EXPLORING THE IMAGEABILITY OF

DELHI USING KEVIN LYNCH PRINCIPLE

SHREY BANSAL
ENROLMENT NO. 0361761618
YEAR: 2018-2023

RESEARCH PAPER GUIDE: PROF. VIDUSHI

PROF. RASHMI B. TANDON & MR. AKASH SHARMA

Submission No:####

Date of Submission: #######

COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE
VASTU KALA ACADEMY
9/1 QUTAB INSTITUTIONAL AREA, ARUNA ASAF ALI MARG

NEW DELHI – 11006

EXPLORING THE IMAGEABILITY OF DELHI USING

Abstract: Cities are an amalgamation of the utmost interactions of the built form and open spaces.
The speed with which they are traversed raises new problems for perception. Although the region is
functional, this functional unit should be identified by its inhabitants. Therefore, in order for the
inhabitants to recognize its region, mental mapping is necessary. The imageability factor helps in
defining the character of the city, which makes it recognizable as well as memorable. In this, the
strategic link is the environmental image, the mental picture of the exterior physical world that is held
by an individual. For this Kevin Lynch made sketches of maps using the memory of the urban areas.
Through which he revealed five elements of the city; Nodes, Edges, districts, Paths, and landmarks.
The final objective of this research paper is to understand the principles described by Kevin Lynch
and use them to analyze the imageability of the parts of Delhi. Further elaborating the ways to enhance
the mental map of the place.

Keywords: Mental Mapping, Kevin Lynch, Imageability, Path, Nodes, Landmark, Perception

Research Methodology

The present study is done to explore the Imageability concept described by Kevin Lynch in his book
“Image of the city”. The Urban planner is widely recognized for his theories on the city’s image and
Mental Mapping. Further after explaining all the elements of the Imageability and elaborating its
impact on the city case studies will be analyzed. The imageability for the parts of New Delhi will be
studied and compared on a few parameters. This will help in understanding how a city is perceived by
its inhabitants. Therefore, after conclusion, a few suggestions can be to improve Mental mapping.

Introduction

The beginning of the 1960s saw the evolution in the Urban Planning of the cities. Pioneer Urban
planners sought to preserve the Image of the city during Globalization and modernism. They contributed
theories about the city’s image and how to enhance it further. At the same time, Kevin Lynch, an urban
planner, widely recognized for his work on ‘Mental Mapping’ and ‘Urban Environment’ wrote a book
named ‘Image of the city’. Lynch developed a model of five objective elements that collectively shape
people’s perceptions. The elements that he recognized were Paths, Edges, District, Nodes, and
Landmarks.

He explained how an observer perceives the Urban environment through its various physical features
and creates a mental map. Each region has a distinctive image and identity which distinguishes it from
other cities. The form of any city includes the physical features that define the city's image and identity.
He based his research on his five years of studying three American cities i.e, Boston, Jersey City, and
Los Angeles. He analyzed how an observer perceives the Urban Environment through its various
Physical feature and Further create Mental imagery of the Urban Environment.

Mental Mapping

Lynch claimed that “Most often our perception of the city is not sustained,
but rather partial, fragmentary, mixed with other concerns. Nearly every sense is in
operation, and the image is the composite of them all.”

People understand the cities through recognizable elements that provide the Legibility and emotional
security of being in familiar territory. Mental Mapping can be described as a person’s perception of
their area of interaction. The strategic link is the environmental image, the Mental picture of the exterior
physical world that is held by an individual for Urban components of the city. While there may be
multiple variations to the perceptions of people and not all times will the same objects appear in a mental
image. However, there can be a number of observers who carry more or less, the same mental image of
a place which results in a collective memory of a community that has been built through time capturing
different events of history happening there.

Imageable surroundings also help in securing social goals of collective memory and imparting a sense
of belongingness. The inhabitants of a city perceive it as a place that is familiar as well as distinctive.
A legible environment increases the intensity of human experience, which implies that more details will
be observed by a person when surroundings are legible. Hence, the legibility and readability of
surroundings affect the community since the individual experience is affected.

