Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
- Kevin Lynch
Aman J Kanaiya
Steven Canara
Basille Dillion
CONTENTS
Introduction
Theory Of Kevin Lynch
Contents Of The Book
Analysis:
Chapter Wise Description
1. The Images Of Environment
2. Three Cities
3. The City Image And Its Elements
4. City Form
5. New Scale
2. THREE CITIES
Analyses are done for the central areas of three
cities Boston, Jersey, Los Angeles.
Boston is unique in its character among
American cities, being both vivid in form and
full of locational difficulties.
Jersey city was chosen for its apparent
formlessness on first observation, to be
extremely low in its imageability.
Los Angeles is a new city, of a different scale,
and with a grid iron plan in its central area.
In every case a 21/2 by 11/2 miles of central area
was taken for study. Two basic analyses were
carried out:
1. A survey was carried out by a observer who
mapped the presence of various elements, their
visibility, their image strength or weakness, and
their connections, disconnections, and other
interrelations.
2. A lengthy interview was held with a sample city
residents to evoke their own images of their
physical environment. The interviews included
requests, descriptions, locations and sketches,
and for performance of imaginary trips.
Differences in the imageability of three cities
appeared, certain features : open space,
vegetation, sense of motion of paths, visual
contrasts seemed to be of particular importance
of the cityscape.
4. CITY FORM
The author talks about what opportunity we have
of forming our new city into an imageable
landscape: visible, coherent and clear.
The author says that the city dweller requires a
new attitude and a physical reshaping of the
domain into forms which enter the eye, which
organize themselves in time and space, which
can stand as symbols for urban life.
As an artificial world, the city should be so in the
best sense: made by art, shaped for human
purposes.
Designing the paths
Form Qualities- The clues for urban design have
been summarized under this topic as:
a. Singularity
b. Form simplicity
c. Continuity
d. Dominance
e. Visual scope
f. Time series
g. Motion awareness
All of the qualities do not exist in isolation eg: A
region would be unmistakable which had a
simple form, a continuity of building type and use,
which was singular in the city, sharply bounded,
clearly jointed to a neighbouring region and
visually concave would knit together a dense and
vivid image and sustain it over areas of
metropolitan scale
5. NEW SCALE
True enough, we need an environment which is
not simply organized but poetic and symbolic as
well. It should speak of the individuals and their
complex society.
But clarity of structures and vividness of identity
are first steps to the development of strong
symbols.
If art and audience grow together, then our cities
will be source of daily enjoyments for millions of
people.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
FLOW - There is a definite flow of ideas in the
book. The author starts with how the people
perceive their built environment and then he
supports his observations through case studies. In
the intermediate part of the book he suggests
the methods through which we can use his
suggestions in consciously deciding the image of
the city and in the finally he depicts his
methodologies and technicalities of research.
FOCUS - The book revolves around a central idea
which is the image of the city. He begins with the
general perception of the people and then gives
some terminologies to elaborate his ideas and
help the readers to understand his point of view.
The sub topics sometimes go more in depth, thus
shifting the primary focus.