MODULE 3 – THEORIES IN URBAN DESIGN

3.1 THE IMAGE OF THE CITY BY KEVIN LYNCH

"What does the city's form actually mean to the people

who live there?"

This question is answered by the theory of Kevin

Lynch supported by the studies of Los Angeles, Boston,
and Jersey City. The theory is what they
called "imageability", and it shows its potential value as
a guide for the building and rebuilding of cities.

 Imageability means quality in a physical object

that evokes a strong image
 Imageability of a city is important to
understanding its urban design
 images may be analyzed into 3 components:
o Identity (as a separate entity)
o Structure (the spatial relationship between 2. Edge
elements) - Are linear elements not used or not considered
o Meaning (practical or emotional) as paths
- Are the boundaries between two phases and
Lynch says that images may shift depending on linear breaks in continuity
circumstances of viewing. The contents of the city - Examples are shores, railroads, cuts, edges of
images so far studied, which are referrable to physical development, and walls
forms, can conveniently be classified into five types of - Are lateral references rather than coordinate
elements: axes
- They may be barriers, more or less penetrable,
1. Path
which close one region off from another
Channels along which the observer moves
- They may be seams, lines along which two
- May be streets, walkways, transit lines, canals,
regions are related and joined together
and railroads
- Not as dominant as paths but are for many
- Are the predominant elements in their image
people important organizing features,
- People observe the city while moving through it.
particularly in the role of holding together
- Along these paths, the other environmental
generalized areas. This may be in the form of
elements are arranged and related.
the outline of a city by water or wall.
Strong paths are:
Strong edges are:
 easily identifiable
 Visually prominent
 have continuity and directional quality
 Continuous
 are aligned with a larger system
 Impenetrable to cross-movement

3. District
- Are the medium-to-large sections of the city
- Conceived of having a two-dimensional extent,
which the observer mentally enters "inside of"
and recognizable as having some common,
identifying character
- Most people structure their city to some extent
with individual differences as to whether paths
or districts are the dominant elements
- The district's dominance depends upon the
individual and the given district
They may be:
Districts are recognizable as having a common,
identifying character with a variety of physical
characteristics or components. These are:
 activity and use
 building types and detail
 physical characteristics (topography,
boundaries, age, etc.)
4. Nodes
- Are points, strategic spots in a city into which an
observer can enter
- Are intensive foci(focus) in which the observer is
traveling
- Are also directly related to the concept of paths
and the concept of districts.
- May be simply concentrations, gain their
importance from being the condensation of
some use or physical character, or as a street-
corner hangout or an enclosed square.
1. junctions and concentrations
2. a thematic concentration
 Some of these concentration nodes are the focus
and epitome of a district, over which their influence
radiates and of which they stand as a symbol. They may
be called cores.
5. Landmarks
- Are another point of reference but in this case,
the observer does-not enters within them.
- Are physical elements that may vary widely in
scale.
- Unique and special in place of the continuities
used earlier.
- Other landmarks are primarily local, being
visible only in restricted localities and from
certain approaches.
- These are the innumerable signs, storefront,
trees, doorknobs, and other urban detail, which
fill in the image of most observers. They have
been frequently used clues of identity.
3.2 RESPONSIVE ENVIRONMENT BY IAN BENTLEY
If the concept of Imageability can answer
questions on how does the city's form affects its image,
this theoretical study of Ian Bentley and his colleagues
discusses that the built environment should provide
freedom of choices to the people that make a place.
This concept is what they called a "responsive
environment". They give emphasis on the idea that
planning towards a responsive environment should be
a "product of progressive social and political
attitudes".
How does design affect choice?
The design of a place affects the choices people can
make, at many levels:
 affects where people can go, and where they
cannot; the quality we shall call permeability
 affects the range of uses available to people; the
quality we shall call variety
 affects how easily people can understand what
opportunities it offers; the quality we shall
call legibility
 affects the degree to which people can use a
given place for different purposes; the quality
we shall call robustness
 affects whether the detailed appearance of the
place makes people aware of the choices
available; the quality we shall call visual
appropriateness
 affects people's choice of sensory experiences;
the quality we shall call richness
 affects the extent to which people can put their
own stamp on a place; we shall call
this personalization
Permeability
- Only places that are accessible to people can
offer them choices.
- The quality of permeability is the number of
alternative ways through an environment -
central to making responsive places.
- has fundamental layout implications. In the two
diagrams, the first image offers a greater choice
of routes than the second image. It is therefore
more permeable.
 - Easily accessible places are irrelevant unless
they offer a choice of experience.
- particularly of uses is the second key
quality next to permeability.
- A variety of experience implies places with
varied forms, uses, and meanings
- Developers and planners are more concerned
with economic performance and easier
management than with variety. Thus, the end-
"Physical and visual permeability depends on how the product is the modern zoned city, where choice
network of public space divides the environment into depends on mobility.
blocks."

There is a decline in public permeability because of

current design trends

1. Scale of development

2. Hierarchical layout

Legibility

- considered as the third stage of design.

