Kevin Lynch

BOOK REVIEW
on
THE IMAGE OF THE CITY
by KEVIN LYNCH
(A dissection of this
oldie-goldie book
published in1960)
BOOK REVIEW on IMAGE OF THE CITY by KEVIN LYNCH, K.MEENAKSHI, II M.ARCH, PMU , VALLAM
1
CONTENTS…
• Kevin Lynch – an Introduction
• His Works
• Reviews by famous architects
• About the book
• 5 elements of Mental Mapping
• Examples
• Theory of Kevin Lynch
• The Image of the Environment
• Building the Image
• Three cities – Boston, Jersey city, Los
Angeles
• BOOK REVIEW on IMAGE OF THE CITY by KEVIN LYNCH, K.MEENAKSHI, II M.ARCH, PMU , VALLAM 2
CONTENTS…
• The city image and its elements
• Element Interrelations, The shifting Image & Image
Quality
• Designing the Paths
• The sense of the Whole
• New Scale
• Analysis of the writing Style
• My Intrepretation
• In my words
• Conclusion
• References
BOOK REVIEW ON IMAGE OF THE CITY by
KEVIN LYNCH, K.MEENAKSHI, II M.ARCH, 3
PMU , VALLAM
INTRODUCTION OF THE AUTHOR…
• Kevin Andrew Lynch (1918 Chicago, Illinois - 1984
Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts) was an
American urban planner and author.
• Lynch studied at Yale University, Taliesin (studio)
under Frank Lloyd Wright, Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute, and received a Bachelor's degree in city
planning from MIT in 1947. He worked in
Greensboro, NC as an urban planner but was
recruited to teach at MIT by Lloyd Rodwin.
• He began lecturing at MIT the following year,
became an assistant professor in 1949, was
tenured as an associate professor in 1955, and
became a full time professor in 1963.
4
HIS WORKS…
• Lynch provided seminal contributions to the
field of city planning through empirical
research on how individuals perceive and
navigate the urban landscape.
• His books explore the presence of time and
history in the urban environment,
• How urban environments affect children, and
how to harness human perception
of the physical form of cities and regions as the
conceptual basis for good urban design.
5
REVIEWS BY FAMOUS ARCHITECTS…
Through these terms and related examples, the readers are asked to
learn to see the hidden forms in the vast cover of our cities.
This problem is put in capsule definition of architecture by
• Suzanne Langer:
“It is the environment made visible.”
• Theorist of postmodernity Fredric Jameson (1991) for
instance refers to Lynch when he argues that the
cognitive map is a means to cope with societies complexities by
bridging „objective‟ and abstract representations of space, and
subjective existential experiences of „lived space‟.
• Lynch can also be seen as a precursor to the influential thesis by
Henri Lefrebvre from 1974 that space is not just „out there‟ as a
mathematical entity or a priori category but always socially
produced.
• Lynch‟ work has many implications for urban design and raises
various questions about the present role of mobile and locative
media technologies in the urban context.
• Lynch‟ work has been influential to many.
6
ABOUT THE BOOK…..
• In this book, Lynch argues that people in urban situations orient
themselves by means of mental maps.
• He compares three American cities (Boston, Jersey City, and Los
Angeles) and looks at how people orient themselves in these cities.
• A central notion in this book is that of legibility (also
called imageability andvisibility).
• Legibility means the extend to which the cityscape can be „read‟.
People who move through the city engage in way-finding.
• They need to be able to recognize and organize urban elements into a
coherent pattern.
• “In the process of way-finding, the strategic link is the environmental
image, the generalized mental picture of the exterior physical world
that is held by an individual. This image is the product both of
immediate sensation and of the memory of past experience, and it is
used to interpret information and to guide action”.
7
5 ELEMENTS OF MENTAL MAPPING…
- DEFINITIONS
Lynch proposes that these mental maps consist of five
elements:
(1) paths: routes along which people move throughout the
city;
(2) edges: boundaries and breaks in continuity;
(3) districts: areas characterized by common characteristics;
(4) nodes: strategic focus points for orientation like squares
and junctions; and
(5) landmarks: external points of orientation, usually an easily
identifyable physical object in the urban landscape.
Of these five elements, paths are especially important

according to Lynch, since these organize urban mobility.
8
5 ELEMENTS OF MENTAL MAPPING
Examples
• Paths, the streets, sidewalks, trails, and

other channels in which people travel;
• Edges, perceived boundaries such as walls,
buildings, and shorelines;
• Districts, relatively large sections of the city
distinguished by some identity or character;
• Nodes, focal points, intersections or loci;
• Landmarks, readily identifiable objects which
serve as external reference points.
9
THEORY OF KEVIN LYNCH….
Lynch influenced the field of city planning through his work
• on the theory of city form, and
• studies relating to human perceptions of the city,
• on the perception of the city environment and
• its consequences for city design.
KEVIN LYNCH says

