Humanising space : understanding the perception and mental assimilation of the spatial configuration of Pembroke, Malta

Abstract

The meaning a place has to an individual or a society is based on their experience of it and the cues in it that are understood through a cognitive process, when through imagination or similar concepts that are stored in memories. This dissertation, explores the literature on the development of familiarity, place attachment and the formation of mental images to explore how people understand and decode space and subsequently how they can represent their understanding of it. A reference framework is developed which is then tested through the understanding of the place identity of the town of Pembroke, which is atypical to the traditional Maltese town context in that it has not developed organically but developed from a planning exercise overlaid onto an existing exBritish army base. Through a survey and a walkthrough questionnaire, two groups one of insiders and one of outsiders, are taken around the town to experience the space, the key locations and its place identity. Through a discussion, photographs and drawn maps of the routes, the researcher together with the participants attempts to decode how place is understood, read and remembered to test out the premises developed in the framework. The analysis of the fieldwork suggests that the characteristics of a place are understood through the sense of the place, the typology of building, the presence of open space and the space in between buildings and the social cohesion of the place. It was also clear that although Pembroke grew from a paper plan, certain typical Maltese features such as elements of the traditional village character, the presence of a parish church and the historic buildings are still relevant aspects of the notions of familiarity. This reinforces the notions set out in the literature that describe how people make sense of space due to their previous spatial memories and therefore they will look for cues and things that have emotive meanings to trigger their memories and imagination. Moreover, the mindmapping exercise, indicates how people either remember the positioning of objects with respect to each other or the experience at each landmark which allows them to remember it and this thus informs their representation of space. The research helps to show how the understanding and envisioning of space is formed, and emphasises the importance of the features in architecture that influence the sense of place and its effects on users.