The Shape of Urban Experience: A Reevaluation of Lynch's Five Elements

In this paper I attempt to develop a comprehensive, robust model of urban morphology from a phenomenological and behavioral perspective. I do so by comparing the findings of two extensive empirical studies of users' experiences of urban public space: one primarily examining people's perceptions in relation to the practical task of wayfinding, and the other my own research into people's playful behavior in Melbourne, London, Berlin, and New York. Lynch himself called attention to “our delight … in ambiguity, mystery … surprise and disorder”, but little is known about what role specific spatial conditions might have in framing such experiences, or indeed about the diversity of impractical activities people actually pursue in urban spaces. With this paper I seek to fill these gaps. Three elements common to both studies (paths, nodes, and edges) describe the fundamental topological structure of space in relation to movement and visibility. I focus on the four spatial elements which differ between the two models (landmarks, districts, thresholds, and props). Field observations illustrate ways in which the latter two spatial elements frame particular noninstrumental, ‘playful’ experiences which are characteristic of the urban condition: spontaneous encounters with strangers; unfamiliar and risky bodily experiences; distraction, and interpreting new meanings in the urban fabric.