How buildings become landmarks and their contribution to imageability of urban street scapes

Abstract

The experiencing of strong images within an urban environment help to generate clues of identification within our mind. The intensity of these clues help to recognize that location accurately. The imageability of a location is strongly influenced by various kinds of landmarks found in that particular environment. These landmarks could be doorknob or a stone mark, or a sophisticated building. The dissertation is a study of landmarks and their characteristics in order to understand their contribution to imageability and legibility in an urban street. Here the main focus was to identify the object buildings in an urban streetscape through an extensive survey, and then determine to what extent they possess the attributes of successful landmarks, which were identified through a literature study. The buildings that were determined to be landmarks were then discussed in terms of their contribution to the overall imageability of the selected street segments considered in the case studies. Imeagibility of streets play a major role which directly effects the day to day life of the community. Streets contribute to the social and urban life of the society which generates feelings of "safety, "sense of place", "sense of belongingness" etc in an urban context. In this context a person should be able to feel and understand his relative position in the street environment to ensure his sense of place and orientation within the street, which facilitates free movement without any confusion or fear of being lost. This results through developing an image of that particular environment, and this will vary from person to person. A clear sense of orientation helps to perceive a good environmental image, which often influences behavior pattern and psychology. Therefore when designing a building to a street facade, it is vital to identify whether the proposed building will act as a landmark or not. The analysis was focused to identify the basic characteristics of a landmark as physical and associational attributes. Physical attributes mainly contribute to the visibility of the object and to dive a symbolical meaning attached to it. Therefore in every context these two characteristics involved to build up "mental pictures" in the minds of its inhabitants. Through this study one can easily understand the role landmarks play within the streetscape and the factors that directly contribute to making more meaningful landmarks within a context. It would also be a valuable reference for architectural students. Through this dissertation it was intended to introduce some basic guidelines for architectural students, town planners, architects etc to understand and stimulate further exploration on the role landmarks play within the streetscape and how these factors contribute to the an overall meaningful Imageability in a particular urban context.