Analysis of the Image for Landscape of Port City

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to obtain basic information available to make a new design concept at the first stage of landscape planning. Recently, with the large change of waterfront spaces, urban environments around port cities are getting more serious in Japan. So it is nesessary to begin planning to recreate the landscapes and facilities. However in this case we should consider the people's image and impression on curtural climate or environments to make fascinating townscapes. We sconsider two positions of people's image denned. One is the Media Image, and the other is the Residents' Image. Many current topics on tourist resorts or fascinating landscapes have been usually reported by visual and linguistic mass media in Japan. Many people form their images on townscapes without real experience. This image is called the Media Image and represents the external people's hope for spaces. On the other hand, the internal residents in the port city form their image by real experience or influence on their lives. This image is defined as the Residents' Image. Through a psychological experiment under the stimulus of visual media, this study specifies basic characteristics of the visual landscapes at representative port cities in Japan by comparing the two images.