An Experimental Outlook On Mind Mapping Conducted in VIVA School of Architecture
Khyati Antrolia VIVA School of Architecture
Abstract- Mind mapping as described by Kevin Lynch in the book “The Image of the City” means how people orient themselves in urban situations by using mental maps. It explains how people move around in cities. In this book, Kevin Lynch studies and compares three American cities which are Boston, Jersey and Los Angeles. Mind mapping is a way which explains the extent up to which a city can be read using principles – paths, edges, districts, landmarks, nodes. These five principles explain the idea of wayfinding in an urban space. An experiment was conducted by four students of VIVA School of Architecture – Khyati Antrolia, Priyanka Rathod, Vedant Mahajan and Khyati Chheda on the above principles. In the experiment students were told to sketch the places familiar to them or the ones they have visited often in the city of Mumbai. These sketches were put on the map of Mumbai where they were located. The sketches were later analyzed to figure out the way how people remember and move through the city. Keywords:- American cities, districts, edges, landmarks, mental maps, nodes, paths.
operation, and the image I the composite of them all. This experience is more than what the eye sees directly or what the ear listens, it is more of a view to be explored. Everything that is explored is in relation to its surroundings and the events happening in the surrounding which leads to the development of memories or remembering past experiences in the space. This is how one remembers the place through his / her image in memories. How well people remember the city / urban space depends on the design of the city in terms of legibility. Legibility or the apparent clarity of the cityscape means the ease with which its parts can be recognized and ca be organized into a coherent pattern. (Lynch, The Image of the City, 1959)
1.INTRODUCTION Mind mapping or mental mapping explains how people move around and orient themselves in urban spaces. In the book, Kevin Lynch descries city design as a temporal art which can rarely be controlled. The city represents differently for different people. Each individual remembers the city in terms of its experiences which can be reversed, interrupted, abandoned or cut across. Mental maps are an outcome of the field of behavioral geography. The imagined maps are considered one of the first studies that intersected geographical settings with human action. The most prominent contribution and study of mental maps was in the writings of Kevin Lynch. In The Image of the City, Lynch used simple sketches of maps created from memory of an urban area to reveal five elements of the city; nodes, edges, districts, paths and landmarks. Lynch claimed that “Most often our perception of the city is not sustained, but rather partial, fragmentary, mixed with other concerns. Nearly every sense is in
2. PRINCIPLES OF WAY - FINDING The way people remember a space or find their way through the city is depended on five principles as mentioned by Kevin Lynch –
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1. Paths – Paths are channels along which the observer potentially or occasionally moves. (Lynch, The Image of the City, 1959). The path forms the first part of the image through which the people move. Most of the people remember the space according to the path through which they move. Path includes streets, canals, roads, sidewalks, etc.
Fig 3. Image for district Source: Image of the City
4. Node – Nodes are strategic points in the city in which the observer can enter and are intensive foci to and from which the traveler is travelling. (Lynch, The Image of the City, 1959). The primary junctions of travelling are generally nodes for examples circles, roundabouts, road junctions, etc. Fig 1. Image for paths Source: Image of the City
2. Edges – Edges are the boundaries between two phases which breaks the continuity of the phases. (Lynch, The Image of the City, 1959). The boundaries are generally elements which represent the end of something, for example, a shore, cliff or railway line, etc.
Fig 4. Image for nodes Source: Image of the City
5. Landmark – Landmarks a point reference which the people don’t enter into but are external. (Lynch, The Image of the City, 1959). In general it may be a specific building or a particular sign or store which the people remember and use it to explain the way in which they are moving.
Fig 2. Image for edges Source: Image of the City
3. District – Districts are medium to large sections of the city conceived of having a two-dimensional extent. (Lynch, The Image of the City, 1959). A district is an element that the people generally consider themselves to be a part of or inside of when they are moving through a city. Districts are another element through which the people remember their city.
Fig 5. Image for landmarks Source: Image of the City
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and put it up on the map displayed to better understand what part of the city the person remembers. Many entries were received in this experiment which were later observed and analyzed according to the above five principles. The number of entries received were more than 100 in numbers. The entries were analyzed by observing the sketch as well as photos and google maps of the location that was given by the participant. Among the many entries, the following are four samples that were given by the participants.
The way people remember their city does not depend on one of the elements but all of the above. Sometimes it may be just one while other times it can be two to three elements in one space. The way people imagine a space also changes according to the point of view or the perspective through which the person is viewing that image of the city. For example, for a driver, the expressway through which he/ she is driving the car may become the path which he is seeing the image but for a person looking it from the sideway, the same expressway may become the edge of the image. None of the principles of way – finding mentioned above can be isolated from the other principles in reality when a person is seeing the image. However, when the person tries to remember that space again, it is rare that he/ she can remember all the principles clearly. Generally, it is one or two of the above-mentioned principles that he/ she remembers clearly and is able to depict it.
3.THE EXPERIMENT The experiment was conducted by four members of VIVA School of Architecture namely Khyati Antrolia, Khyati Chheda, Vedant Mahajan and Priyanka Rathod on a walkthrough for the students and faculties of the scool. The students and faculty members of VIVA School of Architecture were asked to sketch a place they remember the best from Virar to Churchgate. The sketch could be anything from their vicinity or the place they often visit or any other famous place. It is supposed to be of a place that they remember in the first instance when they think of a place in relation to the city. The examples of some of the sketches were made by the people conducting the experiment to show them what was expected in the experiment. They were also asked to mention the location of that place and the sketch was later on put up on the map of Mumbai. The aim of this experiment was to find out how architecture students remember spaces in their vicinity and how they express them. Sketching was used as a major tool in this experiment to express the spaces and places remembered by the students and faculties. They were also asked to write the location of the place
Fig 6. Sample 1. Location – Yashwant Nagar, Virar.
Fig 7. Sample 2 Location – Vasai fort, Vasai
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Observation – The Kanchenjunga apartments is another famous landmark in the city. It forms one of the most important buildings in the area of Collaba due to its design. It is one of the prominent landmarks in relation to how one remembers that area. Sample 4: Sketched by – Hasti Bhat Observation – The BSE building is formed at a node. The node has many other landmarks directing to different areas and thus leading to different paths. It explains how she remembers the area of South Mumbai.
Fig 8. Sample 3 Location – Kanchenjunga, Collaba hills.
5.CONCLUSION From the experiment, it is concluded that amongst the many samples received, most of the sketches were either the nodes and paths through which they moved on a daily basis like the Yashwant Nagar circle or important landmarks of the city like Vasai fort and BSE building. It explains that people remember the spaces on the above five principles of wayfinding.
6.REFERENCES
Fig 9. Sample 4 Location – BSE building, South Mumbai.
Lynch, K. (1959). The Image of the City. London: The MIT Press. Lynch, K. (1959). The Image of the City. In K. Lynch, The Image and its Elements (pp. 46 - 47). London: MIT Press.
4.ANALYSIS OF THE EXPERIMENT Sample 1: Sketched by – Sayali Ghag Observation – The sketch is the plan of circle at Yashwant Nagar. The sketch explains how she remembers the place particularly by the road which is the path and the circle which is the node. The trees around the road represent the edge. Sample 2: Sketched by – Shwetabhary Jadhav Observation – The sketch is of a very famous landmark in Vasai which is Vasai fort. It is one of the prominent walls of Vasai fort showing various arches in stone. This is how the person remembers this place. Sample 3: Sketched by - Shweta Gore
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