Legibility Of City Case Study

Legibility of a city
( A case study on Udupi )
Sangeeta S

II Year, Masters in Urban Design and Development

Faculty of Architecture, Manipal Institute of Technology,

Manipal University, Karnataka-576104,INDIA
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Abstract

A place must be welcoming, vibrant and easily understood by visitors and enjoyable by everyone. By focusing on the needs of the user, the benefits are for everyone in the city – whether he is a visitor, transport operator or a local resident. Successful cities are those that connect people, movement and places efficiently. It must be able to engage, welcome, accessed and easily be understood. Here lies the challenge, because in a city there
Understanding a city is a tough job. Its need, wishes and demand changes from time to time and from user to user. Creating a clear sketch of needs, demands and requirements of a city is important because it is being perceived by its inhabitants. These inhabitants or user groups demand vary from age, sex, period of interaction in the city, etc. Legibility is an important aspect of a city; how easily its users can identify or use the opportunities it offers.

The aim of this study was to understand the legibility of a city in a micro level. Udupi, which lies between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats, is a city which is known for the great Sri Krishna temple. This makes Udupi one of the busiest pilgrimage centers in South India. Objective of the project was to understand whether the city is legible and to what extent is it legible? And if found not legible then identify the places and reasons, where and why, the people are finding it difficult to perceive the city and to check the sections of the society mostly
India is a nation with varied language and culture. For inclusiveness, every individual must feel ease within the city. Why some cities get more attention and focus than other cities? Let’s take an example of Bangalore or Delhi; both cities have tried to break the linguistic barrier in their city which made it more legible to its inhabitants. A city must be self-dependent in providing its inhabitants all the opportunities, only then the city will avail the opportunity to grow further. So, the first initiative must be within the city.

In “The Image of the City”, Kevin Lynch, an American Urban planner has tried to study the city and understand how city's image can be made more vivid and memorable to the city dweller. He studied Los Angeles, Boston and Jersey City, formulating urban elements for legibility. Kevin Lynch defined a method of analyzing legibility based on five elements: Paths, Edges, Districts, Nodes and Landmarks. Paths are the channels along which the observer customarily, occasionally, or potentially