The Image of the City
by Kevin Lynch
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 149)
A gorilla thinks in terms of power/ not-power; the world is an association of powers, but the gorilla’s life is pure life and its satisfaction. Singularities are obsessed with death, even in the prolongation of their lives because life is re-represented into its images and properties, and not what it is in itself as a self-structuring force. Power is a social concept. Force is the intensity of continual life.
A multitude, modeled from relating singularities, is a formed and fabricated aw...more
A multitude, modeled from relating singularities, is a formed and fabricated aw...more
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Read in August, 2007
Image of the City is a seminal book to field of urban design. In i,t Lynch introduces a framework for analyzing the city in terms of five inter-related components: paths, landmarks, nodes, edges, and districts.
Lynch's study, involving Boston, Jersey City, and Los Angeles, although conclusive, is pretty open-ended and its findings result from open-ended field research as well as interviews.
Urban designers and environmental graphic designers today use Lynch's strategies when devising wayfi...more
Lynch's study, involving Boston, Jersey City, and Los Angeles, although conclusive, is pretty open-ended and its findings result from open-ended field research as well as interviews.
Urban designers and environmental graphic designers today use Lynch's strategies when devising wayfi...more
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Read in April, 2008
"...image development is a two-way process between observer and observed, it is possible to strengthen the image either by symbolic devices, by the retraining of the perceiver, or by reshaping one's surroundings." -p.11
"Boston... 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... a new city, of an utterly different scal...more
"Boston... 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... a new city, of an utterly different scal...more
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Read in July, 2007
The book is very important in the history of the study of urban space, but reading it now, it serves more as a historical document than anything new or groundbreaking. Written in the 1960s, it lays out the terms and the ways of visualizing cities and the way people interact with their mental image of a place. The analysis of the mental maps people have of Boston, Jersey City and L.A. is very interesting, but becomes tedious.
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Read in September, 2008
The problems of planning have rarely been put together so succinctly. Rather than promoting grand "modernist" plans for revamping cityspace, Lynch promotes a far more modest approach, favoring legibility, utility, and humanity. Calling up the examples of Boston, Jersey City, and LA (all circa 1960), Lynch provides us with a tactical approach to both the psychogeography of our cities and the ways to reclaim space.
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Read in May, 2008
This is detailed commentary on what makes a city a memorable place, highlighting features of the Boston landscape. I identified with the sections that pinpointed what gives cities like Boston their sense of place, but overall, I found this was mostly an academic and unispiring read.
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i read it when i was still taking courses in my undergrads. i thought it's really an interesting view how to read a city. and i made a good impression actually with my assignments thank to mr lynch!
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Read in September, 2008
recommended to Christopher by:
Jonathon Levy
Great topic, quick read, about architectural mapping for community ease of use. Boston, LA and Jersey City are featured. Academic writing style.
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