A city which conforms to the popular misconception of modern town planning, that is; symmetry, balance and order of structure has the tendency to be monotonous, utilitarian and unfulfilling. As a journey is commenced by an individual or group through a city’s urban fabric; physical transitions, spatial significance, relationships and material manipulations translate into a dynamic grammar which either hinders or excites the inherited human response which is perceived by those undertaking the journey. At this level of consciousness we are dealing with a series of intuitive experiences and subconscious emotive responses stemming from sequential and sudden revelations which are imposed on the traveller by the city’s physical attributes; often …show more content…
resulting in an experience which is rich, didactic and exciting, transforming the seemingly inert city into a lively entity. Thomas Gordon Cullen was an influential English architect and urban designer who was a vital instigator in the Townscape movement which is now an essential factor of the urban design vocabulary and it is to Cullen’s drawings that this is mostly credited. The word townscape, that had grew out of the 18th century ‘picturesque’ had become associated with a range of concerns in environmental design varying from the development of design guides for residential areas to the conservation of pre-industrial towns which has been praised as the restoration for the urban environment as only being concerned with the superficial visual aspects. This research paper will cautiously dissect and discuss the theory of townscape on a particular route in Central Brisbane City through the perspective of a tourist over a series of field studies assessing the environmental collective surplus of spaces that give visual pleasure which none can give independently. Gordon Cullen’s book ‘Townscape’ was first published in 1961 and came out of the gathering of articles that he prepared in association with Hubert Hastings and Nicholas Pevsner for the Architectural Review. They announced in the second half of 1947, a campaign of ‘visual re-education’ that was to then later to become the urban system of landscape. The practise of Townscape arose from the ‘picturesque’ (looking at the world as if it were a picture) which adopted the aesthetic ideals of the ‘beautiful’ (arouses the emotions of pleasure or delight) and the ‘sublime’ (refers to greatness with which nothing can compare) . Through buildings, landscape, nature and urban form, the rationalistic philosophies of the modernistic urban fabric were opposed by perceiving the beauty and sublime as being non-rational, which was seen as intuitive or an instinct that came naturally. Contrary to modernist planning; which hinges onto the order, structure and the destruction of historic buildings amongst the urban form, the Townscape approach was in liberal terms of urban planning by encouraging pluralism, which resulted in informal, irregular and asymmetrical design resolutions in urban planning and architecture. The modern theory of continuous straight roads, constant landscapes and monotone building structures are severely flawed as the human connections with the urban fabric are monotonous and requires complex diversity amongst the environment to trigger emotional responses. Fundamentally, Townscape accepted historical structures for their historical value and intended to show that modern architecture could cunningly accommodate the manifestation of old buildings. Cullen clarifies this common misconception of urbanisation as he explains that, a city is more than the sum of its inhabitants; similar to the social, cultural and economic benefits that are gained when people gather together in towns where they create a collective surplus of enjoyment, buildings bring together an aesthetical visual pleasure which none of them can give separately . Numerous responses by the individual begin to unveil in the group which would be impossible for the isolated structure. Firstly, suppose the buildings have been designed so that one can enter the group, then the space formed amongst the buildings is perceived to have a life of its own and above the buildings which create it, one response is ‘I am inside IT’ or ‘I am entering IT’ . The motives of function between adjacent buildings appose another visual response by the occupants for instance if a temple or church, it’s qualities of size, colour and complexity would appeal to be evident however amongst the small houses and instantaneously its size is made more surreal and distinguishable by the contrast of the two scales . This is called an art of relationship. Its objective is to take all the components that go into forming the environment such as exposed spaces, nature, buildings, water, trees and so on, entwine together in a way that drama is released. It is these subconscious surplus that are dealt within Townscape, and if the environment is going to yield an emotional response, there are three ways in which they are interpreted and understood. The first fragment of framework within Townscape concerns optics. The significance of this aspect is that when an individual or group are walking through a town at universal speed, the scenery of the environment is often exposed in a series of ‘jerks’ or revelations of change. This is called serial vision. The intention of this is to manipulate the elements of the town so that an impact on the emotions and sensations of the subject is accomplished. The human mind reacts to sudden contrast and alterations, hence a long straight road or a monotone landscape has miniscule impact on the perceptual reaction of the mind because the preliminary view is rapidly digested and the mind is unfulfilled. Furthermore when two pictures; a bending street (existing view) and a monument or courtyard (emerging view) is suddenly unveiled, a vivid juxtaposition comes alive through dramatization and the town becomes visible in a deeper sense . Concerning place is the second characteristic of Townscape that apprehends the reaction to the position or sense of place that of the individual or group. Cullen defines this as “when you go into a room you utter to yourself the unspoken words ‘I am outside of IT’, I am entering IT, I am in the middle of IT’ and at this level of consciousness we are dealing with a range of experiences stemming from the major impacts of exposure and enclosure” . It is an instinctive habit of the body to have a sense of place within the environment so when a subject is passing through a narrow alleyway to the sudden revelation to the wideness of a park, the symptom of agoraphobia and claustrophobia are evoked. As a result the manipulation of the urban fabric should conform from the point of view of the moving target provoking the exposures and enclosures evoking constant constraint and relief giving the impression of ‘here’ and consequently creating a ‘there’. One cannot exist without the other . In this last category concerning content, the analysis of the fabric of towns is thoroughly dissected through the physiognomies of texture, colour, style, scale, character, personality and uniqueness.
