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INTRODUCTION:
• Kevin Lynch as Kevin Andrew Lynch.

• Was Born at 1918 Chicago, Illinois.

• Died on 1984 Martha's

Vineyard ,Massachusetts.

• He was an American urban planner and

author.

• He is known for his work on the perceptual

form of urban environments and was an early
proponent of mental mapping.

His most influential books include :

• The Image of the City (1960)
• What Time is This Place? (1972)

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His Philosophy:
Lynch is chiefly concerned with “The Image of the Environment”.

He says, “Every citizen has had long associations with some part of the city,
and his image is soaked in memories and meanings.”

He also concerned with how we locate ourselves within the city, how we find
our way around. To know where we are within the city, therefore, we have to
build up a workable image of each part. Each of these images will comprise;

• Our recognition of its “individuality or oneness” within the city as a

whole,
• Our recognition of its spatial or pattern relationships to other parts of the
city,
• Its practical meaning for each of us (both practical and emotional)

Source: http://www.angelfire.com/ar/corei/hbe1/lynch1.htm

The Principle Ideas of Kevin Lynch:

The Principle Ideas are:

1. Mental Mapping
2. Wayfinding
3. Imageability

1) Mental Mapping:
What is mental map?
A person's perception of the world is known as a mental map. A mental map
is an individual's own map of their known world. Mental maps of individuals
can be investigated

• by asking for directions to a landmark or other location,

• by asking someone to draw a sketch map of an area or describe that area,
• or by asking a person to name as many places as possible in a short period
of time.

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2) Wayfinding:
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.

3) 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 Imageability; 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.

• It might also be called legibility, or perhaps visibility in a heightened sense, where

objects are not only able to be seen, but are presented sharply and intensely to the
senses.

• A highly imageable (apparent, legible, or visible) city in this peculiar sense would
seem well formed, distinct, remarkable; it would invite the eye and the ear to
greater attention and participation.

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3) Imageability: (Contd..)
• The perceptive and familiar observer could absorb new sensuous impacts
without disruption of his basic image, and each new impact would touch upon
many previous elements.

• The concept of Imageability does not necessarily connote something fixed,

limited, precise, unified, or regularly ordered, although it may sometimes have
these qualities.

• The Imageability of city form will be the center of the study to follow. There are
other basic properties in a beautiful environment: meaning or expressiveness,
sensuous delight, rhythm, stimulus, choice.

• Our concentration on Imageability does not deny their importance. Our

purpose is simply to consider the need for identity and structure in our
perceptual world, and to illustrate the special relevance of this quality to the
particular case of the complex, shifting urban environment.

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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.

THE IMAGE OF THE ENVIRONMENT:

Looking at cities can offer pleasure however the sight may be a common place.
City is a piece of space in a vast scale, a thing that is perceived in along period of
time.
Nothing can be experienced by itself, but due to the surroundings or sequence of
events that has happened or happening in a space.
The memories play a important role in marking the image of the city.
The moving elements in a city play a major role in the urban environment.
A beautiful and delightful city environment is oddity and can be said an impossibility.
the visual qualities discussed in this book THE IMAGE OF THE CITY are:
1)LEGIBILITY 2)BUILDING THE IMAGE
3)STRUCTURE AND IDENTITY 4)IMAGEABILITY

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• 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.

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.

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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

The five basic elements which people use to construct their

mental image of a city:

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1) PATH

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.

2) Edges

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

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3) Districts
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

4) Nodes
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

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5) Landmark
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.

ELEMENT INTERRELATIONS
• Raw material of the environmental
image at city scale
• Interaction of pairs of unlike
elements
• Such pairs may reinforce one
another, resonate so that they
enhance each others power
• A great landmark may dwarf and • The landmark feature may be so alien
throw out of scale a small region at to the character of the district as to
its base dissolve the regional continuity or it
• Properly located, another landmark may stand in just the contrast that
may fix and strengthen the core intensifies that continuity

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ELEMENT INTERRELATIONS

• Districts in particular which tend to be of larger size than other elements, contain

within themselves various paths, nodes and landmark.

