1. THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE & URBANISM
[ ARC 2224 ]
PROJECT 1 ( PART 1 )
THEORIZING ARCHITECTURE
Tutor
Mr. Lam Shen Fei
Group Members
Cynthia Lee Siaw Wun
0306112
Surayyn Selvan
0309818
Xavier Ooi Win Yang
0307620
Yaseen Syed
0309021

2. 1. Urban Theorist
JANE JACOBS
Picture 1: Photograph of Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs was well-known for her ideas on the function of cities, its
evolution and fall despite having no formal training in urban planning. She was
an urbanist and activist whose writings, such as The Death and Life of Great
American Cities, were used as references in creating an effective city by
architects and urban planners worldwide. Her book, talks about the principles
and objectives of modernist, orthodox city planning and rebuilding in the post
war U.S. In her book, she exposes the failures of modernist planning ideas
and has arguments on the intellectual planning history. She bases her ideas
on observation of city life as opposed to deductive theories and master plans.

3. 2. Development
PUTRAJAYA
Picture 2: Map of Putrajaya
Picture 3: Aerial View of Putrajaya
Putrajaya is one of Malaysia’s Federal Territory that was built on an expansive
marshland and oil palm estate in Selangor. It spans over 5000 hectares and is about 25 km
from Kuala Lumpur. Putrajaya functions as the more administrative city and is part of the
Multimedia Super Corridor project. The organization of the city is reflected in the buildings with
a very European tinge complemented by Islamic elements. Putrajaya has been divided into
several precincts that define the uses such as commercial, authoritative and residential areas.
There is a balance of hardscape and softscape as there are many parks, greenery and
wetlands.

4. 3. Theories
i) The Peculiar Nature of Cities
Picture 4: Google Street View of Persiaran Perdana
Picture 5: Google Street View from Lebuh Bestari
Jacobs (1992) mentions that Buildings must border sidewalks in order to provide
constant surveillance by the users of the building. This in turn will allow a greater flow of people
using the sidewalks and parents can keep and eye on their children from the windows. It can
be seen in Putrajaya that a majority of the pedestrian paths are located on the edges of office
buildings. This provides ample security and surveillance to the users of these walkways.

5. Picture 6: Location of Taman Wetland in Putrajaya
Picture 7: Taman Wetland in Putrajaya
According to Jacobs (1992), the neighborhood parks should reflect the criteria’s of the
sidewalks in terms of constant usage and pedestrian movements. She mentions that if these
are not fulfilled, parks become dangerous. It can be seen in Picture 6, that Taman Wetland is
one of the more famous parks in Putrajaya. It is located in between Precinct 11 and Precinct
12, which are housing areas.

6. Picture 8: Tourist map of Putrajaya
Finally, in this chapter, she discusses in order to create an effective neigborhood, a city
should contain lively and interesting streets, a continuous network of circulation and spaces
such as parks, squares and public buildings. Putajaya is dotted with squares such as the one in
Boulevard Putrajaya and Dataran Putra. These are connnected with public buildings such as
the Putrajaya Convention Centre and Masjid Putra. Besides that, referring to Picture 2, it can
be seen that the precincts are all well connected with main roads to allow constant circulation
within Putrajaya.
ii) The Generators of City Diversity
In her book, she mentions that the district, and indeed as many of its internal parts as
possible, must serve more than one primary function for example, work, education,
museums, public buildings. These must ensure the presence of people who go outdoors on
different schedules and are in the place for different purposes, and allow them to use many
common facilities.
Besides that, most blocks must be short, that is, streets and opportunities to turn corners
must be frequent,in order to allow the people to be able to explore streets which they would not
have explored beforehand.This would allow for more business opportunities as more routes
would be available for citizens.
Jacobs (1992) also mention that the district must have buildings that vary in age and
condition, including a good proportion of old ones so that they vary in the economic yield they
must produce.The older buildings would be plain,ordinary and of low value,but if a city only has
new buildings,the enterprises that exist there are automatically linked to those that can support
the high cost of the new construction.
Finally, there must be a sufficiently dense concentration of people, for whatever purposes
they may be there.This includes dense concentration in the case of people who are there
because of residence.This is to ensure more people on the sidewalks.However this would
result in more high rise buildings which could jeopardise the sidewalk safety.On the other

7. hand,a low density area could lead to the development of slums.
Picture 9: Location of buildings in Putrajaya
As per Jacobs’ theory,Putrajaya has a variety of buildings such
as,apartments,stadium,mosque,library foodcourt.These will ensure different activities for
different people at different times of the day.
Picture 10: Google map of the roads in Putrajaya
Short blocks extend out to more streets.

