Images of Architectural Landmarks Integrated into Spatial Vision Based on Urban Image Theory: A Case Study on the Wuhan Design Biennale Exhibition Space

Abstract

An exhibition is a complex organic system. The spatial design of an exhibition aims to visualize the ideology of this complex system in space, a process known as visual spatialization. How to integrate landmark buildings in a city into the visual design of large exhibition spaces is an academic and practical issue worth exploring. This study examined the exhibition space design of the Wuhan Design Biennale as a typical case. We conducted a limited survey on Wuhan’s image using the theory of urban image cognition, employing methods such as drawing cognitive maps, interviews, and network search image analysis to extract elements that could represent the image of Wuhan city and reflect Wuhan design in the minds of the public. The study found that: (1) whether it is an image map or a questionnaire, the mention rate of many bridges in Wuhan was very high, becoming an important element of the image of the river city today; (2) in the survey on internet images, the key elements of the “river city image” were more prominent; and (3) the urban image survey helped designers understand the characteristics of the public’s cognition of urban space more comprehensively and meticulously, thereby providing a focus for creative design. This innovative design method has been applied to the exhibition space design of the Wuhan Design Biennale, garnering significant praise for its implementation. This study summarizes the mechanism of integrating landmark buildings in cities into the visual design of large exhibition spaces, hoping to provide a reference for the design of future large exhibition spaces.

1. Introduction

With the rapid development of contemporary cities, urban competition is becoming increasingly fierce [1]. An important manifestation of a city’s strength is its image, which has become a key element of development strategy [2,3,4]. Architectural landmarks, unique symbols in the urban space, play an irreplaceable role in shaping and enhancing the overall image of a city [5,6]. From a theoretical development perspective, the theory of city image (or urban imagery) offers a crucial theoretical framework for examining urban space [1,7], highlighting individuals’ subjective perceptions of and emotions connected to the urban environment, with architectural landmarks serving as a fundamental component of this imagery [8,9]. There are more and more architectural landmarks in cities, but the designers of some do not fully take into account the systematicity and coherence of urban imagery when deciding upon the form of such structures. This means that they do not fit in with the overall image of the city and thus do not effectively portray its unique culture or spiritual meaning. Establishing a positive city image and telling compelling city stories contribute to the dissemination of city brands, thereby influencing global competitiveness. They are important manifestations of a city’s “soft power” [10]. With the development of cultural tourism and creative industries, promoting unique urban culture and style and showing the “diversity” of cities has become a trend [11,12]. Shaping city brands and promoting city images have become the top priorities of urban development. Using the city brand identification system as an example, incomplete statistics on relevant designs in China over the last decade indicate that more than 100 cities and regions have released visual images. The value of brand image in a city’s soft power is evident; however, major cities are increasingly focusing on organizing cultural and artistic events like art/design weeks and biennials, which also play a crucial role in shaping the city’s image [13,14,15]. When “design” becomes the “brand” and “exhibit” of the city, “innovation” becomes an inevitable requirement for city image design. An important city in central China, Wuhan has a rich historical and cultural heritage and unique regional characteristics [16,17]. As an important platform for displaying urban design and cultural innovation, the Wuhan Design Biennale’s exhibition space image design has become an ideal case for studying the innovative design of architectural landmark images in large-scale exhibition spaces. Objectively speaking, there are two main reasons, as follows. (1) As the location of the design practice project of this paper, Wuhan has attached great importance to the shaping of the city brand image and the brand of cultural and artistic activities with urban themes in recent years (especially after the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic) and has held large-scale urban events such as the Wuhan Design Biennale, Wuhan Biennale, and Wuhan Fashion Art Season, trying to spread Wuhan’s unique urban culture and urban spirit to the world. (2) Wuhan’s special location and geographical characteristics have nurtured a history of more than 1800 years of city construction, creating a unique urban pattern and form, and represents an important sample for urban research. For example, when Kevin Lynch’s urban image theory, the theoretical basis of this article, was introduced to China, Wuhan was the first sample for scholars to conduct urban image research. In-depth analysis of the practical case of this architectural space will help explore how to integrate architectural landmarks with urban culture, the environment, and other factors based on the urban image method and realize innovative display design of architectural landmark images in exhibition spaces, thereby providing strong support for city image shaping and further promoting urban cultural inheritance and development.

1.1. Literature Review

1.1.1. Challenges in Urban Image Applications

For the theme concept of “urban image design” [18,19,20], we can analyze the concepts and research perspectives of several dimensions, such as “urban image”, “urban brand”, and “image design”, which together constitute the content of relevant research. The broad “urban image” concept takes the perspective of the comprehensive urban environment. Starting from environmental cognition, it is proposed that the formation of urban imagery is a process jointly led by people and the environment and is the public’s psychological image reflection of the city. The perspective of “urban brand” takes the modern corporate brand image theory (CIS) as the basic theoretical framework for urban brand image research [21]. The perspective of “image design” is a relatively narrow and specific visual image design, such as urban visual imagery, event activity imagery, related product imagery, etc. Figure 1 reflects the connotation of “urban image design” for the specific practice that this study focuses on, including basic content with “urban visual image design” as the core, and “urban events” and “characteristic brands representing the city image” as important components. Furthermore, as media technology advances, the relationship between media space and image has emerged as a new area of study. New media have changed the presentation mode and technical methods of design and constructed a new communication field between reality and virtuality, which has also affected the formation of design concepts and ideas. The main purpose of this article is to explore the construction of a practice-oriented design methodology, so the focus of the research is on the specific “image design”, but also taking into account the research framework of the macro-urban image.

