Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
24
Townscape conservation
Peter Larkham
A historic city is essentially a product of the time
and place of those who shape it and it is also a
link between the past, the present and the future.
(Ashworth andTunbridge 1990: p. 28)
For there is also a widespread agreement that
settlements must change, or they will stagnate.
Adaptation of the townscape is necessary, but this is
hard to achieve without some wastage of the
investment of previous societies.
Urban geographers, in particular, have long
investigated these phenomena. Townscape
conservation is a rich area of study in applied
geography ( cf . Conzen 1975). This has led
geographers to explore related fields of
architectural and urban design; environmental
perception and linkages between environment and
behaviour; town planning, and in particular the
development of related law, guidance and practice;
development economics; and social and cultural
relations. This is a complex field, defying attempts
to simplify theory or practice.
Townscapes can be understood, using the
approach of urban morphology, as complexes of
street patterns, which are extremely conservative,
changing very infrequently; plot patterns, rather
more subject to change; and building structures,
changing yet more frequently. Changes should be
understood through identifying and examining the
actors (individuals, institutions, corporate bodies,
etc.) and processes (particularly planning and legal
systems) involved. Together, these 'people and
processes' represent a microcosm of the society and
culture shaping a settlement at any one point.
INTRODUCTION
The urban landscape, or 'townscape', in the sense
of the cumulative layering in the majority of
settlement locations of elements belonging to
different historical and cultural periods, is one of
the most common human experiences. It is
difficult not to perceive, to interpret and to use
this richness as important everyday occurrences,
whether at the macro-scale of ready visual
evidence, or in response to more subtle cues. These
are familiar experiences of the majority of the
population, certainly of Westernised industrialised
countries, and for the occupants of the world's
fastest-growing cities, in the developing world.
The production and maintenance of this
physical fabric of settlements absorb a large amount
of the wealth of the Western world in particular,
and have done so for centuries, giving rise to the
historic compositeness of the townscape. The
landscape of historical settlements—most
particularly urban ones, but the same is often true
of smaller places, even rural villages—has rightly
been described as a palimpsest. Strong cases have
been made for the social, cultural and psychological
significance of the townscape. Many studies have
shown the need, in these terms, for the preservation
of historical townscapes—at least in outward
appearance. Yet this leads to tension and conflict.
ISSUES IN APPLIED GEOGRAPHY
This perspective can be applied to townscape
conservation in a number of ways but has been
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