There are advantages to be gained from the gathering together of peopleto form a town. A single family living in the country can scarcely hopeto drop into a theatre, have a meal out or browse in a library, whereasthe same family living in a town can enjoy these amenities. The littlemoney that one family can afford is multiplied by thousands and so acollective amenity is made possible. A city is more than the sum of itsinhabitants. It has the power to generate a surplus of amenity, which isone reason why people like to live in communities rather than in isolation. Up to now we have emphasized thecategories and moods of the environ­ment, the quality of thisness. Thenext phase is to bring together Thisand That to find out what emotionsand dramatic situations can beliberated out of the various forms ofrelationship. The first example,illusion, is based on the bluff thatThis is That. We know that it is inthe nature of water to be level inrepose and yet, by cunningly rampingthe retaining walls of the pool, re­taining walls which, as everyoneknows are always level, the illusion iscreated that the water is sloping.Levelness is sloping, This is That. It is sometimes astonishing howfragile can be the means of estab­lishing enclosure or space. A wirestretched from wall to wall like apencil stroke, a square of canvasstretched out overhead. In Chandi­garh I saw a bustee, or collection ofmud and thatch dwellings, arrangedin the shade of three large trees alonein the plain. The space thus enclosedby the three trees became the civicspace of the tiny community. Inthese pictures of the French Rivieraand a restaurant at the Festival ofBritain we see how bamboo is usedto establish enclosure and space andhow it achieves that evocative charmof containing whilst revealing whatis beyond. Concerning CONTENT. In this last category we turn to an examina­tion of the fabric of towns: colour, texture, scale, style, character, Over the last five years, the work we have done on the collection has significantly increased its accessibility.We have embedded the collection into teaching on the University of Westminster’s MArch and BA Designing Cities degrees.We have also facilitated use of the collection by other institutions and are always keen to encourage researchers to access the collection.

Seen from above the whole layout shows the outdoor room through which traffic might pass. The traffic has to slow down (a good thing) while crossing the square; the flow is not impeded otherwise. The street is more friendly, the church becomes a real place of meeting, the cross a genuine focal point and a ribbon town gains a centre.Manchester Square sums up thewhole character and quality of urbanlife, proportion, elegance, highdensity and the foil of a lush collec­tive garden. This means that we can get no further help from the scientificattitude and that we must therefore turn to other values and otherstandards. In this shortened version, the studies of specific towns have been left outand instead Cullen has contributed a new foreword and conclusion which

According to Gordon Cullen, the layout of the city’s structures, including its streets, trees, and other natural elements, is known as Townscape. One approach to identifying a city’s physical shape using physical images is through the Townscape. The layout of the buildings and roads, which elicits a range of emotions in the viewer, may also be used to identify a townscape. The townscape idea is a foundation for architects, planners, and anyone concerned with the city’s appearance. The structure’s shape and mass impact and affect the physical form of urban space. The relationship between the physical condition of the urban environment and the body of the building mass is sensed by the spectator on a psychological and physical level. Additionally, the link between urban space’s size, form, and configuration and a city’s quality may be observed aesthetically.

Jump To

This is the Environment Game and it is going on all round us. Youwill see that I am not discussing absolute values such as beauty, perfec­tion, art with a big A, or morals. I am trying to describe an environmentthat chats away happily, plain folk talking together. Apart from a handfulof noble exceptions our world is being filled with system-built dumbblondes and a scatter ofIrish confetti. Only when the dialogue commenceswill people stop to listen.

Born in Yorkshire in 1914,Gordon Cullen moved to London to study architecture at the Regent Street Polytechnic (now the University of Westminster) in 1932.He went on to work in the field of architecture and urban design. Perhaps Cullen’s most significant achievementwas his work around the Townscape movement, and in1961he publishedthe book Townscape.In1978,he was awarded a CBE for his contribution to architecture. Concerning PLACE. This second point is concerned with ourreactions to the position of our body in its environment. This is as simpleas it appears to be. It means, for instance, that when you go into a roomyou utter to yourself the unspoken words 'I am outside IT, I am enteringIT, I am in the middle of IT' . At this level of consciousness we are dealingwith a range of experience stemming from the major impacts of exposureand enclosure (which if taken to their morbid extremes result in theBetween 1944 and 1946 he worked in the planning office of the Development and Welfare Department in Barbados, as his poor eyesight meant that he was unfit to serve in the British armed forces. He later returned to London and joined the Architectural Review journal, first as a draughtsman and then as a writer on planning policies. There he produced a large number of influential editorials and case studies on the theory of planning and the design of towns. Many improvements in the urban and rural environment in Britain during the 1950s and 1960s. He was also involved in the Festival of Britain in 1951. One of the few large scale Cullen works on public display is the mural in the foyer of the Erno Goldfinger designed Greenside Primary School in west London, completed in 1953. [4] His 1958 ceramic mural in Coventry, depicting the history of the city and its post-war regeneration, is on a much grander scale though now relocated away from its original central location. [5] Illustrations [ edit ] In this Swedish example trees havebeen used as a sort of living wall­paper to decorate the vast geometryof the grain silos. First, streaming the environment. It is difficult to fight for a generalprinciple, easier to protect the particular. By breaking down the environ­ment into its constituent parts the ecologist can fight for his national The smallest details of the street orcivic space should fit into the town­scape in performing their individualfunctions. The circular seat and thecorrugated edging are representativeof the vast complexity of detail metwith in civic gardens and squaresthat are frequently called ornamental.These two are selected for the satis­factory way in which they avoid sucha description, yet achieve in theirfunctional way, embellishment of afar higher quality. Of the many smallstructures to be found this publiclavatory may sum up the functionalvigour of expression. The twoexamples below show what happenswhen this clarity of purposebecomes obscured.