"Looking at cities can give a special pleasure, however common
place the sight may be. Like a piece of architecture, the city is a
construction in space, but of a vast scale, . . . perceived only in
the course of long spans of time . . . At every instant, there is
more than the eye can see, more than the ear can hear, a setting
or view waiting to be explored. Nothing is experienced by itself,
but always in relation to its surroundings, the sequences of
events leading up to it, the memory of past experiences . . .
Every citizen has had long associations with some part of his city,
and his image is soaked in memories and meanings . . . “
BOOK REVIEW on IMAGE OF THE CITY by KEVIN LYNCH, K.MEENAKSHI, II M.ARCH, PMU , VALLAM 10
THE IMAGE OF THE
ENVIRONMENT…
1.LEGIBILITY - Here the visual quality of the American city
is considered by studying the mental image of that city
held by its citizens.
• The concentration is on one particular visual quality:
• the apparent clarity or “legibility” of the cityscape.
• To explain this it is compared to the same printed
page of the book saying, if it is legible, it can be
grasped visually as a related pattern of recognizable
symbols.
• Although legibility is not the only important property of
a beautiful city; but is of importance when environments
at the urban scale of size, time and complexity is
considered.
11
2.BUILDING THE IMAGE…
• Environmental images are the result of a two –way
process between the observer and his environment.
• The image of a given reality may vary significantly
between different observers.
• There are formal types of image elements into which
we can conveniently divide the city image: path,
landmark, edge, node and district.
3. STRUCTURE AND IDENTITY – it says, an environmental
image may be analyzed into three components: identity,
structure and meaning.
• All the three terms are defined then which leads to the
definition of Imageability as, the quality in a physical
object which gives it a high probability of evoking a
strong image in any given observer.
12
THREE CITIES….
• Analyses are done for the central areas of three American
cities:
• Boston, Massachusetts;
• Jersey City, New Jersey; and
• Los Angeles, California.
• Boston is unique in character among American cities, being

both vivid in form and full of locational difficulties.
• Jersey City was chosen for its apparent formlessness, for
what seemed, on first observation, to be its extremely low
order of Imageability.
• Los Angeles is a new city, of an utterly different scale, and
with a gridiron plan in its central area. In every case a central
area of approximately 2 ½ by 1 ½ miles was taken for study.
13
BOSTON…
The Boston Peninsula from the south
Outline map of the boston peninsula
The Boston that everyone knows
• Age, history, European flavour

