ImageStudy

by
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 Lynchs 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 bestreets, 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 andlinear 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 thecity

which theobserver mentally enters "inside of," and which
are recognizableas 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, theyare
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 TheImage

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

Parkstreets figure ground map

Landmarks

Pathways

Edge

Nodes

Nodes & Junctions

Thankyou