The Concise Townscape

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Gordon was a key member of a dominant circle of architects, journalists, historians and poets who formed architectural opinion in post-war Britain. His contribution was to develop an eye for seeing the obvious, but invariably overlooked, architectural qualities in British town and cities. seen in town and village. I t is a verysmall selection and is only intendedto stimulate the reader to discover 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.

thought of as the Colosseum might fitmore easily into the mental climate ofthe 1900s, which put even gas holdersinto period costume, and that theEnglishman's home, below, really ishis castle. Crude as these examplesare (and we could produce otherseven more banal) they yet contain agrain of guidance for the designer. Cullen had begun his townscape studies in earnest in 1949 when he joined the staff of the AR. The ideas were developed in close collaboration with Hastings, who had a finely developed appreciation of the urban qualities of Italian hill-towns, which he wrote about enthusiastically under the challenging pseudonym Ivor de Wofle.No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to personsor property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any useor operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the materialherein. Because of rapid advances in the medical sciences, in particular, independentverification of diagnoses and drug dosages should be made change of levelAny account of one's emotional re­actions to position must include thesubject of levels. Below level pro­duces intimacy, inferiority, enclosureand claustrophobia, above level givesexhilaration, command, superiority,exposure and vertigo; the act ofdescending, implies going down intothe known and the act of ascendingimplies going up into the unknown.There is the strange correspondenceof similar levels across a deep gap,near but remote, or the functional useof levels to join or separate the activi­ties of various road users. Thisillustration shows the graveyardbelow Liverpool Cathedral, a quiet,meandering footpath beneath theimmense weight of cliff and tower. 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. Arising out of this sense of identity or sympathy with the environ­ment, this feeling of a person in street or square that he is in I T orentering IT or leaving IT, we discover that no sooner do we postulate aHERE than automatically we must create a THERE, for you cannot haveone without the other. Some of the greatest towns cape effects arecreated by a skilful relationship between the two, and I will name an Far too often in recent years the pro­gressive architect's attention has beendirected to the big idea, the townplan, the national plan, the cosmicplan, to the exclusion of more localand particular interests. The resulthas been that he has begun to losehis ability to see other than with themind's eye. In many ways he is like achild who, after an earlier period ofuninhibited pleasure in simple visualexperience, finds his interest in seeingatrophied by his preoccupation withlearning (that is, his growing in­tellectual development), with disas­trous effect on his creative faculties.The burden of technical awarenesshangs heavily on the practising archi­tect, and the sense of social responsi­bility often assumes the proportionand character of an incubus as well asa stimulant. A wholly satisfying andvirile architecture cannot flourishunless in its practice social justifica­tion is lavishly compounded withpersonal pleasure, a wholesome de­light in the creative process itself aswell as an appreciation of the end inview. There is no need to regard suchnaive delight as almost sinful, since

How to explain? Example: the nearest to hand at the time of writing isSees cathedral near Alen'Y0n,p.I4. The Gothic builders were fascinated bythe problem of weight, how to support the culmination of their structures,the vault, and guide its weight safely down to earth. In this buildingweight has been divided into two parts. The walls are supported bysturdy cylindrical columns: the vault itself, the pride of the endeavour,appears to be supported on fantastically attenuated applied columnswhich act almost as lightning conductors .of gravity between heaven andthe solid earth. The walls are held up by man, the vault is clearly heldup by angels. 'I understand weight, I am strong', 'I have overcomeweight, I am ethereal'. 'We both spring from the same earth together, weneed each other'. Through the centuries they commune together inserenity. Cullen’s concerns with visual literacy have been well defined in this book with its extensive bibliographies and relevant illustrations. Not only does Engler provide a valuable insight into ‘Mr Townscape’ and his place in the history of urban design and planning, she also shows his continuing influence on imagining planned landscapes."

Took a call during a shift at Boots to hear that they had been successful

The position may indeed have deteriorated over the last ten years forreasons which are set out below. Cullen’s skill as an architectural illustrator was greatly admired and he received many illustrative commissions such as the 1943 County of London Plan; Kynoch Press’s 1940 diary and the 1955 Cambridge Christmas Book, as well as some studies of the State Apartments at Windsor Castle. 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- Despite being blind in one eye, he was a tremendous artist and draughtsman. During the Second World War he was declared medically unfit for military service and instead designed factories and Ministry of Information exhibitions, before going to Barbados with the colonial service in 1944 to plan self-help housing and schools in the British West Indies. work for its examples instead of these being culled from the past. Thishas not been done for two reasons.

In 1972 he was elected Honorary Fellow of the RIBA. In 1975 he was awarded with an RDI for illustration and Townscape. The following year he was awarded a medal from The American Institute of Architects. In 1978 he was appointed a CBE for his contribution to architecture from Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. the West Indies before becoming assistant editor of TheArchiuaural Review just after the Second World War. The 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. without the ingredient of sensuousenjoyment the practice of architecturemust inevitably degenerate into littlemore than a sordid routine, or at themost the exercise of mere intellectualcleverness. In this light, the examplesof texture here can be gladlyaccepted as a stimulation to be foundin the ordinary scene. 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.

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The scene at Bremhill might be a hundred or a thousand years old. It is the archetype of meeting places, church, cross and tree. A common scene? Yet how many others can you recall and how many will there be in ten years’ time? Cullen’s skill as an architectural illustrator was greatly admired and he received many illustrative commissions such as the 1943 County of London Plan, Kynoch Press’s 1940 diary and the 1955 Cambridge Christmas Book, as well as some studies of the State Apartments at Windsor Castle.