BRAZIL URBAN DESIGN

The city is a diverse place, a melting pot different people, cultures and activites. As a result so is the urban environment, and the various elements that compose it - buildings, town squares, trees, nature, water, traffic - the list is endless. In his seminal text, Townscape (1961), Gordon Cullen observed the relationship between these urban elements and their collective ability to define the visual experience of the city. A collection of elements, such as buildings are able to create a space people may enter, and the city is merely a series of different spaces that people can subsquently move through. Each of these urban spaces are seen to be distinct from the last, and this is attributed to the varying combination of the different urban elements that compose them. 

 

To aid analysis of the urban environment, Cullen introduced the notion of 'serial vision' - the idea that cities are experienced as a series of sequential images along a defined path, by 'the observer', the individual moving through these spaces. In addition, Cullen devised a series of terms to help identify the relationship created by different elements, highlighted in the wordcloud (left). 

 

While monotonous design and repetitive street layouts can lead to a 'blandscape' - places that lack any unique identity - it has been established that a varied townscape can positively contribute towards urban well-being and improve the social relationships of urban inhabitants. It is therefore important to understand  townscape to ensure good design for future places.