The Image of the City PDF

 I. THE IMAGE OF THE ENVIRONMENT Looking at cities can give a special pleasure, however commonplace the sight may be. Like a piece of architecture, the city is a construction in space, bur one of vast scale, a thing perceived only in the course of long spans of time. City design...

 I. THE IMAGE OF THE ENVIRONMENT Looking at cities can give a special pleasure, however commonplace the sight may be. Like a piece of architecture, the city is a construction in space, bur one of vast scale, a thing perceived only in the course of long spans of time. City design is therefore a temporal art, but it can rarely use the controlled and limited sequences of other temporal arts like music. On different occasions and for different people, the sequences are reversed, interrupted, abandoned, cut across. It is seen in all lights and all weathers. At every instant, there is more than the eye can see, more than the ear can hear, a setting or a 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 mem- ory of past experiences. Washington Street set in a farmer's field might look like the shopping street in the heart of Boston, and yet it would seem utterly different. Every citizen has had long associations with some part of his city, and his image is soaked in memories and meanings.  Moving elements in a city, and in particular the people and and can be organized into a coherent pattern/Just as this printed their activities, are as important as the starionary physical parts. page, if it is legible, can be visually grasped as a related pattern We are not simply observers of this spectacle, but are ourselves of recognizable symbols, so a legible.city would be one whose a part of it, on the stage with the other participants. Most often, districts or landmarks or pathways are easily identifiable and are our perception of the city is not sustained, but rather partial, easily grouped into an over-all pattern. fragmentary, mixed with other concerns. Nearly every sense is This book will assert that legibility is crucial in the city in operation, and the image is the composite of them all. setting, will analyze it in some detail, and will try to show how Nor only is the city an object which is perceived (and perhaps this concept might be used today in rebuilding our cities. As will enjoyed) by millions of people of widely diverse class and char- quickly become apparent to the reader, this study is a prelim- acter, but it is the product of many builders who are constantly inary exploration, a first word not a last word, an attempt to modifying the structure for reasons of their own. While it may capture ideas and to suggest how they might be developed and be stable in general outlines for some time, it is ever changing tested. Its tone will be speculative and perhaps a little irrespon- in detail. Only partial control can be exercised over its growth sible: ar once tentative and presumptuous. This first chapter will and form. There is no final result, only a continuous succession develop some of the basic ideas; later chapters will apply them of phases. No wonder, then, that the art of shaping cities for to several American cities and discuss their consequences for sensuous enjoyment is an act quite separate from architecture or urban design. music or literature. It may learn a great deal from these other Although clarity or legibility is by no means the only impor- arts, but it cannot imitate them. tant property of a beautiful city, it is of special importance when A beautiful and delightful city environment is an oddity, some considering environments at the urban scale of size, time, and would say an impossibility. Not one American city larger than complexity. To understand this, we must consider not just the a village is of consistently fine quality, although a few towns have city as a thing in itself, but the city being perceived by its inhab- some pleasant fragments. It is hardly surprising, then, that most itants. Americans have little idea of what it can mean to live in such an Structuring and identifying the environment is a vital ability environment. They are clear enough about the ugliness of the among all mobile animals. Many kinds of cues are used: the world they live in, and they are quite vocal about the dirt, the visual sensations of color, shape, motion, or polarization of light, smoke, the heat, and the congestion, the chaos and yet the monot- as well as other senses such as smell, sound, touch, kinesthesia, ony of it. But they are hardly aware of the potential value of sense of gravity, and perhaps of electric or magnetic fields. harmonious surroundings, a world which they may have briefly These techniques of orientation, from the polar flight of a tern glimpsed only as tourists or as escaped vacationers. They can to the path-Ending of a limpet over the micro-topography of a have little sense of what a setting can mean in terms of daily rock, are described and their importance underscored in an exten- delight, or as a continuous anchor for their lives, or as an exten- sive literature.'10-20-31-59' Psychologists have also studied this sion of the meaningfulness and richness of the world. ability in man, although rather sketchily or under limited labora- Legibility tory conditions.'1-5-8-12-37-63-65-76-81' Despite a few remaining This book will consider the visual quality of the American puzzles, it now seems unlikely that there is any mystic "instinct" city by studying the mental image of that city which is held