Legibility of a City

Hello Everyone:

Kevin Lynch (1918-1984)
en.wikipedia.org

Before I get going on today's post, devoted to Kevin Lynch's seminal book on urban image Image of the City, I want to comment on my post from yesterday regarding architectural commissions in North Korea.  What completely floors me is PTL Architecture and Planning logic for taking commissions in the "Hermit Kingdom" and a the veritable rogue's gallery of countries.  Specifically, I want to address Otto Cheng's comment about the lack of interest in creative innovation in Hong Kong and Shanghai, where PTL's offices are located.  After considering the images of PTL's proposed project, all I can say is Mr. Cheng should talk.  The traditional Korean drum imagery is, at best, kitsch.  Was that the best design PTL architects could come up with?  It would seem that the lack of interest in creativity has rubbed off on PTL.  Further, the dictators of North Korea, Kyrgyzstan, and the leaders of Iraq and Russia are not so much interested in building public projects that will benefit their countries in the short and long-run, rather, they're just interested in self-aggrandizement.  Is this something that a firm like PTL Architecture and Planning wants to be associated with?  I guess the answer is yes.  O.K. enough about that.  Onto something less vitriolic.

Cover of Image of The City
architectureandurbanism.blogspot.com

In addition to reading Jane Jacobs' book Death and Life of American Cities, I've been reading Kevin Lynch's book Image of The City.  Mr. Lynch was an American urban planner and writer who wrote this highly influential book that examines how observers take in information about a city.  Cities are full of vital information that both reveal and conceal much.  The architecture and street grids are parts of the puzzle.  The most crucial way of absorbing the information is through our own eyes.  How we see this information and how it's relayed to the our brain is the subject of this critical study.

The moving parts in a city, particularly people and their daily activities are just as important as the stationery objects.  People are part of the spectacle that Jane Jane Jacobs refers to as the "sidewalk ballet."  More often, than not, our perception of the city is not a sustained one.  We take in the information, process it, and discard it when it is no longer useful.  The information is often mixed with other fragmentary information.  Not only is the object perceived by other people but it is also the product of many hands, each modifying the product for their own purposes.  While the growth of a city can only be partially controlled, the final result is the product of a succession of phases, each holding some sensual delight.  An American city is an oddity, some would say an impossibility but they can offer a panoply of sensual delights or, at the very least a sense of stability.

Kevin Lynch's Legend of Cities
tylertate.com

Image of The City looks at the visual quality of an American city by analyzing the mental image of the city perceived by its citizens.  The focus of the book is on legibility or clarity of the urban landscape.  Why is legibility so important?  Clarity of the urban image is crucial in considering the environment at the urban scale of size, time, and complexity.  In order to understand this concept, we have to consider the city as perceived by the people who live there.  Structuring and identifying the environment is an important ability among humans.  The way humans structure and identify their environment is through cues.  Specifically, visual sensations of light, color, sound, motion, and so forth.  Innate instinct is not really part of the puzzle.  Instinct seems to be a product of these cues-so of a learned behavior if you will.  From this, a method of way-finding is honed.

Sketch Map of Boston
libraries.mit.edu

In the process of way-finding, the key connection is the environmental image, the general mental picture of the exterior physical world held by a person.  This image is a product of immediate sensation and the memory of past experiences.  These are used to interpret information and guide the accompanying action. The need to recognize and organize our surroundings has important emotional and practical value in our lives.  Think of the place where you live.  From your mental map, you know how to move about your surroundings quickly and efficiently.  This map in your head is pattern, structure, and organization.  One element out of order can upset your sense of stability.  At the macro-level, a clear and ordered image of a city can enable the urban infrastructure to function in a an orderly manner.  Thus, we can surmise that a clear image of a city can be useful for human growth.

Problem of Boston
csiss.org

A vivid and integrated physical setting, capable of creating a clear image also plays a social role.  If can provide the raw material for the symbols and collection of memories of a group communication.  A notable landscape is the bones upon which a cultural builds their foundational mythology.  Again, think of your hometown and the memories associated with that.  A solid environmental image gives the processor a sense of emotional security.  It allows an individual to create a harmonious relationship between him or her-self and the world at large.  A distinctive and clear environment not only offers a sense of security but also heightens the potential depth and intensity of human experience.  The city, itself, has the ability to be a powerful symbol of a complex society.  If the city is visually well organized, then it can also have strong expressive meaning.

Map for perpetual form of the city
museum.mit.edu

One can argue that legibility is unnecessary because the human brain is adaptable and experience can guide a person in their way-finding.  However, even without the sun, moon, stars, currents, sea-birds, and the sea acting as some sort of visual and sensual cue unaided navigation would be impossible.  Thus, we can infer that getting lost is almost impossible because humans have learned to recognize certain sensual cues that can direct way-finding.  At the very micro-level, I've repeatedly had the experience of going into a new branch of a store I frequent and being able to navigate my way without the aide of a map.  Why was this possible?  This was possible because, from past experiences and memories, my brain was able to guide my path through the store quickly and efficiently.  At the macro-level, I had a very strange experience on my first visit to the city of San Francisco, California.  I was able to make my way around the city quite comfortably.  Mind you, I'd never been there before that point.  Strange, no?

Pemba Citadel
manmanpemba.com

 How does the image of a city get built?  Environmental images are the result of a two-way process between the observer and the environment.  An environment can suggest distinction and relationships.  My experience in San Francisco may have been a subconscious byproduct of this process. Who's to say, it's still a mystery to me.  Perhaps my experience was the result of my conscious and subconscious selecting, organizing, and endowing the meanings of what was in front of my eyes.  the coherence of these image can about in several ways.  First, while there may have been little in way the real objects were ordered that were especially noteworthy, the mental picture gained an identity and organization through familiarity.  I know what a city is supposed to look like, in a general sense, and was able to superimpose that image on what was actually in front of me.  Second, urban planners are primarily interested in the external way in which interaction produces the environmental image.  Different environments ease the process of image-making.  This varies according to age, gender, culture, occupation, and so on, each person imprinting their own concept of the urban image.  Finally, the system of individual orientation varies around the world and culture to culture.  Every person the world over imprints their own concept of image based on his/her interaction with the environment.  This enables the individual to recognize and systematize their environment thus creating legibility.

The idea of legibility of a city is a potent one.  It is based on how our eyes take in the information presented to use in our environment and organize into a solid and coherent pattern.  This coherent pattern creates a structure that serves as the skeleton for how we make our in our environment.  The image making of a city is a topic I'll coming back to.  In the meantime, if you have a chance pick up Image of The City by Kevin Lynch.  It's not a long book and not too technical.

I'll be posting image on Pinterest over the weekend at http://www.pinterest.com/glamtroy.  As always you can find me at http://www.facebook.com/lenorelowen, or on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/glamavon.  Also, check out my posts on on google+ http://plus.google.com.