The Concise Townscape

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This is a very rare example of thedirect relationship between twocategories, village and countryside.The unequivocal character of both isbrought sharply together, there is nofluffing. On the one side the windsoughs through the trees and on theother the hollow tread of boots re­ grandiose vistaOf the gambits used to exploit Hereand There the vista is, of course, oneof the most popular. The Grandiosevista does just what the whitewashedwall did in Scotland, p. 34, but in itsown expensive way. It links you, inthe foreground at Versailles, to theremote landscape, thus producing asense of power or omnipresence. Again the assertion, This is That, canbe seen in examples of animism, thesuggestion that a door is a face and,more directly, that a window is amouth, can sometimes induce a senseof strangeness but can be very annoy­ing when it occurs unwanted. This means that we can get no further help from the scientificattitude and that we must therefore turn to other values and otherstandards.

In writing an introduction to this edition of Townscape I find little toalter in the attitude expressed in the original introduction written tenyears ago. The Concise Townscape author draws three conclusions at the end of the book: Urban environments can be categorized in two ways. The first is the city as an object made up of subjects that are outside planners. Second, the city is built, and then it is populated with activities. Both provide a sustaining complement. Townscape serves as a city in this scenario, providing the framework and fostering action. The inhabitants of the urban setting should be able to live comfortably. The urban environment impacted the physical and psychological evolution of civilization . Therefore, it is essential to emphasize the art of the surroundings in urban planning. I the bank reaches outwards and is a barner which consists of heavy stone1 minimum structure. The metal rails. bollards, enough to serve as a warn-These two pictures try to isolate thequality of Thereness which is lyricalin the sense that it is perpetually outof our reach, it is always There. Thesea wall at Aldeburgh carries theshadows of houses, the shadows ofwarmth and laughter. Beyond is thegreat emptiness. In the wild country­side of Scotland the distance is madepersonal to us by the extensionoutwards of the roadside wall as athin white line which, because of itsmeaning (possible line of travel), pro­jects us out into the wilderness. All that remains is to join them together into a new pattern created bythe warmth and power and vitality of human imagination so that webuild the home of man. In2015the University of Westminster acquired the archive of Gordon Cullen, an alumnus and renowned illustrator, draughtsman and urban theorist.

Propriety stems from the mutualrespect which a true society shouldmaintain amongst its members, whichis not quite the same thing asmanners. Our example is a somewhatastonishing shop fascia with letteringwhich might be thought out of placein a modest street, but since it is anexample of the metalworker's craft it I below left are delicate lines drawn ing to traffic, connected by lightI at danger points and not ponderous chains which warn the unthinkingII and stuffy barriers, like those shown pedestrian. These are direct and:1 below, which are right outside the practical steps taken to avoid disaster, In enclosure the eye reacts to thefact of being completely surrounded.The reaction is static: once an en­closure is entered, the scene remainsthe same as you walk across it andout of it, where a new scene is sud­denly revealed. Closure, on the otherhand, is the creation of a break inthe street which, whilst containing the deflectionA variation on the closed vista isdeflection, in which the object build­ing is deflected away from the rightangle, thus arousing the expectationthat it is doing this to some purpose,i.e. that there is a place at the end ofthe street as yet unseen and of whichthis building forms a coherent part.This is invariably not so, but de­flection arouses the thought. Anything that may be occupied eitherby oneself or by one's imagination,which here lifts us into a carved stoneaedicule (in Valencia), becomes tothat extent of interest a warmcolour in the greys "f the inhospitable.Porticos, balconies and terraces havethis ability to communicate. Theydraw us outwards.buildings. Cover up each alternatelywith the hand and the impression isgiven that the dark building is muchfurther away from us than the lightmodern building. This is due to thedifference in scale between the two scale on planOf special interest to the planner isthe sense of scale in the question oftown layout. The case quoted here byEbbe Sadolin (A Wallderer ill The layout of an urban area should take Atlas’ reasoning into account. It has to do with the real-world dimensions of geometry, time, and atmosphere. In essence, the urban Townscape is divided into several critical components. People can identify a location physically and emotionally thanks to the Townscape. Townscape should be planned since it significantly impacts how a community grows in the area. The art of constructing an environment significant to a city is known as Townscape. Finally, this book has pioneered the idea of Townscape and has dramatically influenced architects, planners, and other people interested in city aesthetics.

Or, to continue the interplay, Thisand That can co-exist. Ever sincepeople got really serious about plan­ning one of the main endeavours hasbeen to put people into sunny,healthy homes away from dirty,smelly and noisy industry. Whilst noone will seriously quarrel with this,the principle of segregation and zoninggoes marching on, with the resultthat we are in danger of losing thegreat unities of social living. TheWest End gets more and more officesto the exelusion of theatres and The book’s title is ‘The Concise Townscape,’ and Gordon Cullen is the author. He was a well-known urban planner and architect from England who played a significant role in the townscape movement. Cullen introduced a novel theory and approach to urban visual analysis and design founded on the psychology of perception, including human perceptions of time and space and the need for visual stimulation. The Concise Townscape is the name given to later versions of Townscape. Through this book, he significantly contributed to the Townscape’s structure.From simple enclosure it is a step tothe spatial variations which springfrom this fertile form. The illustra­tion shows twO courtyards, the onewe are in and the one beyond,divided by a third enclosure, thecloister. Thus there are three separateenclosures combined into one inter­penetrating whole.

retains the sense of propriety. Pro­priety never seeks to stifle, rather is itself-expression within a civilizedframework . Cullen’s interest in design as a means of deepening emotion differs from the current fad for ‘urban memory’ as a means to recreate community, and design peddled as a way to boost emotional ‘well being’. Unlike today’s purveyors of urban design therapy, Cullen simply expressed the confidence of the age that emotional connection with places was important, and that through their skills, designers could enhance the experience of a place. But, this is what in fact happened (for Festival Year). A railing has been deliberately erected to cut off the street from the square to destroy the square in fact and leave only a churchyard and a street. The actual focus of interest, the steps of the cross around which people congregate, is decisively isolated by concrete posts and flower beds. possession and possession in move­ment we find what may be termedviscosity, the formation of groupschatting, of slow window-shoppers,people selling newspapers, flowersand so on. The overhanging blinds,the space enclosed by the portico andthe meandering character of the streetprovide the proper setting which maybe compared to the picture below.Windswept and inhospitable, itemphasizes the segregation ofoutside and inside.

‘I’ll have stories for the pub till the day I die’

Additionally, the link between urban space’s size, form, and configuration and a city’s quality may be observed aesthetically. A reminder to civic gardeners iscontained in the picture of a seat atBidston Hill, which carries with it nohint that the land is occupied ormunicipally digested. Here is a seatwhich might have been left by atraveller. public, not democratically but emotionally. As the great Max Milleronce remarked across the footlights on a dull evening 'I know you're outthere, I can hear you breathing'.