The Image of The City

THE IMAGE OF THE CITY
PRESENTED BY: GROUP ZANELLE

8 BEVERFORD
ANZHERINA CRUZ
LESSON OVERVIEW:
• Introduction
• Legibility
• Principles of Legibility
• Imageability
• Three Cities
• Elements of the City
INTRODUCTION
There seems to be a public image of any given city which is the
overlap of many individual images. Or perhaps there is a series of
public images, each held by some significant number of citizens. Such
group images are necessary if an individual is to operate successfully
within his environment and to cooperate with his fellows.
Each individual picture is unique. with some content that is rarely or

never communicated, yet it approximates the public image, which, in
different environments, is more or less compelling, more or less
embracing. Every citizens has had a long associations with some part
of the says, city, and his image is soaked in memories and meanings.
LEGIBILITY
The apparent clarity or “legibility” of the cityscape.
It mean the ease with which it's part can be recognized

into a coherent pattern or just as a printed page, if it is
legible can be visually grasped as related pattern of
recognizable symbols, so a legible city would be one
whose districts or landmarks or pathways are easily
identifiable and are easily grouped into over-all pattern.
PRINCIPLES FOR EFFECTIVE WAY
FINDING INCLUDES:
1. Create an identity at each location, different from all others
2. Use landmarks to provide orientation cues and memorable locations
3. Create well-structured paths
4. Create regions of differing visual character
5. Don’t give the user too many choices in navigation
6. Use survey views
7. Provide signs at decision points to help wayfinding directions
8. Use sight lines to show what’s ahead
IMAGEABILITY
Physical qualities which relate to the attributes of identity
and structure in the mental image. This leads to the
definition of what might be called "image ability, that
quality in a physical object" which gives it a high
probability of evoking a strong image in any given
observer.
It is that shape, color, or arrangement which facilitates the

making of vividly identified, powerfully structured,
highly useful mental images of the environment.
THREE CITIES
The image of the cities: Boston, Jersey Cities, and Los Angeles derived from the
consensus of verbal interviews and sketch maps.
BOSTON
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
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 structures that mark the
blighted areas of America.
LOS ANGELES
Los Angeles, on the contrary, is an example of
newly developed cities in America, it's
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 centers of many other cities.
ELEMENTS OF THE CITY DEFINED BY LYNCH
The contents of the city images so far studied , which are referable to physical forms ,
can conveniently be classified into five types of elements: paths , edges , districts ,
nodes , and landmarks.
PATHS
Paths are the channels along which the observer
customarily , occasionally, or potentially
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 , and along these paths the other
environmental elements are arranged and
related.
EDGES
Edges are the linear elements not used or considered as paths by
the observer. They are the boundaries between two phases ,
linear breaks in continuity: shores , railroad cuts, edges of
development , walls .
These edge elements , although probably not as dominant as

paths , are for many people important organizing features ,
particularly in the role o f holding together generalized areas , as
in the outline of a city by water or wall.
DISTRICTS
Districts are the medium-to-Iarge sections of the city , conceived of
as having two-dimensional extent , which the observer mentally
enters "inside of, " an d which are recognizable a s having some
common , identifying character . Always identifiable from the
inside , they are also use d for exterior reference if visible from the
outside.
Most people structure their city to some extent in this way , with
individual differences as to whether paths or districts are the
dominant elements . It seems to depend not only upon the
individual but also upon the given city.
NODES
Nodes are points, the strategic spots in a city into which
an observer can enter, and which are the intensive foci to
and from which he is traveling.
They may be primarily junctions, places of a break in

transportation, a crossing or convergence of paths,
moments of shift from one structure to another. Or the
nodes may be simply concentrations, which gain their
importance from being the condensation of some use or
physical character, as a street-corner hangout or an
enclosed square .
LANDMARKS
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.
They may be within the city or at such a distance that for

all practical purposes they symbolize a constant
direction. Such are isolated towers, golden domes , great
hills. Even a mobile point, like the sun , whose motion is
sufficiently slow an regular, may be employed .
THANK YOU!

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THE IMAGE OF THE CITY

PRESENTED BY: GROUP ZANELLE

Each individual picture is unique. with some content that is rarely or

It mean the ease with which it's part can be recognized

It is that shape, color, or arrangement which facilitates the

Boston represents the European style cities with a

Jersey City, the comment is completely negative.

These edge elements , although probably not as dominant as

They may be primarily junctions, places of a break in

They may be within the city or at such a distance that for

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