The effectiveness of landscape elements in creating roadside urban landmarks: insights from the Galle road from Colombo to Panadura

Abstract

Landmarks are any natural or man-made structures that are recognized by the public of a particular place that makes the place memorable for them. These are important in many ways especially in an urban context; hence landmarks should be given high priority in the planning of a city. Human memory keeps adapting to new places and regularly generates mental images to make decisions on spatial aspects. Landmarks contribute to creating such a mental representation of a particular place. Urban environment consists of both hard & soft landscape elements. It is important to realize how some of these landscape elements become landmarks. In this study, four fundamental rules (Similarity, Proximity, Simplicity, Continuity) of Gestalt theory of visual perception have been used to clarify the easiness of recognizing landscape elements; an object or feature as a landmark in commuter’s mind. A combined methodology of locational / photographic analysis and a route-based traveler analysis was used to assess how people recognize the locations with reference to the landmarks by considering hard and soft landscape elements. The results revealed the distinct visual characteristics of hard landscape elements and the distinct spatial character generated by soft landscape elements are important in creating memorable landmarks. Therefore, the sensitive use of landscape elements according to the above two factors can go a long way in creating a striking landmark. Spatial aspects of soft landscape landmarks can lead to more pleasant urban spaces. This study will help future approaches in planning and designing urban landmarks and streetscapes effectively.