Chin Han Ping
E-PORTFOLIO
Assignment 2 (A)
My "X" Hometown
In this assignment, I was required to recall, study, and virtually visit my hometown. I have to analyze and investigate various aspects such as building typology, road circulation, facilities, softscapes, safety, sense of place, and many more. My hometown is George Town which is the capital city of the Malaysian state of Penang.
With a long and illustrious history under its belt, Penang’s capital city, George Town is one of the most interesting and colourful cities in Malaysia. Named after King George III, walking down the streets of Georgetown is like walking through the paths of history. As an acknowledgment of its well-preserved cultural and historical heritage, the city was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO on the 7th of July 2008.
The aims of this assignment are for us to understand the interrelation between the built environment and humans as well as the application of knowledge in the built environment.
Weekly Progress
For this assignment, I was required to show my understanding of the different elements of the built environment by making a pamphlet covering the tangible and intangible components of my hometown.
WEEK 1: I started the assignment by doing research on the internet and noted down all the details of my hometown. After I gathered all the information and collected all the photos I needed, I start to do a rough sketch of the layout of my pamphlet on an A4 size paper. I needed to think of a name for my hometown and in the end, I named it "My Historical Hometown" as I stated earlier George Town is having a long and illustrious history under its belt. I then did three pages for macro study, including information on the history, key plan, location plan, landmarks, and accessibility.
WEEK 2: I decided to use colour pencils as the colour medium for this assignment. I proceeded to the next part which is the micro study of the assignment after I finished my macro study. I started to sketch out all the drawings and write down the information of the micro study. For example, drawing and information on the building styles, zoning map, road circulation, softscapes, facilities, and infrastructure. For this part, sketching and drawing the zoning map of the selected area in my hometown was the most challenging part for me as I needed to ensure the proportions were right.
WEEK 3: I continued with the pages for "Sence of Place", culture and activity, safety and security, favourite/sentimental component as well as conclusion.
WEEK 4: I did some finishing touches on all the pages to make sure my pamphlet is complete and perfect. Then, I stuck the pages together and filmed a video of me flipping through it.
Lastly, I am glad that I am having better time management so the process of making this pamphlet was smooth.
Reflection
1. Lifelong Learning
The assignment helps me to improve more in locate, extract, synthesize, and utilize information effectively. At the end of the assignment, I felt myself getting better at doing research, analyzing, and extracting useful information from various sites. I had learned to develop research skills and apply them in my assignment.
2. Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills
I learned to think creatively and critically and managed to define and analyse problems to arrive at effective solutions. When doing the assignment, there are some places in my selected area which have no details. This makes me have to stop my process and continue to do research for it. Hopefully, I solved the problem by getting information through social media and asked my friends and neighbour for information about my hometown area.
3. Digital Literacy
Due to the pandemic lockdown in my area, I have no choice but to look around my hometown area by using Google Earth and the internet to study around my hometown area and search for useful information. Google Maps helps me a lot when I wanted to draw the zoning map and the main accessibility. With the convenience of the technologies, I managed to complete my pamphlet perfectly. The technologies help me a lot in this assignment, especially during this pandemic situation.