ImageStudyby

Prasenjit Karmakar

“There seems to be a public image of any given city which is the overlap of

many individual images. Or perhaps there is a series of public images, each

held by some significant number of citizens. Such group images are necessary

if an individual is to operate successfully within his environment and to

cooperate with his fellows. Each individual picture is unique. with some

content that is rarely or never communicated, yet it approximates the public

image, which, in different environments, is more or less compelling, more or

less embracing.”

Kevin A. Lynch

The Image of the City, page 46.

Kevin Andrew Lynch

(1918 Chicago, Illinois -1984 Martha's Vineyard ,Massachusetts)

was an American urban planner and author.

His most influential books include :

The Image of the City (1960)

and What Time is This Place? (1972)

The Image of the City

“This book is about the look of cities, and whether this look is of any

importance, and whether it can be changed”.

The book looks at three American cities: Boston, Jersey City, and

Los Angeles.

In the first section, new concepts of legibility and Imageability are presented to lay the theoretical foundation of the entire book. Followed by that, Lynch introduced three American cities as examples to reveal his outcomes of field reconnaissance, and then made comparisons between each other. In the third section, five elements and their interrelationships are summarized from previous researches which act as the core content of the book.

In Lynch’s view, image can be explained as “a picture especially in the

mind”, a sentimental combination between objective city image and

subjective human thoughts. The productions of environment images are

influenced by a two-way process between the observer and the observed.

The observer, with great adaptability and in the light of his own purposes,

selects, organizes, and endows with meaning what he/she sees. Therefore,

the specific image can be totally different from the different perspective of

observers.

Source : http://newjerseyurbanism.wordpress.com/2010/09/17/the-view-from-the-road/

Source: http://newjerseyurbanism.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/sequence.jpg

To become completely lost is perhaps a rather rare experience for most people in the modern city. We are supported by the presence of others and by special way-finding devices: maps, street numbers, route signs, bus placards. But let the mishap of disorientation once occur, and the sense of anxiety and even terror that accompanies it reveals to us how closely it is linked to our sense of balance and well-being. The very word "lost" in our language means much more than simple geographical uncertainty.

Legibility

The apparent clarity or "Legibility" of the cityscape.

It mean the ease with which its parts can be recognized and can be organized into a coherent pattern/Just as this printed page, if it is legible, can be visually grasped as a related pattern of recognizable symbols, so a legible city would be one whose districts or landmarks or pathways are easily identifiable and are easily grouped into an over-all pattern.

Principles for effective wayfinding include:

• Create an identity at each location, different from all others.

• Use landmarks to provide orientation cues and memorable locations.

• Create well-structured paths.

• Create regions of differing visual character.

• Don't give the user too many choices in navigation.

• Use survey views (give navigators a vista or map).

• Provide signs at decision points to help wayfinding decisions.

• Use sight lines to show what's ahead.

Source:

http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/infoarch/publications/mfoltzthesis/node8.html

Imageability

Physical qualities which relate to the attributes of identity and structure in the

mental image. This leads to the definition of what might be called image

ability; that quality in a physical object which gives it a high probability of

evoking a strong image in any given observer. It is that shape, color, or

arrangement which facilitates the making of vividly identified, powerfully

structured, highly useful mental images of the environment.

Kevin Lynch found that there are five basic elements which people use to

construct their mental image of a city:

Pathways

Districts

Edges

Landmarks

Nodes

Paths are the channels along which the observer moves. They may be streets, walkways, transit lines, canals, railroads.-Kevin Lynch, The Image of the City.

Edges are the linear elements not used as paths by the observer. They are the boundaries and linear breaks in continuity: shores, railroad cuts, edges of development, walls.- Kevin Lynch, The Image of the City

Districts are the medium-to-large sections of the city which the observer

mentally enters "inside of," and which are recognizable as having some common, identifying character.- Kevin Lynch, The Image of the City

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 primarily junctions or concentrations.- Kevin Lynch, The Image of the City

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 simply defined physical object: building, sign, store, or mountain.- Kevin Lynch, The Image of the City.

Three Cities

The image of the cities Boston, Jersey Cities and Los Angeles derived from the

consensus of verbal interviews and sketch maps.

Boston

Jersey city

Los Angeles

Urban design study based on theories presented by Kevin Lynch in The Image of the City.

Dublin

Source:

https://www.behance.net/gallery/4980011/Dublin-Urban-Design-Case-Study

Park street

Park street is located quite central in Kolkata. It is growing out of the old

colonial town towards east and is surrounded by different districts. To the

east there is Salt Lake City, which was foremost built in the early 60s, and

the new developing Rajarhat. North – east the Kolkata international Airport

and the southbound the mainly residential South Kolkata is situated.

A Linear street Parkstreet’s figure ground map

Landmarks

Pathways

Edge

Nodes

Nodes & Junctions

Thankyou