kevin lynch- five elements

8/13/2019 Kevin lynch- Five Elements

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The Image of the city

In 1960, Kevin Lynch, Professor at M.I.T., published The Image of theCity, the results of a five-year long research project examining the

most important elements in a city as perceived by the residents of thearea. His goal was to identify what features of the built environmentwere important to the people of the city.

Lynch's core concept was the idea of the "legibility" of the builtenvironment. That is, how easy can the parts of the cityscape be

organized into a recognizable pattern. He conducted case studies inthree U.S. cities: Boston, Los Angeles, and Jersey City. He used twoprimary methodologies. First, he conducted extensive fieldworkobserving the physical layout of the city. Then, in-depth interviews

with city residents were conducted to better understand the mentalimage people have of their built environment. Lynch identified fivekey elements that make up an individual's perception of their city:

paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks.


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The Results

There seems to be a public image of any given city which is the overlapof many individual images.

This analysis limits itself to the effects of physical, perceptible objects It is taken for granted that in actual design form should be used to

reinforce meaning, and not to negate it.

These images may be called a mind mapping system. The contents of the city images, which are referable to physical forms,can conveniently be classified into five types of elements

1. Paths2. Edges3. Districts naya raipur

4. Nodes mahavir park,5. Landmarks ghadi chowk, NIT, station


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Paths Paths are the channels along which the observer moves. They

may be streets, walkways, transit lines, canals, railroads. For many people, these are the predominant elements in their

image. People observe the city while moving through it, andalong these paths the other environmental elements arearranged and related.

How people associate and remember paths? Customary travel along one specific path. Concentration of special use or activity along a street may give it

prominence in the minds of observers. Special faade characteristics were also important for path

identity.

People tended to think of path destinations and origin points:they liked to know where paths came from and where they led

Where major paths lacked identity, or were easily confused onefor the other, the entire city image was in danger.

direction along the line can easily be distinguished from thereverse.

Given a directional quality in a path, we may next inquire if it isali ned.


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The second common cause of misalignment to the

rest of the city was the sharp separation of a pathfrom surrounding elements. Los angeles freeways The railroad lines The subway

A large number of paths may be seen as a totalnetwork, when repeating relationships aresufficiently regular and predictable. The LosAngeles grid is a good example.

Almost every subject could easily put down sometwenty major paths in correct relation to each other.At the same time, this very regularity made itdifficult for them to distinguish one path fromanother.


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Edges

Edges are the linear elements not used or considered aspaths by the observer. They are the boundaries betweentwo phases, linear breaks in continuity: shores, railroadcuts, edges of development, walls.

They are lateral references rather than coordinate axes.Such edges may be barriers, more or less penetrable,which close one region off from another; or they may beseams, lines along which two regions are related andjoined together.

These edge elements, although probably not asdominant as paths, are for many people importantorganizing features, particularly in the role of holdingtogether generalized areas, as in the outline of a city bywater or wall.


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Those edges seem strongestwhich are not only visuallyprominent, but also continuousin form and impenetrable tocross movement. The CharlesRiver in Boston is the bestexample and has all of thesequalities. In Jersey City, the

waterfront was also a strongedge, but a rather forbiddingone. It was a no-mans land, aregion beyond the barbed wire.


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Districts are character areas perceived to have common

characteristics, a separate visual identity from the rest ofenvironment.

These areas can be recognized as a thematic unit.

Good physical characteristics of districts are determined bycontinuities and homogeneities of facades materials, textures,spaces, forms, details, symbols, building type, uses, Activities,inhabitants, colors, skyline topography, etc.(Lynch,1960).

All these features give a district its identity, create intimacybetween its parts, and identify the basic clues of the city.

Districts


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Districts names also play an important role in giving identity todistricts.

Districts may have various kinds of boundaries that offer differentcharacters, as some may be soft, hard, certain or uncertain, thusthey may reinforce or limit district identity.

Districts may be in relation with each other, well-connectedtogether, then they are in an extrovert character.

On the contrary, they may stand alone to their zone, in other wordsthey are not linked together, then they are in an introvert character(Lynch, 1960).

The termination of a district is its edge. Some districts have noedges at all but gradually taper off and blend into another district.

When two districts are joined at one edge they form a seam.


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Fig: Districts

Fig: District events

(source: Lynch, 1960)


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Nodes are points, the strategic spots in a city into which an observercan enter, and which are the intensive foci to and from which he istravelling.

They may be primarily junctions, places of a break in transportation, acrossing or convergence of paths, moments of shift from one structureto another.

Or the nodes may be simply concentrations, which gain theirimportance from being the condensation of some use or physicalcharacter, as a street corner hangout or an enclosed square.

The concept of node is related to the concept of path, since junctionsare typically the convergence of paths, events on the journey.

It is similarly related to the concept of district, since cores are typicallythe intensive foci of districts, their polarizing center. In any event,

some nodal points are to be found in almost every image, and incertain cases they may be the dominant feature.


16/21NODES

According to Lynch Nodes are the strategic foci into which the observercan enter, typically either junctions of paths, or concentrations of some

characteristic (Lynch, 1960: 72). In fact, the city itself can be imaged as a node with respect to a large

enough level.

Nodes can be recognized even when they are shapeless, but whensupported by a strong physical form, then they become memorable

(Lynch,1960). Good recognizable node should have its identity through singularity and

continuity of walls, floor, planting, lighting, topography, silhouette,function, clarity of shape and intensity of use.

Location determines nodes utilization, as locating nodes on main routes

make movement economy more efficient than those located away from.


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Avoid locating nodes awayfrom the main routes

Nodes on main routes offer

More efficiency and bestCapture the movement economy

Fig: Best place for nodes.


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LANDMARKS

Landmarks are another type of point-reference, but in this case theobserver does not enter within them, they are external.

They are usually a rather simply defined physical object: building, sign,store, or mountain. Their use involves the singling out of one elementfrom a host of possibilities.

Some landmarks are distant ones, typically seen from many angles anddistances, over the tops of smaller elements, and used as radialreferences. They may be within the city or at such a distance that for allpractical purposes they symbolize a constant direction. Such areisolated towers; domes, great hills.

Sometimes even a mobile point, like the sun, whose motion issufficiently slow and regular, may be employed.


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Other landmarks are primarily local, being visible only in restrictedlocalities and from certain approaches, these are the innumerablesigns, store fronts, trees, doorknobs, and other urban detail, which fillin the image of most observers. They are frequently used clues ofidentity and even of structure, and seem to be increasingly reliedupon, as a journey becomes more and more familiar.

Landmarks, the point references considered to be external to theobserver, are simple physical elements that may vary widely in scale.

Since the use of landmarks involves the singling out of one element

from a host of possibilities, the key physical characteristic of this classis singularity, some aspect that is unique or memorable in the context.


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kevin lynch- five elements

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