• The elements not only structure the region internally they also intensify the

identity of the whole by enriching and deepening the character

CITY FORM

•A city is a multipurpose, shifting organization, a tent for many functions.

•The form must be plastic to the purposes and perceptions of its citizens.

•If the environment is visibly organized and sharply identified - Citizen can
inform it with his own meanings and connections.

The modern city should be so in the best sense; made by art , shaped for
human purposes. Now we have adapted the environment itself to the
perceptual pattern and symbolic process of the human being.

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•To heighten the imageability of the urban - visual identification and

structuring.
•The elements isolated above

•paths
•edges ,
•landmarks
• nodes
•Regions

Washington street
DESIGNING THE PATHS

•The paths , the network of habitual or

potential lines of movement through the
urban complex , are the most potent
means by which the whole can be ordered.

Common wealth Avenue

Clarity of direction
Activities along the
margins
Terminus – focusing
Funneling of spaces

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Motion parallax or perspective Melodic

Space changes , dynamic sensations – might be organized as a melodic line,

perceived as a form which is experienced over a substantial time interval.

DESIGN OF OTHER ELEMENTS

•Edges as well as paths call for a certain continuity of form

throughout their length.

Two strongly
contrasting regions.

• Landmarks need not be large ; Any breaks in

transportation – nodes, decision points- are places
of intensified perception.

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Nodes are the conceptual anchor points in our cities.They have a form
adequate to support this attention , other than a certain concentration
of activity. It is more defined with a sharp closed boundary.If a break in
transportation or a decision point on a path can be made to coincide
with the node will receive more attention .

District:
A city district in its simplest sense is an area of homogeneous
character recognized by clues which are continuous and
discontinuous elsewhere
e.g., Sloping streets of Beacon Hill.

FORM QUALITIES

Form Simplicity: Singularity & Figure –

Continuity:
Background clarity :

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Dominance : Clarity of joint

Directional

Visual Scope :

Qualities which increase the range and

penetration of vision , either actually or
symbolically. •Transparencies
•Overlaps
•Vistas and panoramas
•Articulating elements etc.,

Motion awareness Time Series

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The sense of a whole:

•Interrelation of the past into a whole.

•The nodes would joint and mark, off the
paths , while the edges would bound off the
districts and the landmarks would indicate
their forms
•The cores. should be manipulated so that there is a strand of
continuity between the multiple images of a big city: day and night,
winter and summer , near and far , static and moving, attentive and
e.g.,Louisburg Square in the snow has a shape matches it in
absent-minded.
midsummer.

METROPOLITAN FORM

The increasing size of the metropolitan areas and the speed with
which we traverse them raise many new problems for perception.

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PROCESS OF DESIGN
Any existing and functioning urban area has
• Structure
• identity
• Strong and weak measure

Creation of new city image

• For extensive redevelopment
• For suburban extensions of our metropolitan regions
• Natural features are no longer a sufficient guide to
structure because of the intensity and scale of the
development being applied to them

Preparations of visual plan includes

• Analysis of the existing form
• Public image of the area
• Series of diagrams and reports illustrating the significant
public image
• The basic visual problems and opportunities
• Critical image elements
• Elements interrelation
• Their detailed qualities
• Possibilities for change
• Prescribe the location or preservation of landmarks
• Development of visual hierarchy of the path
• The establishments of thematic unit for districts
• Creation or clarification of nodal point

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THE NEW SCALE OR

CONCLUSION

• Started with special nature of city perception and concluded that the art of
urban design must therefore be essentially different from the other arts.

• Single elements and their patterning in a small complexes, it was direct toward a
future synthesis of city form considered as a whole pattern

• A clear and comprehensive image of the entire metropolitan region is a

fundamental requirement for the future.

• If it can be developed, it will raise the experience of a city to a new level, a level
of contemporary functional unit.

