The Study of Urban Image in Taipai Area

Concentrated economic development in the past few decades has resulted in the rapid urbanization and commercialization in Taiwan Dramatic changes in urban scale and urban structure have been parelling with the disintegration of traditional values and social norms Conflicts on every front are experienced as un-relenting pressure in the daily life of city inhabitants, whose number is increasing with an unprecedent speed in and aroud the metropolitan area of Taipei We believe that the quality of urban experiences and the related urban form is a question that cannot be passed over or put off in the midst of an urban environs marked by crowdiness, tension and chaos Furthermore, a study of urban image will provide the various environmental professionals with some understanding of the effects of their combined efforts as perceived, cognized and evaluated by their intended users The main objectives thus included (1) a basic understanding of the urban image of a rapidly urbanized city in a third world nation (2) a preliminary comparison between images held by different socio-economic groups, (3) tentative suggestions of guidelines for management of urban form, (4) review of feasible methods of image study to be adopted in planning and design. The project was stretched out over eighteen months, between summer 1979 and winter 1980 During that tune 338 citizens of Taipei answered our questionnaires and 49 were interviewed Preliminary findings included: (1) Low and limited imagibility (2) A commonly recognized central area and a city boundary indicated mainly by districts except for the west side marked by Tan-Shui River most of the natural landscape surrounding Taipei Basin absent as effective image maker organizer. (3) A predominant N-S axis and a pattern of districts and locales approximating the historic development of the city which originated in the early 18th century clearly established edge limited to Tan Shui River whereas districts are typically loosely defined. (4) Unfavorable evaluation of the environmental quality in general dominating over perception or cognition of specific physical elements or characters, a unique sense of temporal sequence with a pronounced forward looking mentality, "chaos" of various forms and nature the major element in urban living as well as the urban environment. Based on the above findings, some related suggestions were made with an emphasis on exploring the historic, natural and formal resources of the city Above al1, a mutually re-enforcing interaction between the historic and contemporary urban orders should he enhanced, in order to Provide a stablizing and structuring backbone for new developments, and to derive a unique sense of place and city identity from the study will lead to other works on urban image and thus open up direct channels between the professionals and the city inhabitants Together we may yet build a city that will fulfill the needs and expectations of her dwellers We thus ended this report with a review of related methods of image study.