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The Image of the City (Harvard-MIT Joint Center for Urban Studies Series) Paperback – June 15, 1960
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What does the city's form actually mean to the people who live there? What can the city planner do to make the city's image more vivid and memorable to the city dweller? To answer these questions, Mr. Lynch, supported by studies of Los Angeles, Boston, and Jersey City, formulates a new criterion—imageability—and shows its potential value as a guide for the building and rebuilding of cities. The wide scope of this study leads to an original and vital method for the evaluation of city form. The architect, the planner, and certainly the city dweller will all want to read this book.
- Print length208 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherThe MIT Press
- Publication dateJune 15, 1960
- Grade level12 and up
- Reading age18 years and up
- Dimensions7.94 x 5.24 x 0.41 inches
- ISBN-100262620014
- ISBN-13978-0262620017
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This small and readable book makes one of the most important modern contributions to large-scale design theory.
—David A. Crane, Journal of the American Institute of Planners—From the Back Cover
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Product details
- Publisher : The MIT Press; Illustrated edition (June 15, 1960)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 208 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0262620014
- ISBN-13 : 978-0262620017
- Reading age : 18 years and up
- Grade level : 12 and up
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 7.94 x 5.24 x 0.41 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #79,130 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #12 in Urban Planning and Development
- #13 in Urban & Land Use Planning (Books)
- #33 in Sociology of Urban Areas
- Customer Reviews:
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Customers find the book's readability an important part of navigating the content. They also say it sets a good foundation for understanding urban planning. However, some customers find the type extremely small.
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Customers find the book very easy to understand. They also say that legibility is an important part of navigating the book.
"...Legibility, or readability, is an important part of navigating the city landscape...." Read more
"...The book was in new condition. It was an alright read." Read more
"The book is excellent but difficult to read because the type is extremely small...." Read more
"...It is clear and easy to read. It's not impossible to finish reading the book in a few hours...." Read more
Customers find the book provides a good foundation for understanding urban planning, and find the methodology fascinating.
"...it is the book. and it is a useful classic planning text that all planners should read." Read more
"Lynch's methodology is really fascinating- he was basically the pioneer of mental mapping and this research method shows up quite well in his piece...." Read more
"Very interesting read, sets a good foundation for understanding urban planning. It can be dry at times, but is otherwise very easy to understand." Read more
"An interesting and necessary read for urban design..." Read more
Customers find the book extremely small and difficult to read.
"...My one complaint? Why is the text in this book SO SMALL!?..." Read more
"The book is excellent but difficult to read because the type is extremely small...." Read more
"Images too small that you can't barely see." Read more
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The city is a constantly growing experience. As you move through a city you are experiencing things in an expanding way. "At every instant, there is more than the eye can see, more than the ear can hear, a setting or a view waiting to be explored. Nothing is experienced by itself, but always in relation to its surroundings, the sequences of events leading up to it, the memory of past experiences"(Lynch 1). There is always something more to add to how you experience the city. These memories and experiences of a city become meaningful to the people who live there. To Lynch, visual quality of a city and the mental images associated with it are of upmost importance when studying the urban landscape.
A city can be considered a very important and powerful symbol of a society. In The Image of the City Lynch explores the cities of Boston, Jersey City and Los Angeles revealing the knowledge of the inhabitants and how they view their city. When asked to describe a city, any person would say that a city is a collection of "streets, buildings, sidewalks, bridges," but Lynch prefers to describe the city as a interrelated connection of paths, edges, districts, nodes and landmarks. Paths are the channels through which the observer moves and that constitute the predominant element in their image, whereas edges are linear elements that are not paths- they are lateral references, sometimes boundaries. Districts, nodes and landmarks are also prominent parts of a city. Districts are sections of the city that a person "enters" and that have identifying characteristics. Nodes are points within the city that can be used as destinations or points of interest, such as transit stations. Landmarks serve the same purpose as nodes; however, they are physical objects, where nodes can be plazas, intersections or park spaces.
"A distinctive and legible environment not only offers security but also heightens the potential depth and intensity of human experience"(Lynch 5). An environmental image links person to place and gives a sense or emotional security. An environmental image is made up of three components- identity, structure and meaning. First, you must identify the object, then determine the spatial or pattern relation, and assign an emotional value about it.
The importance that you place on a landscape or place is called an environmental image. Lynch ascertains that there are two aspects of an environmental image, what is distinct within the environment, and what the observer thinks and what meaning they associate with their surroundings. "People observe the city while moving through it, and along these paths the other environmental elements are arranged and related" (Lynch 47). Lynch discovered through surveys and interviews from these cities that people tend to adapt to their surroundings, and formulate patterns and identity from what they see and experience every day. People place a significant amount of importance on their personal environmental images, and this can influence their reactions to changes.
As planners "we are continuously engaged in the attempt to organize our surroundings, to structure and identify them" (Lynch 90). In designing cities it is always important to acknowledge the importance of legibility and an environmental image. "When reshaping cities it should be possible to give them a form which facilitates these organizing efforts rather than frustrates them" (Lynch 90).
Other than that, a really fascinating look into normative planning strategy.
Also of interest for anyone interested in the human perception, especially of large, time-scale objects.