This examination accepts the fact that the majority of towns are from old foundation, their fabric will express indications of sequential periods in its architectural styles and also in the several accidents of layout . The misconception of conformity that is to create an orderly scene with straight roads, buildings that conform to height; allow the urban scene to become symmetrical, balanced and ordered by structures which is after all, the popular conventional purpose of town of planning. However, what is conformity? As Cullen suggest, “There is too much insensitivity in the building of towns, too much reliance on the tank and the armoured car where the telescopic rifle is wanted” . This proposes that when the collective statistics of town planning strategies that conform to the idealistic commonly accepted framework are converted straight into plans, and the plans into buildings; they will be lifeless and tedious. However if the urban fabric of texture and colour, scale and style and of character and individuality are manipulated, juxtaposing them in order to experience harmony and avoiding the result of a three-dimensional diagram in which humans are asked to live . The environment in fact resolves itself to not conform, but the chemistry of ‘this’ and
‘that’. Brisbane city as a whole has a dense population and along with the predisposition to attract countless tourist since it has conformed to the theory of Townscape due to the use of Cullen’s analysis of optics, place and content. Tourists rather than residents experiences these jerks of revelations far more than those who visualise their city every day; it is for this reason that the case study was formed in the perspective of a tourist. The field study expanded over two days throughout January 2016 and the first step of the report was to establish the boundary conditions and route path of the expedition. These accumulated through the aspects of Brisbane that mostly triggered the juxtaposition of dramatic reactions of the individuals of groups. These components encompassed the main use of Townscape in the midst of Brisbane that evoke the emotions of individuals and groups as they travel through the urban fabric at universal speed. For instance the consumption of irregular landscapes, parks and roads, constant constraint and relief of exposures and enclosures of alley’s and open spaces and the grouping of historical and modern building structures that make up the urban infrastructure.
The movie, Cool Hand Luke, tells a story of a man named, Lucas Jackson, who is confronted with the challenges of authority after being wrongfully convicted of crime too petty and insignificant to equate to the large sentence he had received. Throughout the entire length of the film, Lucas is faced with tremendous physical and emotional torture in numerous and inhuman ways. Despite the astounding punishments Luke is able to endure throughout the film, he manages to gain the respect of the prisoners and guards’, as well as utilizing his tenacity, charisma, and wits to not only influence the prison chain-gang, but to gain the power in order to unmask and expose the authority around them. In the following essay, I will analyze and describe how
The 1950’s have received a reputation as an age of political, social and cultural conformity. This reputation is rightfully given, as with almost every aspect of life people were encouraged to conform to society. Conforming is not necessarily a negative thing for society, and the aspects of which people were encouraged to conform in the 1950’s have both negative and positive connotations.
The novel, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley first published in 1932, presents a very bleak out look of what future society will be like. The novel presents a future of where almost total conformity is a carefully guarded aspect of society. Even before one is "decanted" they are conditioned to fill a specific roll and to act a certain way.
In society, it's difficult to go against the norm. Individuals are compelled to act a specific way, or look a specific way in order to be accepted. For instance, teenagers may encounter pressure from their peers to partake in specific exercises that may not be moral, since they feel the need to fit in. This weight of conformity isn't just present in reality; it can be found in literature as well. The story "St. Lucy’s Home For Girls Raised by Wolves" by Karen Russell depicts that in order to conform to society, individuals abandon their selflessness and compassion and become selfish and apathetic.
