0% found this document useful (0 votes)
13 views11 pages

Lecture Notes

The document discusses town planning in the 19th century, focusing on social utopias, the transformation of European cities, and the emergence of modern urban design. It highlights various utopian visions, such as those by Robert Owen and Charles Fourier, and the impact of health legislation and urban planning initiatives in cities like Paris and Budapest. Additionally, it examines the Garden City Movement and the birth of modern architecture and town planning in response to the challenges posed by industrialization and urbanization.
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
0% found this document useful (0 votes)
13 views11 pages

Lecture Notes

The document discusses town planning in the 19th century, focusing on social utopias, the transformation of European cities, and the emergence of modern urban design. It highlights various utopian visions, such as those by Robert Owen and Charles Fourier, and the impact of health legislation and urban planning initiatives in cities like Paris and Budapest. Additionally, it examines the Garden City Movement and the birth of modern architecture and town planning in response to the challenges posed by industrialization and urbanization.
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 11

TOWN PLANNING IN THE 19.

CENTURY

A. SOCIAL UTOPIAS

Environmental and social conditions of the liberal period of capitalism in the 1. half of the 19. century
- industrial development, migrations from the countryside to the towns, new industrial cities and
unprecedented urban extensions;
- miserable environmental and social conditions: pollutions from factories, pollution of the
ground, water, air and natural landscape, inadequate sanitation, lack of refuse disposal,
cholera epidemics, exploitation of the workers;
- decline of traditional handicraft for industrial mass production;
- the estrangement of the worker from its work and production;
- disorder and overcrowding,, traffic congestion;
- uncontrolled development of the cities because of the private ownership of land;
- a general impression of a dead end of civilisation ( a similarity to the reports of the Roman
Club in he 1960-s)

Controversial attitudes toward the industrial society:


- the beginning of an radical utopianism (A): no way out of the crisis, we have to build up
human civilisation from the very beginning somewhere out of the industrial society;
preference for a radically new foundation for ideal social and environmental
conditions; modernism;
- a believe in the possible improvement of social and environmental conditions through
legislation and large-scale public works (B): the beginning of an urban tradition
realised int he transformation of existing cities urbanism
- a believe in the continuity of tradition and the predominance of handicrafts and aesthetics (C)
culturalism

A/1. ROBERT OWEN (1771-1858) AND HIS „NEW LANARK”

- an ideal village of about 1200 inhabitants in an unpopulated area restoring manufacturing and
agriculture instead of the cheaper mechanical work;
- we born with a white paper in our brain, that will be covered by the society: that is why
EDUCATION is the most important principle in an ideal community; „Institutions for
the Formation of Character” (1816)
- the square with an open space ( middle class tradition in England!) in the core as a remedy
from the chaos of the industrial society;
- school, library, place for worship, public kitchen etc. in the centre ( neighbourhoods!);
- gardens, buildings for manufacturing outside the village.

A/2. CHARLES FOURIER (1772-1857) AND THE „PHALANSTÈRE”

- the Phalanstère is a well organised mini-society for 1600 inhabitants with an overstress of
ORGANISATION, as the main principle to a harmonious society without rivalry
between classes ( Le Corbusier!);
- detailed planning after the image of a baroque palace (of Louis XIX): in an ideal society
everybody will live in a palace ( social realism, environmental determinism);
- separation of children from parents, socialization of household activities, common room for
the adults ( soviet communes) and the stress of a collective way of life in a
„Gallery” (like the passage in Paris) connecting all the interior levels as a place for
„urbanism” ( environmental determinism);
- differentiation of space according to functional purposes ( a prelude for modern town
planning!).

1
Both utopias are atomistic and mechanistic; the repetition of the ideal city brings about no qualitative
changes; a preference for geometry as representing order; they refuse any solidarity with existing
environmental cultures; the lack of the way to realize the utopia.

A/C. WILLIAM MORRIS AND THE ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT

- the last polyhistor: artist, painter, poet, craftsman, architect and philosopher;
- the ground of the estrangement is the alienation of the worker from the result of his work: the
role of the engines and mass production should play only a subordinated role (to
liberate men from heavy work);
- the ideal city is a product of an ideal society, so it can not be prefigured; the model of an ideal
society roots in the handicraft cultures, closely related to the medieval city and to the
small towns („News from Nowhere”); ( traditionalism and post-modernism!)
- the ethics and aesthetics of handicraft represents the remedy from the misery of the industrial
society and the mass production;
- a preference for organic forms against geometry! organic architecture!
- large parts of London should be given back to agriculture ( Howard, Leon Krier);
- main principle is the continuity of culture and with it A NEW TRADITION!

B. THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE EUROPEAN CITY IN THE 2. HALF OF THE 19.


CENTURY (the „Grand Manner”)

Health legislation and the beginning of planning


- 1834: Poor Law Amendment in England: workhouses and medical care for unemployed;
- 1848: first Public Health Act approved in England: a comprehensive approach;
- Local Boards empowered to deal with sewerage, refuse collection, inspection of slaughter
houses, paving, public gardens etc.;
- full right of ownership seriously curtailed; a need for central control;
- revision of compulsory land acquisition (1842 in England, 1841 in France);
- the work and influence of the work of Baron Haussmann: a technical orientation, but
regulatory plans to control growth.

