Supporting Imageability on the World Wide Web: Lynch's Five Elements of the City in Community Planning

In this paper I examine the potential of the World Wide Web to augment traditional urban design methods and theories. Specifically, I describe how I used new web-based technologies in a university–community collaborative planning process to assist participants and planners in visualizing a community in Chicago. Lynch's five elements of city imageability (paths, nodes, edges, districts, and landmarks) provide the underlying structure for organizing visual representations of the community. The visual images include GIS maps, virtual reality, linear and nodal movies, and still and animated photographs. I explore web interface design, graphics, and cartography to communicate urban design. I argue that the web is an effective medium to visualize a community in an interactive, associative, realistic, and accessible way that is not available with traditional media. The web enables dynamic visualizations of urban design and architectural details that enhance participants' memories of the project's spatial context. I hope that the experiences described in this paper will assist others who want to utilize the web in community planning and design.