In terms of design practice, internationally developed regions started early in urban image design. Urban brands have evolved alongside modernization, playing a crucial role in urban marketing during the post-war economic globalization process. For instance, Milton Glaser’s 1977 design of the New York City logo has grown into a significant cultural asset for New York [22,23]. Today, cities in internationally developed design regions have established a complete urban visual image system on the one hand, which can fully consider the social, cultural, and economic factors of the city based on the urban planning and operation system to present a diverse and rich urban image system, while on the other hand, they can face the future and produce many designs with innovative and leading significance. For example, Kumamon (Kumamoto Prefecture) promoted the IPization of urban brands and the innovation of Madrid’s urban image design (2020) in methods and communication paths [24]. In general, excellent current international urban image design has three characteristics: specificity (accurate extraction of representative things), entertainment (fashion sense and integration into life), and plasticity (extensibility) [25].

From the perspective of modern brand design development, China’s urban image design emerged relatively late, commencing at the beginning of this century, and has gradually become a hot topic in recent years [26]. Despite the production of some well-received design cases, the current state of affairs significantly differs from that at an international level and other commercial sectors. From the observation of the overall phenomenon, it can be summarized into the following three problems. (1) The problem of the design generation mechanism. The current mechanism for generating urban image design is plagued by issues such as role disconnection, insufficient participation, and a lack of drive. Attracting excellent designers to participate is challenging, and ensuring their full integration of professional capabilities with the management department’s vision and the needs of the people is equally challenging. (2) The problem of design quality. Judging from the level of Chinese urban image design reflected in the media in recent years, the overall level is not high. This is mainly reflected in problems such as outdated concepts, unclear meanings, and similar forms, which not only reduce the artistic quality of the city image but also affect the communication power. (3) The problem of intellectual property rights and related legal protection. Under the influence of the problem reflected in the second question, disputes over design copyright easily arise. In recent years, related disputes have emerged one after another. For instance, the 2019 release of the Dalian urban image design faced numerous accusations of plagiarism, leading to its cancellation. The propaganda department organized the design solicitation to strengthen the city’s image awareness through public participation, but it backfired due to negative events.

China’s urban image design clearly needs optimization and improvement. On the one hand, excellent international innovative design concepts are worth studying and learning. On the other hand, we should also combine the actual characteristics of Chinese cities, society, and culture to explore distinctive paths for innovative development from multiple perspectives, such as generation mechanisms, concepts, and methods.

1.1.2. Kevin Lynch’s City Image Research and Development

In the 1960s, Professor Kevin Lynch of MIT conducted a study on city image, observing and studying how the physical environment of a city affects people’s lives from a humanistic perspective. He emphasized that people’s subjective cognitive feelings, in addition to objective material images, determine imagery. He emphasized that a good urban form should not only be “readable” but also “imageable” and diverse, full of vitality and poetry. His research on urban imagery summed up the “five elements” of imagery: pathways, regions, boundaries, nodes, and landmarks. This way, when people are in the city’s complex and chaotic reality, they have a physical space–psychological cognition structure that is pretty clear and reliable [27]. For researchers and related practitioners, this provides a systematic way to observe and think about urban problems, as well as a relatively mature research method. Research methods related to city image (or urban imagery) theory, such as drawing image maps, questionnaires, interviews, and related analysis methods, have gradually become a paradigm. Since the city image theory was proposed in the 1960s, it has been widely used in research related to multiple disciplines and urban space, and has been continuously innovated and developed [28,29]. Research methods related to urban image have also been used in urban spaces of different scales, which can be divided into macro scale, medium scale and micro scale. Macro refers mainly to the overall scale of the city, while medium scale mainly refers to local urban areas, communities, blocks, campuses, factory areas, etc. Micro mainly refers to buildings or indoor spaces. There are a large number of image-related studies on space types of different scales, which shows that the scope of application of image research methods is relatively broad.

The “meta-theory” of urban research, along with the research related to urban images, is constantly evolving, exhibiting two fundamental trends. The first trend involves the criticism and “correction” of urban image theory [30]. This trend primarily focuses on the fact that image research primarily concentrates on physical space while neglecting social culture, ideology, and other aspects. The aim is to propose a holistic approach to image cognition that integrates both material form and cultural ideology [31]. The second trend targets image research methods, employing data quantification techniques to steer the research toward a more scientific approach. Combined with the emergence of new technological media, urban physical space has advanced to a new state of virtual–real interaction. Using the resulting data features as image features is a relatively cutting-edge research trend, and it holds significant value and significance for the current urban image design, which is primarily focused on digital communication channels [32].

Furthermore, conceptually, “imagery” and “image” have a symbiotic relationship. Urban image researchers have long noticed the value of imagery theory and have gradually developed imagery theory into a basic theory for urban image research. The current research status also reflects certain problems, which can be summarized as follows. In terms of research ideas, there is more guiding “what should be done” and less “how to do it specifically” and “why do it this way.” In terms of research content, there are more comprehensive discussions and less research that can combine specific design practices to reflect the value of “tools.” In terms of research methods, there are more discussions and qualitative research and less scientific quantitative research [33].

