Urban legibility A particular kind of stress is that associated with orientation and ease of movement in the city. As Ittelson et al. (1974 p. 246) observed, ease of movement is as much psychological as physical: People have to learn their way around the city, that is, they must invest their environment with order and meaning. In doing so they are transformed from people carrying maps in their hands to people carrying maps in Krupat 1985 61 their heads p. part from Trowbridge's (1913) early ideas on imagery maps the seminal work on urban orientation was undertaken by Lynch 63 in his studies of the public image of Boston MA, Los Angeles CA and Jersey City NJ Lynch's basic proposition was that the quality of the city image was important to well-being and should be considered in designing or modifying any locality. According to this view, a successful landscape should possess the two desirable urban qualities of imageability (the ability of objects to evoke strong emotions in an observer) and legibility (the organisation of the elements of a city that allows them to be seen as a coherent whole). A city that is highly legible and imageable would contain individual structures and whole areas that are both distinct individually and clearly interconnected in a way that the citizens could appreciate. Lynch identified five basic elements underlying the design of a legible urban environment (Figure 19.2). Although his work can be criticised on methodological grounds, e.g. the extremely small sample sizes (sixty respondents in total). the value of the underlying concept has stimulated a host ofrelated investigations 64 There is now a sufficient body of empirical knowledge on the urban image to suggest a number of principles of relevance for urban design (Box 19.3). The biggest problem is no longer identifying the components of urban imageability and legibility but translating them into practice. Lynch (1984), in a review of his own work, has admitted that findings have proved difficult to apply to actual public policy, the results of academic research being interesting but hard to p to use A principal reason for this stems from the fact that the image of the city is idiosyncratic. Furthermore, despite evidence of the generality of certain design features, when one is dealing with a diverse area such as a city it is difficult to establish common problems and solutions. This scale factor and the need to consider the requirements of different population groups suggest that urban imagery techniques may be of greatest value in relation to subareas within the city