The Impact of Hi-Technology Navigation Systems on the Reading of the Five Elements of Urban Design, Using the Case of the Central District of Hong Kong

Abstract

As smartphones become an essential and ubiquitous appendage for most city dwellers, a reliance on digital mapping and navigation systems as a means to navigate the city is increasing. Taking as its starting point, this paper represents the way in which this technology and capability have changed, the way the city is read and travelled through, and whether a fundamentally different image of the city is formed by the user. The aim of the research is to discover the usage of navigation technologies in forming a city image and in relation to the five elements of urban design defined by Kevin Lynch in his book Image of the City. The Hong Kong district of Central is used to analyze the impact of such navigation technologies on the observer seeking to orient themselves within the built environment. The mapping apps on a smartphone and other GPS-enabled handheld devices were used as research tools to collect data as an empirical research method. In conclusion, this paper highlights how navigation technologies can extend the consistencies Lynch sought to establish with these five elements, but considered as the sixth element.