The city image (or urban imagery) theory is the outcome of extensive local research. Research methods and processes comprise half of Lynch’s book. The research not only “revealed” the laws and secrets of image but also showed a process of how to discover the “secrets” [34]. As the saying goes, “it is better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish.” This has received positive feedback in the field of architecture. Related research methods and “tools” have developed many new paths, but there is less reflection in the field of brand design. At a time when urban brand design has become a hot topic, designers are facing unprecedented opportunities in reality. Research on and application of classic theories should also make new progress in practice. It is worth noting that the current urban image design is mostly focused on the discussion of formal language from the perspective of designers and the research from the perspective of communication, and less attention is paid to the actual “receivers” of the urban image—urban residents. As a humanistic perspective of urban research, urban image is reflected in how urban space specifically affects people’s activities and lives, thereby generating a stable collective level of cognition. In turn, this collective cognition will generate impetus for urban managers, designers, residents, and other subjects, and accordingly affect the shaping of the urban image.

1.2. Problem Statement and Objectives

Wuhan is an industrial city, and bridges are an unavoidable symbol. With its enormous rivers and lakes, Wuhan cannot exist without bridges, and has become a “three-town” city. In the post-epidemic era, bridges mean connection. Bridges also have the image of starting a journey and building the future. For instance, Wuhan boasts strong bridges, water conservancy systems, high-speed railways, and a variety of buildings. Wuhan’s design achievements transform the beauty of engineering design into the beauty of creative life. The image planning of the exhibition space of the Wuhan Design Biennale can be expressed with engineering design elements. Therefore, how can we transform the city’s image into the central vision of the space and apply it to the visual elements of large-scale exhibitions? This study combines the practice of the Sixth Wuhan Design Biennale project, in which the authors participated, from the initial presentation of the city image in conceptual form to the gradual integration of the city image theory, and related research methods into the design process of the entire exhibition space, which has achieved relatively ideal design results. The image design of the exhibition space of this Design Biennale was presided over by the research team, which is an exploration of the urban image theory in creative practice. At the same time, it explores methods and mechanisms suitable for city image design.

2. Study Subjects and Methods

2.1. Study Subjects: Exhibition Space of 2021 Wuhan Design Biennale

The Biennale is a cultural event that showcases the artistic innovation and development achievements of the host city and its country, while also building an international exchange platform. It is also a comprehensive reflection of a city’s economic and social development, cultural and artistic prosperity, modernization, and internationalization level [35]. Since 2010, six successful iterations of the Wuhan Design Biennale have taken place. It is the largest and highest-level design exhibition in Wuhan, serving as a platform for showcasing the city’s image. The main exhibition area of the 6th Wuhan Design Biennale in 2021 is located in the Industrial Heritage Pilot Demonstration Area of the Sunac 1890 Project in Hanyang District, with the theme of “the qualities of the city.” The former Hanyang Iron Works Bar Factory serves as the main exhibition hall for this event and is currently the largest single industrial heritage building in Asia, boasting a history spanning over 100 years. The Wuhan Industrial Heritage building serves as the main venue of the Wuhan Design Biennale, closely integrating heritage with urban renewal. By holding design day activities, industrial parks and old communities are renovated and upgraded, which not only continues the history of old buildings but also rejuvenates the city. An event serves the purpose of enhancing the quality of an area. According to the final results of the 2021 Wuhan Design Day and the 6th Wuhan Design Biennale Exhibition Manual, it is divided into Area A (Engineering Design), Area B (Industrial Design), Area C (United Nations Design Capital City Exhibition), Area D (Cultural and Art Exhibition Area), Area E (China Creative Cities, Four Cities in the Middle Yangtze River Exhibition Area), Area F (IBLUE Digital Experimental Space Exhibition Area), Area G (Heritage Protection Exhibition Area), Area H (Wuhan Creative Design Competition Exhibition Area), and Area I (Beautiful Countryside Construction Exhibition Area).

2.2. Methods and Process

During the early stages of project design, we conducted extensive research on design cases related to city image and art design exhibitions. We also conducted a comprehensive analysis of the relevant designs from the previous five Wuhan Design Biennales, and formulated the overall design ideas for 2021 year’s project. This is mainly reflected in two points, as follows. (1) In the context of urban competition, important events such as exhibitions should be effectively linked with the city’s brand image so as to achieve mutual reinforcement in communication. As the Biennale is the first exhibition after the COVID-19 pandemic, its design must take on the important task of shaping and disseminating the image of Wuhan as a “hero city” in the new era. (2) Through relevant research on the design of the previous five exhibitions, it can be seen that the overall image of the first three exhibitions highlighted academic brands and was relatively serious. As can be seen from the summary in Figure 2, when the Wuhan Design Biennale was established in 2011, it was positioned as a relatively serious academic activity. The second (2013) and third (2015) iterations also maintained this tone, and the recognition of brand logo symbols was continuously strengthened in image design. In 2017, Wuhan officially became a Design City of UNESCO [36]. As a brand event of the Design City, the Design Biennale emphasizes the integration of design into life and the integration of design culture into urban culture. The style of exhibition design is no longer deliberately serious, but gradually tends to be lively and fashionable, actively narrowing the distance between it and the public. It should not only make the audience understand and accept it but also allow them to participate in it and interact to achieve the common construction of the city’s brand image.

