Introduction

THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE & URBANISM [ARC61303]
Project: ‘Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space’
PROJECT PART 2: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ESSAY
Chia Cheng Wei
0322091
Tutor: Mr Nicholas Ng

Introduction
Roppongi is a district in Minato, Tokyo with culturally enriched hub of entertainment, art and
retails along with traditional old Japanese neighbourhood. It is famous for the affluent Roppongi
Hills development area and popular night club scene. Many foreign embassies are located in
Roppongi, and the night life is popular with locals and foreigners alike due to the bloom of the
vicinty started since Edo era and housed the Imperial Japanese Army Base until WWII, when the
United States and Allied Government occupied the space. It is in the central part of Tokyo, south
of Akasaka and north of Azabu.
People likes to hang out and spend their time in outdoor, having various activities and they enjoy
their daily life but they are just hurried away from one destination to another without much
interaction.
Our current design studio site, Jalan TAR, is located in the district of Kuala Lumpur (Wilayah
Persekutuan), where it was the pioneer of the business centres which brought Kuala Lumpuer as
the city centre and capital of Malaysia. Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman is a famous tourist and local
destination due to its variety in programmes which function as a cultural melting pot, which most
of the daily lifestyle of the locals revealed, range from textile and food vending, the backlane
area is crowded with privatized backlane, shaded by taller buildings, that sprouted from the fine-
grained urban fabric. A sense of chaotic and vibrancy can be felt here.

Contact Point at Tenso Shrine Junction and Road junction at Jalan TAR
Figure 1.1
There are several necessary activities take place constantly at Tenso Shrine Junction due to the
underground station for local subway of Toei-Oedo line and office buildings sprouted around,
thus commuters and workers hurried by daily. From the pictures above, we can clearly see the
people dressed neatly with their office attire walking out from the building, walking to the office
and also might going out for lunch. This would increase the chances for various level of contact.
Passive contact can be observed here as these people are merely seeing each other for a short
period as they paused at an intersection. From the picture above, we could clearly see the people
is undergoing passive contact, although they’re not interacting with each other, but they’re
involving the sense of “hear and see” from their actions.
Figure 1.2
Social Activities happen at the green patch between buildings and in buildings itself. Common
office workers stopped by outside the office with acquaintance or friends, resulting possible

social activities and it encourage contact with other people. All of these activities highly
influenced by the spaces between the built form that indirectly contributed to the movement of
the community across these spaces between or as known as void of the district at which the
buildings can be known as solid.
Figure 1.3
The people in Jalan TAR having the similar activities compare to the people in Tenso Shrine
Junction. Necessary activities happen in the junction below SOGO mall, the shoppers walk
across the street to look at other variety of items. There are also passive contact where the
shoppers involve “hear and see” interaction between each other, and the people waiting the
traffic light increase the chance of interaction. There are of high intensity of people in Jalan
TAR, encourage more contact between each other and increase the social activities. Although the
vibrancy of Jalan TAR could encourage chance of contact but they are just hurried away to
complete their task, thus, reduce the social activities in the area.
Compare to Tenso Shrine Junction, Jalan TAR has higher chance of optional activities with
variety of items displayed to attract the sight of people, presenting an option for the people to
either stop by and have glance while they walking along the street or walk pass.
Contact point at Cafe and restaurant near Izumo Shrine, Tully’s Coffee and Back alley of Jalan
TAR
Cafe and restaurant near Izumo Shrine leaves and open gate for visitors to come in and have a
look and the cafe on the second floor elevates itself from the main street by leaving a flight of
staircase. Tully’s Coffee located by the roadside of Metropolitan Highway Shibuya Street No.3.

