THE SPACE SHAPERS

Cristina Amico – Design Theory – Gordon Cullen

From “Concise Townscape”

Cullen talks about the VISUAL IMPACT which a city has on those who live in it or visit it.

There is an ART OF RELATIONSHIP ( just as there is an art of architecture): to take all the elements that go to create the environment and to weave them together in such a way that drama is released.

PLIABILITY is the scientific solution, and precisely in the MANIPULATION OF THIS PLIABILITY that the Art of Relationship is made possible.

The aim is NOT TO dictate the shape of the town or environment, but simply MANIPULATE within the tolerances. This is possible by turning to the FACULTY OF SIGHT. Vision evokes our memories and experiences, those responsive emotions inside us which have the power to disturb the mind when aroused. So, if the environment is going to produce an emotional reaction, it is up to us to try to understand the 3 WAYS in which this happens:

1) Concerning OPTICS: The human minds reacts to a contrast, to a difference between things. This is the DRAMA OF JUXTAPOSITION. CREATING SERIAL VISION: Series of jerks or revelations. From our optical point of view we define two elements: existing view and emerging view. To walk from one end of the plan to another, at a uniform pace, will provide a sequence of revelations. The even progress of travel is illuminated by a series of sudden contrasts and so an impact is made on the eye, bringing the plan to life.

In a chain of events, the significance which may arise is fortuitous, but if we MANIPULATE THE LINKING OF VIEWS we find a tool with which human imagination can begin to mould the city into a coherent drama.

2) Concerning PLACE: Our reaction to the position of our body in its environment. Human beings feel the need for a sense of place and this sense of identity is coupled with an awareness of elsewhere. A person in street or square that he is in IT or entering IT or leaving IT. He will postulate a HERE no sooner than automatically creating a THERE.

POSSESSION: Out-of-doors is colonized for social and business purposes.

Some forms of possession:

- Occupied territory (shade,shelter, amenity and convenience)

- Advantage : there are line of advantage which can be colonized, the line along the parapet of a bridge which people seem to prefer for the sake of the immediacy of its view, for instance.

- Focal point, coupled with enclosure as an artifact of possession, it is the vertical symbol of congregation

- Indoor landscape: if the outdoors is colonized then the people will attempt to humanize the landscape in just the same way they they do for the interiors. We can therefore call it Outdoor room. Together with enclosure, is the most powerful of all the devices to instil the sense of position, of identity with the surrounding;

- Closure: is the creation of a break in the street which, whilst containing the eye, does not block out the sense of progression beyond;

- Anticipation: HERE is known but the beyond is unknown, is mysterious, or is hidden

- Linking and joining: the floor: as our purpose is to try to bring all parts of the environment together into dramatic relationship so that to form coherent chords and sequences, the floor is the simplest form. Floor must intrigue the eye in the same way buildings do, creating a unity in texture and colour.

- Pedestrian ways: the pedestrian network links town together in a viable pattern: it links place to place by steps, bridge and distinctive floor pattern. Sometime brash and extrovert, it may synchronize with the great traffic routes or with shops and offices, at other times it may be withdrawn and leafy, but it must be a connected whole.

3) Concerning CONTENT: Examine the fabric of the towns: colours, texture, scale, style, character and uniqueness. Avoiding conformity manipulating the nuances, JUXTAPOSING THEM IN ORDER TO CREATE COLLECTIVE BENEFITS.