Pursuing a personal desire and choosing to conform to societal expectations is a challenging decision to make. A person must decide if their personal desire is worth risking the shame and judgment of others or is conforming the route to take because it is easier. When pursuing a personal desire one must ask itself if it is worth the hardship to accomplish one's desire or if it is best left alone and repressed, in hopes of finding comfort in conformity. John Laroche from The Orchid Thief expresses his personal desire without a care for conformity or societal expectations. Nevertheless, Laroche never stopped being strange as he grew up with fascinations of many objects such as orchids, turtles, old mirrors and fish tanks.
The definition of conformity is the compliance with social standards and laws in a particular culture, environment, society and time. If this occurs the individual changes their attitudes, beliefs or actions to align more holistically with those in the surrounding groups and environment, as a result of real or perceived group pressure. This is ultimately a direct result of the power which a group has over the individual. There are two types of conformity, normative conformity, and informational conformity. The motivation behind normative conformity is the desire to be liked and accepted in society. This is most widely known as peer pressure. For example, a student begins smoking because their peers
If Only related to Identity, Conformity, and Society by showing the way things are by perspective on individuals in a society. The book starts off with Eric, a fourteen year old boy, who has recently made a big move from California to Utah with his parents and younger brother Joel, who is ten. The book starts in October of 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Eric struggles trying to figure out who he is but also has to figure out what is the right thing to do when it comes to protecting someone he loves. Eric still being fairly young has been forced to find himself while hiding Grace, a runaway girl who he just happened to find one night, while at work.
John Updike was born in Shillington, Pennsylvania on March 18, 1932. His father was a high school math teacher who supported the entire family, including his grandparents on his mothers side. As a child, Updike wanted to become a cartoonist because of The New Yorker magazine. He wrote articles and poems and kept a journal. John was an exceptional student and received a full scholarship to Harvard University. At Harvard he majored in English and became the editor of the Harvard newspaper. Upon graduation in 1954, he wrote his first story, Friends from Philadelphia, and sent it to The New Yorker. This started his career and he became one of the great award winning authors of our time.
In every society, there is conformity and nonconformity, although we may not notice it. Conformity is when someone is doing the same thing as others because they do not want to be the only one doing differently. Example, if there was a whole class raising their hands would you want to be the only one with your hand down, no so you would raise it with the rest of the class to not look like you don't know anything. This is called social pressures it when a large group is doing something and you're the only one not then you want to be doing whatever that large group is doing.
Again, this section will give a working definition of the “urban question’. To fully compare the political economy and ecological perspectives a description of the “urban question” allows the reader to better understand the divergent schools of thought. For Social Science scholars, from a variety of disciplines, the “urban question” asks how space and the urban or city are related (The City Reader, 2009). The perspective that guides the ecological and the social spatial-dialect schools of thought asks the “urban question” in separate distinct terminology. Respected scholars from the ecological mode of thinking, like Burgess, Wirth and others view society and space from the rationale that geographical scope determines society (The City Reader, 2009). The “urban question” that results from the ecological paradigm sees the relationship between the city (space) as influencing the behaviors of individuals or society in the city. On the other hand...
Conformity is the process of understanding to majority influence and is defined by David Myers (1991) as a change in behavior or belief a result of real or imagined group pressure
In the “Metropolis and the Mental Life”, Georg Simmel aims to explicate the confines and conventions of modern life. Simmel accomplishes this as he compares modern life in a metropolis with that of the countryside, noting the behaviours and characteristics of people in response to external factors. Simmel explains this by explicitly detailing how social structures affect certain personal connections. Several prominent themes of urban living are investigated and considered by Simmel in his article, the main points, harshness of the metropolis, modernity and subjective and objective cultures, are discussed in this essay.
The book as a description of modern architecture, its styles and influence succeeds but falls short as a prescriptive methodology. His work is still recalled for the need by modernists to categorize everything into neat little boxes, not necessarily for the sake of uniformity, but for sake of some ambiguity. The ambiguity may be the triumph of this book as post modern architecture era is supposed to create more questions than the answers.
The images such as “roboted roads”, “thick iron breath” and “neon flowers” (Serote, W. 2002: 20-25) describe various aspects of the city. These examples reveal the controlling effects of industry in the city and also the artificial beauty of the city in the dark. ...
Colin Wilson once said, "The Average man is a conformist, accepting miseries and disasters with the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain." A conformist is a person who conforms to accepted behavior or established practices. That means someone who follows others, whether it is about decision making or their attitude. In today 's society I would say that most of the people are conformist, this includes both teenagers and adults. Being a conformist in my opinion can be bad and good for various reasons. If the attitude of the specific person has changed for the better, such as a snobby boy/girl becoming more respectful, that it definitely a positive change. Other people can change their attitude for