Kevin Lynch
from
The Image of the City (1960)
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 compel-
ling, more
or less embracing.
[...]
The
contents of the city images so far studied,
which are
referable to physical forms, can
conveniently
be classified into five types of
elements:
paths, edges, districts, nodes, and
landmarks
...These elements may be defined as
follows:
1) Paths.
Paths are the channels along which
the
observer customarily, occasionally, or
potentially
moves. They may be streets, walk-
ways,
transit lines, canals, railroads. For many
people,
these are the predominant elements in
their
image. People observe the city while mov-
ing through
it, and along these paths the other
environmental
elements are arranged and
related.
2) Edges.
Edges are the linear elements not
used or
considered as paths by the observer.
They are
the boundaries between two phases,
linear
breaks in continuity: shores, railroad
cuts, edges
of development, walls. They are
lateral
references rather than coordinate axes.
Such edges
may be barriers, more or less pene-
trable,
which close one region off from another;
or they may
be seams, lines along which two
regions are
related and joined together .These
edge
elements, although probably not as domi-
nant as
paths, are for many people important
organizing
features, particularly in the role of
holding
together generalized areas, as in the
outline of
a city by water or wall.
3)
Districts. Districts are the medium-to-large
sections of
the city, conceived of as having two-
dimensional
extent, which the observer men-
tally
enters "inside of," and which are
recognizable
as having some common, identify-
ing
character. Always identifiable from the
inside,
they are also used for exterior reference
if visible
from the outside. Most people struc-
ture their
city to some extent in this way, with
individual
differences as to whether paths or
districts
are the dominant elements. It seems to
depend not
only upon the individual but also
upon the
given city.
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
traveling. They may be primarily
junctions,
places of a break in transportation,
a crossing
or convergence of paths, moments of
shift from
one structure to another .Or the
nodes may
be simply concentrations, which
gain their
importance from being the condensa-
tion of
some use or physical character, as a
street-corner
hangout or an enclosed square.
Some of
these concentration nodes are the focus
and epitome
of a district, over which their
influence
radiates and of which they stand as
a symbol.
They may be called cores. Many
nodes, of
course, partake of the nature of both
junctions
and concentrations. The concept of
node is
related to the concept of path, since
junctions
are typically the convergence of
paths,
events on the journey. It is similarly
related to
the concept of district, since cores are
typically
the intensive foci of districts, their
polarizing
center .In any event, some nodal
points are
to be found in almost every image,
and in
certain cases they may be the dominant
feature.
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 phys-
ical
object: building, sign, store, or mountain.
Their use
involves the singling out of one
element
from a host of possibilities. Some land-
marks are
distant ones, typically seen from
many angles
and distances, over the tops of
smaller
elements, and used as radial references.
They may be
within the city or at such a distance
that for
all practical purposes they symbolize a
constant
direction. Such are isolated towers,
golden
domes, great hills. Even a mobile point,
Iike the
sun, whose motion is sufficiently slow
and
regular, may be employed. Other land-
marks are
primarily local, being visible only in
restricted
localities and from certain approa-
ches. These
are the innumerable signs, store
fronts,
trees, doorknobs, and other urban detail,
which fill
in the image of most observers. 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.
[...]
Gideon Sjoberg
The
Pre-industrial City: Past and Present, Glencoe, The Free Press (1960)
[. ..]
Cities of
this type have been with us, present
evidence
indicates, since the fourth millennium
BC, when
they first began their development in
the
Mesopotamian riverine area. Before long, in
response to
the growing technology and a vari-
ety of
political forces, city life proliferated over
a broader
area. To an astonishing degree, pre-
industcia1
cities throughout history have pros-
pered or
floundered, as the case may be, in
accordance
with the shifting tides of social
power.
In terms of
their population these cities are
the
industrial city's poor relations, few ranging
over
100,000 and many containing less than
10,000 or
even 5,000 inhabitants. Their rate of
population
growth, moreover , has been slow
and
variable as well, in accordance with the
waxing and
waning of the supportive political
structure.
Yet throughout the shifting fortunes
of empire,
and the concomitant oscillation in
population
growth and decline, certain persis-
tent
structural characteristics signalize pre-
industrial
cities everywhere.
