A Vocabulary for Space
Kevin Lynch. 1960. The
Image of the City. Cambridge,
MA:
MIT Press.
Grady Clay.
1973. Close Up: How to Read the American City.
NY: Praeger.
- Wordgames—We are captured by our words into mistaking
the word for the thing
- Fixes—We
are trapped in rigid points of view, like perspective, cross-section, and
centrality
- Epitome
Districts—Special places that pack emotion, energy or history into a small
space
- Fronts—Zones
of change, diversity, and active negotiation for meaning
- Strips—Zones
of convenience lining major paths of travel
- Beats—Settings
for regular, periodic, recurring movement
- Stacks—High-density
mass of materials/energy, concentrated by human effort, which exerts a
significant impact on the environment as it shifts to a horizontal
distribution pattern.
- Sinks—Places
of last resort into which the powerful shunt/dump whatever they cannot use
or do not like. Usually found in
topographically awkward locations which are uninhabitable/undesirable
by current bourgeois standards.
- Turf—territorial
space used or occupied by one identity group and thus made inaccessible to
others.
- Screening
- Screening
from small beginnings
Christopher Alexander, et alii. 1977. A Pattern Language. NY: Oxford
University Press.
- Towns
(eg, #3, City Country Fingers)
- Buildings
(eg, #112, Entrance Transition)
- Construction
(eg, #243, Sitting Wall)
