Kevin Lynch studied the mental maps and images that people form of cities. He identified 5 key elements that shape a person's mental image: pathways, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks. Pathways are streets and paths that direct movement; edges are linear boundaries like walls; districts are recognizable sections of a city; nodes are strategic points like intersections; and landmarks are reference points like buildings. Lynch applied this framework to analyze the mental maps of Boston, Jersey City, and Los Angeles. His work aimed to understand how people navigate cities and design more legible urban environments.

1. PIONEERS OF TOWN
PLANNING
KEVIN LYNCH
Ar.AyazAhmad Khan
Assistant Professor
InvertisUniversity

2. ABSTRACT
“There seems to be a public image of any given city which is the overlap of
many individual images. Or perhaps there is a series of public images, each
held by some significant number of citizens. Such group images are necessary
if an individual is to operate successfully within his environment and to
cooperate with his fellows. Each individual picture is unique. with some content
that is rarely or never communicated, yet it approximates the public image,
which, in different environments, is more or less compelling, more or less
embracing.”
Kevin A. Lynch

3. INTRODUCTION
•Kevin Andrew Lynch was born on 7th Jan 1918 & died on
25th April 1984.
•He was an American urban planner & author.
•He is best known for his work on mental mapping & on
perceptual form of urban environments.
•His famous book The Image of the City which he
published in 1960 is very famous among his works.
•He was a disciple of FLW before he studied city
planning, & spend his academic career at the
Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology, teaching there.
•He practice site planning and urban design

4. CONCEPT OF MENTAL
MAPPING
A mental map is a person's point-of-view
perception of their area of interaction.
A person’s perception of the world is known as
mental map, it’s an individual’s own map of
their known world.
The image which the user form in his mind
about the architectural and urban components
of the city and their places so he can direct his
motion through the city after that.

5. CONCEPT OF MENTAL
MAPPING
Mental maps of an individual
can be investigated by:
Asking for directions to a
landmark or other location.
Asking someone to draw a
sketch map of an area or
describe that area.
Asking a person to name as
many places as possible in
short period of time.

6. CONCEPT OF MENTAL
MAPPING
Mental image properties :
The overall mental image of an urban
environment will be:
1. Partial : not covering the whole city
2. Simplified : omitting a great deal of
information
3. Unique : each individual has his/her own
4. Distorted : not necessary has real distance or
direction.

7. ABOUT THE BOOK :
IMAGE OF THE CITY
“This book is about the look of cities, and whether this
look is of any importance, and whether it can be
changed”.
The book is the result of a five-year study
of Boston, Jersey City and Los Angeles on how
observers take in information of the city, and use it to
make mental maps.
Lynch's conclusion was that people formed mental
maps of their surroundings consisting of five basic
elements.
The book looks at three American cities: Boston, Jersey
City, and Los Angeles.

8. ABOUT THE BOOK :
IMAGE OF THE CITY
In the first section, new concepts of
legibility and Imageability are presented to
lay the theoretical foundation of the entire
book.
Followed by that, Lynch introduced three
American cities as examples to reveal his
outcomes of field reconnaissance, and then
made comparisons between each other.
In the third section, five elements and their
interrelationships are summarized from
previous researches which act as the core
content of the book.

9. ABOUT THE BOOK :
IMAGE OF THE CITY
In Lynch’s view, image can be
explained as “a picture especially in
the mind”, a sentimental combination
between objective city image and
subjective human thoughts.
The productions of environment
images are influenced by a two-way
process between the observer and the
observed.
The observer, with great adaptability
and in the light of his own purposes,
selects, organizes, and endows with

10. THEORY - FIVE POINTS
Kevin Lynch found that there are five basic elements which people use to
construct their mental image of a city:
Pathways
Districts
Edges
Landmarks
Nodes

11. 1. PATHWAYS
These are the streets, sidewalks, trails, canals, railroads and other channels in which
people travel;
They arrange space and movement between space
Paths are the channels along which the observer moves. They may be streets,
walkways, transit lines, canals, railroads.

