the gateways, arcades and public buildings.
Since the Bastide towns have characteristic layouts,
picture postcards often show them from the air. These
views can be adapted by the artist to show the structure
of each particular town, thereby supplementing the street
sketches with more analytical drawings. Detailed maps
also show the town layout and these allow the geometry
of street blocks, and the position of arcades and market
halls, to be plotted. Combining sketches, axonometric
views and figure-ground plans can result in an informed
exploration of the subject.
Having studied the urban structure of the Bastide
towns, the next step is to record the design of specific
buildings. You might choose to focus on market halls, for
example, where expressive carpentry could be the
attraction; or upon private houses, which vary from
modest structures to those with sculpted doorways,
ornate window surrounds and splendid street-fronting
courtyards. Hence in a few days the character of the
Bastide towns can be studied and sketched, from the
whole town to the details of individual buildings.
Rather than drawing subjects at random, the selection
of particular themes gives a sense of purpose to the task
of sketching that is both enjoyable and educational for the
artist. In addition, the advantage of sketching small towns
is their relative simplicity of design and lack of bustle. The
modest Bastide towns demonstrate the advantages of a
predetermined town plan which contains well-defined
edges and has a clear civic focus in the centre. The layout
of such towns offers lessons, perhaps, for our age with
its ribbon development, poorly maintained central areas
and lack of skyline definition. Like nearly all plantation
towns, the new settlements of the Bastides brought with
them a sense of geometric unity. It is this spatial and civic
order that the sketchbook can record, and that is sadly
lacking from the current proposals for urban villages.
CASE STUDY 3
JAPANESE URBANISM
Japanese cities are quite different in character and
organisation to those in the West. The juxtaposition of
urban elements, both commercial and industrial, and the
presence of natural features leads to distinctive city
forms. This is evident particularly in the skylines of the
major cities, from Tokyo to Hiroshima. This case study
uses freehand drawing to document the urban
phenomena in order to better understand the forces at
work.
There are perhaps four lessons to be gained from an
analysis of the Japanese city. The first concerns the
effects of deregulation, particularly of the impact of
commercial pressures on the skyline of the major cities.
High buildings are in a state of competition for the
attention they can attract through architectural design.
This is expressed particularly in the profiling of
skyscrapers at their very top. Although high buildings are
often distinguished by elaborate shaping from base to
top, it is the upper storeys that are most celebrated. Here
penthouse apartments for company executives, or
conference suites, provide an excuse to depart from the
standardised accommodation below. In the process there
is competition for urban prominence that mirrors the
commercial ethos present in many Japanese companies.
The second observation concerns the nature of the
spaces between the skyscrapers. The urban landscape is
squeezed by the architecture of the high-rise buildings
with advertising signs, elaborate wire-scapes and
glittering shop fronts providing the street experience at
ground level. As a result, two conditions apply – that of
the top of the skyscrapers and that of the bottom. At
street level one is rarely aware of the rarefied world of the
penthouses that exist sometimes forty storeys above.
Since the buildings are so high and densely developed,
only a limited amount of light reaches pavement level.192 Understanding architecture through drawing