Theories works of Gordon Cullen

• Gordon Cullen (1914-1994) was an English architect and

urban designer who carried on the of the Townscape
movement theme.
• Later on he wrote and published the “Townscape” book in
1961.
• He was a key motivator and activist in the development of
British theories of urban design in the post-war period.
• After his death, David Gosling & Norman Foster collected
various examples of his work and put them together in the
book ‘Visions of Urban Design’.
• The book, one of Gordon Cullen’s masterpiece, illustrated
with over 300 works selected from the drawings Gordon
Cullen made during his lifetime, this anthology documents
his influential career as an Urban Theorist, artist and
illustrator from 1930 to 1990.
• The majority of his drawings have never been published
before except in professional reports, and this book
contains numerous drawings executed for the pleasure of
observation as well as the product of his many
consultancies.
CONCERNING OPTICS
Serial Vision is to walk from one end of the plan to another, at a uniform pace, will provide a sequence of
revelations.
Existing view and the emerging view is the visualization and design which keeps the viewer occupied with a
sense of awe and surprise upon traversing through a path.
Focal Point is the idea of the town as a place of assembly, of social interaction, of meeting, etc.
CONCERNING PLACE
Closure may be differentiated from Enclosure, by contrasting ‘travel’ with ‘arrival’. Closure is the cutting up of
the linear town system (streets, passages, etc.) into visually digestible and coherent amounts whilst retaining
the sense of progression. Enclosure on the other hand provides a complete private world which is inward
looking, static and self-sufficient.
Here and there the feeling or the sense of realizing that the point of station is a HERE and the realization that a
THERE exists on further progression. The practical result of so articulating the town into identifiable parts is
that no sooner do we create a HERE than we have to admit a THERE, and it is precisely in the manipulation of
these two spatial concepts that a large part of urban drama arises.
CONCERNING CONTENT
Existing fabric the images of vivid contrast that the mind perceives, the sense of space created with juxtaposition.
Space and infinity the infiniteness that one experiences while walking, looking at the sky, in the backdrop of a
building or in it.
Content concerned with the intrinsic quality of the various subdivisions of the environment, and start with the
great landscape categories of metropolis, town, arcadia, park, industrial, arable and wild nature.
Reference :
Image of the city by Kevin Lynch
D. K. "Frank" Ching “Form space & Order”.
https://www.behance.net/gallery/4980011/Dublin-Urban-Design-Case-Study