TITLE:
The Impact of Hi-Technology Navigation Systems on the Reading of the Five Elements of Urban Design, Using the Case of the Central District of Hong Kong
AUTHORS:
Hee Sun (Sunny) Choi, Xinyi Yang
KEYWORDS:
Place Imageability, Sense of Place, Smart City, Hyper-Reality
JOURNAL NAME:
Current Urban Studies,
Vol.10 No.3,
September
29,
2022
ABSTRACT: As smartphones become an essential and ubiquitous appendage for most city
dwellers, a reliance on digital mapping and navigation systems as a means to navigate the city is increasing. Taking as its
starting point, this paper represents the way in which
this technology and capability have changed, the way the city is read and travelled through, and whether a
fundamentally different image of the city is formed by the user. The aim of the
research is to discover the usage of navigation technologies in forming a city
image and in relation to the five elements of
urban design defined by Kevin Lynch in his book Image of the City. The Hong Kong district of Central is used to
analyze the impact of such navigation technologies on the observer seeking to
orient themselves within the built environment. The mapping apps on a smartphone
and other GPS-enabled handheld devices were used as research tools to collect data as an
empirical research method. In conclusion, this paper highlights how navigation
technologies can extend the consistencies Lynch sought to establish with these
five elements, but considered as the sixth element.