In Search of Urban Happiness is being carried out during 2023 in Birmingham and Halifax. Identical projects in two very different environments. The project is based on The Image of the City by Kevin Lynch (MIT, 1960) in which he proposed that an imageable or legible environment has long term benefits for its residents.
“A good environmental image gives its possessor an important sense of emotional security.”
“A legible city would be one whose districts or landmarks or pathways are easily identifiable and are easily grouped into an overall pattern.”
Lynch identified five key features affecting a city’s imageability: paths, districts, landmarks, edges and nodes. These are used on this project as the subjects for our photographs and writing.
Below are some examples of paths and districts photographs. They are not representative, though, as the current total of photos exceeds 2000. You can see all of the photos so far by visiting the main website.
Paths : Birmingham
Districts : Halifax
The Grid Project 