Design Principles Beyond ‘The Image of the City’

Now that the image of this area of Lewes and its interconnected elements are understood, I outline design principles that respond to the lessons learned from Kevin Lynch:

Routes should emphasise a sensorial significance through superposition of elements, perspectives, focused views of landmarks. They should also help to visualise the distance and topographical changes of space from a distance to ensure that users are conscious of movement and effort.

Sensorial experience could go beyond vision, and incorporate the sound of water, surface textures, etc.

Stimulate new exploration through routes, indicating, through form, a differentiation of direction and destination. For instance, routes could suggest whether they direct users towards the town centre, the station or the countryside.

Routes towards the town could be surrounded by built form, suggesting town themes, and routes towards the countryside/ open space could be partly vegetated, hinting a route towards a natural environment.

Reinforce existing edges between districts. A linear element along this edge would facilitate this differentiation of spaces. Ideally, it should retain visual contact of the district across the edge as well as to incorporate some permeability.

The south boundary could strengthen the visual edge and separation of districts on both sides of the railway. The Winterbourne and vegetation along the way would stress this linearity. Build form, could also help reinforcing a volumetric edge.

The hierarchy of all elements should be evident in either size, intensity or interest. Simple forms that should also have a degree of continuity or rhythm, to thread everything in an interconnected network of things that lead to an identity.

The main landmarks should remain as such, and the secondary ones too, whilst enhancing their experience. A new landmark could result from the design, as long as it does not detract from existing.

Design layout and buildings following a borrowed homogenous theme that brings them into an adjacent district character. The district to the north is the most obvious theme.

Retain landmarks and, where possible, increase their singularity with additional contrast

Routes should order the set of urban elements.

Strengthen nodes for people that are well defined and remarkable, not capable of being confused with another place.