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Temporal Change & Urban Design in Social Spaces - Kevin Lynch's Works - Prof. William D. G, Papers of Computer Science

This document consists of two papers by kevin lynch, 'what time is this place' and 'the image of the city'. The first paper discusses the concept of temporal change in environments, focusing on the combination of past, present, and future. The second paper delves into urban planning and design, emphasizing the importance of unique main paths and landmarks in social spaces. Both papers offer valuable insights for improving social interactions in physical and digital environments.

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Pre 2010

Uploaded on 03/16/2009

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Dave Alongi (dalongi2)
CS 598kgk
What Time is this Place
By: Kevin Lynch
This paper talked a lot about how a sense of change can be added to an environment to make it
more meaningful and appealing. One of the types of change that the author talked about was
temporal change- combining past, present and future into an environment. One example of this
that I really liked was Japanese connoisseurs displaying wintery pictures during the spring and
pictures of spring during the winter. This combines two different times, spring and winter, into one
scene. It also would help to make the scene more enjoyable because they can reminisce on the
previous season and be happy that it is over at the same time.
People also seem to be fascinated in having a place that is stuck in a period of time, past or present.
In the William Whyte video, he points out that Disney World makes a living partially by allowing
people to feel like they are walking through a small town main street. People are fascinated by
feeling like they are in the past or future, but knowing that at any time they can leave and return to
the present.
In social computing and social spaces, the computers are often used to bridge and connect different
places in space. However, this suggests that people may also be fascinated by connecting different
periods of time. This is more challenging, though, because we cant just connect to the future, and
connecting to a noticeably different past (different styles, seasons, etc.) would require a relatively
long delay. However, it could be somewhat interesting to look into a mirror, a hole-in-time to
play off the famous hole-in-space, and see someone else standing where you are during a different
time of year. Another reason that this would be harder to apply, though, is that the people could
not interact with each other. Temporal change would be interesting, but difficult, to apply to social
computing.
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CS 598kgk

What Time is this Place

By: Kevin Lynch

This paper talked a lot about how a sense of change can be added to an environment to make it more meaningful and appealing. One of the types of change that the author talked about was temporal change- combining past, present and future into an environment. One example of this that I really liked was Japanese connoisseurs displaying wintery pictures during the spring and pictures of spring during the winter. This combines two different times, spring and winter, into one scene. It also would help to make the scene more enjoyable because they can reminisce on the previous season and be happy that it is over at the same time.

People also seem to be fascinated in having a place that is stuck in a period of time, past or present. In the William Whyte video, he points out that Disney World makes a living partially by allowing people to feel like they are walking through a small town main street. People are fascinated by feeling like they are in the past or future, but knowing that at any time they can leave and return to the present.

In social computing and social spaces, the computers are often used to bridge and connect different places in space. However, this suggests that people may also be fascinated by connecting different periods of time. This is more challenging, though, because we can’t just connect to the future, and connecting to a noticeably different past (different styles, seasons, etc.) would require a relatively long delay. However, it could be somewhat interesting to look into a “mirror”, a hole-in-time to play off the famous hole-in-space, and see someone else standing where you are during a different time of year. Another reason that this would be harder to apply, though, is that the people could not interact with each other. Temporal change would be interesting, but difficult, to apply to social computing.

CS 598kgk

The Image of the City

By: Kevin Lynch

This paper is about studying urban areas and their design to find ways to improve urban planning. Many of the same ideas can be applied to the design of social spaces because the goal of the better designs is to encourage positive social interaction. One of the things suggested is to make the main paths unique, so that they stand out. If we are designing a large social space or a social network, this can also be applied. The public areas that you want everyone to explore should be obvious, and should invite people to explore them. Although there may be different directions that participants can go, similar to side streets, the people should always be encouraged to return to the main road. This helps design the space because all of the things that everyone should see and participate in can be visible from the main path. This will help the objects along the path work to encourage social interaction because there will be more people to interact. However, those that are more interested can explore the side streets.

Going along with this is the paper’s talk about landmarks. Landmarks are also related to social spaces because, at least right now, that’s what many social spaces are. They are a landmark that encourages interaction. In designing larger social spaces, landmarks within the social space would also be needed. These landmarks are large and unique enough to act as social catalysts and draw people closer and then get them to talk to each other. This interaction is one of the main goals of the social space.

Another thing that the paper talks about is dividing areas up into a hierarchy of sub districts to help people navigate them and find concentrations of places they are interested in. Although I’m not sure how this can be applied to social spaces, it is already applied a lot to social networks. For instance, on Facebook people are subdivided by school so that it is easier to find people that they know. People can divide themselves up even further through groups, which then encourage interaction about the topic that the group is about.