“Introduction to The Concise Townscape”

Like Kevin Lynch (p. 125), Gordon Cullen (1914–1994) was interested in how people perceive urban environments through their sense of sight, but his emphasis was on emotional impacts rather than legibility. In his seminal book Townscape, later republished as The Concise Townscape, he defined urban design as The Art of Relationship. The goal was to manipulate groups of buildings and physical town elements so as to achieve visual impact and drama.