AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Introduction

Physical Environment & how Human Mind relates to it. ?

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AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Introduction

Physical Environment & how Human Mind perceives it.

AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Introduction

Physical Environment & how Human Mind maps it.

AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Concepts of reading Urban Space

Image-ability by Kevin Lynch

Townscape by Gordon Cullen

Sense of Place & Genius Loci

Collective Memory, Historic reading of the city

& Urban Artifacts by Aldo Rossi

Social aspects of urban space by Jane Jacobs, William Whyte

and Jan Gehl
AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Image-ability by Kevin Lynch

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The Image of the City by Kevin Lynch

Legibility

Building the Image

Structure and Identity

Image-ability

Elements of the image of the city

AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Image-ability by Kevin Lynch

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Legibility

“ By this we mean the ease with which its parts can be

recognized and can be organized into a coherent pattern, just as this
paragraph, if it is legible, can be visually grasped as a 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 an over-all pattern. “
AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Image-ability by Kevin Lynch

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Legibility
AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Image-ability by Kevin Lynch

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Building the Image

two-way process
“Environmental images are the result of a
between the observer and his environment. The
environment suggests distinctions and relations, and the observer , with
great adaptability and in the light of his own purposes, selects, organizes, and
endows with meaning what he sees. The image so developed now limits and
emphasizes what is seen, while the image itself is being tested against the
Thus the
filtered perceptual input in a constant interacting process.
image of a given reality may vary significantly
between different observers.”
AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Image-ability by Kevin Lynch

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Structure and Identity

“An environmental image may be analyzed into three components:

identity, structure, and meaning. It is useful to abstract these
for analysis, if it is remembered that in reality they always appear together. A
workable image requires first, the identification of an object,
which implies its distinction from other things, its recognition as a separable
entity. This is called identity, not in the sense of equality with something else,
but with the meaning of individuality or oneness. Second, the image
must include the spatial or pattern relation of the object to
the observer and to other objects. Finally, this object must
have some meaning for the observer, whether practical or
emotional. Meaning is also a relation, but quite a different one from spatial or
pattern relation.”
AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Image-ability by Kevin Lynch

space
Image-ability

“ It is 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.”
AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Image-ability by Kevin Lynch

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The Elements of a Image-ability for a City
Paths: The streets, sidewalks, trails, and other channels in which people travel. Lynch noted that
paths were often the predominant elements in people’s image with the other elements being
arranged and related along paths.
Edges: May be barriers, more or less penetrable, which close one region off from another, or they
may be seams, lines along which two regions are related and joined together.
Districts: Areas characterized by common characteristics, these are the medium to large areas,
which observers mentally enter ‘inside of’ and/or have some common identifying character.
Distinctive physical characteristics might include ‘thematic continuities’, such as texture, space, form,
detail, symbol and building.
Nodes: The strategic spots in a city into which an observer can enter, and which are the intensive
foci and from which the person is travelling.
Landmarks: Landmark’s key physical characteristics was singularity some aspect that is unique or
memorable in the context. Some landmarks – towers, spires, hills are distant and are typically seen
from many angles and from distance, over the top of smaller elements. Other landmarks – sculptures,
signs and trees are primarily local being visible only in restricted localities and from certain
approaches.
AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Image-ability by Kevin Lynch

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The Elements of a Image-ability for a City
AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Image-ability by Kevin Lynch

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The Elements of a City
AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Image-ability by Kevin Lynch

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The Elements of a City
AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Townscape by Gordon Cullen

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The Concise Townscape by Gordon Cullen

Townscape

Serial Vision

Place

Content

Functional Tradition
AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Townscape by Gordon Cullen

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The concept of Townscape
Townscape is a visual art contained in the arrangement of buildings, roads, trees, nature and urban
environment that decorate the space. The townscape is one way that can be used in term of
physical visual to recognize the physical form of a city. The townscape can also be identified by the
the design of buildings and roads that
shape of arrangement that is by
creates various emotional levels to the observer.
Townscape concept is the basis for Architect, Planners and those who pay attention to the
Appearance of the city. Physical form of urban space influenced and determined by the shape and
mass of the building. The linkage is perceived psychologically and physically by the observer as
well as the physical form of urban space and the shape of the building mass. In addition, the
relationship can also be seen visually on the quality of a city is determined by the shape and size of
the shape and arrangement of urban space

These values should be added in the urban design of the city so that people can emotionally enjoy
a good urban environment through psychological and physical sense.
AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Townscape by Gordon Cullen

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The concept of Townscape
Gordon Cullen defined urban design as The Art of Relationship. The goal of urban planning
was to manipulate groups of buildings and physical town elements so as to achieve visual impact
and drama. In other words, cities should be designed from the point of view of the moving
person. Cities come alive through the drama of juxtaposition.

Firstly, cities should not be too chaotic or too ordered. In that case,
pedestrians will never get bored walking along the streets. Urban planners should always take both
order and variety into consideration.

Secondly, cities should be designed with visible life. It’s fascinating to see what
people are up to. A city should be full of people doing things that we can see through the window.
Visible life makes city more energetic.
AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Townscape by Gordon Cullen

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Serial Vision

visual images captured by an observer

Serial vision can be explained as the
who happens to be walking from one place to another in a region. Recording by
observers view the image into pieces which gradually forms an integral image recording area for
observers. Typically, there will be similarities or a marker of the pieces of the view that gives
certainty to the observer that he was still in the same region..
AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Townscape by Gordon Cullen

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Serial Vision

PLAN
AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Townscape by Gordon Cullen

space
Serial Vision

PLAN
AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Townscape by Gordon Cullen

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Serial Vision
AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Townscape by Gordon Cullen

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Place
Place are owned observers feeling emotionally at the time in a certain place. For example a man on
the edge of a cliff will have a very lively sense of position where as a man at the end of deep cave
will react to the fact of enclosure. Place influenced by the boundaries that exist in such a place.

