Putrajaya Talk

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Putra’jaya’ or ‘tak berjaya’? An Insight on the New Federal Territory

Transcript of Putrajaya Talk

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Putra’jaya’ or ‘tak berjaya’?

An Insight on the New Federal Territory

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About Meaning

“A meaning is generated by sign”

About Sign?

“Anything that tells us about something other than itself

is a sign”

Before Going Into the Subject....

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Types of Meaning

IntrinsicInherent or essential meaning (direct connection of ourself to the universe)

e.g. our physical substance and the universe & schemata

ExtrinsicMeaning based on convention (we are anything but passive receptors of

outside stimuli, but always perceive them according to a former expectation)e.g. Language shapes both our thought and knowledge of reality (Whorf)

“The limit of my language is the limit of my world” Wittgenstein

Meaning could be achieved through:Opposition or Association

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Types of Signs

IndexPoints to something (indicators, the word ‘big’, arrow etc.)

SymbolStand in place of an object (flags, door signs etc.)

IconStand in place of an object (flags, door signs etc.)

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Types of Signs

SignifierMaterial aspect of sign

Signified

The mental concept of a sign

There are two types of signified:

•Denotative-referent to the real object•Connotative-justification beyond the object

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Sign: Area of Study?

SemanticsReferring to meaning of sign:

Relationship of sign to object they represent

SyntacticsHow things are arranged together:

Relationship of sign-vehicle within sign system

PragmaticsLanguage used and its context:

relationship of sign to interpreters

Areas of investigation (as identified by Charles Morris)

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Semioticsthe study of signs and symbols and their use or

interpretation

Through semiotics, one could identify:

Mnemonic meaning

Relationships of signs

Production of signs

Functions of signs

System and process underlaying signification

Expression, representation and communication

Identity

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Semiotics Triangle

ThoughtContentConceptSignified

SymbolFormWord

Signifier

ReferentPercept

DenotatumThing

Source:

Jenks, Charles, and George Baird ( 1969).

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Architecture is not a language but works like one.This is manifested through the use of

metaphors, symbols and analogy

The new field of architecture which is based on the system of linguistics is known as

“Archististics”

A bit about Architecture...

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Linguistics: Choice of reading is more influencedby context of sentence and subcode of reader

(setting and subcode)

Architecture: Choice of reading is of the opposite.It is influenced by subcode of reader and

context of sentence(Architectural subcode and setting)

The DifferenceBetween Architecture

And Linguistics...

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Now, the juicy bit.......

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Putrajaya: At a Glance•A new Garden and Eco City•An Intelligent City•A new administrative locus for Malaysia•A city designed by the locals•Vision of modern Malaysia•City of the 21st. Century•Employed state-of-the art facilities•Part of Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC)•Adapts Islamic Malay architecture•A city of bridges (8 nos.)•A fairyland of lights

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Critique on Putrajaya

•New statement in Architecture-The Malays have arrived (or have we?)

•Hub for “New Islamic” consciousness and civilization?•The dilemma-Islamic or Malay? Which one?

•Multi-cultural values? One Malaysian Nation?

•Projected image onto the ‘other’-Mirror Stage (Lacan)-

Psychoanalysis

Identity

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Critique on Putrajaya

•Opportunities to engage new expressionism in architecture-based on Modern architecture

•To suggest on “The New Modern Malaysia” •Too ambitious•Too many cooks spoils the soup•Broken conventional syntax (rules or arrangement) - from the perspective of adaptation of urban ‘language’

Narrative

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Critique on Putrajaya

•Mediated Monument-inseparable from the media campaigns conducted construct (and constrict) their interpretation. new self-consciousness about building city symbols

(Examples: Sydney’s Opera House-( new Self Consciousness) and Chandigarh (India), Brasília (Brazil) and Three Gorges Dam (China)-(National Symbols such as national symbols of modernity and

arrival)