• Commercial core of the metropolitan
area, as well as several high –
density, residential districts ranging • Worn-out buildings, yet containing
from slum to upper – class housing some new structures among the
• Crooked , confusing paths, old.
• Dirty city of red – brick buildings • Narrow streets congested with
people and cars
• Wide main streets & narrow side streets
• Central city is a Peninsula
• Lacks open or recreational space
15
• Fringe area between Newark & New
JERSEY CITY… York City
• Little central activity area of its own
• Place to pass, rather to live
• Artificial
creation of
Journal
Square on
upper land –
4 to 5 city
centers
• Un co-
ordinated
Street system
16
LOS ANGELES…
• Regular grid of streets
• Large distinct buildings
• Core of metropolis
• Heavily charged with
meaning & activity.
• Central area – intensive
shopping
• Grid pattern –
undifferentiated
matrix, elements
cannot always be
located with
Confidence
• Central activities are
spatially extended &
shifting – dilutes
their impact
Lynch says “ Frequent rebuilding prevents the identification
that builds up by Historical process”
17
18
THE CITY IMAGE AND ITS
ELEMENTS … PATHS
EDGES
• Here, it says a public image of any given city is the
overlap of many individual images.
• The author says, none of the element types isolated
above exist in isolation in the real case.
• Districts are structured with nodes, defined by DISTRICTS
edges, penetrated by paths and sprinkled with
landmarks.
• Elements regularly overlap and pierce one another. All
three cities have been discussed in relation to these
elements. NODES
PATHS :
• predominating city element.
• May not only be identifiable and continuous, NODES
but have directional quality.
• Large number of paths seen as a total
LANDMARKS
network (eg.,) los angeles grid
EDGES :
• Are linear elements not considered as paths
• Are boundaries between two kinds of areas
• Act as lateral references
• Edges seem strongest – visually prominent, but also
continuous in form and impenetrable on cross movement.
• Like paths , they have directional qualities.
(eg.) charles river edge in Boston.
TYPES OF EDGES :
Fragmentary edges :
• Occasionally exposed to view,
• In the abstract, continuous, but only visualised as discrete
points, (eg.) rail road lines.
Overhead edges :
Elevated railways of jersey city and boston are examples.
Visible edges :
• Gigantic in scale,
• Exposes an entire metropolis to view
• relatively large city areas which the observer
• DISTRICTS : can mentally go inside of and which have some
Common character.
• Can be recognised internally and occassionaly
can be used as external referance as a person
goes by or toward them.
• The physical characteristics that determine
Districts are thematic continuities consist of
An endless variety of components :
Basic clues for identifying districts: • Texture,
• Homogenetities of façade, • Space,
• Material, • Form,
• Modelling, • Detail,
• Ornament, • Symbol,
• Color, • Building type,
• Skyline, • Use, activity,
• Fenestration • Inhabitants,
• Degree of maintenance, and
• Topography.
NODES :
• Are strategic foci into which

the observor can enter
typically either junctions of
paths, or concentrations of
some characteristic.
• Breakpoint of transportation
as the key places.(eg.) major
railroad stations
• Intersections of streets
• Thematic concentration
Nodes like districts are
• Introvert,
• Extrovert
22
LANDMARKS :
Point references external to the observor.
Simple physical elements that vary widely in scale.
TYPES OF LANDMARKS:
Distant landmarks:
Prominent points visible from many positions.
Eg. John Hancock building & Custom house
The Duomo of Florence is a prime example of a
distant landmark :
visible from near or far, by day or night,
unmistakable:
dominent by size and contour:
closely related to the city‟s traditions: coincident The Duomo of Florence
with the religious and transit center : paired with its
campanile in such a way that the direction of view
can be gauged from a distance.
Local landmarks:
Visible only in restricted localities
Visual landmarks :
Sounds and smell sometimes reinforced, although
they did not seem to constitute landmark by itself
In each of these cities, two basic analyses were carried out:
1. A systematic field survey was made by a trained observer,
who mapped the presence of various elements, their visibility,
their image strength or weakness, and their connections,
disconnections, and other interrelations. Also any special
successes or difficulties in the potential image structure were
mapped.
2. A lengthy interview was held with a small sample of city
residents to evoke their own images of their physical
environment. The interviews included requests descriptions,
locations, and sketches, and for performance of imaginary trips.
• Distinct differences in the imageability of the three cities