8. Picture 11: Map of Precinct 19 in Putrajaya
As seen in precinct 19,residential houses are in abundance,thus forming a dense
population.Almost all precincts have a large density of residentials areas.
iii) The Forces of Decline and Regeneration
In this chapter, Jane Jacobs has stated a few points to explain the tendency for a city to be
destroyed by itself without proper urban planning. One of the factors for that would be that
there are no diversity left in the city due to duplication of urban planning and function of the
districts or neighbourhoods in the city. Thus, a city should be rich of different planning and
function of each districts in order to create a more diverse community.
Picture 12: Precincts of Putrajaya

9. As seen in the diagram above, Putrajaya has successfully create a good diversity
among the districts known as precincts in the city. Different programmes are applied into each
districts, thus creating a city that has no duplication of districts. Thus, this theory from Jane
Jacobs is successfully applied in this context.
Another factor pointed out by Jane Jacobs is about the importance of the physical and
functional effects of border vacuums on the city by creating boundaries and splitting the city
into smaller fragments. Border vacuums should be a seam of the city rather than a barrier to
divide the city. Such examples of the seam would be café and other leisure facilities so that the
residents of different districts can be connected rather than being divided.
In the above diagrams, it can be seen that there are main boulevards linking the
precincts in an orderly manner in Putrajaya. The boulevards includes public spaces for
pedestrians, paths for bicyclists and several pocket parks to ensure the vibrancy and life of the
city at all times. Thus, these boulevards act as a seam among the precincts to ensure optimum
connection between the residents of different precinct. This enforces the theory suggested by
Jane Jacobs where a border should be more of a seam rather than a barrier for the citizens.
Picture 13: Zoning of areas in Putrajaya

10. Other than that, Jane Jacobs also mentioned about the importance of upgrading the
slums in a city instead of destroying or replacing them. One of the ways to encourage upgrades
in the slums are by proper city planning that would increase the sense of community in the
residents of the slums. Overtime, the residents in the slums would eventually develop their own
homes and neighbourhood, which would lead to an increase in social economy of the city,
hence a positive growth in the city.
In the diagram above it shows the developed and developing residential area of
Putrajaya. Thus, this proves that Putrajaya has successfully implement a strong sense of
community amongst the residents in the city. Hence, continuous development projects have
been ongoing in Putrajaya. This will eventually lead to the positive growth in terms of economy
and social in the city.
iv) Different Tactics
In this chapter by Jane Jacobs portrays a change in actions within the urban planning
department. Jacobs mentioned that it wouldn’t be a usual thing to do by saperating users of a
development as through their income(eg.low,mid,high). With that, government should subsidize
rents on private dwellings for the lower income group of people. She also hopes to have good
traffic(wider roads), more parking lots, gas stations and toll which convenient users.
Putrajaya shows a great example of Jabobs’s theory in ‘Different Tactics’ whereby the main
road is wide and has clear span of spaces for users to move about easily. Secondly, 1MDB had
announced that the government would provide quality and modern affordable homes for the
less fortunate or the lower incomers. The proposed housing development is located in Precint
16, Putrajaya.
Picture 14: Residential areas in Putrajaya

11. Picture 15: Pathways and roads planned during the urban planning
Picture 16: Affordable homes in the design development process for lower income groups proposed by
1MDB

12. 4. References
Alexiou, A. S. (2006). Jane Jacobs: Uurban visionary. New Brunswick: Rutgers
University Press.
Blake Clinton (2011). Jane Jacobs’ Requirements for Urban Diversity, Part 1. Retrieved, 3
April, 2015 from https://theshortestverse.wordpress.com/2009/02/06/jane-jacobs-
requirements-for-urban-diversity-part-1/
Damien Woolliscroft, (n.d.). The Death and Life of Great American Cities - Part 2,
Chapter 7, The Generators of Diversity Summary & Analysis. Jane Jacobs
Jacobs, J. (1961). The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York:Random
House.
Jacobs, J. (1992).The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Vintage Books.
Jane Jacobs Walk. (2012). Retrieved April 1, 2015 from http://www.janejacobswalk.org/about-
jane-jacobs-walk/meet-jane-jacobs/
Kementerian Perumahan dan Kerajaan Tempatan. (2011). Book Review for The
Death and Life of Great American Cities presented at the Morning Meeting for the
Jabatan Perancangan Bandar Dan Desa Semanjung Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah
Persekutuan.
Putrajaya – Everything you need to know about Putrajaya. (2015). Retrieved April 1, 2015 from
http://kuala-lumpur.ws/attractions/putrajaya.htm
Taman Wetland. (2015). Retrieved April 3, 2015 from
http://www.putrajaya.gov.my/tourist/attractions/parks_landscapes/taman_wetlands
Wendt, M. (2009). The Importance of Death and Life of Great American Cities
(1961) by Jane Jacobs to the Profession of Urban Planning. Retrieved April 2, 2015
from http://www.sppa.udel.edu/sites/suapp.udel.edu/files/The Importance of Dealth and
Life.pdf.