The changing image of the city : a study of the transformation of the townscape using computer-aided architectural design and visualization techniques : a case study: Heusden

Abstract

The image and structure of a town are constantly subject to a dynamic process of change and continuity. Visual material, such as photographs, historical maps, town plans, drawings and prints, show us the impact of these changes on the image of a town. The main point of departure of this study stems from the question of how this process of change and continuity is visually detectable in a town or city. The fact that the ideas about the appearance of a city (gradually) change, can be read from the often subtle changes in the townscape. Though in many cases we have a general knowledge of the choices made in urban management, the most difficult problem is to detect the underlying decisions. This raises the question to what extent these changes and also the continuities are the result of deliberate choices in urban management and to what extent they are autonomous developments in the townscape resistant to interventions. Using different kinds of visual information as a basis, computer visualization techniques are used in the present study to examine some cartographic maps and to reconstruct the urban development in the twentieth century of the town of Heusden three-dimensionally in significant phases. The resulting visualization provides us with a tool for a better understanding of the dynamics of urban transformation processes, typologies and morphological changes and continuities.