Good City Form

Kevin Lynch

Historically...

The oldest known cities were temple cities

Laid out along processional avenues and impressive sights

Built to impress pilgrims and get their tribute

(Disney World, Las Vegas)

Temple Cities

 

Temple Cities

Defined a place for humans in the Cosmos, seperating us from chaos

The rulers are the upholders of order

Leads to 'holy city plan'

Feng shui

Machine Cities

New settlements in foreign lands laid out on a grid

Allows planning, expansion, change and impermanence

Combined with fortification, allows easier defense

Control by segregation

(Roskilde Festival)

Machine Cities

The city is seen as a collection of parts

Scalable and flexible

Repeating patterns

Sprawl

Machine Cities

Values

Vitality

Fit

Sense

Access

Control

Vitality

• Support of biological human needs• And human capabilities 

o Should have access to food & water etc.o Remove wasteo Prevent diseaseo Defend against attack

• Expectations scale with our ability      (eg. to predict disasters)

Fit

• Human Factors• Rhythms

o Work hourso Sleepo Day/Nighto Seasons

• Suitedness to purpose and ease of use• Can be emergent and non-universal

(McGyver)

Fit

• Manipulabilityo the ability to influence

environment

• Flexibility to suit future purposes        (Grid layout suited for this)

Bad Fit

 

Good Fit

 

Sense

   

Sense

• Legibility of a place

• Identity

• Sensory impression

• Cognitive impression

Sense

A good city cannot follow a strict model, since differentiation is a value in itself

Identity and "historicalness" are hard to make

The experience of a place should have flow

Transparency: The processes and origins should be legible too

Access

Variety of destinations >< Travel time

Externalities

Control

Access

Access

Control

control of space is useful for creating feelings of

dominance, status, power

vs.

excluded, submitted, weak

Control

Wastelands• Hard-to-reach areas outside the city

• Low degree of control

• High degree of subversiveness, freedom

• Fit