As to
spatial arrangements, the city's center
is the hub
of governmental and religious activ-
ity more
than of commercial ventures. It is,
besides,
the prime focus of elite residence,
while the
lower class and outcaste groups are
scattered
centrifugally toward the city's periph-
ery. Added
to the strong ecological differentia-
tion in
terms of social class, occupational and
ethnic
distinctions are solemnly proclaimed in
the Iand
use patterns. It is usual for each occu-
pational
group to live and work in a particular
street or
quarter , one that generally bears the
name of the
trade in question. Ethnic groups
are almost
always isolated from the rest of the
city ,
forming, so to speak, little worlds unto
themselves.
Yet, apart from the considerable
ecological
differentiation according to socio-
economic
criteria, a minimum of specialization
exists in
land use. Frequently a site serves mul-
tiple
purposes -e.g., it may be devoted concur-
rently to
religious, educational, and business
activities;
and residential and occupational
facilities
are apt to be contiguous.
[...]
Economic
activity is poorly developed in the
pre-industrial
city, for manual labor, or indeed
any that
requires one to mingle with the hum-
bler folk,
is depreciated and eschewed by the
elite.
Except for a few large-scale merchants,
who may
succeed in buying their way into the
elite,
persons engaged in economic activity are
either of
the lower class (artisans, laborers, and
some
shopkeepers) or outcastes (some busi-
nessmen,
and those who carry out the espe-
cially
degrading and arduous tasks in the city).
Within the
economic realm the key unit is
the guild,
typically community-bound. Through
the guilds,
handicraftsmen, merchants, and
groups
offering a variety of services attempt
to minimize
competition and determine stan-
dards and
prices in their particular spheres of
activity.
Customarily also, each guild controls
the
recruitment, based mainly on kinship or
other
particularistic ties, and the training of
personnel
for its specific occupation and seeks
to prevent
outsiders from invading its hallowed
domain.
The
production of goods and services -by
means of a
simple technology wherein humans
and animals
are almost the only source of
power , and
tools to multiply the effects of
this energy
are sparse -is accomplished through
a division
of labor which is complex compared
to that in
the typical folk order but, seen from
the
industrial city's vantage point, is surpris-
ingly
simple. Very commonly the craftsman
fashions an
article from beginning to end and
often
markets it himself. Although little specia-
lization
exists in process, specialization accord-
ing to
product is widespread. Thus each guild
is
concerned with the manufacture and/or sale
of a
specific product or, at most, a narrow class
of
products.
Little
standardization is found in prices, cur-
rency ,
weights and measures, or the type or
quality of
commodities marketed. In the main,
the price
of an item is ftxed through haggling
between
buyer and seller. Different types and
values of
currency may be used concurrently
within or
among communities; so too with
weights and
measures, which often vary as
well among
the crafts.
[...]
The
expansion of the economy is limited not
only by the
ruling group's negation of eco-
nomic
activity , the lack of standardization,
and so on,
but very largely also by the meager
facilities
for credit and capital formation.
Turning
from the economy to the political
structure,
we find members of the upper class
in command
of the key governmental posi-
tions. The
political apparatus, moreover, is
highly
centralized, the provincial and local
administrators
being accountable to the leaders
in the
societal capital. The sovereign exercises
autocratic
power, although this is mitigated by
certain
contrary forces that act to limit the
degree of
absolutism in the political realm.
[. ..]
Relative to
the industrial-urban community,
communication
in the feudal city is achieved
primarily
by word-of-mouth, specialized func-
tionaries
serving to disseminate news orally at
key
gathering points in the city .Members of
the
literate elite, however , communicate with
one another
to a degree through writing. And
the formal
educational system depends upon
the written
word, the means by which the ideal
norms are
standardized over time and space.
Only the
elite, however , have access to formal
education.
And the educational and religious
organizations,
with few exceptions, are interdi-
gitated.
The curriculum in the schools, whether
elementary
or advanced, is overwhelmingly
devoted to
predication of the society's tradi-
tional
religious-philosophical concepts. The
schools are
geared not to remaking the system
but to
perpetuating the old. Modem science,
wherein
abstract thought is coherent with
practical
knowledge and through which man
seeks to
manipulate the natural order, is practi-
ca1ly
non-existent in the non-industrial city .The
emphasis is
upon ethical and religious matters
as one is
concerned with adjusting to, not over-
coming, the
order of things. In contrast, indus-
trial man
is bent upon revising nature for his
own
purposes.
[. ..]