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LECTURE 2
The Visual Dimension
Abhishek K. Venkitaraman
Assistant Professor
LITERATURE
IMAGE OF A CITY
Lynch's core concept was the idea of the "legibility" of the built
environment.
That is, how easy can the parts of the cityscape be organized into a
recognizable pattern.
He conducted case studies in three U.S. cities: Boston, Los Angeles, and
Jersey City.
He used two primary methodologies. First, he conducted extensive
fieldwork observing the physical layout of the city. Then, in-depth
interviews with city residents were conducted to better understand the
mental image people have of their built environment.
Lynch identified five key elements that make up an individual's perception
of their city: paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks.
Apparent clarity
2 way process
Long familiarity
Identity
Striking features
Structure
New object
meaning
Well formed
Distinct
Remarkable
Invite eye and ear
His Concepts
Place legibility
Mental maps of a city
Paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks
Imageability
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Paths
Paths are the channels along which the observer 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.
How people associate and remember paths?
Customary travel along one specific path.
Concentration of special use or activity along a street may give it
prominence in the minds of observers.
Special faade characteristics were also important for path
identity.
People tended to think of path destinations and origin points:
they liked to know where paths came from and where they led
THE PATH
sense of progression
continuity
scaled
The dynamic
shaping of the
movement line
gives Identity
a Melodic Line.
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.
Districts
Districts are character areas perceived to have common
characteristics, a separate visual identity from the rest
of environment.
These areas can be recognized as a thematic unit.
Good physical characteristics of districts are determined by
continuities and homogeneities of facades materials,
textures, spaces, forms, details, symbols, building type,
uses, Activities, inhabitants, colors, skyline
topography, etc.(Lynch,1960).
All these features give a district its identity, create intimacy
between its parts, and identify the basic clues of the city.
THE EDGES
Termination points
visibility
Structuring the city
THE LANDMARK
singularity, its contrast with its context or background.
Sense of orientation
Fig: Districts
NODES
According to Lynch Nodes are the strategic foci into which the
observer can enter, typically either junctions of paths, or
concentrations of some characteristic (Lynch, 1960: 72).
In fact, the city itself can be imaged as a node with respect to a large
enough level.
Nodes can be recognized even when they are shapeless, but when
supported by a strong physical form, then they become memorable
(Lynch,1960).
Good recognizable node should have its identity through singularity and
continuity of walls, floor, planting, lighting, topography, silhouette,
function, clarity of shape and intensity of use.
Location determines nodes utilization, as locating nodes on main routes
make movement economy more efficient than those located away
from.
NODES
THE NODES
THE DISTRICTS
an area of homogeneous character
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. Their use involves the singling out of one
element from a host of possibilities.
Some landmarks are distant ones, typically seen from many angles
and distances, over the tops of smaller elements, and used as radial
references. 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; domes, great hills.
Townscape Madrid
Serial Vision is a tool with which human imagination can begin to mould the city into a coherent
drama.
The human mind reacts to a contrast, to the difference between things, and when two pictures
with a vivid contrast is felt, the town becomes visible in a deeper sense.
Two elements of serial vision: existing view and emerging view
Here what could simply have been one picture reproduced four times
Serial vision as a means of comprehending, enjoying and designing the public spaces of a city
by creating memorable visual contrasts and images.
SERIAL VISION
The Rashtrapati Bhavan is gradually revealed and the mystery culminates
Role of levels & screening
Each view enlarging the centre of the previous view & bringing us near to the terminal building
SERIAL VISION
Sequence of revelations.
Manipulate the elements of town so that impact on emotions is achieved.
To walk from one end of the plan to another at a uniform pace will provide a
sequence of surprise. so an impact is made on eye.
A picturesque approach to
urban space design.
Series of artistic principles:
i) ENCLOSURE
Rothenburg,Tauber square
For e.g.,
The square in Rothenburg,Germany has a building dividing the square
appropriately based on the thoroughfares existing there. Generally the built is
built with remaining built on site. this square stands out but with a reason. The
clarity of void is what was of utmost priority.
