Image of the City

The perceptual Dimension

Prepared by:Alshimaa A. FaragM.Sc., LEED AP

a schema : describes an organized pattern of thought that organizes categories of information and the relationships among them

Differentiate by: 1 .Gender

2 .Age3 .Culture

4 .Religion 5 .Personal Experience

Mental Schema

Perception process :Perception is a complex processing, involves gathering, organizing and making sense of information about the environment. It is shaped in five steps:

1. Pay attention 2. Thinking – organizing – keeping information3. Giving a meaning 4. Evaluation : preferring or not5. Recognizing and using

The users of the city react with urban environment using senses

They don’t have the same strength but we use them all in Urban perception

Mental image :

Mental image properties :

The overall mental image of an urban environment will be:

1. Partial : not covering the whole city2. Simplified : omitting a great deal of

information 3. Unique : each individual has his/her own 4. Distorted : not necessary has real distance

or direction.

The image which the user form in his mind about the architectural and urban components of the city and their places so he can direct his motion through the city after that.

Mental image :Differences in environmental perception depend on factors like:• age, • gender, • ethnicity,• lifestyle, • the physical, social

and culture environment in which the person lives and was raised.

Mental Image

• Differs from one to another but• Sometimes there are some common themes

between a lot of users these themes are called image regularities

image regularities

The Common urban components which are used by different users to form their mental image about

the city

The image of the city:The key work in the field of urban imagery is kevin lynch’s the image of the city (1960) based on mental mapping techniques, and interviews with residents of Boston, Jersey city and Los Angles.

Initially interested in legibility (how people orientate themselves and navigate within

cities)

The image of the city:Based on of individuals images, lynch drives five key physical elements of the city :

1. Paths

2. Edges

3. Nodes

4. Districts

5. Landmarks

1. Paths :

Paths are the channels along which observers move (streets, transit lines, canals, etc.).

Why paths are important elements in the city image?

* Concentration of uses

*Containing significant buildings and facades

* paths are the most important elements in people’s images :

• other elements are arranged and along them. • Unclear paths = unclear city image

2. Edges :

Edges are linear elements that form boundaries between areas or linear breaks in continuity (e.g. shores, railway cuts, walls).

 

Natural edgesManmade edges

2. Edges :

The strongest edges are continuous in form, and often impenetrable to cross movement.

 

Difference between path and edge

Paths

Direct the motion to specific direction

Edges

* Prevent motion in specific direction

3. Districts:

are the medium to large parts of the city which share the same characteristics

Style - spatial form, topography- colors- texture, urban fabric….

3 . Districts :

Districts may have Clear edges, or soft uncertain ones gradually fading away into surrounding areas.

4. Nodes:

Strategic points in the city that:

• the user can enter it• be directed to many destinations• it can be gathering places or intersection of paths, or places

for activities

5. Land marks :

A physical element with UNIQUE AND SPECIAL visual features that has a "point-specific” location, and can be identified from the distance.

What makes landmark a land mark?

Singularity:“one in the context”

Clarity of general form

None of lynch’s elements exits in isolation :

all combine to provide the overall image:

• Districts are structures with nodes• Edges define Districts• Paths introduction to Districts• Nodes sprinkled by landmarks ….• Nodes emphasizes the connection between paths

All combine to provide the overall image of the city

The image of the city:

What creates unclear urban Image?

What creates unclear urban image:1. Discontinuous and unclear paths

What creates unclear urban image:2. Weak Edges

What creates unclear urban image:3. Lacks of character “No identity” “No iconic elements or landmarks”

V.S

What creates unclear urban image:4. Branching in connections

branching Nodes

What creates unclear urban image:5. No distinctive districts:

V.S

The image of the city:Lynch argued that thee workable environmental images required three attributes :

1. Identity : an object’s distinction from other things

2. Structure : the object’s spatial relation to the observer and other objects

3. Meaning : the object’s meaning for the observer

What purposes does it serve?

• Preventing feeling lost• Helping make the city feel like “home”

• So it is important to understand how people think and form their mental impression about the city and the common themes they share to help designers to design urban environment in a clear manner for users

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