In writing an introduction to this edition of Townscape I findlittle to alter in the attitude expressed in the originalintroduction written ten years ago. It has been said that a newedition of Townscape should rely on modern work for its examplesinstead of these being culled from the past. This has not been donefor two reasons. Firstly the task of finding the sharp littleneedles in the vast haystack of post-war building would be quiteuneconomical. This leads to the second point, why should it be sodifficult? Because, in my view, the original message of Townscapehas not been delivered effectively. We have witnessed a superficialcivic style of decoration using bollards and cobbles, we have seentraffic-free pedestrian precincts and we have noted the rise ofconservation. But none of these is germane to townscape. Thesadness of the situation is that the superficials have become thecurrency but the spirit, the Environment Game itself, is stilllocked away in its little red and gilt box. The position may indeedhave deteriorated over the last ten years for reasons which are setout below. Man meets environment: unfamiliarity, shock, uglinessand boredom according to what kind of man you are. The problem isnot new but is this generation getting more than its fair share?Yes. Reason? The reason i.nmy view is the speed of change which hasdisrupted the normal communication between planner and planee. Thelist is familiar enough: more people, more houses, more amenities,faster communications and unfamiliar building methods. The speed ofchange prevents the environment organisers from settling down andlearning by experience how to humanise the raw material thrown atthem. In consequence the environment is ill-digested. London issuffering from indigestion. The gastric juices, as represented byplanners, have not been able to break down all the vast chunks ofhastily swallowed stodge into emotional nutriment. We may be ableto do many things our grandparents could not do but we cannotdigest any faster. The process, be it in stomach or brain, is partof our human bondage. And so we have to make organisational changesin order that human scale can be brought into effective contactwith the forces of development.13
Gordon Cullen The Concise Townscape Pdf Free
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