by of way-finding. Rather there is a consistent use and organization its citizens. It_will concentrate especially on one particular vis- of definite sensory cues from the external environment. This ual quality: the apparent clarity or "Legibility" of the cityscape. organization is fundamental to the efficiency and to the very By this we mean the ease with which its parrs can be recognized survival of free-moving life. 2 3  To become completely lost is perhaps a rather rare experience obverse of the fear that comes with disorientation; it means that for most people in the modern city. We are supported by the the sweet sense of home is strongest when home is not only presence of others and by special way-finding devices: maps, familiar but distinctive as well. street numbers, route signs, bus placards. But let the mishap of Indeed, a distinctive and legible environment not only offers disorientation once occur, and the sense of anxiety and even ter- security bur also heightens the potential depth and intensity of ror that accompanies it reveals to us how closely it is linked to human experience. Although life is far from impossible in the our sense of balance and well-being. The very word "lost" in visual chaos of the modern city, the same daily action could take our language means much more than simple geographical uncer- on new meaning if carried out in a more vivid setting. Poten- tainty; it carries overtones of utter disaster. tially, the city is in itself the powerful symbol of a complex In the process of way-finding, the strategic link is the environ- society. If visually well set forth, it Can also have strong expres- mental image, the generalized mental picture of the exterior phys- sive meaning. ical world that is held by an individual. This image is the prod- It may be argued against the importance of physical legibility uct both of immediate sensation and of the memory of past that the human brain is marvelously adaptable, that with some experience, and it is used to interpret information and to guide experience one can learn to pick one's way through the most action. The need to recognize and pattern our surroundings is disordered or featureless surroundings. There are abundant so crucial, and has such long roots in the past, that this image examples of precise navigation over the "trackless" wastes of See Appendix A has wide practical and emotional importance to the individual. sea, sand, or ice, or through a tangled maze of jungle. Obviously a clear image enables one to move about easily and Yet even the sea has the sun and stars, the winds, currents, quickly: to find a friend's house or a policeman or a button store. birds, and sea-colors without which unaided navigation would be But an ordered environment can do more than this; it may serve impossible. The fact that only skilled professionals could navi- as a broad frame of reference, an organizer of activity or belief gate among the Polynesian Islands, and this only after extensive or knowledge. On the basis of a structural understanding of training, indicates the difficulties imposed by this particular Manhattan, for example, one can order a substantial quantity of environment. Strain and anxiety accompanied even the best- facts and fancies about the nature of the world we live in. Like prepared expeditions. any good framework, such a structure gives the individual a pos- In our own world, we might say that almost everyone can, if sibility of choice and a starting-point for the acquisition of fur- attentive. learn to navigate in Jersey City, but only at the cost of ther information. A clear image of the surroundings is thus a some effort and uncertainty. Moreover, the positive values of useful basis for individual growth. legible surroundings are missing: the emotional satisfaction, the Jersey City it dis- cussed in Chapter 2 A vivid and integrated physical setting, capable of producing framework for communication or conceptual organization, the a sharp image, plays a social role as well, It can furnish the raw new depths that it may bring to everyday experience. These material for the symbols and collective memories of group com- are pleasures we lack, even if our present city environment is not munication. A striking landscape is the skeleton upon which so disordered as to impose an intolerable strain on those who are many primitive races erect their socially important myths. Com- familiar with it. mon memories of the "home town" were often the first and It must be granted that there is some value in mystification, easiest point of contact between lonely soldiers during the war. labyrinth, or surprise in the environment. Many of us enjoy A good environmental image gives its possessor an important the House of Mirrors, and there is a certain charm in the crooked sense of emotional security. He can establish an harmonious streets of Boston. This is so, however, only under two condi- relationship between himself and the outside world. This is the tions. First, there must be no danger of losing basic form or 5  orientation, of never coming our. The surprise must occur in an may seem to have strong structure or identity because of strik- over-all framework; the confusions must be small regions in a ing physical features which suggest or impose their own pattern. visible whole. Furthermore, the labyrinth or mystery must in Thus the sea or a great mountain can rivet the attention of one itself have some form that can be explored and in time be appre- coming from the