appeared. Certain features:
• open space,
• vegetation,
• sense of motion on the paths,
• visual contrasts
- seemed to be of particular importance in the cityscape.
ELEMENT INTERRELATIONS, THE
SHIFTING IMAGE, IMAGE QUALITY
• The raw material of the environmental image at the city scale.
must be patterned together to provide a satisfying form.
• Now the author suggests considering the interaction of pairs
of unlike elements. Such pairs may reinforce one another,
resonate so that they enhance each other‟s power, or they
may conflict and destroy themselves.
• SHIFTING IMAGE: Rather than a single comprehensive image
for the entire environment, there seemed to be sets of
images, which more or less overlapped and interrelated.
Images may differ not only by the scale of area involved, but
by viewpoint, time of day, or season.
• IMAGE QUALITY – study of various individual images revealed
certain other distinctions between them. For example, images
of an element differed between observers in terms of their
relative density, i.e., the extent to which they were packed
with detail.
• From this, one might infer that the images of greatest value are
those which most closely approach a strong total field: dense,
rigid and vivid;
• which make use of all element types and form characteristics
without concentration; and
• which can be put together either hierarchically or continuously,
as occasion demands.
CITY FORM
• In this chapter the author talks about what opportunity we have
of forming our new city world into an imageable landscape:
visible, coherent and clear.
• The author says that the city dweller requires a new attitude
and a physical reshaping of his domain into forms which entrance
the eye, which organize themselves from level to level in time
and space, which can stand as symbols for urban life.
• The form must be somewhat
• noncommittal,
• plastic to the purposes and
• perception of its citizens.
DESIGNING THE PATHS …
• To heighten the imageability of the urban environment is to
facilitate its visual identification and structuring.
• The elements isolated above – the paths, edges, landmarks,
nodes and regions – are the building blocks in the process of
making firm, differentiated structures at the urban scale.
• It says how important are the paths, the network of habitual or
potential lines of movement through the urban complex by
which the whole can be ordered by concentration of some
spatial use or activity along their margins,
• a characteristic spatial quality,
• a special texture of floor or façade,
• a particular lighting pattern,
• a unique set of smells or sounds,
• a typical detail or mode of planting.
27
• These characters should be so applied as to give continuity to the
path. If one or more of these qualities is employed consistently along
the line, then the path may be imagined as a continuous, unified
element.
• The author also suggests how a visual hierarchy and scale can be given
to line (path).He also says if the intersection (the point of connection
and decision for the man in motion) can be visualized clearly, if the
intersection itself makes a vivid image and if the joint of the two paths
with respect to each other is clearly expressed, then the observer can
build a satisfactory structure.
• Form qualities – The clues for urban design have been summarized under
this topic as: All of these qualities do not
work in isolation. A region
a. Singularity
would be unmistakable which
b. Form simplicity had a simple form, a
c. Continuity continuity of building type
d. Dominance and use, which was singular
e. Clarity of joint in the city, sharply
f. Directional differentiation
bounded, clearly jointed to
g. Visual scope a neighboring region and
h. Motion awareness visually concave.
i. Time series
j. Names and meanings
THE SENSE OF THE WHOLE …
• In discussing design by element types there is a
tendency to skim over the interrelation of the parts
into a whole.
• In such a whole, paths would expose and prepare for
the districts, and link together the various nodes.
• The nodes would joint and mark off the paths, while the
edges would bind off the districts, and the boundaries
would indicate their cores.
• It is the total orchestration of these units which would
knit together a dense and vivid image, and sustain it
over areas of metropolitan scale.
• Metropolitan form – the increasing size of our
metropolitan areas and the speed with which we
traverse them raise many new problems for perception.
NEW SCALE …
• Total imageability of an extensive area such as a metropolitan region
would not mean an equal intensity of image at every point.
• There would be dominant figures and more extensive backgrounds, focal
points and connective tissue.
There are two techniques suggested:
• The entire region is organized as a static hierarchy.
• Any given part of the region might focus on a minor node, these minor
nodes being satellite to a major node, while all the major nodes are
arranged to culminate in a single primary node for the region.
• True enough, we need an environment which is not simply well
organized, but poetic and symbolic as well. It should speak of the
individuals and their complex society.
• But clarity of structure and vividness of identity are first steps to the
development of strong symbols. Such a sense of place in itself
enhances every human activity that occurs there and encourages the
deposit of memory trace. In development of the image, education in
seeing will be quite as important as the reshaping of what is seen.
• If art and audience grow together, then our cities will be a source of
daily enjoyment to millions of their inhabitants.
30
• A clear mental map of the urban environment is needed
to counter the always looming fear of disorientation.
• A legible mental map gives people an important sense
of emotional security, it is the framework for
communication and conceptual organization, and
heightens the depth and intensity of everyday human
experience.
• The city itself is thus a powerful symbol of a complex
society, argues Lynch.
• An environmental image has three components:
