On Lynch's and post-Lynchians theories

Abstract

The researches in the field of spatial cognition have grown steadily since the sixties (XX century). Architects, urban planners, geographers, anthropologists and psychologists have attempted, from their different points of view, to characterize those attributes of spatial environments that constitute for them a great source of experience. These are highly multidisciplinary experiences dealing with the interaction between humans and their environment at many levels. The task of this paper is to give an overview of Kevin Lynch's theory of 'urban form', as set out in the book 'Image of the City' (1960). This book is crucial among all the literature about the look of cities. Lynch introduced the importance of human vision and our analysis has the task of elucidating this importance today. It is an important study, following on from which several new theories have been developed. More important, is the theory of cognitive perception of the urban environment and more specifically - cognitive mapping; in the domain between space representation and cognitive psychology. This paper explains concepts concerning cognitive maps, and provides some comments on them as an review of post-Lynchians theories and some related computer-based applications.Polje istrazivanja prostorne kognicije se konstantno uvecava od sezdesetih godina proslog veka. Arhitekti, urbani planeri, geografi, antropolozi i psiholozi pokusavaju, sa razlicitih tacki gledista, da okarakterisu atribute prostornog okruzenja koji su za njih veliki izvor iskustava. Ona su jaka multidisciplinarna iskustva koja se na mnogim nivoima odnose na interakciju izmedju ljudi i njihovog okruzenja. Cilj ovog teksta je da podseti na teoriju "urbanih formi" Kevina Linca, postavljenu u knjizi "Slika jednog grada" (1960). Ova knjiga je svakako najznacajnija od sve literature vezane za izgled grada. U njoj nas Linc uvodi u vaznost ljudske vizije a zadatak nase analize je da osvetli njen uticaj danas. Knjiga je neosporno znacajna studija iz koje je nekoliko novih teorija razvijeno. Najvaznija je svakako teorija o kognitivnoj percepciji urbanog okruzenja a posebno se izvaja kognitivno mapiranje, koje pripada domenu unutar reprezentacije prostora i kognitivne psihologije. Ovaj clanak izmedju ostalog objasnjava koncepte kognitivnih mapa, ali i prikazuje komentare na njih kroz pregled srodnih teorija i kompjuterskih aplikacija koje se baziraju na Lincovoj teoriji.