Both site attracts the pedestrain who strolls along the street and offer social interactions and
offers opportunity to maintain already establish contact.
Figure 1.4
There are a lot of passerby in the street at Izumo Shrine from residential blocks to reach the
highway, and some come for the food and Izumo Shrine for worshipping the marriage god,
creating both necessary activities and optional activities. The restaurant still be able for people to
peek through and look into it, which creates optional activities.
Figure 1.5
Same goes to Tully’s Coffee, it offers necessary activities with some passerby and the large
opening attract people to look through the interior spaces, creating necessary activities. It also
offer social interaction as you can see from the picture above, the result of the existence of one’s
necessary activity to perform and the seating and foods provided from Tully’s Coffee, the person
decided to sit there and have a meal and meet his/her acquaintance, thus, increase the chance of
contact, therefore resulting in social activity at the moderate to high intensity.

Figure 1.6
Unlike the community in Roppongi where the social activities highly happened in the open space
in the city, community in Jalan TAR prefer the back alley and it is a favourable condition for the
people to engage in optional activity. Restaurants often privatize the back alley for more sitting.
The space in the back alley is usually shade as it is narrow and shade is cast by building, unlike
the restaurant and cafe near Izumo Shrine and Tully’s coffee, it is highly exposed to the
passerby. This might due to the weather in Malaysia is hot and humid and therefore being in an
open space without shade is uncomfortable and not a favorable space to hang out in. Weather in
Roppongi however is cooler compared to Malaysian weather and therefore walking and sitting in
the open space without shade at times is comfortable. The back alley has high intensity of people
to encourage more contact, we can see passive contact is happening among the people as they are
involved in “see and hear” interaction.
Hence, it can be seen that people in Jalan TAR engage in social activities differently than in
those in Roppongi. One occurs in the narrow spaces and the other in large open areas. There are
also different in social pattern of both places, people in Jalan TAR interact along the narrow back
alley and it maintain in a high degree of contact intensity. The privatization of public space is
more apparent in Petaling Street compared to Roppongi. While both can be said to be of high
intensity contact point with high degree of contact intensity, people in Jalan TAR maintain a
more intimate relationship with each other while with the open sitting area of the cafes and
restaurant, people usually come for optional activities and leave.

Contact point at Roppongi Hills and Sogo Mall
Figure 1.7
Roppongi Hills is a large complex combining shops, designer boutiques, trendy cafes, bars and a
traditional Japanese garden earning it the title of a “city within a city”. There are two bridges, Art
walk and West walk which merge together into the plaza that serves as a main entrance of
pedestrian traffic that necessary activities occur. There are also optional activities occur when
users might want to stop by and have a sit on the benches and the “Maman”, the massive spider
sculpture that looms over the plaza in front of Mori Tower encourage people to stop by and see
the sculpture. It always acted as a landmark that attract people to engage the space, thus, social
activity may occur when people gather around the plaza and increase the chance of contact and
induce interactions. The above diagram shows the social activity as you can see people sitting
under the “Maman” and chatting. It also increases the optional activities where the passerby will
start to approach and interact with people sitting at the bench. The open space in the area
encourage various art performances.
Figure 1.8

Sogo Mall is located at the top part of Jalan TAR. It is one of the node at our site because it has
attracted a lot of people do shopping where necessary activities happened. Outside of Sogo Mall,
optional and social activities occur where there are a lot of people sit at the staircases, probably
waiting for transport. This might due to the place is well shaded and the concept of people attract
people. There are also street art performances happening in there which attract people to stop by
and watch the performances. Passerby walking along the street engage in passive contact which
is low in contact intensity.
Both area has a very high chance of contact due to the high contact intensity. Both having high
optional activities and social activity but Sogo Mall has more necessary activities going on where
Roppongi Hills mostly optional activities and social activities as people come here not based on
a need but rather want to experience the favorable space. Therefore, while both spaces are
dedicated for a large amount of people and a high intensity contact point, the contact intensity is
different.
Contact point at Fujifilm square, Nishi Park and Square in Jalan TAR
Figure 1.9