• identity (the recognition of urban elements as separate
entities),
• structure (the relation of urban elements to other
objects and to the observer), and
• meaning (its practical and emotional value to the
observer).
31
ANALYSIS OF THE WRITING STYLE ...
• There is a definite flow of ideas in the book. The author starts
with briefly the people perceive their built environment and
then he goes on to substantiate his observations through
case studies and arrive at some substantial information and
understanding of the elements which create the image of the
city.
• Then in second last chapter he suggest how we can use his
finding in consciously deciding the image of the city which is
lacking in many modern cities and colonies which seems to be
a row of match boxes.
• And finally, he gives an account of his methodologies and
techniques of research.
• The book has good number of illustrations and maps which not
only makes the book more readable but also adds to the
comprehensibility of the concepts which author has
successfully presented in his book.
MY INTERPRETATION …
• It is important that these urban elements are not
hermetically designed into precise and final detail but
present an open-ended order.
• Urban inhabitants should be able to actively form their own
stories and create new activities.
• Lynch presents his work as an agenda for urban designers.
• They should design the city in such a way that it gives room
for three related „movements‟:
• mapping, learning, shaping.
• First, people should be able to acquire a clear mental map of
their urban environment.
• Second, people should be able to learn how to navigate in
this environment by training.
• Third, people must be able to operate and act upon their
environment.
33
IN MY WORDS….
• One such question is the extend to which our way-finding
shifts from orienting ourselves to mostly „objective‟ urban
elements to become increasingly subjective by means of
locative media technologies.
• We are far more able than ever before to “write” the city
with our own subjective experiences and share these with
other people through mobile media.
• The element of visibility is crucial here.
• Lynch is talking about elements of the city that are publicly
visible to all people. But what happens when people
increasingly rely on private and idiosyncratic points of
orientation through their portable devices?
CONCLUSION…
• Locative media add invisible layers of social meanings to the city
that are only visible through a different interface (the mobile
screen), accessible to others elsewhere, although often only to
those who are members of that service or community.
• What does this mean for notions of general legibility, the public
and private character of mental images, and social
inclusion/exclusion?
• In addition, Lynch‟ emphasis on clear legibility of the urban
environment poses some critical questions about the current
tendency to saturate the urban landscape with information.
• What happens to the overall legibility of the city when every
building, object, and place wants to communicate and announce its
existence to us by yelling “I Am Here, Look At Me!”?
• To what extend will mobile and locative devices come to act as
filters for coping with the torrent of information, or actually
become part of the problem itself?
35
• Another issue brought up by Lynch‟ work is the eternal question
of (the end of) serendipity, so often discussed in relation to
mobile media and location-based services.
• Are locative services undermining the potential for exploration
and unexpected encounters with new places and people, when
our movements are guided and goal-oriented?
• Lynch himself feels that disorientation is the cause of fear and
anxiety, and already claims that “[t]o become completely lost is
perhaps a rather rare experience for most people in the modern
city” (p. 4).
• Yet under controlled circumstances he acknowledges that
“there is some value in mystification, labyrinth, or surprise in
the environment” (p. 5).
• Lynch work also introduces a question that is especially relevant
nowadays. Is our capacity for orientation and way-finding
something we learn (and thus can unlearn as well when we
externalize this to our GPS navigation devices ), or is it innate
to people as well as other animals?
SOURCE: Review of The image of the city -by Micheal de Lange.
36
• Lynch takes a clear stance when he says “it now seems
unlikely that there is any mystic “instinct” of way-finding”
(p. 3), but that seems to be countered by recent
biological evidence about for instance bird migrations.
• Finally, some more critical remarks. Lynch primarily
emphasizes the role of the visual sense. He says how
people find their way in the city by relying on vision.
Other faculties such as hearing and even smelling are
lacking in his work.
• A related omission in Lynch‟ analysis of the urban
experience is the role of media in general and text in
particular. This is odd since Lynch so prominently uses
the term legibility in his work.
• Of course it could be countered that media did not play
such a big role in the urban context at the time of writing
of this book (1960) but this misses the point that cities
from their inception have been inscribed by signs and
media.
SOURCE: Review of The image of the city -by Micheal de Lange.
37
REFERENCES…
1. The image of the city, - Kevin lynch.

2. Review of The image of the city -by
Micheal de Lange.
3. Book review by Shashikant Nishanth Sharma
THANK YOU…..
38

Kevin Lynch

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BOOK REVIEW

Of these five elements, paths are especially important

• Paths, the streets, sidewalks, trails, and

KEVIN LYNCH says

• Boston is unique in character among American cities, being

The Boston that everyone knows

• Age, history, European flavour

• Are strategic foci into which

• Distinct differences in the imageability of the three cities

SOURCE: Review of The image of the city -by Micheal de Lange.

1. The image of the city, - Kevin lynch.

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