12. 1. PATHWAYS

13. 1. PATHWAYS
Why paths are important elements in the city image?
1. Concentration of uses
2. Containing significant
buildings and facades

14. 1. PATHWAYS
Why paths are
important
elements in the
city image?
3. paths are the
most important
elements in
people’s images :
• other elements
are arranged and
along them.
• Unclear paths =
unclear city

15. 2. EDGES
Boundaries;
They can be either Real or Perceived;
These are walls, buildings, and shorelines, curbstone, streets, overpasses, etc.
Edges are linear elements that form boundaries between areas or linear breaks in
continuity (e.g. shores, railway cuts, walls).

16. 2. EDGES

17. 2. EDGES
The strongest edges are continuous in form, and often impenetrable to cross movement.

18. 2. EDGES
The strongest edges are continuous in form, and often impenetrable to cross movement.
Manmade edges
Natural edges

19. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
PATH & EDGE
Edges :
Prevent motion in specific direction
Paths :
Direct the motion to specific direction

20. 3. DISTRICTS
Medium to large areas that are two-
dimensional;
An individual enters into and out of
these areas;
Have common identifying
characteristics.
Districts are the
medium-to-large
sections of the
city which the
observer
mentally enters
"inside of," and
which are
recognizable as

21. 3. DISTRICTS

22. 3. DISTRICTS
Are the medium to large parts of the city
which share the same characteristics
Style - spatial form, topography- colors,
texture, urban fabric

23. 3. DISTRICTS
Districts may have Clear edges, or soft
uncertain ones gradually fading away
into surrounding areas.

24. 4. NODES
Large areas you can enter, serve as the foci of the city, neighborhood, district, etc.;
Offers the person in them multiple perspectives of the other core elements.

25. 4. NODES
Nodes are points, the strategic spots in a city into which an observer can enter, and
which are the intensive foci to and from which he is travelling..
They may be primarily junctions or concentrations.

26. 4. NODES
Strategic points in the city
that:
• the user can enter it
• be directed to many
destinations
• it can be gathering places
or intersection of paths, or
places for activities

27. 5. LANDMARKS
Points of reference person cannot enter into;
These are buildings, signs, stores, mountains, public art;
Mobile Points (such as Sun) can be used as well.

28. 5. LANDMARKS
Landmarks are another type of point-reference, but in this case the observer does not
enter within them, they are external. They are usually a rather simply defined physical
object: building, sign, store, or mountain.

29. 5. LANDMARKS
A physical element with unique and special
visual features that has a "point-specific”
location, and can be identified from the
distance.

30. 5. LANDMARKS
What makes landmark a land mark?
Singularity: “one in the context”
Contrast with the surroundings
Clarity of general form
Difference in form, shape & height from
surroundings

31. 5. LANDMARKS
Uniqueness nature

32. THREE CITIES ON THIS
CONCEPT
Three Cities
The image of the cities Boston, Jersey Cities and Los Angeles derived from the consensus of v
interviews and sketch maps.
Boston

33. THREE CITIES ON THIS
CONCEPT
Jersey City

34. THREE CITIES ON THIS
CONCEPT
Los Angeles

35. BOSTON MENTAL MAP IN
DETAIL

36. THUS IMAGE OF THE
CITY
None of lynch’s elements exits in isolation :
all combine to provide the overall image:
• Districts are structures with nodes
• Edges define Districts
• Paths introduction to Districts
• Nodes sprinkled by landmarks ….
• Nodes emphasizes the connection between paths
All combine to provide the overall image of the
city

37. CONCLUSION & WHAT
PURPOSE IT SERVED
Preventing feeling lost
Helping make the city feel like “home”
So it is important to understand how people think and form their mental impression
about the city and the common themes they share to help designers to design urban
environment in a clear manner for users

38. THANKYOU…