Based on the overall idea, the process of design development and implementation is not carried out through conventional brainstorming, creative sketches, etc., but starts with urban research, gradually sorting out and deriving core elements. In the specific design, factors such as the observation perspective of the city in the image research and the public’s cognitive characteristics of the image elements are integrated into it. In the application and promotion of the design, the image elements are further strengthened by guiding the interaction between the audience and the design, and further image research is carried out through audience evaluation.

The research team conducted a limited investigation on Wuhan’s image using methods such as drawing cognitive maps, interviews, and network search image analysis to extract elements that can represent Wuhan’s city image and reflect Wuhan’s design in the minds of the public. The questionnaire study primarily guided respondents to identify urban elements that highlight Wuhan’s modern design achievements and to determine which urban elements have a greater impact on daily life. A total of 100 questionnaires were distributed in the survey, and most of the respondents were college students and their family members. In view of the fact that Wuhan is divided into three major urban areas, Wuchang, Hankou, and Hanyang, by the Yangtze River and the Han River, the number of questionnaires in the three urban areas was controlled when the questionnaires were distributed. In sum, 35 questionnaires were distributed in Wuchang, 32 in Hankou, and 33 in Hanyang. Among the 72 valid questionnaires collected, 26 were distributed in Wuchang, 24 in Hankou, and 22 in Hanyang, and the number of questionnaires in each area was basically average. In addition, given that Wuhan is a superlarge city with a population of 13.774 million (data at the end of 2023), the sample size in this study far from covered the whole situation. Therefore, the method of internet crawling image survey and analysis was used as a supplement. Based on the large sample base reflected by image data as the medium, the basic characteristics of the questionnaire survey results were compared and verified. The Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the Hubei University of Technology reviewed and approved the studies involving human subjects. Before completing the questionnaire, each participant’s legal guardian or next of kin provided written informed consent for their participation this study (approval 2021-102). On the one hand, they were required to illustrate their understanding of Wuhan’s overall urban pattern, and on the other hand, they combined their personal experiences to identify the areas they were most familiar with. We invited residents from various areas of Wuhan’s three towns to participate in the cognitive map. A total of 50 hand-drawn image maps and 42 valid maps were obtained. The network image search was conducted on Baidu Pictures, Bing Pictures, Visual China VCG Pictures, and other websites for keywords such as “Wuhan”, “Hankou”, “Wuchang”, and “Hanyang”, and the image elements were identified and analyzed for the contents of the top 100 pictures.

3. Results

3.1. Survey Results on Wuhan’s Urban Image

The analysis of the survey results primarily focused on comparing the mention rate of image elements reflected in the collected cognitive maps and interviews with similar research results conducted by previous scholars [37], using “network imagery” as a reference object.

Judging from the analysis results, the image of a river city is still the primary feature of Wuhan (

Table 1. Wuhan city image cognitive map and related elements’ mention rate statistics.