Figure 1.10
Fujifilm square fringed by tall highrises which forms an enclosed perimeter, open towards the
street of Gain Higashi Dori, this place offers a good connection and accessibility to the
pedestrian and vehicular flow. Mixture of activities occur in this place, which in Necessary,
white collars passby to enter the offices and there is a passive contact. There is canopied cafe
seating and individual block without back seats is found in the square which encourage the
people to sit and relax, thus, optional activities occur. While social activities where people start
to interact with each other in the square due to it high chance of contact and also people mingles
to enjoy the temporary art exhibition at the front plaza.
Figure 1.11

Nishin park located at the backstreets of Roppongi, it is a pocket space for the kids and elderly to
hangout, “In this space, the opportunity to see and hear other people can provide ideas and
inspirations for action. Children, for example, see other children at play and get the urge to join
in or they get ideas for new game by watching other children or adults” Ghel. There are a lot of
social activities going on in this area where kids hanging around and interaction and
conversations among parents.
Figure 1.12
The square in Jalan TAR is not as happening as the sites mentioned above. The square mostly
encourages necessary activities where pedestrians pass through the square to Jalan Bunus. The
staircases encourage people to sit there while waiting for the movie to show, hence, optional
activities and social activities has occurred. As you can see in the picture with people sitting at
the staircase, which optional activities happen.
3 of these places showing a large open space which encourage people to conduct activity there.
Fujifilm square and Nishin Park mostly optional activities and social activities while square in
Jalan TAR is mostly necessary activities due to the lack of excitement and it may due to the hot
weather which is not welcoming for the people. Fujifilm square and Nishin Park has higher
contact chance compare to square in Jalan TAR.
Conclusion
After a few comparisons of a few spaces of Roppongi and Jalan TAR, both serves in a very
different way in their social pattern, types of contact points and varying the degree of contact
intensity, this might be affected by the architectural form, scale buildings and urban form.
The architectural form of and scale of buildings in Roppongi is large and does not have covered
walkway. The shophouses in Jalan TAR are small in size and have covered pathway for their
pedestrians. This contrast creates two totally different types of spaces.

The large built buildings in Roppongi provide shade for the pedestrian over the large shadow.
What this means is the space feels more spacious and it provides a wider view of the vicinity
compared to the five foots walkway which is narrow and of limited height. The perception of
interval in space causes the pedestrian to be more aware of the space one is in. The enclosure of
the narrow five foots walkway and low ceiling enhances the emptiness as one advances in the
pathway. People will be more conscious and concentrate if the they are in the narrow space
compare to the people in Roppongi where everything is seen in a wide-angle view hence the
interval is huge and not perceivable. Thus, when one is more conscious of the space he/she is in,
it is more likely to slow down a person and linger in the space. As more people slow down, there
are more chance of contact and increases a contact point with higher contact intensity. The built
form which allows one to slow down could be one of a more intimate and human like scale.
Other than the five foots walkway, people in Jalan TAR like to hangout in the back alley, this
might due to people feel more privatized and comfortable. People starts to carried out activities
and thus more and more people are attracted to the back alley, like Ghel says “people attract
people”.
Figure 1.13
Both site has its own way to increase the chance of contact, this might due to the lifestyle of a
person. Roppongi doesn’t have much canopy at most of his contact points whereas people in
Jalan TAR choose to gather under the shades. The different lifestyles have affect the urban form
of the city. Roppongi has built a lot of open spaces for the public to utilise the space and it can be
seen it was quite well planned and people enjoy using the outdoor open space. Where as in Jalan
TAR, people are not fully utilised the pedestrian walkway but started to set up business in the
pocket spaces, the contact point has switched compare to what the government was planned
previously.

References:
Gehl, J., & Koch, J. (2011). Life between buildings: using public space. Washington, DC: Island
Press.
Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. (2017, June 28). Retrieved July 04, 2017, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jalan_Tuanku_Abdul_Rahman
Jan Gehl. (n.d.). Retrieved July 04, 2017, from https://www.pps.org/reference/jgehl/
Roppongi. (2017, July 01). Retrieved July 04, 2017, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roppongi

Introduction

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Introduction