SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONS) IN ARCHITECTURE

THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC61303/ARC2224)

PROJECT PART B

NAME : LEE YAUE SHEN

ID : 0315381

LECTURER : IDA MARLINA MAZLAN

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1.0 INTRODUCTION

Figure 1 The Entrance

1.1 THE LITTLE INDIA, KLANG

Located at the south of Klang, the Little India reserve along Jalan Tengku

Kelana and is considered the biggest Indian street in Malaysia. This place is located

about 10-15 minutes walk from Klang Komuter Station and is one of the famous

tourist spot in Klang. Little India is a strong cultural area that consists of mainly

Indian and Chinese traders and is comply with variety of business. This area is full of

all type of household products, decorative products, Indian food, spices, clothing and

textiles. As walking along the shops, many kinds of products are being displayed

transparently. These include gold and jewelries, cooking pots, bangles, flowers,

watches, silverwares, clocks, saris and electrical goods.

The price in Little India is cheaper compare to other places, this is due to the

high competitive level among the shop owners that sit along the rows of shops on the

left and right of the road including the stalls spilling onto the sidewalks and back

lanes. Myriads of items such as saris, colorful accessories such as bangles and

necklaces, textiles, stainless steel pots, Indian delicacies, gold and flowers are sold

here. During Deepavali, the street is transformed into a colorful spectacle of light and

sound befitting the “festival of light”. Most shop owners will work together creatively

and harmoniously to decorate the street and the walkways of their places once a year.

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The street will be decorated weeks before the actual festival and the atmosphere

around that area is amazing and traffic will be clogged up as thousands of people

make their way to make their purchases. Some shop owners will also invite shoppers

into their shops to sample delicacies and to celebrate the festival together.

Little India is located in a strategic area that is close to many types of public

transport. Besides that, with the aid of its cultural essence, it attracts many locals and

tourists to visit and shop.

1.2 COGNITIVE MAPPING

A cognitive map is a type of mental representation which serves an individual

to acquire, code, store, recall, and decode information about the relative locations and

attributes of phenomena in their everyday. The term was introduced by Psychologist

E. C. Tolman to explain how rats learned the locations of rewards in a maze. Besides,

humans and animals use them to find their way and to help recall important features

of the environment.

For example, asking people to sketch a map of a location is a way to find out

what his salient features are for them. A cognitive map can show what is important,

and by omission, reveal what is less important. Sometimes a standardized outline

showing major feature of an area is used, asking respondents to fill in the details. City

planners or landscape architects who want to know more about how a space is seen or

used could use this procedure.

Cognitive maps can be constructed for spaces as small as a rat's maze or as

large as planet earth. They have been used to study how children's conception of

space expands and becomes differentiated as they mature. It can also provide insight

into the worlds of those with sensory deficits and physical handicaps. The maps of

blind people make more use of sound and touch cues than do those of sighted people.

People in wheelchairs emphasize physical barriers in their maps, obstacles that are

missing from the maps of those able to move more freely.

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2.0 ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS

In the Kevin Lynch's classic text The Image of the City that published in 1960

by The M.I.T. Press, it introduces urban designers and planners to a new way of

thinking about the urban form of a city. Rather learning through professional maps

and plans, Lynch focuses on how people in the city actually use and perceive their

physical environment. Besides that, Lynch also argues that people in urban situations

orient themselves by means of mental maps, which mean cognitive mapping. He

compares the three American cities, Boston, Jersey City, and Los Angeles by looks at

how people orient themselves in these cities. For instance, a common exercise in

urban design and urban planning courses is to ask students to draw a map of their

neighborhood or city, or a common geographical area in order to develop a better

understanding of the differences between the physical map and layout of an area to

show how people actually perceive the same area.

Legibility, also called as imageablility and visibility. Legibility means the

extend to which the cityscape can be ‘read’. People who move through the city

engage in way finding. They need to be able to recognize and organize urban

elements into a coherent pattern. “In the process of way-finding, the strategic link is

the environmental image, the generalized mental picture of the exterior physical

world that is held by an individual. This image is the product both of immediate

sensation and of the memory of past experience, and it is used to interpret information

and to guide action”. As a conclusion, Lynch proposes that these mental maps consist

of five elements: paths, edges, districts, nodes and landmarks.

For this project, we as students are divided into 3 groups that assigned with 3

different sites. In a group, we are required to have meeting and conduct site visits, it

either go by groups or by our own. However, it is better to go as a group to discuss

and observe the site based on Kevin Lynch’s theories. We are required to present an

in-depth and analytical research study on the designated topic in order to understand

one’s perception and spatial behavior in cities today. The selected site for my group is

Little India that located in Klang.

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First of all, going across the Klang River by car using the path Jalan Tengku

Kelana, it is very obvious that this is the main Path or bridge that connects people

from the other side of the river. As moving through this road, as an observer, I can

clearly know that Jalan Tengku Kelana somehow separates Little India into 2 parts.

Besides that, this is also the main road that lies from the entrance till the end or main

exit of Little India. Jalan Tengku Kelana is the main path that serves as a center

primary road that connects every secondary road. Lynch mentioned that path consists

of the channel along which observer customarily occasionally, or potentially moves.

These can include streets, paths, transit routes, or any other defined path of

movement. Therefore, it is obvious that there is a train track that falls along the Klang

River; this clearly shows the transit routes of Klang KTM Station, which is not far

away. After observing in a bigger scale, it comes to the smaller scale, which is

pedestrian walkway. Most activities are happens at the pedestrian walkway, but the

most happening walkways are along both side of the main road, Jalan Tengku Kelana.

This is due to the exposure of these walkways are higher compare to other. Besides

the proper walkways, there are also multiple alleys around Little India.