flat plains of the interior, even if he is so young hended. Complete chaos without hint of connection is never or so parochial as to have no name for these great phenomena. pleasurable. As manipulators of the physical environment, city planners are primarily interested in the external agent in the interaction These points art fur- But these second thoughts point to an important qualification. ther illustrated in which produces the environmental image. Different environ- The observer himself should play an active role in perceiving the ments resist or facilitate the process of image-making. Any Appendix A world and have a creative part in developing his image. He given form, a fine vase or a lump of clay, will have a high or a should have the power to change that image to fit changing low probability of evoking a strong image among various observ- needs. An environment which is ordered in precise and final ers. Presumably this probability can be stated with greater and detail may inhibit new patterns of activity. A landscape whose greater precision as the observers are grouped in mote and more every rock tells a story may make difficult the creation of fresh homogeneous classes of age, sex, culture, occupation, tempera- stories. Although this may not seem to be a. critical issue in our ment, or familiarity. Each individual creates and bears his own present urban chaos, yet it indicates that what we seek is not a image, but there seems to be substantial agreement among mem- final but an open-ended order, capable of continuous further bers of the same group. It is these group images, exhibiting con- development. sensus among significant numbers, that interest city planners Building the Image who aspire to model an environment that will be used by many Environmental images are the result of a two-way process people. between the observer and his environment. The environment Therefore this study will tend to pass over individual differ- suggests distinctions and relations, and the observer—with great ences, interesting as they might be to a psychologist. The first adaptability and in the light of his own purposes—selects, organ- order of business will be what might be called the "public izes, and endows with meaning what he sees. The image so images," the common mental pictures carried by large numbers developed now limits and emphasizes what is seen, while the of a city's inhabitants: areas of agreement which might be image itself is being tested against the filtered perceptual input expected to appear in the interaction of a single physical reality, in a constant interacting process. Thus the image of a given a common culture, and a basic physiological nature. reality may vary significantly between different observers. The systems of orientation which have been used vary widely The coherence of the image may arise in several ways. There throughout the world, changing from culture to culture, and from may be little in the real object that is ordered or remarkable, landscape to landscape. Appendix A gives examples of many of and yet its mental picture has gained identity and organization them: the abstract and fixed directional systems, the moving sys- through long familiarity. One man may find objects easily on tems, and those that are directed to the person, the home, or the what seems to anyone else to be a totally disordered work table. sea. The world may be organized around a set of focal points, Alternatively, an object seen for the first time may be identified or be broken into named regions, or be linked by remembered and related not because it is individually familiar but because it routes. Varied as these methods are, and inexhaustible as seem conforms to a stereotype already constructed by the observer. An to be the potential clues which a man may pick out to differen- American can always spot the corner drugstore, however indis- tiate his world, they cast interesting side-lights on the means that tinguishable it might be to a Bushman. Again, a new object we use today to locate ourselves in our own city world. For the 6 7  most part these examples seem to echo, curiously enough, the line may stand for vitality, power, decadence, mystery, conges- formal types of image elements into which we can conveniently tion, greatness, or what you will, but in each case that sharp divide the city image: path, landmark, edge, node, and district. picture crystallizes and reinforces the meaning. So various arc These elements will be defined and discussed in Chapter 3. the individual meanings of a city, even while its form may be easily communicable, that it appears possible to separate meaning Structure and Identity from form, at least in the early stages of analysis. This study will therefore concentrate on the identity and structure of city An environmental image may be analyzed into three compo- images. nents: identity, structure, and meaning. It is useful to abstract If an image is to have value for orientation in the living space, these for analysis, if it is remembered that in reality they always it must have several qualities. It must be sufficient, true in a appear together. A workable image requires first the identifica- pragmatic sense, allowing the individual to operate within his tion of an object, which implies its distinction from other things, environment to the extent desired. The map, whether exact or its recognition as a separable entity. This is called identity, not not, must be good enough to get one home. It must be