For most regimes, however, the challenge to construct forward-reaching symbols has been matched by an equally pressing need to build links to the past. This process of city-imaging (and nation-imaging) involves the construction of visually enhanced narratives of an idealised heritage designed to serve an equally idealised future

•Based on ‘authority defined social reality’-as opposing to “everyday defined” (See Ibrahim, Zawawi (1998)

Value

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Critique on Putrajaya

•Aseana•Islamic interpretations•Irrelevant to the climatic and cultural factors of the country-Language games (Wittgenstein)

Design Context

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Critique on Putrajaya

•Connotative approach•Mediated Malay-centric and Islam representations•Confused (too many interpretations) •An architectural ‘pastiche’ (spoof)

Symbolism

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Critique on Putrajaya

•Being Malaysian or an ‘interpreted’ Malaysian•What is ‘Malay’ and what is ‘Islam’-give interpretation

•The irony of being the ‘other’- The case of a mistaken interpretation

“Visiting Putrajaya at night on a festive occasion and sometimes on weekend can be mistaken for a night- out in Dubai or any of the Gulf states in the Middle East” Mahmood, Zari (2005: 20)

Meaning

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Suggested ReadingA.B., Shamsul, ed. Debating About Identity in Malaysia: A Discourse Analysis.

Edited by Zawawi Ibrahim, Cultural Contestations: Mediating Identities in a Changing Malaysian Society. London: ASEAN Acedemic Press Ltd., 1998.

Abel, Chris. Architecture and Identity: Responses to Cultural and Technological Change. 2nd. Edition ed. Oxford: Architectural Press, 2000.

Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities. Revised Edition ed. London: Verso, 1991.

Architecture, The Aga Khan Award for. "Architecture and Identity." Paper presented at the Exploring Architecture in Islamic Cultures 1, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1983 July 25-27, 1983.

Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. London: Vintage, 2000.

———. Empire of Signs. Translated by Richard Howard. London: Jonathan Cape, 1970.

Bhabha, Homi K. "Interrogating Identity: The Post Colonial Prerogative." In Identity: A Reader, edited by Paul du Gay, Jessica Evans and Peter Redman, 94-101. London: SAGE Publications Ltd., 2000.

Broadbent, Geoffrey, Richard Bunt, and Charles Jencks. Signs, Symbols, and Architecture. Bath: John Wiley & Sons, 1980.

Cobley, Paul, and Litza Jansz. Introducing Semiotics. Cambridge: Icon Books Ltd., 1997.

Doshi, Balakrishna. "Cultural Continuum and Regional Identity in Architecture." Paper presented at the Regionalism in Architecture, Singapore 1985.

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Suggested ReadingEco, Umberto. "Function and Sign: The Semiotics of Architecture." In

Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in Cultural Theory, edited by Neil Leach, 182-202. London: Routledge, 1997.

Hillenbrand, Robert. "Islamic Architecture: Form, Function and Meaning." (1994).

Ibrahim, Zawawi. "Cultural Contestations: Mediating Identities in a Changing Malaysian Society." (1998): 204.

Lim, Jimmy C.S. "The Rites of the Tropics." In Asian Architects 1, edited by Tan Kok Meng, 187-208. Singapore: Select Books, 2000.

Loomba, Ania. "Colonialism/Postcolonialism." (1998): 289.

Mohamad Rasdi, Mohamad Tajuddin. "Malaysian Architecture: Crisis Within." (2005).

Nasir, Abdul Halim. Seni Bina Masjid Di Dunia Melayu-Nusantara. Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia: Penerbitan Universiti Kebangsaan Malayia, 1995.

Preziosi, Donald. Architecture, Language, and Meaning. The Hague: Mouton Publishers, 1979.

Rose, Gillian. Visual Methodologies. London: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2001.

Rossi, Aldo. The Architecture of the City. New York: The MIT Press, 1982.

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Where do you stand?Ask your construct and strengthen your epistemology

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The End??