Content
Content is the content (Fabric includes color, texture, scale, style, character, personality and
uniqueness) of an area that affects one's feelings toward the state of the city environment. Content
depends on two factors, namely the level of conformity and the level of creativity.

Functional Tradition
Functional tradition is quality in the elements that make up the urban environment.
AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Sense of Place & Genius Loci

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Sense of Place

The term sense of place has been used in many different ways. To some, it is a characteristic that
some geographic places have and some do not, while to others it is a feeling or perception held by
people (not by the place itself). It is often used in relation to those characteristics that make a place
special or unique, as well as to those that foster a sense of authentic human attachment and
belonging.

Genius Loci

In classical Roman religion, a genius loci was the protective spirit of a place. Alexander Pope, an
18th-century English poet made the Genius Loci an important principle in garden and landscape
design. In contemporary usage, genius loci usually refers to a location's distinctive atmosphere, or a
"spirit of place", rather than necessarily a guardian spirit.
AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Collective Memory, Historic reading of the city & Urban Artifacts by Aldo Rossi
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The Architecture of the City by Aldo Rossi

Collective Memory

Historic reading of the city

Urban Artifacts
AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Collective Memory, Historic reading of the city & Urban Artifacts by Aldo Rossi
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Collective Memory, Historic reading of the city & Urban Artifacts
The value of history seen as collective memory, as the relationship of the collective to its place, is
that it helps us to grasp the significance of the urban structure, its individuality, and its architecture
which is the form of this individuality. This individuality ultimately is connected to an original artifact.
It is an event and a form.

Thus the union between the past and the future exists in the very idea of the city that it flows through
in the same way that memory flows through the life of a person; and always, in order to be realized,
this idea must not only shape but be shaped by reality. This shaping is a permanent aspect of a
city’s unique artifacts, monuments, and the idea we have of it. It also explains why in antiquity the
founding of a city became part of the city’s mythology.

One can say that the city itself is the collective memory of its people, and like memory it is
associated with objects and places. The city is the locus of the collective memory. This relationship
between the locus and the citizenry then becomes the city’s predominant image, both of architecture
and of landscape, and as certain artifacts become part of its memory, new ones emerge.
AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Social aspects of urban space by Jane Jacobs, William H. Whyte and Jan Gehl

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

Failure of the City Planning process

The importance of Sidewalks

(Life in the streets)

City Diversity

Decline and Regeneration

City Performance
AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Social aspects of urban space by Jane Jacobs, William H. Whyte and Jan Gehl

Failure of the City Planning processes

Influential ideas in orthodox planning, starting from Howard’s Garden city, indeed a set of self-sufficient
small towns, ideal for all but those with a plan for their own lives. Concurrently, City Beautiful was
developed to sort out the monuments from the rest of the city, and assemble them in a unit. Later Le
Corbusier devised the Radiant City, composed of skyscrapers within a park. Jacobs argues that all
these are irrelevant to how cities work.

City Diversity
The conditions for city diversity or the economic workings that produce lively cities are as follows:

First, districts must serve more than one primary function to ensure presence of people using the
same common facilities at different times.
Second, blocks should be short, to increase path options between points of departure and
destinations, and therefore enhance social and as a result economic development.
Third, buildings should be at varying ages, accommodating different people and businesses which
can afford different levels of rents.
Fourth, there should be a dense concentration of people, including residents, to promote visible city
life. It is important that all of these four conditions are necessary to generate diversity, and absence
of each one would result in homogeny and ultimately dullness
AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Social aspects of urban space by Jane Jacobs, William H. Whyte and Jan Gehl

The importance of Sidewalks (Life in the streets)

There are three primary uses of sidewalks: safety, contact, and assimilating children.

Street safety is promoted by pavements clearly marking a public/private separation, and by

spontaneous protection with the eyes of both pedestrians and those watching the continual flow of
pedestrians from buildings.

To make this eye protection effective at enhancing safety, there should be “an unconscious assumption
of general street support” when necessary, or an element of “trust”. As the main contact venue,
pavements contribute to building trust among neighbors over time. Moreover, self-appointed public
characters such as storekeepers enhance the social structure of sidewalk life by learning the news at
retail and spreading it. Jacobs argues that such trust cannot be built in artificial public places such as a
game room in a housing project. Sidewalk contact and safety, together, thwart segregation and racial
discrimination.

A final function of sidewalks is to provide a non-matriarchy environment for children to play. This is not
achieved in the presumably “safe” city parks - an assumption that Jacobs seriously challenges due to
the lack of surveillance mechanisms in parks.
AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Social aspects of urban space by Jane Jacobs, William H. Whyte and Jan Gehl

Decline and Regeneration

1. The self-destruction of diversity
2. The curse of border vacuums
3. Unslumming and slumming
4. Gradual money and cataclysmic money

City performance
Effective tactics to actually improve city performance:

1. Subsidized dwelling
2. Attrition of automobiles as opposed to erosion of cities by cars
3. Improvement of visual order without sacrificing diversity
4. Salvaging projects
5. Redesigning governing and planning districts
AR6711 - Urban Design | Theorizing and Reading Urban Space

Social aspects of urban space by Jane Jacobs, William H. Whyte and Jan Gehl

The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces by William H. Whyte

Public Plaza

The Undesirables

Triangulation