As an urban planner, Kevin Lynch was intrigued by the functional and pragmatic aspects of the mental
representation; his concept of ‘imageability’ referred to the capacity of urban artifacts to imprint the
observer's mental map with a vivid, strong image. Lynch did research on people’s cognitive maps and
how they structure images of their environment. He developed the concept of ‘place legibility’. It is the
people’s ease of understanding the layout of a place. He pointed out the most characteristic urban
elements of these mental representations: ‘paths, nodes, edges, and landmarks.

Although Mental mapping is not a new aspect of planning. It is been used to define the characteristics
of planning from ages. Since “Image of the City” is the result of a study conducted in three American
cities the conclusion might vary as there is a huge difference between the cities of West and Asian
Cities. In India, the cities have very distinct characteristics, built form, morphology, and urbanity.

Imageability – Kevin Lynch Model

Qualities that relate to the attributes of identity and structure in the mental image are called Imageability.
Imageability is an essential tool for expressing one's vision of the city. Kevin Lynch introduced the
concept of Imageability, which he defined as that quality in a physical object which gives it a high
probability of evoking a strong image in any given observer. It is that shape, color, or arrangement
 Author’s name / Insert your paper’s title here

which is highly useful for mental images of the environment. It might also be called legibility. The
apparent clarity or "Legibility" of the cityscape. It means the ease with which it can be recognized and
organized into a coherent pattern. So, a legible city would be one whose districts or landmarks or
pathways are easily identifiable and are easily grouped into an overall pattern.

Kevin Lynch's “The Image of the City” was influential to the movement, particularly with regards to
the concept of legibility, and the urban design theory to five basic elements - paths, districts, edges,
nodes, and landmarks.

He developed a model to analyze and improve the visual forms of cities. The city can be described as
an interrelated connection of paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks. Paths can be defined as
continuous, identifiable, and directional elements with clear starting and ending points, like streets,
sidewalks in which people may travel. These are the predominant elements in their image. People
observe the city while moving through it. Along these paths, the other environmental elements are
arranged and related.

However, Edges are continuously visible boundaries that separate two districts and may be exemplified
by highways, rivers. The same model defines Districts as fairly large sections of a city, which share a
common identity or character. Districts are also referred to as sectors in the present context, are the
medium to a large division of the city having two-dimensional extent generally bounded by permeable
and non-permeable edges and paths in which observer mentally enters ‘inside of'.

Further, Lynch described Nodes as strategic focal points that people may pass through, like squares and
junctions. They should not necessarily be defined by a strictly physical form but may sometimes be
represented by concentrations of some use, as a street-corner hangout. Nodes are the points of the
intensive foci along the paths of the city through which the observer is traveling. The concept of a node
is related to the concept of the path since junctions are typically the convergence of paths, events on the
journey. It is similarly related to the concept of the district since cores are typically the intensive foci of
districts, their polarizing center.

Lastly, Landmarks are unique characteristic reference points, such as buildings, signs, stores that are
memorable in the urban context. These are the point of reference generally not entered by the observer
and are usually externally defined features or physical objects such as buildings, signs, mountains,
activity centers, some unusually monumental objects, etc. Some landmarks may also have directional
attributes or some are the distant ones i.e., seen from many angles and distances.

Indian Context

Kevin Lynch's book “Image of the City” was a result of studies conducted in America. Boston, Jersey
City, and Los Angeles were studied by Lynch for the long period of Five Years. After analyzing these
three cases, the author drew out some conclusion regarding people’s perception of the city environment.
However, there is a huge difference between the cities of the west and Asian cities. Asian cities are very
distinctive in their characteristics, morphology, and Urbanity. Therefore, the context changes due to the
location.
New Delhi has a long history of settlements and has experienced several transformations over a decade.
These transformations over years have contributed immensely to the formation of different Images and
Mental Maps. Furthermore, rapid economic growth and urban development have also influenced the
Image of the city, Its spatial identity, and its general appearance. Since the Urban setting of Delhi is
very different from Boston, the Kevin lynch theory might not be completely applicable here.