City Image	Mention Rate Statistics	City Image	Mention Rate Statistics	City Image	Mention Rate Statistics
Yellow Crane Tower	93.3	Zhongnan Road	61.3	Wansongyuan Road	42.9
Yangtze River Bridge	927	Guqin Terrace	61.3	Moon Lake Bridge	42.8
Hankou riverside	91.6	Xiongchu Avenue	61.1	Huazhong University of Science and Technology	42.3
Banks of the Yangtze River	90.4	Zhiyin Bridge	60.9	Evergreen Garden Community	40.6
Television Tower	88.2	Street corner	60.8	Qingchuan Avenue	39.7
Hankou Historical and Cultural District	87.6	The Wuchang Uprising Memorial of the Xinhai Revolution	58.7	Yiyuan Road	39.6
Optics Valley Development Zone	86.2	Northwest Lake	58.4	Street Corner subway station	39.4
Jianghan Road	85.7	Friendship Boulevard	58.2	South Lake	38.2
Third Ring Road	84.2	Luo Yu Road	58.1	Red Steel City	37.2
Parrot Island Yanatze River Bridge	83.4	Wuhan Avenue	58.1	Panlongcheng National Archaeological Site	37.1
Zhongshan Avenue	83.1	Wuhan Expo Garden	57.4	Dongfeng Avenue	36.7
Hankou Sration	82.8	Gaoxin Avenue	56.9	Liberation Park	36.2
Greenland Center	82.5	Zhongbei Road	55.8	East Lake Cherry Blossom Garden	35.8
Second Ring Road	82.3	Tanhua Lane	55.6	Jinghan Avcnue	35.4
The Second Yangtze River Bridge	81.1	Wuhan Tianxingzhou Yanatze River	55.3	The gate of Wuhan University	35.4
Jianghan Customs	80.4	Grain Road Street	55.3	Baofeng Road Elevated Roadway	35.3
Optics Valley Roundabout	78.3	Qintai Avenue	54.6	Dazhi Road	35.2
East Lake	77.6	Site of the Eighth Plenary Session	54.4	Hongshan Square Metro Station	34.4
Confluence of two rivers	76.4	Optics Valley Future City	54.3	Wuhan Revolution Museum	34.1
Wuhan Railway Station	75.9	East Lake Widd Goose Scenic Area	54.2	Optics Valley Commercial Street	33.3
Liberation Avenue	74.3	South Lake City Square	53.2	Green Mountain Yanatze River Bridge	33.1
Hankou CBD	73.7	Xinhua Road	53.2	Hong Kong Road	28.7
Gutian Bridge	73.7	Guan Shan Avenue	53.1	Sha Hu Park	28.7
Wuhan Tianhe International Airport	73.1	Hanzheng Street area	51.7	Crab Cape Subway Station	27.1
Zhonghua Road	72.6	Construction Avenue	51.5	Yangluo Bridge	26.8
Qingchuan Bridge	72.3	Friendship Boulevard Overpass	50.4	Wuhan Flower Expo Center	26.7
Jianghan First Bridge	72.2	Hanyang Railway Station	49.7	Xunlimen Subway Station	26.2
Democracy Road	721	Zhongshan Park	49.7	Green Mountain Industrial Zone	24.2
Wuchang Railway Station	71.9	Baibu Ting Community	49.4	Tianxingzhou	22.8
Chu River and Han Street	71.3	Jianghan Road Suhway Station	49.3	Zhana Zhidong Road	22.3
Wuhan Tiandi	71.2	Parrot Avenue	49.2	Shopping Mall	21.6
Hubei Provincial Museum	70.8	Huangjia Lake University Town	48.8	China University of Geosciences	21.1
Baishazhou Yanatze River Bridge	70.4	Turtle Mountain Scenic Area	48.7	Evergreen Road Elevated	12.3
Wulu Road	69.6	Zhang Zhidong and the Wuhan Museum	48.6	Moon Lake	18.9
Hankou Riverfront Park	69.5	Wuhan Happy Valley	48.3	Water Taking Tower Subway Station	18.6
Yangsigang Yanatze River Bridge	69.3	Wuhan International Expo Center	47.9	Changfeng Bridge	18.6
Zhonghua Road Wharf	69.1	Huangpu Avenue Overpass	47.5	Aomen Road	17.4
Zhongshan Road	68.5	Ji Qing Street	47.3	Junshan Yangtze River Bridge	149
Wuhan University	68.2	Houhu	47.2	Hong Kong Road Subway Station	13.8
Guiyuan Temple	68.1	Kudara Temple	46.8	Lugou Bridge Road	12.2
Si Men Kou	68.1	San Yang Road	46.8	Taipei Road	11.5
Wansong Garden	67.3	Wuhan Botanical Garden	46.3	Galleria Place	94
Yanatze River Bridge 27	67.2	Changchun Taoist Temple	45.8	Hanjianq Bridge	9.3
Wahan International Plaza Shopping Center	66.8	Youth Road	45.6	Cedar Road	8.3
Ointai Cultural District	65.3	Lihuangpi Road	44.3	Wuhan Port	72
Riverside Boulevard	64.7	Hankou Overpass	44.1	Meijia Mountain Interchange Bridge	6.6
Oingchuan Pavilion	63.9	Linakonggang Avenue	43.9	Red Temple Overpass	5.1
Baotong Temple	62.7	Changjiang River Bridge at Hankou	43.8	Si Huan Hanjiang Bridge	2.4
Peace Avenue	62.4	Wuhan Museum	43.7	Peace Overpass	2.3
Wusheng Road	62.3	Central China Normal University	43.6

Data source: authors.

and Figure 3). The local areas of the Yellow Crane Tower, the Yangtze River Bridge TV Tower, and other elements that connect the Turtle and Snake Mountains are still the core of Wuhan’s urban image. In the relevant survey of modern landmarks, the newly completed “tallest building” Greenland Center, and the city’s “border” along the Yangtze River have the highest mention rate. The image clusters, previously concentrated on the Turtle and Snake Mountains, now exhibit a linear trend along the Yangtze River. Recently built landscape images on both sides of the Yangtze River have been deeply ingrained in the people. Whether in the form of an image map or a questionnaire, it is important to note that Wuhan has a high mention rate for numerous bridges, which have become an integral part of the city’s current image. However, their precise location and basic image remain unclear. Despite the large number of bridges in Wuhan, only a few are able to accurately depict their specific locations and basic images. The respondents’ diverse living areas and life experiences were evenly distributed, with the exception of the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, which had the highest mention rate.

The survey of internet image imagery, which involved a comparison and comprehensive analysis of search results from multiple search engines, yielded results that were somewhat similar to those from population surveys. However, the image content was more densely concentrated, and the key elements of the “River City Image” were more prominent. The river, which runs through Wuhan city, reflects its multilevel culture and history, highlighting the image of the bridge. After analyzing and classifying all image elements, we found that bridge elements made up almost half, with the majority strongly correlated and distributed across the five elements of the image. Simultaneously, media images highlighted bridges with stronger images (Figure 4).

3.2. Determining the Core Elements of Creative Design Based on Image Research

Urban image research helps designers understand the characteristics of the public’s perception of urban space more comprehensively and meticulously, thereby providing the focus of creative design. We applied comprehensive creative thinking based on factors such as urban history, social culture, and event brand value, selecting elements that best reflect Wuhan’s modern design from a wide range, with a particular focus on Wuhan’s bridges.

