The Concise Townscape

Product Information

Concerning OPTICS. Let us suppose that we are walking through atown: here is a straight road off which is a courtyard, at the far side ofwhich another street leads out and bends slightly before reaching amonument. Not very unusual. We take this path and our first view isthat of the street. Upon turning into the courtyard the new view isrevealed instantaneously at the point of turning, and this view remainswith us whilst we walk across the courtyard. Leaving the courtyard weenter the further street. Again a new view is suddenly revealed althoughwe are travelling at a uniform speed. Finally as the road bends themonument swings into view. The significance of all this is that althoughthe pedestrian walks through the town at a uniform speed, the scenery oftowns is often revealed in a series of jerks or revelations. This we callSERIAL VISION. This material is written by Dr Ben Guy, a civil planner who examined Cullen’s ideas during his doctoral studies and has over 20 years of experience using modern technology to illustrate serial viewpoints in urban infrastructure projects. CONTENTS: Serial vision definition | The importance of serial vision | The benefits of utilising serial vision | Gordon Cullen's urban design principles | Serial vision examples | Skyline, rhythm, and grain | Thresholds, transitions, and permeability | Light and shadow | The digital simulation of serial vision | Dynamic viewsheds What does serial vision mean? This sketch shows the centre as seen from point ‘A’ on the previous drawing. It shows the view at right angles to the direction of the street and is made from an already existing but derelict yard. A vista at right angles to the main road it makes the one accent in the street and one that all town, but particularly the linear town, need. Architectural Press is an imprint of ElsevierLinacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP, UK30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, MA 01803, USA hidden by the ramp; only its upper part is visible. This effect of trunca­tion serves to isolate and make remote. The building is withheld. We areHere and it is There. As we climb the ramp the Rashtrapathi Bhawan is

Drawing the Townscape: the Centenary of Gordon Cullen. Drawing the Townscape: the Centenary of Gordon Cullen.

the average: of averages of human behaviour, averages of weather,factors of safety an": so on. And these averages do not give an inevitableresult for any particular problem. They are, so to speak, wandering factswhich may synchronize or, just as likely, may conflict with each other.The upshot is that a town could take one of several patterns and stilloperate with success, equal success. Here then we discover a pliabilityin the scientific solution and it is precisely in the manipulation of thispliability that the art of relationship is made possible. As will be seen, theaim is not to dictate the shape of the town or environment, but is amodest one: simply to manipulate within the tolerances. Even if you lived in the prettiest of towns the message is still just as necessary: there is an art of environment. This is the central fact of TOWNSCAPE but it has got lost on the way...On the one hand it has devolved into cobbles and conservation, and on the other it has hived off into outrage and visual pollution. (193) A definition: Serial vision refers to the changing perspectives and sequential views experienced as you move through space. It is often explained as the unfolding visual experience – the way our perception alters and morphs as we journey across a landscape. A street may turn and reveal new geometries; a sudden vista may open up; a scenic landmark might appear over the horizon; emerging views and visual stimuli are revealed and concealed. This continually evolving visual experience is what is known as serial vision. Gordon Cullen’s serial visionTo continue the Screened Vista,this example of St Paul's seen fromCheapside shows the use of foliage towithhold a view until one has pene­trated past the tree when, quitesuddenly, the great wall of thecathedral is revealed at close quarterswith the dome almost vertically above.This dramatic impact at close rangeis only possible by withholding thevIew. In this shortened version, the studies of specific towns have been left outand instead Cullen has contributed a new foreword and conclusion which

The concise townscape : Cullen, Gordon, 1914- : Free Download

Simulating views at speed is critical for planning railways, highways, and other transportation systems. It is also useful for ascertaining whether reflective façades and other architectural details cause visual disturbances or interfere with the safety of nearby drivers. Serial vision simulation is also beneficial when assessing a new design proposal’s visual impact on the surrounding landscape. Recent (post-war) installations in Great Britain are based on the principle of silhouette vision or surface brightness of the road. To imitate daylight -- whereby the road surface and objects on it are seen three-dimensionally and in colour -- being economically impossible the alternative is to use a lower intensity of light, to reflect light off the road surface evenly so that any object on it is seen as a silhouette which the eye can interpret as man, dog, car, hazard, etc. (144) That made me ponder a bit about the cinematographic use of light, about noir, the use of light and shadow, I thought about the Third Man in particular, thought about our lights today which I think now do better at showing things three dimensionally.This is the city as collective enterprise, a collective that becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Like Capra's theories of connection, a city is not just a collection of discrete things like streets and buildings, but rather embodies the art of relationship: how things fit together, the spaces created between them, how people use and live in buildings, but also move between them. The fabric of towns : The author claims that an area’s fabric, which comprises color, texture, scale, style, character, personality, and distinctiveness, determines how one feels about the status of the urban environment. The degree of conformance and inventiveness are two criteria that affect content. In the author’s opinion, functional tradition is a desirable characteristic in the components of the urban environment. From a perspective that enjoys urban life rather than fears it, this is a fantastic depiction of the elements that make cities and towns operate. It brings home how much of the literature created about the city is the literature of terror. urn:lcp:concisetownscape0000cull:epub:4efa747f-a34f-4243-a330-fba774491da6 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier concisetownscape0000cull Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t81m27d7x Invoice 1652 Isbn 0442217706 Ocr tesseract 5.0.0-rc1-12-g88b4 Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin Ocr_detected_script_conf 0.8676 Ocr_module_version 0.0.14 Ocr_parameters -l eng Old_pallet IA-NS-2000483 Openlibrary_edition This explosion resembles nothing so much as a disturbed ant-hill with brightly enamelled ants moving rapidly in all directions, toot-toot, pip-pip, hooray. (57)

