THE IMAGE OF THE CITY KEVIN LYNCH

In this book, Lynch argues that people in urban situations orient themselves by
means of mental maps
He compares three American cities (Boston, Jersey City, and Los Angeles) and
looks at how people orient themselves in these cities.
Boston represents the European style cities with a long history and rich
culture, while this thematic vividness is typically associated with formlessness
or confusing arrangements.
Jersey City, the comment is completely negative. There is nothing but a
complete confusion of an uncoordinated street system, with formlessness of
space and heterogeneity of structure that mark the blighted areas of America.
Los Angeles, on the contrary, is the example of newly developed cities in
America, its straightforward roads and undifferentiated grid patterns are also
the general models of almost all the newly-built cities in developing countries.
However, except by minute attention to the distant background, it would be
hard to distinguish L.A. from the centres of many other cities.
A central notion in this book is that of legibility (also called image
ability and visibility).
CONCEPT OF LEGIBILITY
It is said to be the ease with which people understand the layout of a place
To understand the layout of the city, people make a mental map, which
contains mental images of the city constrains.

Lynch proposes that these mental maps consist of five elements:

Paths: These are the channels long which the observer moves ,they may be streets
,walkways, transit lines, canals, railroads.
Edges: are the linear elements not used as paths by the observer. they are the
boundaries and linear breaks in continuity: shores, railroad cuts , edges of
development , walls.
Districts : are the medium to large sections of the city which the observer mentally
enters inside of and which are recognizable as having some common
,identification character,
Nodes: are points, the strategic spots in a city into which an observer can enter, and
which are intensive foci to and from which he is travelling. They may be primarily
junctions and concentrations.
Landmarks: are another type of point-reference, but in this case the observer does
not enter within them, they are external. They are usually a rather simply defined
physical object: building, sign, store, or mountain

These elements cannot exist individually, they must act together as a whole to reveal
an integrated city image. It is a total orchestration of these elements which combine
together as a vivid and dense image.
A clear mental map of the urban environment is needed to counter the always
looming fear of disorientation. A legible mental map gives people an important sense
of emotional security, it is the framework for communication and conceptual
organization, and heightens the depth and intensity of everyday human experience.
The city itself is thus a powerful symbol of a complex society
An environmental image has three components:
Identity (the recognition of urban elements as separate entities)
Structure (the relation of urban elements to other objects and to the observer)
meaning (its practical and emotional value to the observer)
It is important that these urban elements are not hermetically designed into precise
and final detail but present an open-ended order.
Agenda of Kevin Lynch
People should be able to acquire a clear mental map of their urban
environment.
People should be able to learn how to navigate in this environment by
training.
People must be able to operate and act upon their environment.
It is an incredible valuable work to understand how people perceive, inhabit and
move around in the urban landscape. It shows that urban space is not just composed
of its physical characteristics but equally by representations in mental images.
Mobility is not just (the potential for) free-flowing movement but heavily relies on
structuring and identifying the environment through the aid of mental maps.
This book is about the image of a city, about its importance, its variety and how
citizens react to it. Lynch summarized the basic elements of the image and revealed
an approach of how to improve it.