# The Image of the City [author:: Kevin Lynch] [cite-key:: lynch1960ImageCity] [date_published:: 1960] [genre:: Architecture] [keywords:: [[Architecture]], [[Spatial orientation]], [[Urban planning]], [[Wayfinding]]] [notes:: [[lynch1960ImageCity-notes]]] **(description-short:: How do we understand our environment?)** (description:: What does the city's form actually mean to the people who live there? What can the city planner do to make the city's image more vivid and memorable to the city dweller? To answer these questions, Mr. Lynch, supported by studies of Los Angeles, Boston, and Jersey City, formulates a new criterion — imageability — and shows its potential value as a guide for the building and rebuilding of cities. The wide scope of this study leads to an original and vital method for the evaluation of city form. The architect, the planner, and certainly the city dweller will all want to read this book.) > [!metadata]- Table of Contents > > 1. The Image of the Environment > - Legibility > - Building the Image > - Structure and Identity > - Imageability > 2. Three Cities > - Boston > - Jersey City > - Los Angeles > - Common Themes > 3. The City Image and Its Elements > - Paths > - Edges > - Districts > - Nodes > - Landmarks > - Element Interrelations > - The Shifting Image > - Image Quality > 4. City Form > - Designing the Paths > - Design of Other Elements > - Form Qualities > - The Sense of the Whole > - Metropolitan Form > - The Process of Design > 5. A New Scale > > **Appendices** > > A. Some References to Orientation > - Types of Reference Systems > - Formation of the Image > - The Role of Form > - Disadvantages of Imageability > > B. The Use of the Method > - The Method as the Basis for Design > - Directions for Future Research > > C. Two Examples of Analysis > - Beacon Hill > - Scollay Square > > Bibliography > Index ## Annotated bibliography This book is considered to be a foundational text for the disciplines of spatial planning and [[Wayfinding]] design. While it is focused on design and experience at the city-scale, it remains highly applicable to overall cognitive mapping and spatial orientation for all environments, including interiors. Lynch, an American urban planner by trade, presents the concept of the ‘imageability’ of our city, and how visual cues, memorable identifiers, and structures allow inhabitants to develop a mental map of their environment. The book is the outcome of a five-year study of the American urban environment (Boston, Jersey City, Los Angeles) and inhabitants. He identifies and explores five major components in urban design that serve as design elements within the built environment: [[Paths]], [[Edge]], [[40 Atomic/Districts]], [[Nodes]], and [[Landmark]]. This book was included as part of the literature review as it is heavily referenced in other citations and provides a fundamental understanding of cognitive spatial processing and [[Environmental psychology|environmental psychology]] which the knowledge is further built upon in other sources. ^annotatedbibliography