Book Review: The Concise Townscape by Gordon Cullen PDF

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Book Review: The Concise Townscape 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. First ed...

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Book Review: The Concise Townscape 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. First edition of book was first published in 1961 by The Architectural Press and its copyright with Elsevier Ltd. 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 influenced and determined by the shape and mass of the building. The linkage is perceived psychologically and physically by the observer as well as the physical form of urban space and the shape of the building mass. In addition, the relationship can also be seen visually on the quality of a city is determined by the shape and size of the shape and arrangement of urban space. 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. According to author serial vision can be explain as the visual images captured by an observer who happens when walking from one place to another in a region. Recording by observers view the image into pieces which gradually and forms an integral image recording area for observers. Typically, there will be similarities or a marker of the pieces of the view that gives certainty to the observer that he was still in the same region. According to author Place are owned observers feeling emotionally 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 where as a man at the end of deep cave will react to the fact of enclosure. Place influenced by the boundaries that exist in such a place. According to author content is the 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. According to author functional tradition is quality in the elements that make up the urban environment. At the end of the book The Concise Townscape author concludes three things : An urban environment is composed by two ways. The first, the city as an object composed of outside planners as subjects. Secondly the city that are constructed and then filled up by activities. Both are a

complementary continuity. Townscape role here is as a city forming the structure and support the human activity. Urban arrangement should be able to provide comfort to the people who occupy it. Urban environment influenced the development of society psychologically and physically. Therefore the art of the environment needs to be emphasized in urban design. In the arrangement of an urban environment should consider the logic of Atlas. It relates to the physical dimensions of the geometry, dimensions of time and the dimensions of ambience. In essence the urban townscape into a series of elements those are important in the urban design. With the townscape, people can recognize an area both physically and emotionally. Townscape should be arranged as its effects are quite an impact on the development of a community that occupy the region. In addition the townscape the art of creating the environment that is important to a city. At last this book has pioneered the concept of townscape and has a major influence on architects, planners and others concerned with what cities should look like. Key words: Townscape, urban, environment, physical, enclosure, community, development, planners, architects, colour, fabric, city, linkage, vision, place, content, functional tradition....