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Classic Book Review. Lynch, K. (1960). The Image of the City

Literature Review | 2013-01-25 오전 1:09:16 | 조회수 : 4159 | 공개

Lynch, K. (1960). The Image of the City, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Kevin Lynch, in The Image of the City, demonstrates qualities of city form that go beyond matters of image. In this book, Lynch discusses a research project, carried out in three American cities: Boston, Jersey City, and Los Angeles, in order to identify the degree of legibility of the cities’ lay-out. For this project, he conducted interviews with their citizens, and asked daily commuters to reconstruct the image of the city in drawings. Deriving from their mnemonic of these citizens, he formulates his theory that a mental image of the city -- “cognitive map” –– is not identifiable with a visual image.

Based on those interviews, Lynch also notes that there are five elements being used by citizens as fixed references that orient them in their daily commutes: paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks. The clearer these elements were, the easier it was for citizens to move around:
  • Paths: major avenues of travel through the environment such as major roads or footpaths.
  • Edges: structures or features providing borders to districts or linear obstacles.
  • Districts: sections of the environment which have a distinct character which provides coherence, allowing the whole to be viewed as a single entity.
  • Nodes: intersection area along paths, e.g. road junctions or town squares.
  • Landmarks: Static and recognizable objects which can be used to give a sense of location and bearing.

Lynch’s work was inspired by a behavioral scientist Edward Tolman, who posited in his Cognitive Maps in Rats and Men that orientation and legibility in one’s environment were directly connected to the tolerance of difference and others in society. Lynch followed Tolman’s concepts, and applied this science of human perception and their urban behavior to his theory; he also developed the ideas of urban structure with the human perceptual experience, which is shared by Gordon Cullen, the author of The Concise Townscape (1961).

Despite substantial influences of Lynch’s work, a number of criticisms have been also raised. First, he has been criticized for neglecting empirical bases for the five element types, as he devised the five elements before commencing the research. Second, critics pointed out the selective nature of the interviewee sample Lynch employed; most were white, middle-class, able-bodied males. It is possible that urban images of black people and of disabled people may differ substantially and in politically important respects from those of white or able-bodied people. Finally, it has been argued (Pile, 1996; Sennett, 1990) that the factor of legibility is too narrow for assessing the quality of a cityscape. These criticisms urged further urban research that can explain symbolic, historical and cultural meanings of places alongside the spatial aspects of city design.


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amying   2013-02-13 12:11 [ Modify ]  [ Delete ]
The Image of  the City 리뷰 글 잘읽고 갑니다, 감사합니다^^
다음 포스트 :: Classic Book Review. Gehl, J. and Gemzoe, L. (1996), Public Spaces, Public Life.
이전 포스트 :: Classic Book Review. Cullen, G. (1961). Townscape