**7. Urban image and structural composition and characteristics**

The urban image represents an essential element in the organization of the space and triggers in new, unexpected resorts regarding the appreciation of the urban reality. It represents also a vital element in the conformation of the public space process within the theoretical and practical analysis (therefore, also fundamental and applied research) of the concept of urban image and its role in the organization of the urban space. The theoretical dimension of the concept consists in its analysis, both in individual (interpretive) value and in the context of the current principles of thinking that have marked the dynamics of urban geography as a science, realizing an entire framework and conceptual context for deepening the urban image [23]. By identifying the typical typologies of the urban image, it can determine their viability and also possibilities of individualizing and customizing them, in order to define strategies to be followed and to establish the specific priorities and attitudes to find the appropriate ways to ensure the natural development, without constraints and contradictions, of the city. The characteristics determined by the precise relations between buildings or plots, courtyards, gardens, streets, and markets define urban pieces' type: grouping of series of buildings and the relationship between buildings and the private or public un-built space. The specific perspectives, their depth, are also characteristic elements that generated the urban space at a given time and which write it down as a consecrated type, with permanence urban value and it represents a good premise for its personalization, for the creation of a new urban identity, either in conformity with the existing one or by replacing it according to the functional approach. Homogeneous parts of urban tissue form a morphological point of view; the sectors have specific compositions of parcels or buildings in identifiable relationships with each other or with the land on which they arise. The analysis of the urban sectors facilitates the appreciation of the elements of physicalspatial identification characteristic of a city, coherent from the urban and architectural point of view, which can become a reference and highlighting elements. This procedure allows the detection of attitudes necessary and possible to be taken means the organization of urban development, the elements of continuity as well as the polarizing ones of the urban image are determined, the coherence of the city structure is ensured (**Figure 6**).

#### **7.1 The human being and objectives in urban space**

The city is a relatively numerous, dense, and permanent settlement of heterogeneous individuals from a social point of view. It differs from the rural world by:

**Figure 6.**

*The persistence of the structural element in the urban image "Ulm Minster, Germany."*


The objectives on the site—the comment is carried out on the characteristics of the objective but also of the environment of the site such as:


The role of architectural composition, through its complex activities, is to create the framework material, of the organized space, with a view to satisfy the material and spiritual needs of the person and society [25]. Tall buildings are neither an object of love nor an object of hatred; they are necessary objects in the urban composition, and thus they are subject to a court of architectural value and a court of urban value. In the drawings of Ulm Minster, Ulm, Germany (161.5 m), the tallest cathedral in the world, for example, churches are presented to us with a silhouette in which the churches, unique in size, were still "tall buildings," having a meaning, although not one could speak of an urban composition. In the modern city, the tall building must be considered, on the one hand, in the immediate context (adjacent

**23**

*City Phenomenon between Urban Structure and Composition*

• The places where the building can be viewed

In this domain it is required to take in evidence:

movement and orientation to the environment (**Figures 7**, **8**).

neighborhood), when its own architecture is important and, on the other, in the remote context, when the silhouette is important, the architectural-urbanistic "cut." Already there is a disjunction, in the judgment it was referring to, which imposes the option for a priority in evaluating such a presence in the urban space. The transformation of the static approach form of the dynamic approach is not arbitrated by elevation, especially when it comes to an important building. The elevation is real in its volume and presence, but it is unreal in its image. According to Kevin Lynch, in urban imaging mechanism, it is required to include the building in context, which is

Space perception is the procedure through which humans and other creatures become alert of the relative locations of their individual bodies and objects around them. It offers indications, such as depth and distance, which are important for

• Observation position: in this situation, it is necessary to take in as evidence

• Visual acuity of perception—all senses are required, not just the visual but also the complexity of perception which varies from one individual to another (e.g. in Austria—clean, fresh air—you feel purity; in Paris the street is fragrant. The smell participates in the image that remains afterwards; Germany—the smell of perfumed gasoline, the special smell. It is of superior quality olfactory

distance, height (terrain configuration), and opening (in space).

• Observing conditions: in this situation, it is necessary to take in as evidence conjuncture and weather conditions (night-day, winter-summer,

• The movement of the space that can be perceived static or dynamic.

sion of reactions and evolutions starting from a previous state.

between the observer and the observed object is realized.

has a philosophical meaning, demiurgic, "divine look."

Every city has a form, called an urban form (plan metric image or top view), expressing in a geometric configuration of urban distribution, social relations, and ideological hierarchies [26]. The urban form is physically expressed through the urban structure, both are historically determined, and they are formed by a succes-

a.Viewing—designates the physical process through which the visual contact

• The view from that is performed under particular conditions (e.g. the terraces at the last levels of the skyscraper—Sears Tower, Chicago—above the city—fabulous)—from the level of the bird's flight—it is a perception that

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90443*

represented by:

• Visible points

cloudy-sunny).

perception).

The observatory is characterized by:

• Movement—work in perception.
