|
The book 〝The Image of the cit〞 written by Kevin Lynch in 1960 laid the foundation for subsequent researches on urban imagery. Lynch analyzed people’s environmental awareness and summarized the five elements of urban imagery construct through cartography, namely, path, district, landmark, node, and edge. In the past, discussions on urban imagery were generally theory-based, but the five elements in theory were all from the physical aspect, lacking the possible impact of cultures, history, and events on urban imagery. In particular, the globalization factor incorporated after the 1980s has made urban entities more and more similar, forming cities with high homogeneity. Under such influence, Taipei City’s original face has been changed, replaced by office buildings imitating the west and unidentifiable compound residential houses, thus gradually leading to diminished the “local characteristics”. Therefore, how to rebuild the urban imagery remains an important part of urban design today.
The theories in this study include urban imagery, environmental elements, effects of globalization, and local identity related theories Urban imagery is an urban expression, “imagery” integrates people’s fragmented impressions of the city; local identity refers to one’s feelings, emotions, and beliefs towards a specific place. The construct process covers personal experiences, memories, emotions, and ideas, which are all affected by the sociocultural and natural ecological environment. Urban development changes with time, culture, and industry, while factors affecting urban imagery have become increasingly diverse.
With the five elements proposed by Kevin Lynch as the bases and through a literature review, the urban imagery, environmental elements, globalization, and local identity related theories were explored. After analysis and compilation, the theoretical basis was constructed. The elements contributing to Taipei City’s urban imagery were summarized through the questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews, and empirical studies were conducted to derive at conclusions and recommendations. The necessity of the environmental factors as far as urban imagery is concerned was determined based on the research results. Additionally, the questionnaire survey and semi-structured interview results were analyzed to construct Taipei City’s urban imagery, thereby proposing the constituents of Taipei’s urban imagery, namely, events, cultures, industries, buildings, and landscape.
|