M2 Reviewer Flashcards
The act/study of giving meaning to urban physical form.
Urban features that stir the senses and emotion are often considered as signs or symbols of the urban landscape that carry meaning. These features not only elicit reactions from people, but these also likewise often win a place in our memory.
Urban Semiotics
“Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction.”
-Edward Osborne Wilson
Imaginability
Are the channels along which the observer customarily or occasionally, or potentially moves. They may be street, walkways, transit lines, canals, railroads. For many people, these are the predominant elements in their image. People observe the city while moving through it along these paths, the other elements are arranged and related.
Paths
may be the dominant feature of a path or a district, an usually the dominant feature of the image created by both or the city in general.
Nodes
are points, the strategic spots in a city into which one observer can enter, and which are the
intensive foci to and from which he
is traveling. They may be primarily junctions, places of a break in transportation, a crossing or convergence of paths, moments of shift from one structure to another.
Nodes
Always identifiable from the inside, they are also used for exterior references if visible from the outside. Most people structure their city to some extent in this way, with individual differences as to whether paths or districts are the dominant elements. Its seems to depend not only upon the individual but also upon the given city
Districts
Oftentimes used as clues of identity or symbolize a constant direction. A route, to become a familiar one, means familiarity of its _________.
Landmarks
A freeway may be a path for the motorist but an edge for a pedestrian. A landmark that has successfully guided people towards certain directions may eventually become a node, a place for convergence.
Shifting Images
Characterizing the images in a city and its eventual analysis may help planners in designing for the place’s future visual form.
• Analysis of a place may start with a walk-through/visual survey
• Survey result translate into a field survey map
• Field survey map marked with most interesting spots
• Field survey map marked with effective routes
Image Analysis and Design
• People of all ages and abilities have easy access to their community “on foot”-and automobile is not needed for every trip.
• People walk more and the community and neighborhoods are safer, healthier, and friendlier places.
• Parents feel comfortable about their children being outside in their neighborhoods; they don’t worry about the threat of motor vehicles.
• Safe walking condition
Performance Criteria for a Walkable Community
Children spend more time outside with other children and are more active, physically fit, and healthy.
Walkable Community
• Streets and highways are designed or reconstructed to provide safe and comfortable facilities for pedestrians and are safe and easy to cross for people of all ages and abilities. Pedestrians are given priority in neighborhood, work, school, and shopping areas. Motor vehicle speeds are reduced (and, in some places, motor vehicles have been eliminated entirely) to ensure compatibility with pedestrian traffic.
Walkable Community
Motor vehicle operating speeds are carefully controlled to ensure compatibility with adjacent land uses and the routine presence of pedestrians.
Walkable Community
• Drivers of motor vehicles operate them in a prudent, responsible fashion, knowing that they will be held strictly accountable for any threat, injury, or death caused by their lack of due care or violation of the vehicle code.
Walkable Community
The air and water quality is good
Walkable Community
A clear, understandable, and organized sidewalk, street and land-use system consistent with the scale and function of the surrounding urban context. The sidewalk and street system should link points of interest and activity. provide clean lines of sight and travel and include simple instructive signage.
Coherence
