Urban context: Kevin Lynch analysis

Figure 3.4 Depiction of Langelinikajen buildings albank. Dahlerups Pakhus, a former warehouse built at the same time that the pier, can also be found there.

Langeliniekajen is currently operating as a cruise terminal, together with Nordre Toldbod and Oceankaj (Visit Denmark, 2021). This is the reason why the waterfront is closed to the public by a fence and reserved for disembarkment. At the beginning of 2023, there will be new shore power systems after an extensive renovation. Due to the construction of Oceankaj, the cruise traffic at the Langeliniekaj had lessened before the COVID-19 pandemic (whatsinport.com, 2021). Moreover, a new terminal directly north of Oceankaj will be operating soon. Therefore, although the Langeliniekaj will continue operating as a quay, it is a good moment to think about promoting it among locals since there will be fewer tourists in the future.

Kevin Lynch’s cognitive maps are commonly used in urban planning to show the perception of a city or a part of it from the point of view of the inhabitant or visitor. Langeliniekajen problems and potentials cannot be understood without putting them in relation to its surroundings and city flows. This kind of analysis limits itself to the effects of the physical and perceptible objects, without considering other aspects such as the history, functions or social meanings (Lynch, 1960). However, it is a subjective interpretation and product of the movements of the observer.

Although Kevin Lynch’s method requires several interviews to overlap individual images, the following analysis for Langeliniekajen (Fig 3.5) has been only made with the observations and memories of the group members due to the time and social limitations. Lynch introduces five types of elements: landmarks, nodes, paths, edges and districts.

Paths. “Paths are the channels along which the observer customarily, occasionally, or potentially moves. […] People observe the city while moving through it, and along these paths, the other environmental elements are arranged and related.”

The grid of streets of the Inner city is interrupted by the park. Thus, the flows of pedestrians are dissolved. The main avenue in the surroundings is Folke Bernadottes Allé, with an important movement of vehicles. How-

ever, only a couple of roads with scarce traffic arrive at Langeliniekajen. At Langeliniekajen, two roads with slow traffic flank the raised path, that it is the continuation of Langelinieparken for the pedestrians and cyclist.

Edges. “Edges are the linear elements not used or considered as paths by the observer. They are the boundaries between two phases, linear breaks in continuity.”

All the waterfronts can be considered as an edge since it isolates and makes it more difficult to arrive there from other points of the city that are geographically close. On the other hand, the railways of the train to Østerport interrupt the pedestrian flows coming from Østerbro, separating both areas of the city and limiting the connection to Langeliniebro. The terrain slopes, including the own Langeliniekaj, entail also some breaks in the continuity of movements.

Districts. “Districts are the medium-to-Iarge sections of the city, conceived of as having two-dimensional extent, which the observer mentally enters "inside of," and which are recognized as having some common, identifying character.”

Unlike the historical buildings on the other side of the park or the rows of houses of Nyboder, around Langeliniekajen there is a mix of residential and office buildings, most of them contemporaneous. Langeliniejaken itself has its character, mixing the historical construction, the new buildings and the quay.

Nodes. “Nodes are points, the strategic spots in a city into which an observer can enter, and which are the intensive foci to and from which he is travelling. 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.”

Østerport Station is the biggest node close to Langeliniekajen. Commuters, pedestrians from Østerbro and vehicles from Folke Bernadottes Allé converge there. Another smaller node is the cross between Folke Bernadottes Allé and Langeliniebro. The different quays (Nordre Toldbod, Oceankaj and Langeliniekajen itself) can be considered nodes since they generate big gatherings of tourists, but not locals.

Figure3.5 Kevin Lynch’s analysis for Langelinie