The Concise Townscape

INTRODUCTION: SUMMARY
The title of the book is The Concise Townscape and its author is Gordon Cullen.

He was an influential English Architect and urban designer who was a key motivator in townscape movement.

He had played a major role in structuring townscape through this book.

According to Gordon Cullen Townscape is a visual art contained in the arrangement of buildings, roads, trees, nature and urban
environment that decorate the space.

The townscape is one way that can be used in term of physical visual to recognize the physical form of a city.

The townscape can also be identified by the shape of arrangement that is by the design of buildings and roads that creates various
emotional levels to the observer.

Townscape concept is the basis for Architect, Planners and those who pay attention to the Appearance of the city.

Physical form of urban space is influenced and determined by the shape and mass of the building.

According to author the values should be added in the urban design of the city so that people can emotionally enjoy a good urban
environment through psychological and physical sense. Four points that are emphasized in this book are serial vision, place, content,
and the functional tradition. . Each of the four core townscape has details aspects which can be seen in the book in the form of
cases.
INTRODUCTION: SUMMARY
According to author, Places are remembered by the observers emotional attachment at the time in a certain place.

For example, a man on the edge of a cliff will have a very lively sense of position which is the feeling of exposure, whereas a man at
the end of deep cave will react to the fact of enclosure.

In addition the townscape is the art of creating the environment that is important to a city.

The relation between our vision and environment is explained by concerning optics, concerning place and concerning content.

Concerning optics: Serial vision, which is split into two such as existing and emerging view

Concerning Place: It deals with exposure , enclosure ,revealing a mystery.

Concerning content – (Fabric includes colour, texture, scale, style, character, personality and uniqueness) of an area that affects
one's feelings toward the state of the city environment.

Content depends on two factors, namely the level of conformity and the level of creativity.

Key words: Townscape, enclosure, exposure, fabric, serial vision, existing and emerging view, conformity , creativity.
INTRODUCTION: SUMMARY

1.Concerning optics: Let us suppose that we are walking through a town: here is a straight road off which is a courtyard, at the far
side of which another street leads out and bends slightly before reaching a monument.

We take this path and our first view is that of the street. Upon turning into the courtyard the new view is revealed instantaneously at
the point of turnings and this view remains with us whilst we walk across the courtyard.

Leaving the courtyard we enter the further street. Again a new view is suddenly revealed although we are travelling at a uniform
speed.

Finally as the road bends the monument swings into view. The significance of all this is that although the pedestrian walks through the
town at a uniform speed, the scenery of towns is often revealed in a series of jerks or revelations. This we call SERIAL VISION.

There is a further observation to be made concerning Serial Vision. This is further split into existing and emerging views

In the normal way this is an accidental chain of events and whatever significance may arise out of the linking of views
INTRODUCTION: SUMMARY
2. Concerning place: This second point is concerned with our reactions to the position of our body in its environment.

It means, for instance, that when you go into a room you utter to yourself the unspoken words see I am outside it, I am entering it, I
am in the middle of it .

At this level of consciousness we are dealing with exposure and enclosure

An example. Suppose you are visiting one of the hill towns in the south of France.

You climb laboriously up the winding road and eventually find yourself in a tiny village street at the summit.

You feel thirsty and go to a nearby restaurant, your drink is served to you on a veranda and as you go out to it you find to your
exhilaration or horror that the veranda is cantilevered out over a thousand-foot drop.

By this device of the containment (street) and the revelation (cantilever) the fact of height is dramatized and made real.

In a town we do not normally have such a dramatic situation to manipulate but the principle still holds good.

There is, for instance, a typical emotional reaction to being below the general ground level and there is another resulting from being
above it.

There is a reaction to being hemmed in as in a tunnel and another to the wideness of the square.
INTRODUCTION: SUMMARY
The Rajpath that leads to the Rashtrapati Bhavan has a series of visual screening as well as enhancing elements, thus, creating a
progression of frames.

A sense of progression is created and keeps the observer moving forward.

The avenues and the water bodies confine you to the focal point and as you move forward your frame gets bigger with multiple
buildings and different views.

An illusion of nearness and closeness that is created in the first frame fades out as one approaches the main building in focus,
revealing more and more buildings of different scales and functions.

In this example, serial vision is used to suggest the majestic and authoritative nature of the building in focus.
INTRODUCTION: SUMMARY
3. Concerning content: It is the fabric of towns: colour, texture, scale, style, character, personality and uniqueness.

Accepting the fact that most towns are of old foundation, their fabric will show evidence of differing periods in its architectural styles
and also in the various accidents of layout.

Many towns do so display this mixture of styles, materials and scales.

Creating symmetry, balance, perfection and conformity are the popular conception of the purpose of town planning.

Conformity gives way to the agreement to differ within a recognized tolerance of behaviour.

Conformity, from the point of view of the planner, is difficult to avoid but to avoid it deliberately, by creating artificial diversions, is
surely worse than the original boredom.