Othman.

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Landmark and District

It is stated that the landmarks are separated into different kinds of landmark in conjunction

with the districts, which are commercial, religious and residential. The two roundabouts at

the edges of the site SS4 are landmarks to help guiding ways and circulating the entire

Petaling Jaya and into our site. Assunta hospital is one of the most iconic building at the

site due to it’s huge scale compared to the residential buildings. It also acts as a guide to

way out because the path in the residential area is very confusing.

Another important landmark is the Caltex, where people use that to guide direction at the u-

turn area. However the Kuil leads people into SS4 because of his welcoming and wide open

space, it also offers parking spots and acts as a node for bird to stay and chill there. The

chinese temples and mosques are sort of clustered landmarks, where they are separated

inside the residential area but still sees the connection in the buildings.

Moreover, the bright red bomba building is very striking and outstanding, one of the most

noticeable landmark on site. The market is also a unique landmark where it is located at the

busy T-junction and the human density there is often high during the day.

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Path

The main road, primary route is mainly filled with stretch of commercial district and

residential however a lot of residential district has been commercialised .

The secondary path is connecting the primary paths in the residential areas with a few of

the religious and eatery landmark alongside the secondary path.

However the tertiary path is mainly occupied by the residential districts as the paths are

very narrow and has got a lot of dead ends which has a pro and cons. The con is that the

vehicle paths are very disconnected due to the dead ends created by the edge but the pro is

that residents get to have their own privacy with the advantage of dead ends because there

wont be cars passing by nor people coming in.

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Edge

One of the edge of this site is obviously the primary paths, which connects the roundabouts

and also T-junction. The primary roads surrounding the site are Jalan Othman, Jalan slinger,

Jalan Templer and Jalan Penchala. The edge separates the sections in Petaling Jaya, for

example SS3 and SS4 is just opposite road.

The second edge is the stretch of small drainage at the centre, which creates dead ends

and also disconnects the vehicle paths, making it a strong edge as well. It also disconnects

both sides of residential districts and also visually.

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Nodes

The first node is the rubbish dump area, where it acted as a node for irresponsible residents

to just drop off their rubbish there because is more spacious and also to avoid keeping too

many trash in front of their house.

The second node is the Kuil open space area, where it acts as a node for people to park

their car and walk towards the Chinese temple when there is festival. Not only that, it is also

a node for birds, where a flock of birds stay there for quite sometime chilling.

The third node would be an eatery node, which is the curry house because it gathers

residents at one place. It is a banana leaf rice restaurant located in the middle of a

residential area and exposing to the primary path at the mean time. Therefore residents and

outsiders tend to go there because of conveniency.

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Conclusion

In conclusion, the site is actually a site with full of potential due to its location and also the

simple layout, which is easily memorised despite the dead ends problem. However there is

no perfect site, each site has pro and cons but problems can be solved via architectural

strategies. That is why the urban planning at the first place is the important. This site has

got a majority of residential district compared to the others, therefore making it an

interesting site.

However, the path in the residential area is too messy, only places with a landmark in the

middle of residential area has got more direction. I personally feel that this site could have a

more simple layout, for example the grid pattern layout of SS1, which is easily memorised

and accessible. The layout of this site is too scattered, as in the districts but the idea of the

residential area being surrounded by commercial is good that it bring crowd and also

conveniency for residents.

Afterall, if I were to design this site, I would use grid pattern principle and also bring in more

commercial districts and bigger scale buildings. The grid pattern will definitely solve the

path problems on site.

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Reference

1) Google maps - https://www.google.com.my/maps/place/Assunta

+Hospital/@3.0933462,101.643384,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!

1s0x31cc498e8f955555:0x76e61e62e50d6163!8m2!3d3.0933408!

4d101.645578?hl=en

2) Research on PJ old town - http://archresearch.org/_data_store_1/

jk_board/

4/2011-5/5.contextualmodernization_newtownplanninginpetalingjayaofm

alaysia_12.pdf

3) Picture Sources - Google maps and self taken only

4) Jason’s memory, observation and analysis

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