#017 The Image of the City - The City Image and its Elements

still constructing

Definition:

1. Paths.
   • Paths are the channels along which the observer customarily, occasionally, or potentially moves.
   • streets, walkways, transit lines, canals, railroads…
2. Edges.
   • Edges are the linear elements not used or considered as paths by the observer.
   • Boundaries between two phases, linear breaks in continuity: shores, railroad cuts, edges of development, walls…
   • Important organizing features, particularly in the role of holding together generalized areas.
3. Districts.
   • Districts are the medium-to-large sections of the city, conceived of as having tow-dimensional extent, which the observer mentally enters “inside of,” and which are recognizable as having some common, identifying character.
   • Always identifiable from the inside, they are also used for exterior reference if visible from the outside.
4. Nodes.
   • Nodes are points, the strategic spots in a city into which an observer can enter, and which are the intersive foci to and from which he is traveling.
   • Primarily junctions, places of a break in transportation, a crossing or convergence of paths, moments of shift from one structure to another…
   • Or the node may be simply concentrations, which gain their importance from being the condensation of some use or physical character, as a street-corner hangout or an enclosed square.
   • Some are the focus and epitome of a district, over which their influence radiates and of which they stand as a symbol. Many partake of the nature of both juntions and concentrations.
5. Landmarks.
   • Landmarks are another type of point-reference, but in this case the observer does not enter within them, they are external.
   • Usually a rather simply defined physical object: building, sign, store, mountain…
   1. Some are distant ones, over the tops of smaller elements, and used as radial references.
      • They are within the city or at such a distance that for all practical purposes they symbolize a constant direction.
      • Isolated towers, golden domes, great hills, sun…
   2. Other are primarily local, being visible only in restricted localities and from certain approaches.
      • innumerable signs, store fronts, trees, doorknobs, other urban derail…
      • They are frequently used clues of identity and even of structure, and seem to be increasingly relied upon as a journey becomes more and more familiar.

The image of a given physical reality may occasionally shift its type with different circumstances of viewing.

None of the element types isolated above exist in isolation in the real case.

Paths

For most people, paths were the predominant city elements, although their importance varied according to the degree of familiarity with the city.

Particular paths may become important features in a number of ways.

Edges

Districts

Nodes

Landmarks

Element Interrelations

The Shifting Image