Cities are large urban centers that serve as central places providing specialized goods and services. They are defined as having populations over 100,000. Cities are larger and more densely populated than towns, and may incorporate surrounding areas. Power and administration are centered in cities. Kevin Lynch identified five key elements that comprise a city's image and structure: paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks. Paths are roads and visual corridors that link all other elements. Districts have distinct characteristics and identities. Edges form boundaries between districts. Nodes are important gathering places. Landmarks provide unique orientation points. Scale is a system of measurement that refers to both empirical and relative sizes. It impacts human perception and generates feelings related

2. WHAT IS CITY?
A urban centre, functioning as a central place, and providing specialized goods and
services.
Definitions adopted at the Census of India, 2001 :-
Towns with population of 1,00,000 and above are called cities.
Difference Between City and Town
1.Cities are larger than towns and more densely populated.
(town - settlement over 20,000 population)
2. As cities advance, they may sometimes merge with, or incorporate surrounding
areas. Towns on the other hand, tend not to do this.
3. The centre of power mainly rests in the cities and not in the towns. Most of the
important administrative offices are situated in the cities.
4. Corporate bodies rule the cities; municipalities, the towns. A mayor is the head of
a city corporation, while a chairman is the head of a municipality.

3. ELEMENTS OF THE CITY
The contents of the city can conveniently be classified into
five types of elements:
•Paths
•Edges
•Districts
•Nodes
•Landmarks

4. 1.PATH
There are two elements in a city which can be called a
path: the road and the visual corridor. These two
elements are usually woven together. The path is the
critical component of urban spatial structure, or the
framework of a city. It is the basic element of the
identification of a city, linking all other components.
Therefore, in establishing “image ability,” path is a
dominant factor.

5. 2. DISTRICT
Usually a two-dimensional phenomenon, varying greatly in
size. A district should have individual characteristics and
functions to distinguish it from its surroundings, for
example, a predominance of storical architecture or modern
high-rise buildings, a residential or industrial identity.
These distinct districts usually have their own
characteristics, with a social, historical and cultural identity
and community function.

6. 3.EDGE
The boundary between districts; either the changes of
natural topography or artificial form, such as a greenbelt,
waterfront or street wall. Edge is the identification of a
distinct urban physical environment, and the perception of
change from one district to another.

7. 4. NODE
A gathering place, an important focal point relating to
people’s daily life. It is usually the center of a district which
has the same functions and characteristics. It is important
for people to clearly perceive the node and its surroundings.
The core of a city is often an important node.

8. 5.LANDMARK
A unique point in an environment, distinguished from its
surroundings. It can be natural topography, trees, buildings
or a particular feature. Landmarks provide orientation and
hint at the surrounding urban structure.
All the elements (described above) comprise the
image of a city and are interdependent. In Lynch’s view of
the city we can see a paradigm of structure which enables us
to understand the urban environment more clearly.

9. IMAGE IS EVERYTHING FOR THE MODERN CITY

10. IMAGE OF A CITY SHOWING THE ELEMENTS OF THE CITY

11. An expression of particular spiritual and material,
social and political conditions, influenced and
modified by the forms of production and the means
of communication.
CITY
WHAT ?

12. DEAD CITY

13. LIVING CITY

14. • Appeared relatively late in man's long history
(Neolithic period )
• Emerged only after a long struggle with the forces
of nature on which man depends and of which he is
also a part.
WHEN ?

15. FACTORS WHICH DETERMINE THE FORM
AND NATURE OF MAN'S SETTLEMENTS
•Social organization
•Political intention
•Economic means
•Artistic and technical ability
•Forms of production and consumption
•Means of transportation

16. HOUSES ALONG A ROAD

17. •The age of civilization begins with the relatively peaceful
development of the Neolithic period (10200 B.C.).
• Stone implements became more refined.
•Pottery and weaving emerged.
•Grains and fruit trees were cultivated.
•Animals were domesticated.
•The society which emerged in this era was probably a
community of equals.
HOW ?

18. • Production was still so limited that it could satisfy
only the mere needs of life.
• It created no surpluses on which social distinctions
could be based.
STILL
People were learning to work together toward
common ends.
BUT

19. •Well-established settlements, various forms of
village, came into being.
• Life in those villages began to teach men to live,
not only in harmony with themselves, but also in
harmony with their neighbors and with the
community to which they belonged
RESULT

20. •This very progress led to conflicts.
• Fertile land was probably not abundant, and the secrets
of soil fertilization and conservation were undiscovered.
•Yet, as wars became less frequent, population was bound
to increase.
•Young members of the settlement were crowded out to
find new land to cultivate. They could possess the living
space they required only through conquest. The people
they conquered had to follow the same course.

