HUMANITIES IARCH352

Dr. Mohamed Adel Dessouki

Environmental

Cognition اإلدراكالبيئي

HUMANITIES IARCH352

On the white board, draw a map of your route from your home to Dammam University’s campus, from memory. Include as much detail as you possibly can: street names, landmarks, UD campus, parks, buildings and anything else you believe is important enough to be on your map.

Focus Activity

HUMANITIES IARCH352

Last week: Environmental Perception

• Gestalt Theory

Today: Environmental Cognition• Cognitive Maps

HUMANITIES IARCH352

ENVIRONMENTAL COGNITIONEnvironmental cognition is the process of thought that leads to:

• Acquiring, storing, organizing, recalling information about locations, distances, and arrangements in spaces.

HUMANITIES IARCH352

COGNITIVE MAPPINGخرائط اإلدراك

Cognitive mapping is a process by which an individual acquires, codes, stores, and recalls information about the relative locations and attributes of phenomena in his everyday spatial environment.

HUMANITIES IARCH352

COGNITIVE MAPS• A cognitive map is the image

people have of the surrounding environment (real-world settings, neighborhoods, cities, countries, etc.)

• A cognitive map is the mental construct of the environment seen from multiple viewpoints. It integrates parts into a whole.

HUMANITIES IARCH352

COGNITIVE MAPS

HUMANITIES IARCH352

COGNITIVE MAPS

• The way we construct cognitive maps change individually.

• The more experience a person has with an environment, the better their cognitive map

HUMANITIES IARCH352

COGNITIVE MAPSFactors influencing the formation of Cognitive maps: • Age• Individual differences

– Personality– Social and cultural background– Education

• Gender differences• Visual impairment• Familiarity and experience• Effort effects (e.g. travel time)

HUMANITIES IARCH352

COGNITIVE MAPS

HUMANITIES IARCH352

COGNITIVE MAPSHuman spatial behavior is dependent on the individual's cognitive map of the spatial environment.

- cognitive map is a requisite both for human survival and for everyday environmental behavior.

It is a coping mechanism through which the individual answers two basic questions quickly and efficiently:

(1) Where certain valued things are(2) How to get to where they are from where he is.

HUMANITIES IARCH352

WAY-FINDING• Wayfinding is the process by which we navigate in our

environment. It is an internal psychological process, and a sequence of problem-solving activities.

• Newcomers to an environment experience the stressful feeling of being lost.

HUMANITIES IARCH352

WAY-FINDING• Wayfinding depends on a system of text, graphics and

tactile information at the right time and the right place to guide people to their destinations. It is a process that people use to navigate unfamiliar surroundings.

HUMANITIES IARCH352

WAY-FINDINGKey Factors in better wayfinding Spatial Organization Landmarks Signage Directories Maps Color and Lighting

HUMANITIES IARCH352

“We are not simply observers of the city but are ourselves part of what we see. Our perception is usually partial, fragmentary, mixed with other concerns [..] The environmental image is the product both of immediate sensation and of the memory of past experience.”

Kevin Lynch, “The Structure of Urban Perception”,

The Image of the City (1960)

IMAGE OF THE CITY

HUMANITIES IARCH352

IMAGE OF THE CITYLynch’s goal was to oppose Modernism’s unified, placeless, depersonalized city through reasserting the human role in the interpretation of the city.

HUMANITIES IARCH352

People experience of their built environment and the way they access it is psychological, not just physical.

The sense of a place links elements via coherent representations of non-spatial concepts and values.

Anyone can ‘read’ a place, but they see different things: comfort, identity, meaning, stimulus, attachment ...