suffi- in the sense of equality with something else, but with the mean- ciently clear and well integrated to be economical of mental ing of individuality or oneness. Second, the image must include effort: the map must be readable. It should be safe, with a sur- the spatial or pattern relation of the object to the observer and to plus of clues so that alternative actions are possible and the risk other objects. Finally, this object must have some meaning for of failure is not too high. If a blinking light is the only sign for the observer, whether practical or emotional. Meaning is also a a critical turn, a power failure may cause disaster. The image relation, but quite a different one from spatial or pattern relation. should preferably be open-ended, adaptable to change, allowing Thus an image useful for making an exit requires the recogni- the individual to continue to investigate and organize reality: tion of a door as a distinct entity, of its spatial relation to the there should be blank spaces where he can extend the drawing observer, and its meaning as a hole for getting out. These are for himself. Finally, it should in some measure be communicable not truly separable. The visual recognition of a door is matted to other individuals. The relative importance of these criteria together with its meaning as a door. It is possible, however, to for a "good" image will vary with different persons in different analyze the door in terms of its identity of form and clarity of situations; one will prize an economical and sufficient system, position, considered as if they were prior to its meaning, another an open-ended and communicable one. Such an analytic feat might be pointless in the study of a door, but not in the study of the urban environment. To begin with, Imageability the question of meaning in the city is a complicated one. Group Since the emphasis here will be on the physical environment images of meaning are less likely to be consistent at this level as the independent variable, this study will look for physical than are the perceptions of entity and relationship. Meaning, qualities which relate to the attributes of identity and structure moreover, is not so easily influenced by physical manipulation as in the mental image. This leads to the definition of what might are these other two components. If it is our purpose to build be called image ability; that quality in a physical object which cities for the enjoyment of vast numbers of people of widely gives it a high probability of evoking a strong image in any diverse background—and cities which will also be adaptable given observer. It is that shape, color, or arrangement which to future purposes—we may even be wise to concentrate on the facilitates the making of vividly identified, powerfully structured, physical clarity of the image and to allow meaning to develop highly useful mental images of the environment. It might also without our direct guidance. The image of the Manhattan sky- be called legibility, or perhaps visibilily in a heightened sense, 8 9  where objects are not only able to be seen, but are presented Since image development is a two-way process between sharply and intensely to the senses. observer and observed, it is possible to strengthen the image Half a century ago, Stern discussed this attribute of an artistic either by symbolic devices, by the retraining of the perceiver, or object and called it apparency.74 While art is not limited to this by reshaping one's surroundings. You can provide the viewer single end, he felt that one of its two basic functions was "to with a symbolic diagram of how the world fits together: a map create images which by clarity and harmony of form fulfill the or a set of written instructions. As long as he can fit reality to need for vividly comprehensible appearance." In his mind, this the diagram, he has a clue to the relatedness of things. You can was an essential first step toward the expression of inner meaning. even install a machine for giving directions, as has recently A highly imageable (apparent, legible, or visible) city in this been done in New York. 49 While such devices are extremely peculiar sense would seem well formed, distinct, remarkable; it useful for providing condensed data on interconnections, they would invite the eye and the ear to greater attention and partici- are also precarious, since orientation fails if the device is lost, and pation. The sensuous grasp upon such surroundings would not the device itself must constantly be referred and fitted to reality. merely be simplified, but also extended and deepened. Such a The cases of brain injury noted in Appendix A illustrate the city would be one that could be apprehended over time as a pat- anxiety and effort that attend complete reliance on such means. tern of high continuity with many distinctive parts clearly inter- Moreover, the complete experience of interconnection, the full connected. The perceptive and familiar observer could absorb depth of a vivid image, is lacking. new sensuous impacts without disruption of his basic image, and You may also train the observer. Brown remarks that a maze each new impact would touch upon many previous elements. He through which subjects were asked to move blindfolded seemed would be well oriented, and he could move easily. He would be to them at first to be one unbroken problem. On repetition, highly aware of his environment. The city of Venice might be parts of the pattern, particularly the beginning and