Introduction:
Urban design is a phrase that is used to describe the procedure of designing cities and towns. Urban planning focuses on how to make a city or town accessible and functional through the designing of accessible streets, districts and neighbourhoods. An urban planner is also involved in designing the aesthetic, safety, security, sustainability, slums, transport and drainage issues. There are a number of urban design theories, which are built on the ability of making a connection between people and location with the aim of creating an urban centre that has its own identity.
In order to be able to come up with urban planning theories most of the scholars carried out field studies in order to determine the connection between urban planning and the residents of the urban centre. The main theories of urban design have proposed trying to make a connection between the movement, people and places. This paper is going to examine the theory of urban development proposed by Kevin Lynch in his book The Image of the City. The key aspects of Lynch’s theory have been explored in order to understand how major improvements to the Beenleigh centre can be enhanced.
Theory:
For this paper, the ideas presented in the book The Image of the city by Kevin Andrew Lynch will be examined. The books provides an empirical research into the field of city planning and it examines how people view and are able to navigate their way through urban centres, In order to come up with a concise conclusion Lynch carried out an effective field study on the topic. In the book, the author examines how external factors of an urban centre affect an individual. According to him, the first perception that an individual has of an urban centre is how he or she looks at it. This according to Lynch (1960) depends on all the five human senses. This leads to individuals examining an urban centre as a dynamic element that is affected by a number of external factors.
The theory that has been presented by Lynch is that people in urban centre should be able to orient themselves in the urban setting using mental maps. The central theory and idea that Lynch presents is imageability. This term explains the degree to which the people around the city can be able to find their way around the city. According to Lynch (1960), a good urban planner must be able to organize and arrange urban elements into a logical pattern that people can be able to recognize and relate urban elements in a way that makes it easy for residents to form mental pictures of the urban centre. According to the theory, the mental images are a combination of both memories and current impressions that the urban area has on the centre (Lynch, 1960).
In the book, Lynch explains that Urbanism is dynamic in nature and it has been changing over time. He also explains that unlike architecture an urban planner has to deal with sustainability issues. In order to develop an excellent urban centre an urban planner must be able to account for sustainability as well as changes that will happen in the future. In addition to these factors from his field-research, Lynch was able to come up with five factors that affect how an urban centre is viewed. These five elements help individuals to be able to identify with the urban centre.
These include:
1. Paths – This is defined as the streets, roads and walkways that are used by the observers
2. Edges – This are the areas that break the continuity of the observers surrounding area.
3. Districts – This is defined by Lynch as a 2-dimenstional factor that has similar characteristics.
4. Nodes – This are defined as intentional and planned parts within the urban centre that an observer can be able to identify with.
5. Landmarks – This are defined as external references that stick out.
Of the five elements paths were the most important elements of urban planning since paths are used in defining mobility within the urban centre. As shown by the five factors discussed above, in his fieldwork Lynch aimed at finding the relationship between an observer’s perceptions of an urban centre.
Method:
In order to come to this conclusion Lynch analysed three different urban centres. These were Boston, Los Angeles and Jersey. The method that was used by Lynch mainly involved collecting primary data. This was achieved through the use of interviews. The image below shows the map of Boston that was derived from the sketch maps (Lynch, 1960).
Figure 1: The image showing the map of Boston that was derived from the sketch maps
The method that will be used to study of the selected Beenleigh centre will be based on the method that was used by Kevin Lynch to collect data. As discussed earlier the method involves interviewing and observing people around the urban centre in an effort to be able to determine their habits. Lynch’s research goal was to be able to collect data and information for his imageability theory that examined five core elements, which determine how an urban centre can be planned.
Interviews:
In the three urban centres, Lynch conducted a series of interviews where he asked citizens a series of questions that were related to his study. In the city of Boston, he interviewed 30 people and in Jersey and Los Angeles, he interviewed 15 respondents. According to him, the sample that was selected could not be a true representation of the whole population in the three cities. In his book, he actually recommends that further studies be carried out with a larger sample. In addition, Lynch only interviewed respondents from a middle class part of the cities. This meant that he omitted some of the views by different demographics in the cities (Lynch, 1960).
The respondents were put through a series of two interviews. In his initial interview, the respondents were requested to draw a map of the city. The respondents were asked to describe in detail the routes that they use to travel in the city. They were asked to identify the routes that they use to go from home to work every day. Some of the respondents were taken through the route that they had selected and were asked to describe why they had selected that particular route. Lynch asked the respondents to point out vital things that they saw on their way. In addition, they were asked to point out areas of the route which they felt safe and where they felt they could get lost. They were also asked to state what is the greatest connection that they have with the urban centre. All the responses from the respondents were recorded and later transcribed in order to come up with data.