Historical background
- the suppression of the European civil and national revolutions for the mid century and „The
Holy Alliance”: a compromise between the upcoming bourgeoisie and the feudal
ruling class to avoid demonstrations and protecting public peace;
- the end of absolute liberalism and „laissez faire” in order to control development, as a common
interest;
- the need to make large cities of medieval origin suitable to and to promote the development of
capitalism and of an industrial society;
- the creation of a new model for the city of the time and to demonstrate, that the city is not
condemned to death – as an opposition to the anti-urban ideology of the social utopias;
- the beginnings of an economic, financial and cultural competition between large cities, and the
„Grand manner” as a means for it.

B/1. REBUILDING PARIS


- „the city is like a wild forest; you need to cut trails and clearings to get it to air and to avoid
fire” (a symbolic slogan of the new middle class);
- retaining the most important buildings and monuments, and connecting them with wide and
straight avenues with tree planting ( the urbanization of the baroque garden);
- the political consideration of III. Napoleon to ensure the strategic benefit of military troops in
case of revolution;
- between the avenues only remnants of medieval Paris survive;

2
- the release of the Notre Dame and the problem of authenticity and the problem of the
disappearing of the historical environment;
- land acquisition restricted only to real estates along and bordering the new streets with a
detailed building regulation;
- the use of symmetrical axes as the only means of urban design and a simple way to
representation ( as the absolutistic powers have ever used to do);
- „urbanization begins underneath”: a comprehensive development of water supply and sewage
disposal;
- foundation of large scale public parks.

B/2. BUILDING THE RING OF WIENNA

- the removal of the medieval wall and extensive defence constructions to give place for a new
representative Ring;
- groups of new representative public institutions composed on symmetrical axes right angled to
the Ring;
- the historical inner city remains intangible, and the radial main streets coming from the
outskirts stop at the Ring.

B/3. BARCELONA OF ILDEFONSO CERDA

- the regional setting: a lot of smaller and larger settlements in the agglomeration actually in
close functional interdependence;
- the plan of Ildefonso Cerda: to integrate the whole agglomeration with a consistent grid
system as a capital web with diagonal streets ( American tradition!);
- the grid avoids the medieval city and the existing settlements;
- a rigid block system with 50x50m units cutting the corners off with 45 degrees ( anticipation
of traffic safety of our days!);
- the Ramblas as the most spectacular radial street crossing the medieval city along a natural
drainage that was banked up; the special composition for the cross section and for the
infill functions along the boulevard (on-way traffic movement only on the sides, with
a vide esplanade in the middle (compare it with the Andrássy street in Budapest!).

B/4. BUDAPEST
- natural setting and historical precedents of Budapest: the medieval city with its main gates and
the development of the outskirts;
- the historical, social and economic importance of the Compromise of 1867 for a Austrian-
Hungarian federation;
- the foundation of the Communal Working Board in 1870, as an integrated organisation for the
development and the control of the capital,
- the union of Pest and Budapest in 1972;
- international competition for Budapest in 1871; prise-winning proposal of Lajos Lechner with
a regulation plan for „small” and „large” rings, radial street and a new representative
avenue: the Andrássy street with its large-scale composition of three sections
widening toward the Place of the Heroes and the City Park;
- the cut-in of the Kossuth Lajos street in favour of the Elisabeth bridge (as a continuation of the
historical Rákóczi street) in the 90-es by removing the medieval centre;

A critical evaluation:
- a clear street system easy to orientate, but with the lack of public squares;
- the Andrássy street as on of the most beautiful avenues in Europe, but without a connection to
the city and to the Chain Bridge
- the spread of real estate speculation; building regulation is restricted only to the height of the
street front, resulting in the closed courtyard building form (with sometime over 70%
building percentage)

3
B/5. SZEGED

- as a result of the flood in 1879 the city was totally destroyed;


- Lajos Lechner was invited to make a new plan: adopting the radial-ring system of Budapest he
creates a totally new and harmoniously built up eclectic city – a unique phenomenon
of the time (waiting now for the title of World Heritage);
- an admirable re-arrangement of the original building sites along the new street system, that
was filled up, leaving the internal blocks on their original level.

To sum up the development results of the era:

1. the legal and financial means of comprehensive city development and control;
2. the formation of a new archetype for the modern city of its time;
3. the born of a new discipline: town planning (Städtebau: see the encyclopaedic works of a
Joseph Stübben, the critical works of Camillo Sitte in German speech area, the foundation
of urbanism by Patrick Geddes in England).