end, became an example of such a highly imageable environment. In the familiar and assumed the character of localities. Finally, when United States, one is tempted to cite parts of Manhattan, San they could tread the maze without error, the whole system seemed Francisco, Boston, or perhaps the lake front of Chicago. to have become one locality.8 DeSilva describes the case of a These are characterizations that flow from our definitions. The boy who seemed to have "automatic" directional orientation, but concept of imageability does not necessarily connote something proved to have been trained from infancy (by a mother who fixed, limited, precise, unified, or regularly ordered, although it could not distinguish right from left) to respond to "the east may sometimes have these qualities. Nor does it mean apparent side of the porch" or "the south end of the dresser."71 at a glance, obvious, patent, or plain. The total environment to Shipton's account of the reconnaissance for the ascent of Ever- be patterned is highly complex, while the obvious image is soon est offers a dramatic case of such learning. Approaching Everest boring, and can point to only a few features of the living world. from a new direction, Shipton immediately recognized the main The imageability of city form will be the center of the study peaks and saddles that he knew from the north side. But the to follow. There are other basic properties in a beautiful envi- Sherpa guide accompanying him, to whom both sides were long ronment: meaning or expressiveness, sensuous delight, rhythm, familiar, had never realized that these were the same features, stimulus, choice. Our concentration on imageability does not and he greeted the revelation with surprise and delight.70 deny their importance. Our purpose is simply to consider the Kilpatrick describes the process of perceptual learning forced need for identity and structure in our perceptual world, and to on an observer by new stimuli that no longer At into previous illustrate the special relevance of this quality to the particular images.4' It begins with hypothetical forms that explain the new case of the complex, shifting urban environment. stimuli conceptually, while the illusion of the old forms persists. 10 11  The personal experience of most of us will testify to this per- or tree blazes, but substantial modifications for visual clarity or sistence of an illusory image long after its inadequacy is concep- visual interconnection were confined to house sites or religious tually realized. We stare into the jungle and see only the sun- enclosures. Only powerful civilizations can begin to act on their light on the green leaves, but a warning noise tells us that an total environment at a significant scale. The conscious remold- animal is hidden there. The observer then learns to interpret the ing of the large-scale physical environment has been possible only scene by singling out "give-away" clues and by reweighting pre- recently, and so the problem of environmental imageability is a vious signals. The camouflaged animal may now be picked up new one. Technically, we can now make completely new land- by the reflection of his eyes. Finally by repeated experience the scapes in a brief time, as in the Dutch polders. Here the de- entire pattern of perception is changed, and the observer need no signers are already at grips with the question of how to form longer consciously search for give-aways, or add new data to an the total scene so that it is easy for the human observer to old framework. He has achieved an image which will operate identify its parts and to structure the whole. 30 successfully in the new situation, seeming natural and right. We are rapidly building a new functional unit, the metropoli- Quite suddenly the hidden animal appears among the leaves, "as tan region, but we have yet to grasp that this unit, too, should plain as day." have its corresponding image. Suzanne Langer sets the problem In the same way, we must learn to see the hidden forms in the in her capsule definition of atchitecture: vast sprawl of our cities. We are not accustomed to organizing "It is the total environment made visible."42 and imaging an artificial environment on such a large scale; yet our activities are pushing us toward that end. Curt Sachs gives an example of a failure to make connections beyond a certain Ievel.66 The voice and drumbeat of the North American Indian follow entirely different tempos, the two being perceived inde- pendently. Searching for a musical analogy of Our own, he men- tions our church services, where we do not think of coordinating the choir inside with the bells above. In our vast metropolitan areas we do not connect the choir and the bells; like the Sherpa, we see only the sides of Everest and not the mountain. To extend and deepen our perception of the environment would be to continue a long biological and cultural development which' has gone from the contact senses to the dis- tant senses and from the distant senses to symbolic communica- tions. Our thesis is that we are now able to develop our image of the environment by operation on the external physical shape as well as by an internal learning process. Indeed, the complex- ity of our environment now compels us to do so. Chapter 4 will discuss how this might be done. Primitive man was forced to improve his environmental image by adapting his perception to the given landscape. He could effect minor changes in his environment with cairns, beacons, 12 13