21. • These conquests, disturbing as they were, had some
positive results.
• Since their goal was land acquisition, not the
extermination of enemies, displaced populations
were forced, themselves, to be on the move, and
the Neolithic civilization was carried all over the
Near East, North Africa, and Europe.

22. As the Neolithic settlements began to need defense
against would-be conquerors
•Their structural pattern changed.
•The first settlers may have built isolated houses, with
gardens and fields behind them, stretched sparsely
along a road.
•Such settlements were difficult to defend and did not
encourage the development of community life.

23. When common danger loomed, necessity
forced the grouping of the houses more
compactly and thus,
brought into being various types of
villages.

24. •Houses tended to cluster together or be placed on
both sides of a road or around a square.
• The circular formation around a central square
proved best for defense, and the circular village
appeared.
•Their fortification was, at first, provided by tight
thorn hedges, difficult to traverse.
FORMATION OF VILLAGES

25. CIRCULAR VILLAGE

26. STREET VILLAGE

27. •Then Neolithic man discovered, under the spur of danger,
that nature could provide even better defenses.
• Settlements on hills or on islands made use of natural
advantages.
• Man began to look, for these advantages.
• Learnt to make artificial islands in imitation of nature.
•Settlements of lake dwellers, built on platforms supported
by posts, gave to their inhabitants the full protection of a
water barrier.
But the villages were still small.

28. GLASTONBURY(Reconstruction of a Lake Village)

29. LAKE OF ZURICH
(Reconstruction of Lake dwellings)

30. Aggressors in superior numbers could overwhelm
and conquer them. The development of the place of
refuge was the response to this continuing danger.
•To these fortified hills, settlers living in the dispersed
villages could flee for safety in time of attack.
•They could take with them their animals and their
movable belongings and thus preserve property as well
as life.
SOCIALIZATION

31. • Could be built only by the common effort of
those who wanted to use it, the result was a
strengthening of social organization and the
spirit of cooperation.
• The villagers, working together, learnt to
resist aggression and eventually to defy
invaders.

32. •A place of refuge preserved the lives of the people, their
animals and some of their movable belongings.
•But it did not keep houses and villages from destruction.
•Invaders could burn and pillage the houses.
•People began to desert their villages and to settle on their
places of refuge.
•This meant that the fortified places had to be extended to
provide space for more permanent settlements.
•In time this developed into towns and even came to form
the nuclei of cities.

33. PLACE OF REFUGE

34. ITALIAN HILLTOWN

35. With the coming of the Bronze Age,
however, advancing technology brought
changes in the pattern, both economic and
technical.
Villages turned into towns; some destined to
become cities; a few the capitals of great
empires.

36. Scale of cities

37. Relevance in Planning:
• Relates buildings, cities and their parts together.
• Relate to human beings. Inch-foot-yard.
• Concept of module is an aspect of scale.
WHAT IS SCALE ?
It is a system of measurement. It may refer both to empirical and
relative measurement i.e. to comparison and proportion. Therefore
scale can vary with perception to familiar objects.
Example: Human being-football-ant.

38. Scale has effects on our senses i.e. Generates
feelings of
• Harmony
• Intimacy
• Grandeur
• Overpowering influence etc.
EFFECTS OF SCALE

39. SCALE AND HUMAN VISION:
Perception as humans shaped by design and physiology of the eye.
Different for other creatures. Over 1000 times for a hawk. Hearing 17
times with dogs etc., Human field of vision is
• 30 degrees up,
• 45 degrees down and
• 45 degrees east and west.
Normal distance ranges for activities below are:
Conversation: 3 to 10 feet Facial Recognition: Up to 80 feet
Identify action: Up to 450 ft. See human figures: Up to 4000 ft

40. Scale and Human Vision:

41. SCALE AND THE MOVEMENT
Cities have grown. Scale of the city has expanded
with industrialization, urbanisation and transport
and access.
Earlier transport was walking, horse cart. Now
train, tram, automobile, helicopter, air travel etc.
This has affected how parts of the city relate
together.

42. CHANGE IN MODE OF
TRANSPORTATION

43. SCALE-DISTANCE-TIME EQUATION
Location of facilities and housing are influenced.
Pattern of the city is integral to access and to these
scale-distance and time factors. i.e. Linear, concentric,
dense etc. Therefore implications of change in scale go
beyond the obvious of size increase.

44. SCALE AND NEIGHBOURHOOD
Need to relate in terms of design. Neighbourhood is a
unit of residential and city design and of scale. Module
of city. Size varies. Provision of community facilities.
Summary:
Meaning of scale-Characteristics and effects-Implications
on design of spaces-relevance of Neighbourhood as a
module of scale in city design

45. REFRENCES
•The Image Of The City- Kevin Lynch
•City In History- Mumford
•Nature Of City - Hilberseimer