Urban Design Theory - Gordon Cullen, The Concise Townscape

Gordon Cullen – the Concise Townscape

townscape is that it is a design philosophy based upon satisfying a fuller range of human needs including those which are met by the visual environment.

the starting point for design is the individual's experience of the environment.

There is a typical emotional reaction to being above the ground and another from being above it

There is a reaction to being hemmed in a tunnel and another to the wideness of the square

Therefore if towns are designed from the point of view of the moving person (pedestrian or car) its easy to see how the whole city becomes a plastic experience.

 You cannot have a here without a there, a this without a that. Some of the greatest townscape effects are created by skillful relationship between the two

Think about the context of your design and its impacts on the surrounds.

 OPTICS, PLACE, CONTENT

spend time drawing the site, understand - look at Cullens sketches

‘Our sensitivity to the local gods must grow sharper’

‘Apart from a few noble exceptions our world is being filled with system built dumb blondes and a scatter of Irish confetti’