The bridge is an element of immense significance to the urban space. Heidegger once said: “A bridge is a place. As an object, it provides a space that accommodates heaven, earth, people, and gods” [38]. The unique geographical conditions of Wuhan also make the bridges of special significance. People often say: “Big rivers, big lakes, big Wuhan”, but the long-term spatial isolation caused by the “rivers and lakes” has also created a bottleneck for the development of Wuhan. As early as 1919, Sun Yat-sen proposed in his “Industrial Plan” that “… bridges or tunnels should be used to connect the three cities of Wuchang, Hankou, and Hanyang into one city. Future urban land expansion will create additional points for the construction of bridges or tunnels” [39]. Connectivity has played a century-long role in the development of Wuhan. After the founding of New China, with the construction of bridges on the Yangtze River, Han River, and large and small lakes, the physical space isolation of the three towns has become increasingly blurred. Today, the vision of the future of the city has long been realized through the wisdom of modern design. If the Yellow Crane Tower and Guiyuan Temple are the symbols of “old city” Wuhan, then when people in the future look back at today’s Wuhan, bridges will be the landmarks of Wuhan’s “rebirth” and the “monuments” of the current era, both in terms of physical space and cultural and psychological space.

In the representation of urban images, bridges also have certain particularities. From the perspective of the “five elements” of the image, the most important meaning of a bridge is a road, which bears the function of urban transportation. However, under certain special conditions, the image of a bridge can also change. First, the bridge becomes a landmark due to the strengthening of its image and meaning. A bridge’s shape easily creates a unique and large volume within the urban space. At the same time, some bridges have become landmark symbols of the city because of their special historical value and significance, such as the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, the first bridge on the Yangtze River. Besides serving as roads, some bridges also serve as “nodes” where people can stay and stop, offering a unique perspective of the city from the water or from above. From this perspective, whether “viewing” the bridge or “viewing” it from the bridge, it is an indispensable cognitive perspective for the city. The analysis of the bridge’s image serves as a formal basis and a creative source for the further development of the visual design.

3.3. Main Visual Design of the Exhibition Space

The image design of the Biennale starts with the main visual poster. The logical starting point of the overall design “form” and “meaning” should be reflected in the main poster. At the same time, in the era of new media, the main poster should be able to adapt to different communication methods through a variety of dynamic interpretations [40]. In addition, in today’s exhibition visual design, the main visual not only meets the purpose of “image” and “propaganda” but should also itself be the “work” or “exhibit” of the exhibition. It is not just a “packaged exhibition”, but should be a part of the exhibition: it is not just the surface, but should be integrated into the exhibition from virtual to reality, from the external environment to the interior of the exhibition, from the macro to the micro, from the viewer to the participant, from the visible to the tangible, usable, and playable.

First, from the viewing angle to the image diagram—the abstract language of graphics. The main visual graphic design is based on the abstraction of the facades of more than a dozen bridge piers in Wuhan. This abandons the perspective of space and integrates bridge engineering drawing into the visual graphic design, reflecting a rational modeling concept and emphasizing the symbolism and specificity of the bridge image (Figure 5). Wuhan boasts a large number of bridges, each reflecting unique aesthetic characteristics and spiritual temperaments. Public surveys have clarified the individual characteristics of different bridges. For example, the Yangtze River Bridge reflects the city’s profound history; Gutian Bridge and Donghu Road Bridge are Prussian and Gothic styles, respectively, reflecting Wuhan’s open spirit of embracing the world and being inclusive; the majestic shape and red color of the Yingwuzhou Yangtze River Bridge embody a “heroic” spirit with extraordinary momentum; and the piers of the Erqi Yangtze River Bridge, Tianxingzhou Yangtze River Bridge, and Yuehu Bridge are simple in shape and are placed together to form a dynamic and upward force naturally formed by the structure, reflecting a posture facing the future. The main visual design juxtaposes and collages the graphics of these bridges together to form a graphic of the “growth movement” from low to high, which also reflects a section of the city’s construction history. At the same time, this main visual is also used in subway station spaces (Figure 6), building-top spaces (Figure 7), and exhibition hall interiors (Figure 8).

The main venue’s indoor exhibition space adopts an open layout to give people a spacious and transparent feeling. This layout helps visitors flow freely and facilitates their visits to various exhibition areas. Due to the considerable height of the space, the exposed steel structure roof adds an industrial feel and also makes the space appear grander. Different display walls and devices divide the space into sections. To display different exhibition content in an orderly manner, the large electronic screen on the left and the cylindrical display wall on the right form a clear partition. The colors are bright and contrasting. The electronic screen on the left uses a variety of colors, such as red, green, and yellow, to attract the attention of visitors. These colors not only make the space full of vitality but also highlight the theme and key content of the exhibition. The cylindrical display wall on the right uses a brown metallic texture, which contrasts with the color of the electronic screen and increases the visual layering (Figure 9 and Figure 10).

Second, the interpretation of dynamic visuals takes place in the visual and graphic space of movement. Motion graphics serve as the presentation format for the main visual poster. The main visual poster features graphic images of 13 bridges, presenting a process of image transformation through dynamic interpretation (Figure 11). This process extracts and reproduces the experience of people walking through the city of Wuhan. As discussed above, bridges are the first of all roads in the perception of urban images. Bridges occupy an important position in the daily traffic of Wuhan residents. Walking through the city of Wuhan also means shuttling between different bridges. The expression of dynamic graphics connects the symbols of many bridges and connects the perception and memory of the city of Wuhan.

