Legible urban planning
Introduction
Kevin Andrew Lynch was an American architect, urban planner and writer who was born in Chicago in 1918 and died in Martha's Vineyard (Massachusetts) in 1984. He is famous for his contributions to the discipline of urban planning and urban design through his studies of how people perceive and move around the city.
Biography
Kevin Lynch was born in Chicago in 1918. He was the youngest of three children and his parents, despite being second generation immigrants, were well off at the time Kevin was born.
Studies in a progressive school, which was characterized by innovative methods and learning through action, were very important in his academic training. This academic environment was very stimulating and formative, sparking his interest in architecture through an Egyptian history course in seventh grade.
After graduating high school, Lynch decided to go study architecture at Yale with the recommendation of the only architect he knew. Unfortunately, Yale was at that time one of the most conservative schools with a tradition in Beaux Arts. Lynch soon clashed with that tradition and began looking for new places to continue his studies.
At that time Lynch met the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright and decided to apply for admission to Taliesin&action=edit&redlink=1 "Taliesin (studio) (not yet written)"), his emerging architecture school. He began studying in 1937, and during his year and a half at Taliesin, Lynch found much of what he could not find at Yale.
He was particularly attracted to Taliesin's practical approach, much like his youth studies at the progressive school. Likewise, the school had a methodology that prioritized learning the philosophy of architecture, and then referring to the technical aspect. This especially benefited students who had no prior knowledge of architectural techniques.
However, after only a year and a half, young Lynch began to feel stifled by school: he once expressed that if you stay at Taliesin you become a “little Mr. Wright” (Banerjee and Southworth, 18). As a result, he decided to leave school and study engineering.
In 1941 Lynch married and three months later he was drafted to fight in World War II. He served in the Army Corps of Engineers in the Philippines and Japan. Upon his return he studied again, but this time he decided to dedicate himself to urban planning at MIT. After graduating he went to work for the Greensboro (North Carolina) Planning Commission "Greensboro (North Carolina)"). However, shortly afterward he received an offer to become a professor at MIT. Lynch was happy with his work on the commission, and only accepted the teaching position after pressure from his wife.