TULC, Theories of Architecture & Urbanism

1. BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) IN ARCHITECTURE
THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC61303)
SYNOPSIS: REACTION PAPER (APRIL 2019)
Name: Ho Yen Liang ID No.: 0326660
Lecturer: Mr. Nicholas Ng Tutorial Time: 10am–1pm
Reader/Text Title: A Global Sense of Place Synopsis No: 1A
Author: Doreen Massey
Doreen Massey’s “A Global Sense of Place” discussed about how the phenomenon called the “time-space compression”,
which is the globalization of our time has impact on our community’s local sense of place. Massey questioned herself
whether the sense of an idealized notion of place can still be preserved in this notion of era and pointed out the change
from the places was inhabited by rational and homogenous communities in the previous era to the current era’s movement
and intermixing. The yearning for coherence gave rise to a defensive and reactionary response in the form of nationalism,
romanticized recovering of ‘heritages’, and outright antagonism to newcomers in this fragmented and disrupted era.
I agree with Massey’s progressive views towards a global sense of place, but I do question myself how can we
rethink our views of place in an outward-looking perspective? She questioned that in the context of these socially-varied
time-space changes do we still think about the ‘locality’ of a place. It is undeniable that globalization, growing mobility and
the “speeding-up” of our lives have instigated a widespread sense of uncertainty and displacement, which, in turn, has
led to an intensification of some problematic views of place and locality. Thus, there is a desire for fixity and for security
of identity in this fast-paced era, which formed an introverted, inward-looking reactionary.
Massey stated that ‘reactionary’ notion of place is described as problematical due to the assumption of time-
space compression could produce insecurities. The particular problem of the idea of a place which have single, essential,
identities require drawing of boundaries, constructing the counterposition between ‘us’ and ‘them’. I think that a
progressive sense of place should be developed because places are not areas with boundaries around, they are moments
in networks of social relation. Places are not static with a single identity, uniqueness of place is important, and it is
continually reproduced, but there are several sources of this specificity.
If people could have the ability to possess multiple identities to a place, then people are the ones that could
define the identity of the place itself. I strongly agree with what Massey has pointed out, which is the interpretation of a
place is constructed out of social relations, meeting and weaving together to form a meeting place. Instead of thinking
places as areas with boundaries, places are articulated moments in networks of social relations and understandings.
To end the article, in a set of arguments which Massey has pointed out, it can be concluded that a progressive
concept of place is not static, or frozen in time, instead they are processes. As time is associated with movement and
progress, place is a continuous process of constant reproducing reaction. She also added that boundaries of a place are
not the conceptualization of a place itself, a distinct mixture of wider and local social relations can define its specificity and
uniqueness of place. As I see it, the specificity of a place accumulated from the history of a place, layer upon layer of
different sets of linkages, both local social relations to the wider world should be recognized as understandings of its
characters. As what Massey has said, what we need is a global sense of local, to adapt with the global sense of place.
Word Count: 544 Mark Grade
Assessed by: Date Page No. 1

2. BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) IN ARCHITECTURE
THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC61303)
SYNOPSIS: REACTION PAPER (APRIL 2019)
Name: Ho Yen Liang ID No.: 0326660
Lecturer: Mr. Nicholas Ng Tutorial Time: 10am–1pm
Reader/Text Title: Learning from Las Vegas: The
Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form
Synopsis No: 2A
Author: Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, Steven Izenour
Venturi, Brown and Izenour’s “Learning from Las Vegas” presented the commercial strip of Las Vegas and analysed on
how progressive architects are dissatisfied with the existing environment and preferred to change it rather than improving
it. To gain more understandings, the method of communication used in expressing architectural space, symbol and
persuasion is by looking backward at history to progress with the present. Venturi et.al mentioned that The Las Vegas
Strip is a symbolism in architecture which challenges modern architects to take a positive and non-judgemental view
towards the existing environment.
Venturi et al. described Las Vegas as a phenomenon of architecture communication. Graphics and skyline of
signs served the function of civic and cultural enhancement, antispatial architecture styles and signs in Las Vegas is an
architecture of communication over space. The commercial persuasion of signages has given a bold impact on the vast
spaces of big landscapes, high speeds and complex programs in the Strip. I personally agree with the authors that the
Strip is a landscape where communication dominates space because new visitors driving into town relies on signs for
guidance, enormous signs in these vast spaces over high speeds. For example, in Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur is a place
where buildings are heavily concretised with huge signages and advertise graphics on the façade of the buildings, it is as
the authors pointed out, an architecture of distinct communication rather than subtle expression.
First impression of Las Vegas Strip can look and feel like the concretisation of unplanned chaos, with its waves
of pulsing lights and advertising video screens. In the Strip, buildings used virtually all signs as the architecture of
persuasions. Venturi et al. gave another example of architecture persuasion used in the Middle Eastern bazaar, which
contains no signs. Communication works through proximity; this type of persuasion is through oral and senses persuasion
of the merchandises applied on the buyers. These are the commercial persuasion strategies through words and symbols
discovered in some of the architectural landscapes by Venturi et al.
I agree that there is a contradiction in the notion of architecture communication analysed by Venturi et al., where
symbol dominates space and spatial relationships are made out of symbols rather than forms. From my viewpoint, there
is an inconsistency here over the architecture of persuasion, where the use of signages may be a disruption of the local
characters and original value of the heritages in Malaysia, such as places like Malacca, Klang, Kajang, etc. Different
landscapes required different responses towards the symbolism of architecture space.
To conclude the article, learning from Las Vegas through the architecture of space, symbol and persuasion
questioned on how we able to look at things objectively and respond to them appropriately. The authors mentioned Las
Vegas is to the Strip what Rome is to the Piazza, in my opinions, every place have their own symbolism of architecture,
and if you take away its symbols, it is similarly taking away its identity of places.
Word Count: 494 Mark Grade
Assessed by: Date Page No. 3

3. BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) IN ARCHITECTURE
THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC61303)
SYNOPSIS: REACTION PAPER (APRIL 2019)
Name: Ho Yen Liang ID No.: 0326660
Lecturer: Mr. Nicholas Ng Tutorial Time: 10am–1pm
Reader/Text Title: The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture
and the Senses
Synopsis No: 3A
Author: Juhani Pallasmaa
Juhani Pallasmaa’s “The Eyes of the Skin” explores how interaction of human senses express in architecture experiences,
the importance of including a combination of all five senses in the art of shaping buildings.
Pallasmaa’s pointed out that the interaction senses are integrated in an embodied experience of a human body.
Sensory experiences become integrated through the body and the human mode of being. Now I agree on Pallasmaa’s
perception towards how the body and image of the world redefine each other constantly into one single continuous
existential experience. Our very being can determine the image of the environment through achieving a whole body of
senses at once, at some extent we are able to remember places which are unique to our sensory architecture experiences.
Pallasmaa stated that architecture is an extension of nature in the form of man-made realm, providing the ground
for perception and the horizon for experiencing and understanding. In his words, architecture played a role in strengthening
the existential experiences of one’s sense of being in the world. Therefore, it involves a multi-sensory experience
interacting and fusing together to truly feel the genius loci of a place, instead of mere vision.
As Pallasmaa reviewed the psychologist James J Gibson’s five sensory systems, the senses are regarded as
aggressively seeking mechanisms rather than passive receivers, such as the visual system, auditory system, taste-smell
system, the basic-orientating system and the haptic system. Out of these five sensory systems, there is a relationship
between the sense of sight and touch constantly linked to each other in the architecture experiences. In my own words,
sight is our dominant sense. We constantly rely on it as we study and categorize our surroundings. However, by
experiencing the world mainly through our eyes leaves us as mere distant observers. By watching something, we create
a distance between ourselves and the object, but by touching it, we tend to connect with it. The skin reads the texture,
weight, density and temperature of matter. According to Pallasmaa’s text, sense of touch is regard as the unconscious of
our vision.
Pallasmaa ended the article by discussing how the image of the sensory realms gave rise to the images of
memory, imagination and dream of an architectural space. I admire how Pallasmaa measures the quality of architecture
spaces by experiencing it thoroughly with his innermost thoughts and being, which could ignite his imaginations and
project his thoughts while journey through spaces.
Personally, I think we have an innate capacity for remembering and imagining places. Perception, memory and
imagination are in constant interaction with each other. As an architect, we should design experiential spaces with specific
embodied mode of thoughts that take place through the senses and the body of users, relating to how people define
architectural spaces instead of spaces define people, hence revealing how the world touches us through architecture.
Word Count: 473 Mark Grade
Assessed by: Date Page No. 3