IMAGE OF THE CITY

HUMANITIES IARCH352

Lynch suggested five elements of legibility contribute to our ability to create, maintain, images of a place in our head:

PathsEdgesDistrictsNodesLandmarks

IMAGE OF THE CITY

HUMANITIES IARCH352

Lynch suggested five elements of legibility contribute to our ability to create, maintain, images of a place in our head:

PathsEdgesDistrictsNodesLandmarks

IMAGE OF THE CITY

HUMANITIES IARCH352

IMAGE OF THE CITYPaths

Routes or channels along which the observer customarily moves (roads, walkways, and public transit routes)

HUMANITIES IARCH352

IMAGE OF THE CITYPaths

Routes or channels along which the observer customarily moves (roads, walkways, and public transit routes)

HUMANITIES IARCH352

IMAGE OF THE CITYPaths

Routes or channels along which the observer customarily moves (roads, walkways, and public transit routes)

HUMANITIES IARCH352

“Paths are the channels along which the observer customarily, occasionally, or potentially moves. They may be streets, walkways, transit lines, canals, railroads. For many people, these are the predominant elements in their image. People observe the city while moving through it, and along these paths the other environmental elements are arranged and related. “

IMAGE OF THE CITYPaths

HUMANITIES IARCH352

IMAGE OF THE CITYEdges Linear boundaries or barriers between two areas, for example, cliffs, shores of rivers, lakes, or oceans, etc.

HUMANITIES IARCH352

IMAGE OF THE CITYEdges Linear boundaries or barriers between two areas, for example, cliffs, shores of rivers, lakes, or oceans, etc.

HUMANITIES IARCH352

IMAGE OF THE CITYEdges

HUMANITIES IARCH352

“Edges are the linear elements not used or considered as paths by the observer. They are the boundaries between two phases, linear breaks in continuity: shores, railroad cuts, edges of development walls. They are lateral references rather than coordinate axes.

IMAGE OF THE CITYEdges

HUMANITIES IARCH352

IMAGE OF THE CITYDistricts

• Have a common character/theme, made up of texture, form, space, detail, symbol, inhabitant, topography…

• Clearly defined districts lead to ‘good’ orientation

Moderate-sized areas that city residents identify as having a particular character

HUMANITIES IARCH352

IMAGE OF THE CITYDistricts

HUMANITIES IARCH352

IMAGE OF THE CITYDistricts

“Districts are the medium-to-large sections of the city conceived as having two-dimensional extents, which the observer mentally enters “inside of” and which are recognizable as having some common identifying character.

HUMANITIES IARCH352

IMAGE OF THE CITYNodesWell-known points that people travel to and from, junctures of important paths, key intersections, popular plazas or squares, or other points of intense activity

HUMANITIES IARCH352

IMAGE OF THE CITYNodesWell-known points that people travel to and from, junctures of important paths, key intersections, popular plazas or squares, or other points of intense activity

HUMANITIES IARCH352

IMAGE OF THE CITYNodesWell-known points that people travel to and from, junctures of important paths, key intersections, popular plazas or squares, or other points of intense activity

HUMANITIES IARCH352

IMAGE OF THE CITYNodes

“Nodes are points, the strategic spots in a city into which an observer can enter, and which are the intensive foci to and from which he is traveling. They may be primary junctions, places of a break in transportation, moments of shift from one structure to another.

HUMANITIES IARCH352

IMAGE OF THE CITYLandmarks

• Singularity, uniqueness• Contrast (small/big, new/old)• Symbolic

Easily viewed elements that act as physical reference points, either on a grand scale or on a smaller scale

HUMANITIES IARCH352

“Landmarks are another type of point reference, but in this case the observer does not enter within them, they are external. They are usually a rather simple defined physical object: building, sign, store, or mountain. Their use involves the singling out of one element from a host of possibilities. Some landmarks are distant ones, typically seen from many angles and distances, over the tops of smaller elements, and used as radial references. They may be within the city or at such a distance that for all practical purposes they symbolize a constant direction. Such are isolated towers, golden domes, great hills.“

IMAGE OF THE CITYLandmarks

HUMANITIES IARCH352

Mental maps

Spatial behavior

Urban form

IMAGE OF THE CITYWhy does your image of the city matter?

HUMANITIES IARCH352

Choose at least one example to illustrate each of Kevin Lynch's Elements of Legibility. You can choose examples from your surrounding environment or from other sources. Describe in your own words why did you choose each example and how do you think it does exemplify each of the five elements. Use your sketches and diagrams to illustrate your answer.You have to submit your answer on A4 sheets. Don't forget to indicate the exact name and location of each case.

HUMANITIES IARCH352

Any Questions?