Thirdly, the reproduction of images—visual applications and product development—takes center stage (Figure 12). In today’s exhibition design, posters are not the only independent visual media, but are regarded more as the “button” to open the extension and growth of the “visual system” and shape the brand image. The Wuhan Design Biennale primarily focuses on three systems: environmental applications, event exhibition materials, and cultural and creative products. The overall idea is to transform the “beauty of engineering design” reflected by the bridge into the “beauty of creative life.” The bridge’s graphics are combined and changed to form a main visual line. The local details mirror the structural aesthetic features of the bridge, serving as a tangible representation of the city’s image.

3.4. Feedback and Evaluation of the Project Design

The image design of the 6th Wuhan Design Biennale received good feedback in early reports to media departments. The reviews expressed confidence in the plan’s ability to accurately explain the event’s theme, the relatively new formal language, and the achievement of the media linkage effect. Media outlets like the Yangtze River Daily interpreted the main visual as a promotional TV film (Figure 13), while the bridge element drew the public’s attention to the “Wuhan design” surrounding them. During the event, the design also received relatively enthusiastic feedback. Many visitors spontaneously identified the bridge graphics in the design during the survey at the event site, triggering the audience’s interactive participation. In the news reports related to the event, the bridge element in the main visual was also widely mentioned, such as the news report “11 Yangtze River Bridges Reorganize the Beauty of Wuhan Urban Design” published by the website Study Strong Country. In the search for similar design exhibitions across the country, it is relatively rare for image design elements to become public news topics. This indicates that the Urban Image Research Institute’s attention to the opinions of urban residents has finally garnered positive feedback from the public. This communication mechanism is worth further summarizing.

However, the challenges of this design practice are mainly concentrated in two areas. First, Wuhan is a large city with complex urban image elements. The similar values of the elements obtained are relatively large. In comparing only the high and low values, it is not possible to truly screen out representative urban elements. Instead, it is necessary to combine type analysis and other methods to further clarify the focus. The second challenge is that although the urban image survey can reflect the distinctive city logo, the survey results are not equivalent to the design results. There is a certain uncertainty in the creative conversion of the visual form of the survey results. These issues also need to be further studied in the future.

4. Discussion: Thinking About the Generation Mechanism of Urban Image Space Design

By looking at the project examples from the last section, we can see that the value and importance of the urban image research method for specific practice have been reflected in other urban image design projects that the research team has worked on in recent years. These projects have also made us think about how urban image design works. The most unique aspect of urban image design is the significant overlap between the entity it represents—the city and its inhabitants—and the extent of its dissemination. In short, the people are not only the owners of the city image brand but also the participants in the city image design and the recipients of the city image dissemination. This also determines the complexity and contradiction of urban image design.

4.1. The Current Status of the Mechanism of Urban Image Design

Three processes typically produce contemporary urban image design (see Figure 14). Firstly, the management department directly assigns the designer to design and establish a promotion partnership, relying on the designer’s influence. Secondly, the management department mobilizes the entire society to gather urban images, typically disseminated through the media. The purpose of this process is not only to collect design plans but also to expand publicity channels through collection activities. Third, through a combination of the two aforementioned processes and based on the results of the collection activities, the design plan is generated through targeted entrustment in the later stages (the image design of the Wuhan Design Biennale discussed above is produced in this way). These three processes have their advantages and disadvantages, but in terms of the current status of urban image design, no results that absolutely meet expectations have been produced, reflecting the differences and contradictions in cognition among the management, designers, and the public.

In the design generation mechanism, designers, the main executors of the city image, usually have to consider the opinions of all parties in their design. Communication and reconciliation of opinions account for a large proportion of the design work, but the reality is often contrary to expectations. Either people ignore effective research and active communication or they do not know where to begin. The design results either reflect only the designer’s stylistic preferences or are unduly influenced by their own interests, but lack the ability to actively interact with the public and generate a communication force that is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

4.2. Innovative Thinking About Design Mechanisms Based on Image Cognition Theory

In image research, the cognitive characteristics of urban images are obtained through the application of a series of research methods. The investigation of urban imagery involves a set of research methods that address multiple roles and a wide range of public groups. This method extends beyond the initial stages of design and serves as a comprehensive framework for mediation. It effectively promotes the multiparty linkage of the entire design and communication process, thereby establishing a communication platform for urban image design. The research team has developed innovative mechanisms based on previous design practices and research.

First, the establishment of a public urban image communication platform is underway. We are expanding the collection of urban images from design works to various forms of expression for urban themes. During the planning process, the initial social collection may not directly target the design outcomes. It can first focus on the collection of themes related to urban images, such as the selection of urban space landmarks, urban characteristic blocks, and the most beautiful scenery of the city. It accepts forms with lower technical barriers and higher public participation, such as mobile phone photography, short videos, children’s paintings, etc. It aims to promote urban areas while simultaneously conducting an early-stage universal survey of urban images. The collection results can serve as a dynamic “database” of urban images, providing a clearer research basis for design work.

Second, the design process can have certain “open source” characteristics. “Open source” is a computer term, specifically referring to open-source code, that attracts relevant personnel to participate in modification and learning within a certain range of restrictions and even republishing [41]. In the context of urban image design, it primarily implies that the design facilitates the public’s access to certain content, enabling them to participate in the formulation of specifications. The designer alone does not complete the final result of the design: rather, under certain limited conditions, a collective creation takes place. This may enhance a stronger sense of collective identity. Urban image design often encompasses a wealth of content and should reflect a diverse range of aspects of urban culture. In the design of the 6th Wuhan Design Biennale, the authors invited primary school students to create children’s paintings with the theme of “Bridges in Wuhan” by identifying the bridges in the poster. These creations broke the established visual style of the main image and made the design softer and more vivid.

