Representing Pasts – Visioning Futures

Abstract

Over the past few years, the economic crisis, the political unrest, and the environmental issues suggest the necessity to reconsider how we design and represent our built environment. The inequality, gentrification, and loss of belonging in our modern world, demand new perspectives in the urban theory panorama that can move the focus from cities to towns, expand the relationship between urban and rural settings, and address the fragmentation of urban fabrics. This research focuses on the work of the urban theorist, illustrator, and designer Gordon Cullen. It investigates in particular his drawings, photos, and notes about his never-published project Small Places and uses Northampton as a case study. The final outcome will be a short film on Northampton, using Cullen’s original material realised for this town, together with footage of today situation. The film is developed as a critical and operational tool to further investigates Cullen’s cinematic methods to visually engage the urban environment. Re-evaluating the human viewpoint and re-establishing the epistemological role of images in defining urban spaces, the research explores the potentialities of Cullen’s ideas in relation to contemporary practice. The main ambition is to investigate alternative methods to represent and reimagine our built environment and highlight the values of marginal and subjective experiences in reshaping our spatial and social boundaries, finally supporting communities in claiming their identity and belonging.