- In practice, the degree of choice offered by a
place depends on how legible it is; how easily
people can understand its layout.
3. Segregation - In this stage, the elements that give
the perceptual structure to the place should
now be brought into the design process.

Legibility in the old days - important buildings stood out.

Variety
 - Legibility of form and use is reduced in the - A place of temporary commercial shops and can
modern environment. also be a place for public events and gathering.
- By this fourth stage in the design, we have
begun to focus on individual buildings and
outdoor places. Our objective is to make their
spatial and constructional organization suitable
for the widest possible range of likely activities
- Legibility is strengthened by Lynch's physical and future uses, both in the short and the long
elements of the city. term.

- Segregation also reduces legibility

Visual Appropriateness

- This stage of design focuses on what the output

should look like in more detail. This is important
because it strongly affects
Robustness the interpretations people put on places -
whether designers want them or not, people do
- These are places that can be used for many interpret places as having meanings.
different purposes. - A place has visual appropriateness when
these meanings help to make people aware of
THREE KEY FACTORS THAT SUPPORT LONG TERM
the choices offered by the qualities we have
ROBUSTNESS:
already discussed in this topic.
 Building depth
 Access
 Building Height

THE DESIGN OF SMALL-SCALE ROBUSTNESS ALSO

DEPENDS ON EXTRA FACTORS:

 hard and soft spaces

 active and passive spaces
 size and shape - A vocabulary of visual cues must be found to
 details communicate levels of choice.
INTERPRETATIONS REINFORCE RESPONSIVENESS BY:
 supporting the place's legibility
 supporting the place's variety
 supporting the place's robustness
Richness
- By this stage, we are dealing with the smallest
details of the project.
- We must decide whereabouts in the scheme to
provide richness, both visual and non-visual,
and select appropriate materials and
constructional techniques for achieving it.
Design for all senses
For most people, sight is the dominant sense. Most
of the information we handle is channeled through our
eyes, so a large part of this stage of design is concerned
with visual richness. But richness is not a purely visual
matter, other senses also have design implications such
as:
 the sense of motion
 the sense of smell
 the sense of hearing
 the sense of touch
A starting point
For richness, we must design a place to offer
sensory choices. This implies designing so that people
can choose different sense-experiences on different
occasions. So, designers must begin by asking how users
can choose different sense-experience from a fixed
environment.
How do users choose?
There are only two ways people can choose
from different sense-experience if the environment
itself is fixed:
 by focusing their attention on different sources
of sense-experience on different occasions
 by moving away from one source towards
another.
The effectiveness of each method depends on
whether the sense concerned can be directed in a
selective way, or whether it picks up information
indiscriminately, from all sides at once. The sense varies
from totally indiscriminate to highly selective, as shown
in the image below.
 the sense of motion - gained through
movement to imply different possibilities for
moving through a place.
 the sense of smell - cannot be directed and can
only be achieved by moving away from one
source towards another.
 the sense of hearing - users have limited control
in which the act of hearing itself is involuntary.
 the sense of touch - both voluntary and
involuntary. The richness of surface texture can
be packed into the smallest of spaces but a
variety of air movement and temperature
should be reserved for large ones.
 the sense of sight - most dominant in terms of
information input and is the one easiest to
control
Personalization
- allows people to achieve an environment that
bears the stamp of their own tastes and values.
- makes a person's pattern of activities clearer.
The image below shows the difference between the affects two key aspects of personalization: [1] the
controlled design versus individual choice. money spent on it and [2] its permanence.

TYPES OF PERSONALIZATION: (users personalize in two

ways)

 to improve practical facilities

 to change the image of a places

Building Type - people mainly personalize places they

Why personalize image?
regularly use for long periods. But public areas which
People personalize a building's image for two will probably not be personalized because nobody stays
main reasons: there long enough. These public spaces are often the
areas of most public significance and their lack of
 as an affirmation of their own tastes and personalization will call for extra richness.
values (affirmative personalization)
 because they perceive its existing mage as
inappropriate (remedial personalization)

Between these two reasons, affirmative personalization

must be clearly supported.

Technology - supporting personalization includes

making it physically easy. This means that the
technology of the design should be well-matched to the
expertise of the likely users. Since expertise is hard to
predict, it is best to use materials and techniques which
unskilled people can easily master, at least where
personalization is most likely.
CONSTRAINTS ON PERSONALIZATION

Personalization is affected by three main factors:

 tenure
 building type
 technology

Tenure - personalization is unlikely to happen unless the

user of a place has a claim to its occupation. whether by
custom or legal order. The balance of power between
user and owner is set by the tenure system. Tenure
3.3 SPACE IN URBAN DESIGN, URBAN AESTHETICS, AND
URBAN PATTERN

Urban Space

 Architectural Space – created by the erection of two

walls, creating a space in between them which is
separated from the natural space around them
 Urban Space – is wherein streets, squares, parks,
playgrounds, and gardens are all “voids” that have been
limited or defined to create an enclosed space
 Internal Space – defined by the building itself (corridors
and room)
 External Space – defined by that building and the others
around it (streets) and squares)