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• Form of a city or of a metropolis will not exhibit a satisfied order

• It will be complicated pattern, continuous and whole yet intricate and mobile

• True enough we need an environment which is not simply well organized but poetic
and symbolic.

• The city should speak of the individuals and their complex society, of their
aspirations and their historical tradition, of the natural setting and of the
complicated functions and movements of the city world

• The city should be truly visible so that fear and confusion might be replaced with
delight in the richness and power of the scene.

CASE STUDIES

Analyses on central areas of three American cities

• Boston, Massachusetts
• Jerry City, new Jersey
• Los angels, California
In every case studies central area of approximately 2 ½
by 1 ½ miles was taken for study.

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BOSTAN CITY… LOS ANGELES…

The city is unique in character
among American cities, being both
vivid in form and full of locational
difficulties.
• Its paths is on a regular basis,
• Visiting landmarks and nodes of
activity within city districts.
• Intangible edges between
neighborhoods and along the
outskirts of town.
• It is a new city, of an utterly
different scale and with grid
iron plan in its central area.
NEW JERSY..
• It is apparent formless and low
order of imagebility

BASIC ANALYSES
(for the three cities)

INTERVIEWS
OBSERVER
AMONG PEOPLE
(subjective
(long resident or
judgments)
employed)
• Mapped on presence of various
• Their own images of the
elements
physical environment
• Their visibility
• Descriptions
• Their image strength or weakness
• Locations
• Their connections, disconnections
• Sketches
and interrelations
• Performance of imaginary trips

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BOSTON…CHARACTERS…
• The area chosen for study in Boston
was all that part of the central
peninsula within the line of
Massachusetts avenue.
• This is an area rather unusual among
American cities because of its age,
history and somewhat European flavor
• City of very distinctive districts • Old
• Crooked and confusing paths • Historical place
• Dirty city of red-brick buildings • Full of worn-out buildings
• The state house with its golden dome • Yet containing some new structures
• The view across the Charles river among the old
from the Cambridge side

• Streets congested with people and cars

• No parking space
• Striking contrasts between wide main streets and narrow side streets
• The central city is a peninsula, surrounded by a water edge
• It lacks open or recreational space
• It is an individual small or medium sized city
• Large areas are of mixed use
• It is marked by bay windows, iron fences or brownstone fronts.

BOSTON…CHARACTERS…

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STREET LAYOUT OF BOSTON

THE BOSTON IMAGE AS DERIVED FROM VERBAL

INTERVIEWS

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BOSTON IMAGE AS
DERIVED FROM SKETCH
MAPS

THE VISUAL FORM

OF BOSTON AS SEEN
IN THE FIELD

ELEMENTS OF CITY IMAGE

• Path
• Edges
• Node
• District
• Landmarks

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EDGES, PATHS AND DISTRICTS

NODES

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LANDMARKS

PROBLEMS IN BOSTON CITY

• Confusions
• Floating points
• Weak boundaries
• Isolations
• Breaks in continuity
• Ambiguities
• Branching
• Lack of character or differentiations

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Ambiguous
branch

Shape
ambiguity

Direction
ambiguity

Characterless
path
Outside
pathway
Incomplete broken
path

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WEAK OR ABSENT
BOUNDRAIES

POINT OF
CONFUSION

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LACK OF RELATION

DISCONNECTED,
CHOTIC CHARACTERISTICS HIDDEN
AREA WATERFRONT

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• This is the blank area on the map for every person

interviewed. But it contains known elements such as
Huntington avenue and landmark such as Christian
science church.

• The area in the

map is absent and
nameless. The
main street of
back bay and
south end
contribute to this
disappearance

COMMON
WEALTH AVENUE

• It forms a nucleus of the back • Vivid place

bay, the down town and Beacon • A large planted open space
hill. bordering the most intensive
• Most peculiar shape – a five districts of Boston.
sided right angled figure • Accessible to all

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INFERENCES

• Structure understand by all the people.

