Belfast·SPG007 Masterplanning Approach for Major Development·Page 26·3.7.1
City landmarks and public art - theoretical foundation
This section explains Kevin Lynch's concept of landmarks as mental mapping tools that aid urban legibility and orientation, establishing the theoretical foundation for incorporating landmarks in major development.
The urban planner and theorist Kevin Lynch's most renowned work 'The Image of the City' (1960) identified a range of physical elements which the author suggests formed the building blocks of place with these elements being path, edge, district, node and landmark. The key premise of the author's argument was that people in urban environments orientate themselves by way of mental mapping which affects the way we comprehend (legibility) and allot meaning of place (imageability). In this context 'landmarks' denoted external reference points of orientation often in the form of an easily identifiable physical object within the urban landscape.
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