Edges provide the boundaries that separate one region from another, the seams

that join two regions together, or the barriers that close one region from another. They

can be physical edges such as shorelines, walls, railroad cuts, or edges of

development, or they can be less well-defined edges that the individual perceives as a

barrier. Klang River is considered as the strongest edge of the city, it does not allow

people to pass though and it obviously separates the city from the other side of Klang.

This defined the edge of the North side. Jalan Jambatan Kota highway is one of the

main paths that located at the West side of Little India. It is a strong edge that is

impenetrate to cross movement and it defined the West side edge. Moreover,

Kompleks Mahkamah Klang and Stadium Padang are visibly vary from the other

building or site due to their huge size. They are big in scale thus exposes entire

Metropolis to view and are visually prominent to observer. This defined the East side

edge. Other than that, Taman Bandar Diraja Kalng is an edge at the South of Little

India, it has continuous in form because of the huge amount of trees and it is also

impenetrable to cross movement.

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Based on Lynch’s ideas, Districts are "medium-to-large sections of the city".

The individual often enters into or passes through these districts. According to Lynch,

most people use the concept of districts to define the broader structure of their city.

The main district in Little India is Commercial area that located at the area along the

upper Jalan Tengku Kelana; it serves as a central hub. It consists of most of the

commercial needs and is almost connected to every other district. Besides that, the

Religious area in Little India is very unique in a sense that there are temples, churches

and Masjid located together harmoniously. They are connected due to the common

interest and function. As an observer, I can know that district in Little India has not

arranged in a strong grid system. It consider as a complex district as it contains

variety of district in such small-scale city.

According to Kevin Lynch, Nodes are points within the city, strategically

located, into which the individual enters, and which is often the main focal point to

which she or he is traveling to or from. There are often junctions or a crossing or

converging of paths. Firstly, one of the famous nodes in Little India is Restoran Seng

Huat Bak Kut Teh that located at Jalan Besar, I even heard of it before having the site

visit. It is well known of its Bah Kut Teh for many years, it attracts many locals and

tourist around Malaysia. It is the first thought that people think of before arrive to

Klang. This Restaurant is a strong node that dense of mainly Chinese and Indian.

Besides, located at Jalan Stesen 1, which is nearby to the Seng Huat Restaurant, there

is another node, The Cendol Stall. It sits at the back alley and is a small point that

next to a parking lot. It exposed to the street with its strategic location and gather

people that need a sense of cold in their mouth. It attacts many people during

lunchtime and evening. Furthermore, the third most significant node for me as an

observer is the Hawker Stall sits along the Jalan Taliar Streets. There are varieties of

stalls selling foods and drinks at the side of the walkway, it is a famous spot for

people to take their lunch and branch. It considered as strategic foci that people can

easily enter and is located at a junction that attracts people attentions very well.

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Landmarks are also a point-reference that similar to nodes. However, unlike

nodes, which the individual enters during his or her travels, landmarks remain

external features to the individual. They are often physical structures such as a

building, sign, or geographic features. Through out the site visit, the building that I

perceived the most is the Balai Bomba that located at Jalan Gedung Raja Abdullah. It

sits at the right hand side of the main entrance, and the color of it is fresh red that has

a strong contrast with the background. It is the building that observer might see before

enter or exit Little India. It locations is highly exposed to the people. Besides that, the

huge Masjid India Klang are the second landmarks that observer perceive. It is unique

and pointed as a landmark for the people around it to show directions. It can be

identifying easily and has a strong cultural and historical background. Thirdly, the

famous Saree shop, Chennai Silk, is also one of the renowned landmarks. Chennai

Silk is well known for women clothing many years ago, it sits on a strategic locations

and has multiple shops that combined together become one huge lot. It attracts many

customers of old and new.

Figure 2 Balai Bomba & Masjid as Landmarks

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3.0 CONCLUSION

Kevin Lynch has stated that a highly imageable city would invite the eyes and

ears for greater attention and it is the basic first step in stepping towards the

expression of inner meaning.

After all, we can understand that these 5 elements cannot exist individually;

they must act together as a whole to reveal an integrated city image. It is a total

orchestration of these elements, which combine together as a vivid and dense image.

Districts can be constructed by nodes, defined by edges, penetrated by paths and

dominated by landmarks. Such combinations may reinforce one another, resonate so

that they enhance each other’s power, or they may affect themselves.

This book, Image of a city is about its importance, its variety and how citizens

react to it. Lynch summarized the basic elements of the image and showed an

approach of how to improve it. Besides, this is also a milestone work, which provides

us a new perspective to read the cities we live in. From here on, subjective views of

citizens and their opinions are introduced into urban design.

In a nutshell, after the site visit, I can conclude that most of the nodes and

landmarks are located along the main road beside the Chennai Silk which a bit away.

I feel that Little India is an interesting place that full of Malaysian culture and good

foods. With Lynch’s theory, I have enhanced my observation skills and the

experience on site. However, there are still a lot more elements to improve on site.

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4.0 REFERENCE

Cannifee, E. (2006, January 17). ARCHITECTURE URBANISM. Retrieved 16th

of November 2015, from

http://architectureandurbanism.blogspot.my/2011/01/kevin-lynch-image-of-city-

1960.htm

Downs, R., & Stea, D. (1973). Image and environment; cognitive mapping and

spatial behavior. Chicago: Aldine Pub.

Kevin Lynch (1960). The Image of the City.

Kitchin, R. (2000). Cognitive mapping: Past, present, and future. London:

Routledge.

Review: Kevin Lynch – The Image of the City. (2009, May glasses emoticon.

Retrieved 16th of November 2015,

from http://themobilecity.nl/2009/05/08/review-kevin-lynch-theimage-of-the-city/

Tolman E. C. (1948). Cognitive maps in rats and men. Psychological Review, 55,

189-208.