OK, Gordon Cullen was born 1914, and he died in 1994… which means basically that he was… operational, mature, around the 1940s perhaps. He studied at the Royal Polytechnic Institution, more specifically in the School of Architecture and the Built Environment. He never reached the actual status of architect, he was simply a draughtsman, a draughtsman is the person who draws plans, and maps and things. And he worked for various architectural firms. In 1946 he joined the Architectural Review and he was a journalist, who specialized in architecture obviously; he wrote specifically about planning, about urban planning and about rural planning.

In 1961, apparently he was mature enough to write a book that was entitled Townscape, which is about the art of relationship between the components, the various components of the urban landscape.  For him, the built environment is composed, obviously of buildings, but also trees, nature, water, traffic, and advertisements. And the idea is that the town planner should weave them together to make a beautiful environment, something that is pleasant, not only to see, but also to live in. And for him, the idea is to create drama, like a theater, like a show, it's like a performance, a spectacular performance. That is, a good performance is something… when you experience surprises.

For him, the scenery, that is, what you see, is a series of jerks, that is, shocks, surprises, and revelations. And you see two aspects of that, to the left you have this man who is absolutely enclosed in a very narrow alley, lots of constraints, pressures, feeling like he is enclosed, like he is a prisoner, and all of a sudden, boom, finds himself, or herself, in a large space, like a big square, with a sense, phew, of relief, with a sense of freedom, at last, like he can breathe at last, and, also, perhaps negatively, a sense of exposure, a sense of vulnerability, a sense that he, or she, perhaps, is in danger. So for Cullen, a good town is a good show, a good succession of these various elements of enclosures and exposures, of feeling constrained and feeling very free.

And I felt that when I was, er,… I was lucky enough to go to Naples and I stayed there for a while, it's exactly that, I mean, in Naples, alleys, streets are very very narrow and very crowded, lots of people, and you feel  you're a prisoner, you want to breathe, and all of a sudden, boom, you found (sic)* yourself in a very large space, big big square with people as well, because they  are (sic)**pleasant to walk around and to sit around, and at the same time you have a large sense of breathing, and I'm told that this is particularly true of the large Renaissance cities.