Third, we examined the post-use evaluation (assessment) mechanism (Figure 15). Post-occupancy evaluation is a relatively rigorous and scientific method in the field of construction engineering, which refers to “how the environment after construction supports and satisfies people’s explicitly expressed or implicit needs” [41]. Although visual image design is relatively simpler than architectural design in terms of procedures, it has a profound impact on urban life, social culture, and the urban visual environment due to its wide media dissemination. Therefore, following the release and implementation of an important urban image design, it is crucial to gather public feedback, solicit opinions regarding various aspects such as communication power, identity, artistic sense, and innovation, and carry out application tests.

In summary, the post-occupancy evaluation of urban image design has three values: first, it can discover, evaluate, and correct problems in existing plans; second, it can continuously attract public participation and strengthen the recognition of the city’s image, with the focus on design also serving as a platform for aesthetic education across the entire society; and third, the relevant opinions can be transformed into categories and data, serving as a reference and foundation for future design updates.

5. Conclusions

From the perspective of a city image designer, this paper introduces the classic urban image theory of architecture to specific practical work. In the process, it is concluded that in addition to explaining phenomena and serving as a basis for thinking, the research method reflected by the theory is also instrumental and can be extended to multiple links to become a universal cognitive method of approach to urban image issues. This study utilized the exhibition space design of the Wuhan Design Biennale as a model and employed the urban image cognition theory to conduct a limited survey on Wuhan’s image. We used methods like drawing cognitive maps, conducting interviews, and combining network search image analysis to extract elements that effectively represented the public’s image of Wuhan and reflected its design. The study findings are as follows. (1) Whether it were an image map or a questionnaire, the mention rate of many bridges in Wuhan was very high, becoming an important element of the image of the river city today. In the survey of internet images, the key elements of the “river city image” were more prominent. (2) The urban image survey helps designers understand the characteristics of the public’s cognition of urban space more comprehensively and meticulously, thereby providing the focus of creative design. While designers play a key role in shaping the city’s image, they do not solely determine its creation. As a public issue, the communication and reconciliation of opinions among all parties is of enormous significance, but it often goes against the wills of individuals. The research method on city image encompasses multiple roles and a wide range of public groups. It can be used as a general mental framework for mediation in city image design. This framework effectively promotes the linkage of the entire design and communication process, thereby establishing a communication platform for city image design. (3) The “points, lines, and surfaces” of physical space cognition, composed of the “five elements” of city image and the two-dimensional “points, lines, and surfaces” of visual graphic expression, constitute an interactive interpretive relationship among physical viewing perspective, psychological cognition, and design expression. In this framework, a method of design creation and design research is provided, from the structured cognition of urban characteristics and features to the clarification of design creative focus and then to the evaluation of design effects. (4) This innovative design method has been put into practice in the exhibition space design of the Wuhan Design Biennale and has received certain praise. This paper summarizes the mechanism of integrating landmark buildings in cities into the visual design of large exhibition spaces, hoping to provide a reference for the design of future large exhibition spaces.

In terms of research methods on city image, when the sample size of the survey population is inadequate to cover a larger population base, the analysis of data such as “hot” images related to city image formed by the public’s activities on the internet can supplement the survey results. Another innovation of this study is that the “research process” is transformed into a “design and communication” process at the same time. The public not only participates in the survey but also participates in the design invisibly while accepting the survey, and in this process, they have a more positive sense of identity with the activities and even the city. In summary, as a classic urban theory, the urban image plays a crucial role in research methods and serves as a guiding principle for both research and design practice in urban image design. This guidance does not emphasize a set of standard thinking patterns or operating procedures, but instead offers an innovative path that has a clear structure and can transform cognitive structure into a continuous source of creativity when designing complex cities. Simultaneously, this article draws from the experience and insights of designers, incorporating specific practices, and possesses a profound comprehension of the influence of the design process and its extension on the final design outcomes. It also delves deeper into the methods and importance of urban image theory in optimizing the design generation mechanism. This is actually a “design” with more extensive significance for the public. As Lynch stated: “During the image development process, the teaching of observation methods and the reshaping of the environment will form a cycle or a spiral upward process.” If different roles can communicate and coordinate with each other in the whole process of urban image design, the process of shaping the urban image will become more vital and will grow with specific and vivid people. The city will surely become “a place of joy for countless residents.”

It is undeniable that the existing research has limitations. (1) In terms of urban image research, the current methods are still relatively traditional and make it difficult to cover a wider range of people, making the conclusions on the characteristics of urban images still somewhat vague. Although they basically conform to the general consensus judgment, they fail to show more detailed spatial cognitive characteristics. In future research, we can use the current new data media forms to give full play to their instant, massive and multisource characteristics to draw more accurate and detailed conclusions. (2) In terms of the conversion from image characteristics to exhibition image design, the current design methods are still relatively traditional and the conversion efficiency is relatively low. The increasingly mature AIGC image generation technology can optimize the workflow of this link. The rapidly generated images can not only become an elemental basis of later design but also become a tool for public participation, joint design, and enhanced communication.