On Lynch's and post-Lynchians theories

The researches in the field of spatial cognition have grown steadily since the sixties (XX century). Architects, urban planners, geographers, anthropologists and psychologists have attempted, from their different points of view, to characterize those attributes of spatial environments that constitute for them a great source of experience. These are highly multidisciplinary experiences dealing with the interaction between humans and their environment at many levels. The task of this paper is to give an overview of Kevin Lynch's theory of 'urban form', as set out in the book 'Image of the City' (1960). This book is crucial among all the literature about the look of cities. Lynch introduced the importance of human vision and our analysis has the task of elucidating this importance today. It is an important study, following on from which several new theories have been developed. More important, is the theory of cognitive perception of the urban environment and more specifically - cognitive mapping; in the domain between space representation and cognitive psychology. This paper explains concepts concerning cognitive maps, and provides some comments on them as an review of post-Lynchians theories and some related computer-based applications.