Book description
This book pioneered the concept of townscape. 'Townscape' is the art of giving visual coherence and organization to the jumble of buildings, streets and space that make up the urban environment. It has been a major influence on architects, planners and others concerned with what cities should look like.
Why read it?
2 authors picked The Concise Townscape as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Townscape is more than a book on how good cities are shaped. It is a book that describes generic qualities of space.
Cullens's way of understanding and analyzing urban structures with pen and paper has much to tell future architects. That the book has been around for more than sixty years is a compelling evidence of its outstanding capacity to educate generation after generation on how to create richness and avoid chaos.
Urban planners of today have much to learn from Cullen’s simple, but efficient, drawings and captions.
From Rasmus' list on what architecture is about.
I love dipping into this book. I first fell in love with it when studying for my postgraduate architecture degree when its images and poetic language captured my attention and I decided, as a result, to do a dissertation on the townscape of Nottingham (where I was studying). The book reminds me that the way places are shaped helps to inspire emotions in us, and if we shape them positively then those emotions will be positive, reinforcing our sense of well-being and helping us to love the places that we live. This book taught me how to look at cities,…
From Matthew's list on urban design books that inspired me.
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