2. ARCH352
On the white board, draw a map of your route from your
home to Dammam University’s campus, from memory.
Include as much detail as you possibly can: street names,
landmarks, UD campus, parks, buildings and anything else
you believe is important enough to be on your map.
Focus Activity
5. ARCH352
COGNITIVE MAPPING
اإلدراك خرائط
Cognitive mapping is a process
by which an individual acquires,
codes, stores, and recalls
information about the relative
locations and attributes of
phenomena in his everyday
spatial environment.
6. ARCH352
COGNITIVE MAPS
• A cognitive map is the image
people have of the
surrounding environment
(real-world settings,
neighborhoods, cities,
countries, etc.)
• A cognitive map is the
mental construct of the
environment seen from
multiple viewpoints. It
integrates parts into a
whole.
8. ARCH352
COGNITIVE MAPS
• The way we construct cognitive
maps change individually.
• The more experience a person
has with an environment, the
better their cognitive map
9. ARCH352
COGNITIVE MAPS
Factors influencing the formation of
Cognitive maps:
• Age
• Individual differences
– Personality
– Social and cultural background
– Education
• Gender differences
• Visual impairment
• Familiarity and experience
• Effort effects (e.g. travel time)
11. ARCH352
COGNITIVE MAPS
Human spatial behavior is dependent on the individual's
cognitive map of the spatial environment.
- cognitive map is a requisite both for human survival and
for everyday environmental behavior.
It is a coping mechanism through which the individual
answers two basic questions quickly and efficiently:
(1) Where certain valued things are
(2) How to get to where they are from where he is.
12. ARCH352
WAY-FINDING
• Wayfinding is the process by which we navigate in our
environment. It is an internal psychological process, and a
sequence of problem-solving activities.
• Newcomers to an environment experience the stressful feeling
of being lost.
13. ARCH352
WAY-FINDING
• Wayfinding depends on a system of text, graphics and
tactile information at the right time and the right place
to guide people to their destinations. It is a process that
people use to navigate unfamiliar surroundings.
14. ARCH352
WAY-FINDING
Key Factors in better wayfinding
Spatial Organization
Landmarks
Signage
Directories
Maps
Color and Lighting
15. ARCH352
“We are not simply observers of
the city but are ourselves part of
what we see. Our perception is
usually partial, fragmentary, mixed
with other concerns [..] The
environmental image is the
product both of immediate
sensation and of the memory of
past experience.”
Kevin Lynch, “The Structure of Urban
Perception”,
The Image of the City (1960)
IMAGE OFTHE CITY
16. ARCH352
IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Lynch’s goal was to oppose
Modernism’s unified, placeless,
depersonalized city through
reasserting the human role in the
interpretation of the city.
17. ARCH352
• People experience of their built environment and the
way they access it is psychological, not just physical.
• The sense of a place links elements via coherent
representations of non-spatial concepts and values.
• Anyone can ‘read’ a place, but they see different
things: comfort, identity, meaning, stimulus,
attachment ...
IMAGE OFTHE CITY
18. ARCH352
Lynch suggested five elements of legibility contribute to
our ability to create, maintain, images of a place in our
head:
• Paths
• Edges
• Districts
• Nodes
• Landmarks
IMAGE OFTHE CITY
19. ARCH352
Lynch suggested five elements of legibility contribute to
our ability to create, maintain, images of a place in our
head:
• Paths
• Edges
• Districts
• Nodes
• Landmarks
IMAGE OFTHE CITY
23. ARCH352
“Paths are the channels along
which the observer customarily,
occasionally, or potentially moves.
They may be streets, walkways,
transit lines, canals, railroads. For
many people, these are the
predominant elements in their
image. People observe the city
while moving through it, and
along these paths the other
environmental elements are
arranged and related. “
IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Paths
27. ARCH352
“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.
IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Edges
28. ARCH352
IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Districts
• Have a common character/theme,
made up of texture, form, space, detail,
symbol, inhabitant, topography…
• Clearly defined districts lead to ‘good’
orientation
Moderate-sized areas that city residents
identify as having a particular character
30. ARCH352
IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Districts
“Districts are the medium-to-large sections
of the city conceived as having two-
dimensional extents, which the observer
mentally enters “inside of” and which are
recognizable as having some common
identifying character.
31. ARCH352
IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Nodes
Well-known points that people travel to
and from, junctures of important paths,
key intersections, popular plazas or
squares, or other points of intense activity
32. ARCH352
IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Nodes
Well-known points that people travel to
and from, junctures of important paths,
key intersections, popular plazas or
squares, or other points of intense activity
33. ARCH352
IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Nodes
Well-known points that people travel to
and from, junctures of important paths,
key intersections, popular plazas or
squares, or other points of intense activity
34. ARCH352
IMAGE OFTHE CITY
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
primary junctions, places of a break in
transportation, moments of shift from
one structure to another.
35. ARCH352
IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Landmarks
• Singularity, uniqueness
• Contrast (small/big, new/old)
• Symbolic
Easily viewed elements that act as
physical reference points, either
on a grand scale or on a smaller
scale
36. ARCH352
“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 simple
defined physical object: building, sign,
store, or mountain. Their use involves the
singling out of one element from a host of
possibilities. Some landmarks 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.“
IMAGE OFTHE CITY
Landmarks
38. ARCH352
Choose at least one example to illustrate each of Kevin
Lynch's Elements of Legibility. You can choose examples
from your surrounding environment or from other sources.
Describe in your own words why did you choose each
example and how do you think it does exemplify each of
the five elements. Use your sketches and diagrams to
illustrate your answer.
You have to submit your answer on A4 sheets. Don't forget
to indicate the exact name and location of each case.