The Concise Townscape

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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. precinctsLeft, in this significant picture, canbe seen the whole urban pattern as itwas and to some extent still is. Insideis the tightly built-up pedestrian townwith its enclosures and no doubt areasof viscosity, its focal points and en­claves. Outside are the expresswaysfor car and lorry, train and shipwhich exist to serve and vitalize theprecincts. This is the traditionalp~ttern at its clearest. The smallphotograph below shows some ofthese elements at their most dis­organized, the chaotic mixture ofhouses and traffic in which bothpedestrians and traffic suffer a dimi­nution of their proper character. 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 the

Cullen was born in Calverley, Pudsey, near Leeds, Yorkshire, England. He studied architecture at the Royal Polytechnic Institution, the present day University of Westminster, and subsequently worked as a draughtsman in various architects' offices including that of Berthold Lubetkin and Tecton, but he never qualified or practised as an architect. The enclave or interior open to theexterior and having free and directaccess from one to the other is seen 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 A variation on the private enclosed square is theprivate open square, which is guarded only byhazards such as those of judicious planting andchanges of level. In quiet neighbourhoods suchsquares do not need further protection, and thisimmunity encourages a freer excursion into urbanlandscaping in the technical meaning of informalnon-academic layout.

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odd reason fails to fall into perspec­tive. The laws of perspective may beimmutable and it may be that thefurther away an object is the furtheraway it seems to be. And yet unlesswe understand the art of recession itwould not be wise to take this for

In Bath within the framework ofthe enclosure Victorian, Classical andGothic buildings are grouped to­gether and produce a scene as naturaland comfortable as a clubroom.Below in Oxford the monumentalClarendon building shares the streetwith purely modest domestic build­ings. We are perhaps too well usedto this kind of effect in England butif you cover first one half of thescene with your hand and then theother half, something of the surpriseof the situation will emerge. enclosureEnclosure sums up the polarity oflegs and wheels. It is the basic unitof the precinctual pattern; outside,the noise and speed of impersonalcommunication which comes and goesbut is not of any place. Inside, thequietness and human scale of thesquare, quad or courtyard. This isthe end product of traffic, this is theplace to which traffic brings you.Without enclosure traffic becomesnonsense. The crowding together of buildingsforms a pressure, an unavoidablenearness of detail, which is in directcontrast to the wide piazza, square orpromenade, and by the use of suchnarrows it is possible to maintainenclosure without forbidding thepassage of vehicles and pedestrians.In this way the articulation of thecity into clear and well-defined partsis made more possible. In its ownright narrowness has a definite effecton the pedestrian, inducing a senseof unaccustomed constriction andpressure. Cullen lived in the small village of Wraysbury (Berkshire) from 1958 until his death, aged 80, on 11 August 1994, following a serious stroke. After his passing, David Gosling and Norman Foster collected various examples of his work and put them together in the book "Visions of Urban Design".the outdoor room and enclosureIn this section of the casebook weare concerned with the person's senseof position, his unspoken reaction tothe environment which might beexpressed as 'I am in IT or above ITor below IT, I am outside IT, I amenclosed or I am exposed'. These Anything that may be occupied eitherby oneself or by one's imagination,which here lifts us into a carved stoneaedicule (in Valencia), becomes tothat extent of interest a warmcolour in the greys "f the inhospitable.Porticos, balconies and terraces havethis ability to communicate. Theydraw us outwards. 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.

The position may indeed have deteriorated over the last ten years forreasons which are set out below. 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.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 the The once essential distinction between town and country has long since collapsed into an endless stream of images that not only mediates our perception but materially transforms the environment into a virtually continuous system that admits no distinctions or limits. Gordon Cullen played an essential role in this reconfiguration of our postmodern worldspace by developing a graphic vocabulary elements of which are now so ubiquitous as to go unnoticed in our saturated visual field. Engler’s important study reveals that by redrawing the obvious, the author of Townscape had an impact far greater than the limits of any town or country. is going to produce an emotional reaction, with or without our volition, itis up to us to try to understand the three ways in which this happens. well remain a private or communal garden, enclosedand screened from passers-by by the usual railings. A view of Leicester Square in the eighte