IMAGE OF THE CITY

- Kevin Lynch

A Review Of The Book

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

IMAGE OF THE CITY

- Kevin Lynch
INTRODUCTION
Kevin Andrew Lynch ( 1918, Chicago Illinois 1984
Martha's Vineyard Massachusetts ) was an American
Urban Planner and author.
Lynch studied at the Yale University, Taliesin under Frank
Lloyd Wright and received the Bachelors degree in CITY
PLANNING from MIT in 1947.
Lynch provided contributions to the field of city planning
through research on how people move and navigate
the urban landscape
IMAGE OF THE CITY published in 1960 by MIT Press, is the
result of five year study on how users perceive and
organize spatial information as they navigate through
cities. Using three cities as examples ( Boston, Jersey city,
Los Angeles ) Lynch reported that users understood their
surroundings in consistent and predictable ways, forming
mental maps with five elements:

Paths, the streets, sidewalks , trails and other channels

in which people travel.
Edges, perceived boundaries such as walls, buildings
and shorelines.
Districts, relatively large sections of the city
distinguished by some identity or character.
Nodes, focal points, intersections
Landmarks.

THEORY OF KEVIN LYNCH

He influenced the field of city planning through his
work on city form, and studies leading to human
perceptions of the city.
Lynch says Looking at cities can give a special
pleasure, however common place the sight
maybe. Like a piece of architecture, the city is a
construction in space, but of a vast scale,
perceived only in the course of long spans of
time. At very instant, there is more than the eye
can see, more than the ears can hear, a setting
view waiting to be explored. Nothing is
experienced by itself, but in relation to its
surroundings, the sequences of events leading up
to it, the memory of past experiences..Every
citizen has had long associations with some part
of the city, and his image is soaked in memories
and meanings

CONTENTS OF THE BOOK

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

The image of the environment

Three cities
The city image and its elements
City form
A new scale

1.THE IMAGE OF THE ENVIRONMENT

Legibility- Visual quality of the American City is
considered by studying the mental image of that
city held by the citizens.
Concentrates on visual quality, the apparent
clarity or legibility of the cityscape.
Building the image- Environmental images are of
two way process between the observer and the
environment.
We divide the city image into path, landmark,
edge, edge, node and district.
Structure and Identity- It says, an environment
image may be analysed into three components:
identity, structure and meaning, these terms lead
to the definition of imageability as, the quality in a
physical object which evokes a strong image in a
given observer.

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.

3. THE CITY IMAGE AND ITS ELEMENTS

It says the public image of the city is the overlap
of many individual images, they are classified into
five types of elements: paths, edges, districts,
nodes and landmarks.
The author says none of the elements above exist
in isolation in reality. Districts are structured by
nodes, defined by edges, penetrated by paths
and sprinkled with landmarks.
Elemental Relations- elements are raw material of
environmental image at the city scale. They must
be patterned together to provide a satisfying
form.
The Shifting Image- Rather than a single image for
the entire environment, there seemed to be sets
of images, which more or less overlapped and
interrelated .
Image Quality- Study of individual images
revealed certain other distinctions between them.
From this, one might infer that the image of
greatest value are those which approach a
strong field: dense, rigid and vivid

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.

UNITY - Each topic is related to the main subject.

Although a different matter is explained in each
paragraph, but it still sticks to its main focus.
COMPREHENSIVE BUT COMPACT The book has
covered all the relevant facts and at the same
time there is no unnecessary matter .