Town Squares
Most important factors for distribution:
Its function
Traffic patterns
Examples of types of squares and how they originated:
Port town - main square at the waterfront
City gates - space on either side often developed into squares, channelers of traffic and
long distance commerce
Palace square - exists universally
Square for nobility
" palace square" Could be extended to nobility - the granting to the private residence
the dignity of a public square
Traffic pressures at crossroads
Seen in Baroque city form - plazas inserted where radial avenues join
Greek Agora
Roman Fora
The Baroque
Rossio ,Lisboa,Portugal
court
Cathedral, Temple
St.Peters Rome
street,
shopping
Traffic Circle
Social
Trafalgar square,UK
Multiple systems
Renaissance and Baroque - towns squares arranged into systems of urban design
Often abstract rules of composition
Multiple systems of squares in Renaissance - Cataneo (1554) and Scamozzi (1615) treatises
Gridded schemes with squares inserted
Penn, Savannah
Even Versailles, a zenith of Baroque design
But as a rule:
Baroque - a rich variety of geometric shapes
Disencumbering
High point was 1880 - 1910 (although related
to 1950's and 1960s - Albany)
Setting monuments out in open spaces
Building isolation - seen as early as the
Renaissance
Laws of Indies advocated it
A church with a space around it = a cake on a platter (Sitte)
Must everything be seen all at once?
This was discussed even more so at mid-19th c.
Brought on in part by Haussmann
The ideology is that public buildings should be treated as
works of art
How much space was needed around the building to view it?
Typologies
Public places vary by use and by form
But they have multiple uses that change over time
Versatility is a central issue
The Classifiers
Josef Stubben
Manual for city planning, Der Stadtebau
Paul Zucker, 1959, Town and Square: From the Agora to the Village Green
Focused on space
Stops at 1800 because "awareness of third dimension vanishes in 19th c."
Rob Krier, Urban Space, 1979
Urban spaces as systems
Typology without history (examples come from everywhere, in any time)
Urban space in 3 main groups, according to the pattern of their ground plan:
1. the square
2. the circle
3. the triangle
Classification by
Paul Zucker
Closed Square:
Paris, France
Urban Square
Closed Square:
Urban Square
Place de lOdeon,
Paris
Urban Square
Pariser Platz,
Berlin
Urban Square
Urban Square
Urban Square
Nelsons column
Urban Square
Urban Square
Urban Square
Urban Square
Urban Square
Shapes of squares
Triangle - usually a result of crossroads; Place Dauphine was deliberate triangle, but at the
point of an island
Trapezoid Square - a perfect one is rare; Place de Vosges in Paris; because sides are equal, emphasis is
difficult
Rectangle is much more common, and allows emphasis on monument at one end
L-shape
Circle - the rond-point; the Place de L'Etoile; English version is the "circus"
Civic center
Place for public business, not necessarily communal self-government
Greek agora
Its function is political and social
Later commercial
Place for public meetings
Expression of collective political power
Middle ages
There is a religious center and a separate civic center
Two public forums
Age of Absolutism
Civic spaces vs. space for nobility
19th c., end of absolutism
civic center disperses into multiple squares
Place d'armes
Place for the army to show its muscle
State ceremonies with troops involved very common (in many cultures)
Games
Brueghel, 16th c.
Traffic
Throughout history there has been a debate about the conflict between the needs of traffic
and of people
Roman forum was closed to traffic
Ways to offset traffic, if open to it
turbine plaza, common in medieval; once inside traffic goes around
The English square was exclusive on principle, 17th and 18th centuries
French, in contrast, thought the public square should be free and open to everything
TOWNSCAPE
ENCLOSURE
CLOSURE
cutting up of the linear town system (streets, passages, etc.) into visually digestible
and coherent amounts whilst retaining the sense of progression
MULTIPLE ENCLOSURE
Visual survey
Graphic examination of the key physical elements and functional character
of an area.
Visual Analysis
The visual analysis has three main parts:
a study of a three dimensional public space,
a study of the two dimensional surfaces which enclose public space,
and
a study of architectural details which give an area its special character.
The most common
tools for recording
spatial
composition are
the camera and
the threedimensional
perspective drawn
from the normal
eye level.