Concise Townscape - 1st Edition - Gordon Cullen - Routledge

In writing an introduction to this edition of Townscape I find little toalter in the attitude expressed in the original introduction written tenyears ago. Again there are lines of advantagewhich can be colonized; the linealong the parapet of a bridge whichpeople seem to prefer for the sake ofthe immediacy of its view and posi­tion is one such (see also line of lifep. III). In this example of housing inCornwall there is a linear vibrationbetween the two identities, that ofthe tree-lined road and the houseswhich are beyond and partly hiddenby the sloping verge. Comparing thiswith a typical housing developmentalong the roadside in which thehouses are opened up to the road,its advantage is apparent. For notonly arc the houses divided from theroad but also they appear to be. Theroad is one landscape clement whilstthe houses are a quite differentelement which happens, at this point,to be fairly close to the other. possession in movementBut static possession is only oneaspect of the human grip on theout-of-doors and the next stage is toconsider possession in movement. Inthe accompanying illustration thechurch walk is a definite thing havinga well-defined beginning and endwith a well-defined character; andthis may be possessed while movingthrough it just as surely as the villagecross may be by a villager sitting onits steps.In a town, a lived-in place, the lay­out of the spaces in which the publicmoves is a matter having a directimpact on the emotions, as hasalready been noted. To rationalizeall these spaces into streets, andworse, a gridiron of streets, seems todeny the nature of people and extola system which is fundamentallyillogical because it is not derivedfrom the character towns are knownto possess. The typical town is not apattern of streets but a scquC/lce of Urban CGI simulations let you ‘walk’ through an urban environment under a wide range of conditions, experiencing unlimited serial views as you navigate access routes. Our simulations are particularly useful for evaluating and refining wayfinding design and navigability, such as in the railway station example illustrated above. Digital simulations allow you to explore every little corner of your project – conducting a thorough serial vision analysis of each integrated space. This is particularly important for establishing safety and sightlines in areas that might otherwise be forgotten, such as ancillary stairwells and minor access routes. These Urban CGI examples depict lift and stairwell access within Hallam railway station, Melbourne, Australia, with the fritted glass partially screening views and reducing sunlight and glare. As you exit the stairwell at Hallam railway station, the sequence of views gradually unfolds, revealing the expansive outdoors. Our CGI simulation lets you visualise the transition from confined space towards the open landscape. A special use case: dynamic viewsheds – serial vision in motion The term ‘serial vision’ was first coined by British architect and urban designer Thomas Gordon Cullen, in his seminal work Townscape [iii] (a shorter version of this book was later published as The Concise Townscape). I. Optics -- how we see the environment: I love his description of serial vision -- how the town reveals itself in 'a series of jerks or revelations', always negotiating the existing view and the emerging view. I love how he cinematically pieces the city together as we move through it, he writes: From the visual standpoint the greatest single loss suffered is neutralization of the floor, the space between buildings, which has changed from a connecting surface to a dividing surface. (128)

Book Review: Concise Townscape by Golden Cullen - RTF

Naturally, a lot of this is a direct response to Le Corbusier , whose work I’m now reading and just became aware of because of how he declared war on all of these concepts. Examine what this means. Our original aim is to manipulate theelements of the town so that an impact on the emotions is achieved.A long straight road has little impact because the initial view is soondigested and becomes monotonous. The human mind reacts to a con­trast, to the difference between things, ann when two pictures (the streetand the courtyard) are in the mind at the same time, a vivid contrast isfelt and the town becomes visible in a deeper sense. It comes alivethrough the drama of juxtaposition. Unless this happens the town willslip past us featureless and inert. Engagement and discovery: Evaluating serial vision encourages the creation of urban spaces that promote a sense of exploration, with new vistas or scenes revealed, keeping the visual journey engaging. In fact there is an art of relationship just as there is an art of archi­tecture. Its purpose is to take all the elements that go to create thev] Stephen Kaplan, Where Cognition and Affect Meet : A Theoretical Analysis of Preference, Cambridge University Press (1988) Although static images depicting sequential views are helpful, it is only with the simulation of movement that we can begin to appreciate the true nature of an urban setting – witnessing the evolving perspectives and changing lighting conditions in a way that closely mirrors reality. environment: buildings, trees, nature, water, traffic, advertisements andso on, and to weave them together in such a way that drama is released.For a city is a dramatic event in the environment. Look at the researchthat is put into making a city work: demographers, sociologists, engineers,traffic experts; all co-operating to torm the myriad factors into a work­able, viable and healthy organization. It is a tremendous human under­taking. The townscape movement emerged after the Second World War as a way of looking at how towns grew organically and how planners should respect the visual richness produced by this organic growth. Although primarily a British movement, it had a wide influence as an alternative to the modernist attitude to looking at towns and redeveloping them. Now turn to the visual impact which a city has on those who live init or visit it. I wish to show that an argument parallel to the one putforward above holds good for buildings: bring people together and theycreate a collective surplus of enjoyment; bring buildings together andcollectively they can give visual pleasure which none can give separately.