Beyond Form and Symbol: Spatial Position and The Landmark Potential of Popular Monuments, A Visibility Graph Analysis of Tugu Maung In Bandung

Tugu Maung is a series of uniformly designed popular monuments placed on roundabouts, intersections, and traffic islands in Bandung, Indonesia, as gateway markers of the old city district. Because the design is identical across sites, spatial position becomes the distinguishing factor between them, yet the visual performance of each site has not been measured quantitatively. This study measures and compares the visual performance of twelve Tugu Maung sites (TM1–TM12) in terms of visual integration, visual connectivity, and intelligibility. A quantitative-descriptive approach with a comparative multi-case strategy was applied through field surveys and Visibility Graph Analysis (VGA) simulation in depthmapX. Values at each monument (selection) were compared with the value distribution of the entire simulation area (attribute), allowing sites with different area sizes and shapes to be compared on equal terms. The results show that eleven of the twelve sites have visual integration above the simulation-area mean, with the highest normalized ratios at TM8 and TM11, whereas TM1 and TM2 on the northern entry corridor, screened by dense vegetation, have connectivity below the area mean despite their designated gateway function. Intelligibility (R²) ranges from 0.542 at TM5 to 0.955 at TM3 and does not always coincide with the visibility of the monument point, yielding three patterns: highly visible sites in intelligible areas, locally prominent sites in less intelligible areas, and sites with limited visibility despite intelligible surroundings. The findings indicate that the capacity of popular monuments to function as urban markers is also related to spatial position, in addition to form and symbolic meaning; for urban users, spatial position works through visibility and orientation.