Study On The Humanism Urban Design Thought Of Kevin Lynch

Kevin Lynch is one of the most influential theorists in surroundings designing. His studies almost cover every aspect of environmental features and human values in urban designing, where he is actively engaged in practice. He is not only a productive academic writer, but also an experienced practitioner. He is the forerunner of studies in surroundings cognition and metropolitan images, and the guiding master of metropolis designing, urban planning and public policies. To a certain degree, Lynch's urban designing theories are like a huge Utopia, which has an explicit value system and an intact methodological system. Based on different perspectives, different people will draw different conclusions on the same thing. That's where the contributions and limitations of Lynch's urban designing theories lie.In his theories, Lynch pursues a brand-new perspective to observe the existed urban surroundings, an individual point of view to describe the material urban setting, and how the surroundings and the people who live in it mutually affect each other. It is easy to find the clue through his works– Lynch's deep concern of humanistic values and the everyday life of ordinary people. Humanism links all aspects of Lynch's studies, from surrounding intention to surrounding sensation, from urban morphology to urban design. It can be put as that humanism is the foundation of Lynch's urban designing studies. So is the clue of the dissertation.Lynch establishes a norm of a city, which links urban space with people's values. His theories study the most direct place experience that people have– which he calls"the quality of feelings"– and the importance of it in people's life. He concentrates on the study of people's emotional feelings towards the surroundings and the reactions of the material space and its users. He tries to describe and understand the metropolitan morphology in the perspective of humanity. Lynch sets up not only a human value (goal) system in urban designing, but also an intact and practical methodology, which bridges subjective senses and objective material surroundings. Lynch's theories illustrate a fair, just and ideal dwelling form for us, which meets the need of people's emotions and values. Lynch's urban design theories might be away from reality, or we might put it as "it's a little bit surrealistic", but there is no doubt that they may still be the guidance for our practice.Urban designing was introduced to China as a subject in the 1980s, which plays a more and more important role in the process of urban development in our country. There are always two problems lying in our urban designing studies. One is the lack of consciousness to explore the individual nature of a city. Urban designing is seldom viewed, understood and illustrated as something which can affect human activities and the meaning of their existence. The other is the lack of consciousness to study a city in a specific, delicate and thorough way. Very few theories and practices touch the details of ordinary life scenes. This is just where Lynch's urban designing theories are inspiring for us. Urban designing is an activity to create places for people, the concerns of which should be people's ordinary life. Respecting and caring about individuals, putting everything individual-oriented should be its crucially important principles. Modern urban designing is becoming many-faceted, but its basic goal is to meet the material and emotional needs of the people who live in it. Therefore, humanism should be guiding principle for both urban designing theories and its practices.This dissertation is only the writer's personal view of Lynch's urban designing theories and practices. Of course, it cannot cover all the profound ideas of Lynch's. All the great works and ideas should be taken as the heritage of all human beings, upon which we try to build more. Hence, the advantages of studying Lynch's urban designing theories lie in making more people pay attention to their own spaces of living, states of living, and more aware of the tasks of urban designing. Hopefully, with the help of this discussion, more ideas will be evoked in this field.