The second interview mainly involved showing respondents photographs of parts of the city as well as other cities. The photographs were shown to the respondents in a random manner. The respondents were asked to eliminate all the photos that they did not recognize while keeping those that they recognized. Once this was completed, the respondents were asked to place the pictures on a flat surface as if they were on a large map to the location that they believe each photograph was taken. In addition to this informal information was collected from passersby by asking them directions to certain parts of the city.
The interviews that were conducted were able to achieve their intended gaol, which was to be able to judge the experience by citizens. The study concludes that in order to plan effectively an urban area there is a need to understand how citizens perceive an urban centre. The outcome of the study showed that Boston appeared to be two-dimensional with respondents missing critical parts of the city. On the other hand, Jersey and Los Angeles was defined as a place that lacked any type of form despite being well developed (Lynch, 1960).
Empirical study:
The Beenleigh Township is located in the midpoint of Brisbane and Gold Coast in Queensland. The Beenleigh town centre is managed by the Logan City Council, which has an urban planning master plan that seeks to redevelop the city completely. The plan contains clear guidelines on how land should be used within the town, building codes, how public spaces will be used and utilized, it has defined the developments that should be implemented for traffic movement and pedestrians alike. In addition, the plan contains a parking plan that is aimed at designating various points around the urban centre for vehicle owners to be able to park their cars. In order to be able to carry out the desired improvements to the Beenleigh town centre the theory of imageability can be used to achieve what the Logan City Council desires.
Figure 2: The Parking Map for the Beenleigh Town Centre
The same strategy will be utilized to analyse Beenleigh’s town centre interviews will be conducted in the same way Lynch conducted the interviews. However, for this study the sample of respondents that will be selected will be large enough to accommodate all the views of the entire population of Beenleigh town centre. The empirical study will be based on how the respondents view the five key elements of Lynch’s theory. The five elements that the respondents will be interviewed on will be paths, which are defined as the streets, roads, and walkways that are used by the observers. Edges, which are defined as the areas that break the continuity of the observers surrounding area. Districts, which are defined by Lynch as a 2-dimenstional factor that has similar characteristics. Nodes, which are defined as intentional and planned parts within the urban centre that an observer can be able to identify with. Landmarks, which are defined as external references, that sticks out.
In order to determine how respondents view the paths in the city respondents will be asked to describe the paths and routes that they use to move to and from different parts of the city. Students will be interviewed on the routes that they use to go to school and the routes that they use to go back home. In addition, people who go to work will be asked to describe the routes that they use to go to and from work every day within the Beenleigh town centre. Respondents will be asked to explain why they use the route that they use instead of possible alternatives. In addition, respondents will be asked to offer directions to some of the major landmarks in the Beenleigh Township. Some of the landmarks that they will be asked to offer directions to will include the Beenleigh Historical Village, the We Build-Um Transportable Buildings and the Australian Portable Buildings. Respondents will be asked to explain the route they would take from one place within the city to the landmarks.
Critical reflection of theory and method:
The theory and method that was provided by Lynch can be replicated and can be used to improve the urban centre. The plan aims at transforming the Beenleigh in the following ways: To build a new town square and transform the town centre into a modern city centre that has a new look. It also looks to develop car traffic and pedestrian movement in order to ensure that people can easily move within the urban centre. In addition, it aims are creating an attractive urban environment. The council also utilized interviews to examine the social impact that would result from this proposed changes. From the interviews conducted, the following findings were found. The community would wish to have the historical aspects of the city preserved even through the new changes.
The community also wanted to ensure that the council would be able to deal with problems such as the increase in population as well as the cosy of housing. In addition, the plan should not affect the lives of Beenlegh residents. After the social impact assessment, there was a need to carry out a social needs assessment of the expansion plan for Beenleigh Town Centre. The social needs were also determined through the use of interviews where residents were asked to describe the kind of social needs that they have.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, the empirical study as well as methods that were utilized by Lynch in his experiment are applicable today and can be used by urban planners to come up with effective plans. The theory on can still is applied to urban centres today to achieve any desired planning. According to Lynch in order to achieve this, three main concepts and ideas can be used to define excellent urban planning.
These are:
1. A urban centre has to be intelligible through all human sensory signs
2. An observer has to be able to perceive the urban centres’ image.
The plan should be selected by the community around the urban centre and must be controlled by the urban planner.
3. The intelligible and imageability of the urban centre must then be able to create a unique identity for the urban centre.
All the three factors need to be applied to Beenleigh Town Centre in order to ensure that the master plan being implemented is successful and meets the social needs of the residents.
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