Extract

A city should be easily recognizable to all, devoid of the users’ inherent understanding of
‘spatio-formal’ quantities. Inhabitants of a city tend to develop long associations with certain genre of
spaces within the city by recording the morphological character of a public space in series of visuals,
with time. The process of re-interpreting the layers of images, thus recorded, has a strong coherence
with experiential quality of the urban space. The image making potential of such urban spaces possess
strong cognitive values for creating better user experience.

This paper tries to review the postulated techniques by renowned thinkers/ designers/ planners for
creating imageability in the perceivers’ mind. These learning were further used to critically analyze the
correlation between functional and psychological conscience in experiential mapping. Renowned public
spaces like St. Peter’s precinct, Rome and Taj Mahal complex, Agra were used as examples to
understand the qualities possessed by public spaces that are capable of building a strong image in the
users’ mind. This paper concludes with recommendations on an exploratory approach in perceiving,
observing and image making of a public space.

Keywords: Cognition, Urban Spaces, St. Peter’s, Taj Mahal

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