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Loading... The Image of the City (original 1960; edition 1960)by Kevin Lynch
Work InformationThe Image of the City by Kevin Lynch (1960)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. 194 p. Kevin Lynch's classic booklet is an excellent primer on public perception of urban space. Lynch distinguishes paths, edges, districts, nodes and landmarks to examine the mental models of our environments, in particular Boston, Jersey City and Los Angeles. The interesting map discussion together with illustrated guidebooks helped me familiarize myself with Boston for my upcoming visit. Apparently, more than forty years after publication, the Boston Central Artery still cuts the North End off from the rest of the center. Lynch's advocacy of landmarks to structure is a forerunner of the Bilbao effect, although he recommends simple designs people can grasp and understand. Who could draw an accurate representation of Gehry's various buildings? Only Prague's Dancing House would probably qualify. The methods appendix is thorough and usable. Overall, highly recommended. See Christopher Alexander for further elaboration on patterns and Jan Gehl for the application in real life urban design with examples from Copenhagen. no reviews | add a review
The classic work on the evaluation of city form. 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. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)711.40973The arts Area planning and landscape architecture Area planning (Civic art) Local community planning (City planning) History, geographic treatment, biographyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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