Abstract
Kevin Lynch’s concept of the image of the city has influenced many academics and practitioners around the world. However, misconceptions have arisen in applying Lynch’s concept through a superficial understanding of his five elements. The main purpose of this article is to extend meaning making behind the urban elements identification, on which Lynch had put less emphasizes. The research, on which this article is based, has been conducted in Surabaya- Indonesia with young people from a mid to high economic family background that a have high dependency on private cars. In imagining the city, they emphasize more on meaning rather than physical appearances of the elements. Meaning is driven by their daily route, social life style, and ethnic background. Lynch identified three dimensions in imagining cities, namely identity, structure and meaning, which are embedded in the urban elements. In this case study, meaning is regarded as being more important than the other two and as it represents social symbols of a specific group in the city of Surabaya.
Highlights
Published in 1960, Kevin Lynch’s book ‘Image of The City’ highlighted particular urban elements that would help people to create a sense of the place of navigation in an urban context
Summary are drawn from the above exploration as follow: 1. The young people strongly perceived the malls in creating the city image, on the other hand the conventional city symbols become less important
The main street of the city is an important element of the young people, since it relates to their daily activity
Summary
Published in 1960, Kevin Lynch’s book ‘Image of The City’ highlighted particular urban elements that would help people to create a sense of the place of navigation in an urban context. He identified five urban elements that were defined through an exploration of human orientational behavior in three cities: Boston, New Jersey and Los Angeles (Lynch, 1960). Misconceptions have arisen in applying Lynch’s concept through a superficial understanding of his five elements, focusing only on the ‘Image of The City' in regard of observing structure and identity, neglecting meaning behind this understanding. Lynch apparently put less emphasis on the category that most people believe is the most relative and uncertain factor, because of its social and cultural aspects
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