• Charles river with its edge marks a strong clear edge

• Intellectual conception of Boston as a peninsula unable to make a

visual connections between river and harbor.

• The city seems to be one-sided city because loses precisions and

contents as one move away from Charles river edge.

JERSEY CITY

FEATURES OF THE CITY:

•Lies between Newark and

New York City as a fringe area.
• Little central activity.
•Criss-crossed by railroads and
elevated highways -
Appearance of a place to pass
through rather than to live in.

•The natural shopping center was shifted by the artificial creation of Journal
Square on the upper hand. Four or five centers. Drabness ,dirt ,smell.

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The city has a little more shape than an outsider

might think , as indeed it must if it is to be habitable.

JOURNAL
SQUARE

WEST SIDE PARK

BERGEN SECTION

Journal Square - Shopping activities Bergen Section – Class area

West Side Park – Largest park in the city Medical Center – A haphazardly located

giant.

Medical Center

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JOURNAL SQUARE

MEDICAL CENTER

VERBAL INTERVIEWS INTERPRETATIONS :

•The maps were often fragmented.

•Concentrated only on residential areas.
•The map showed the top as strong dominating ;
•Lowland as weak;
•Connected by one or two purely conceptual paths.

People from a far place did not find Jersey , beautiful but only the skylines
of New York on one side and Pulaski Skyway,standing for Newark , are seen.

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MAP FROM VERBAL INTERVIEWS

•The city is same all over; commonness.

•Nothing different all over.
•Landmarks like the street signs, Journal Square big advertising signs, landscaped
open spaces etc., are only noticeable.

LOS ANGELES :
• The general matrix is a grid of paths. The sentimentally important
node is plaza olvera street.
•The central area is set in a vacuum.
•There is two key streets 7th and broadway.
•Subjects on their trips tended in their minds to peer sideways for it as
they pass minor street.
•The original main street and still largest largest shopping
concentration is the downtown area, it is marked by the crowds on the
sidewalks which is not used by the middle – class people.
•The Broadway street creates a sense of avoidance, curiosity or fear.
•The important node is a plaza in the olvera street which acts as a
sentimental place for old people.

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• The Los Angeles area, the heart of a great metropolitan region, presents a
different picture, and one quite different from Boston as well.

• The area, while comparable in size to the Boston and Jersey City zones, includes
little more than the central business district and its fringes.

• The subjects were familiar with the area, not through residence, but by reasons
of work place in one of the central offices or stores.

• As the core of a metropolis, central Los Angeles is heavily charged with meaning
and activity, with large and presumably distinctive buildings, and with a basic
pattern: its almost regular grid of streets.

• Decentralization of the metropolitan region, whereby the central area is still by

courtesy "downtown," but there are several other basic cores to which people
are oriented.

• The central area has intensive shopping, but it is no longer the best shopping,
and great numbers of citizens never enter the downtown area from one year to
the next.

• Second, the grid pattern itself is an undifferentiated matrix, within which

elements cannot always be located with confidence.

• Third, the central activities are spatially extended and shifting, a fact which
dilutes their impact.

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• Frequent rebuilding prevents the identification that builds up by historical

process. The elements themselves, despite (and sometimes because of)
frequent attempts at flamboyance, are often visually faceless.

• Nevertheless, we are not now looking at another chaotic Jersey City, but rather
at the active and ecologically ordered center of a great metropolis.

• The central area is set in a vacuum. This L-shaped center is liberally sprinkled
with remembered landmarks, chief of them being the Statler and Biltmore
Hotels, and then, among others, the Richfield Building, the Public Library,
Robinsons and Bullocks department stores, the Federal Savings Building, the
Philharmonic auditorium, City Hall, and the Union Depot. But only two
landmarks were described in any concrete detail: the ugly, black and gold
Richfield Building and the pyramided top of the City Hall.

PERSHING SQUARE

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THE HOLLYWOOD FREEWAY

THE HOLLYWOOD FREEWAY

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CIVIC CENTRE

Lynch’s Theory Of Good City Form:

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