PLACE MEMORY PATTERNS IN NEE SOON AND ANG MO KIO: RESIDENTS � PERCEPTION AND MEMORY OF THEIR ENVIRONMENT LEADING TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF PLACE IDENTITY

Abstract

As Dovey (2015) proclaims, the creation of place identity is an organic and dynamic process, where designers’ deliberate attempts at prescribing identities should not play primary roles. Place is Habitus – the feedback loop system between people and their environment, using activity as the means of reciprocal operation between the two. Place identity is the by-product of the interaction between people and their environment. The designer creates place identity indirectly by designing an environment that facilitates interaction between people and their environment. This dissertation aims to identify environmental features that aid in the development of place identity, and how they do so, within the reference frame of the characteristics and lifestyles of the users. Place memory is used as the quantifying and qualifying medium for place identity (which is otherwise non-representational); given the assumption that place identity is embodied within place memories. Environment assessment tools from environmental psychology are used in three layers – cognitive mapping, observation of cognitive map drawing processes, and rating questions that determine information content related to environmental features. Case studies of Nee Soon during the 1960s and Ang Mo Kio at present are used for their contrasting environments and resident lifestyles, and for comparison between environments with and without prescribed identities. Results show that the home, circulation nodes and objects or sites of meaning are common significant features across both case studies, albeit with differing relative significances across user groups. Place-boundedness is the main influencing factor behind the variances; with age, gender and occupation as contributing factors. It was noticed that in the case of Ang Mo Kio, human interpretation of the environment differed greatly from the planned vision – many deliberately designed landmarks were inessential in wayfinding, while seemingly trivial spaces become important reference points. To conclude, human characteristics and lifestyles override designer intents in the interpretation and use of environment. Design for place identity would do better to align itself against user characteristics and be manifest in features that can be directly involved in the users’ daily circulation.