08-22-2014, 10:52 AM
One building standing alone in the countryside is experienced as a work of
architecture, but bring half a dozen buildings together and an art other than architecture is made possible. Several things begin to happen in the group which would be impossible for the isolated building.
We may walk through and past the buildings, and as a corner is turned an unsuspected building is suddenly revealed. We may be surprised, even astonished (a reaction generated by the composition of the group and not by the individual building).
Again, suppose that the buildings have been put together in a group so that one can get inside the group, then the space created between the buildings is seen to have a life of its own over and above lhe buildings which create it and one's reaction is to say' I am inside IT' or 'I am entering IT'.
Gordon Cullen
Townscape
'
architecture, but bring half a dozen buildings together and an art other than architecture is made possible. Several things begin to happen in the group which would be impossible for the isolated building.
We may walk through and past the buildings, and as a corner is turned an unsuspected building is suddenly revealed. We may be surprised, even astonished (a reaction generated by the composition of the group and not by the individual building).
Again, suppose that the buildings have been put together in a group so that one can get inside the group, then the space created between the buildings is seen to have a life of its own over and above lhe buildings which create it and one's reaction is to say' I am inside IT' or 'I am entering IT'.
Gordon Cullen
Townscape
'