URD400S Principles of Urban Design 4

THE IMAGE OF THE CITY KEVIN LYNCH

Lynch, K. (1960), THE IMAGE OF THE CITY,

Cambridge, Massachusetts, The MIT Pres.

URD400S Principles of Urban Design 4

KEVIN LYNCH

the image of the city

Like a piece of architecture

The city is a construction in space

But one of vast scale – a thing perceived over a long span of time

City design is therefore a temporal art

Nothing is experienced by itself

But always in relation to its surroundings

The sequence of events leading up to it

The meaning of past experience

Every citizen has had long associations with some part of the city

And this image is soaked in memories and meanings

URD400S Principles of Urban Design 4

imageability

Our perception of the city is not sustained

The city is an object perceived by millions of people of widely diverse

class and character

It is also the product of many who are constantly modifying the

structure for reasons of their own:

• traffic engineers

• town planners

• developers

• industrialists

• investors

• residents

URD400S Principles of Urban Design 4

legibility

The general outline may be stable for some time

BUT it is ever changing in detail

Lynch concentrates on the visual quality of the city

The apparent clarity or legibility of the cityscape

The ease with which the city’s parts can be recognised

And organised into a coherent pattern

In the process of wayfinding, the strategic link is the environmental

image of the exterior physical world that is held by an individual

URD400S Principles of Urban Design 4

structure and identity

An environmental image has 3 components: • identity – identification as an entity • structure – spatial patterns of relationship • meaning – practical or emotional

The 3 are not truly separable but Lynch concentrates on identity and structure as these are more easily understood and more consistently interpreted whilst meaning is very complex and diverse In any city there seems to be an overlap of many individual images or public images which can be patterned together to provide an understanding of the form and image of the city. Lynch proposes that the contents of the city image can be classified into 5 Types of element for purposes of analysis: Paths edges districts nodes landmarks

URD400S Principles of Urban Design 4

Lynch, K. (1960), THE IMAGE OF THE CITY,

Cambridge, Massachusetts, The MIT Pres.

URD400S Principles of Urban Design 4

Lynch, K. (1960), THE IMAGE OF THE CITY,

Cambridge, Massachusetts, The MIT Pres.

URD400S Principles of Urban Design 4

Lynch, K. (1960), THE IMAGE OF THE CITY,

Cambridge, Massachusetts, The MIT Pres.

URD400S Principles of Urban Design 4

Johannesburg Inner City: Google Earth Image

URD400S Principles of Urban Design 4

Johannesburg Inner City: Google Earth Image

WITS

HILLBROW

ELLIS PARK

BRAAMFONTEIN

NEWTOWN

OLD JHB CBD

Park Station

Joubert Park

Metro Mall

West gate

Carlton Centre

Ponte Tower

Hillbrow Tower