B/6 THE AMERICAN URBANISM

- the American tradition of settling new cities: pragmatism and Puritanism ( without any civil
or business centre!); concentrating to an even division system of the land;
- the beginning of an anti-urban tendency: Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) as the founder of the
democratic party is against urbanization and great cities , and tries to lead the
Americans back to farming ( the uniform subdivision of the country and to ensure
similar parcels for everybody);
- an organic tradition in landscape architecture: Olmstead for planned suburban commujnities in
Riverside (1859) and in the Central Park of New York;
- the foundation of the Capital: Washington, integrating the “Grand Manner” of the European
(Baroque) absolutism with the traditional grid system of the new world; the two axes
representing the legislative and the executive power, as the main principles of
democracy; urban design as an American version of French classicism.
- the foundation of New York (1811), the plan as a product of a committee: impersonal,
impassive, emotionless and optimistic for an unlimited development; it is only a
means of production, a coordinate system, liberated from any historical and cultural
tradition ( no centres, no squares – except the Central Park), absolute freedom and
liberalism for a competitive market economy, filled by unlimited real estate
speculation: a plain ideology with a frightful but fascinating urbanism – a model for
any future modernism ( Le Corbusier!).
- the interlude of Daniel Burnham’s City beautiful at the end of the century: “Make no little
plans!” The application of the French avenues: a new, monumental classicism (
prefiguration of the later social realism).

TOWN PLANNING IN THE 20. CENTURY I.

C. THE GARDEN CITY MOVEMENT: a realistic social utopia

Problem and goal definition


- expansion of large cities while swallowing the small settlements on the way: agglomaration
- the unrestricted proliferation of urban development and the lack of means to control growth;
- the reason is the private ownership of land as the main obstacle of control (the agricultural
parcels just on the way of urban expansion become more valuable);
- to introduce semi-public ownership and a renting system of land (E. Howard)

4
- to integrate the advantage of the country and that of the city (the 3 magnets);
- an optimal size of the city of approx. 250.000 ( as opposed to former social utopias) to insure
high level and a variety of supply and urban life (federation) – BUT: composed of
single settlements of not more than 40.000 inhabitants;
- detached and semi-detached, later terraced housing with abundant green areas;
- piecemeal development based to the accumulation of rental price to cover costs for
infrastructure.

Solution: in the framework of a non-profit venture:


- only a new foundation is feasible( social utopias);
- to buy a territory for the future size (of 0,5 million +agricultural green belt);
- the landowner and the developer is a non-profit corporation: planning and development
control is exercised by the corporation;
- to begin with a central town of 40.000 inhabitants (later “optimal” city);
- to build public institutions subsequently by the rent-prize of the parcels;
- development is ensured by satellite units of —30-40.000 inhabitants;
- an agricultural “green belt” between the central and the satellite towns.

The first garden cities and the emergence of a new urban design culture; emergence of Garden City
Societies in all over the world up to the 1. world war!

C/1. IN ENGLAND:

- Letchworth and Welwyn - representing only the 1. stage of the conception;


- HemelHampstead (by Rayrnond Unwinn):
- the foundation of comprehensive planning and environmental culture;
- integration of formal and informal design pattems;
- design methodology: operations with streets; see Welwyn
- traditional semi-detached and detached housing, low density;
- abundance of public green;
- groups of houses around cul-de-sacs: the CLOSE as an introverted version of the Block;
- the arts and crafts movement in architecture.

C/2 . IN GERMANY
- late paternalism: housing in the vicinity of the factories
- a pursuit for traditional architecture: to remember to the “old good times”
- closed territorial units, but in the vicinity of the factories;- its contribution to the birth of
modern architecture and town planning.

C/3 . IN THE USA: during the short period of the 1. New Deal (end of the 20-is):

3 important innovations for a new urban structure:


- Redbum: the first TRAFFIC SEGRAGATION (1): an innovation for the “motor age’ , but with
an extreme low density;
- Clarence Stein and Heny Wright: the idea of the NEIGHBOURHOOD UNIT (2)
- SUPER BLOCKS (3);
- hierarchy of streets;
- the first housing estates in N.Y.

C/3. a HUNGARIAN EXAMPLE: Wekerle colony in Kispest


- geometric patterns related to the renaissance ideal city patterns;
- closed central square;
- the architecture of Károly Koós and his followers as an attempt to introduce a “Hungarian
architecture” transplanted from Transylvania ( W. Morris)

5
D. THE BIRTH OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE AND TOWN PLANNING

historical background:
- disillusion in bourgeois social system after the 1. world war;
- an inclination to break with the heritage of traditional culture ( social utopias, social
democracy and/or revolution);
- an optimistic belief in technological progress,
- a new wave of urbanisation: concentration process, a need for mass housing and control of
urban development ;
reaction:
- the birth of revolutionary new artistic movements: “the fauve”s, futurism, cubism,
constructivism, new plasticism, suprematism, surrealism, abstract arts, functionalism
- the role and involvement of local governments in social housing ( as opposed to the pre-war
period mass housing after the 2. world war);

The sources of the modern movement:


1. the De Stijl group in Holland,
2. the BAUHAUS and the German rationalism,
3. the Soviet avant-garde,
4. Le Corbusier,
5. the CIAM and the Charter of Athens

D/1. THE DE STIJL GROUP (1915-)

- the “deconstructivism” of the traditional house into walls and panels: the birth of new-
plasticism and constructivism in Holland and a model for a new design culture;
- application of the method for housing schemes;

D/2. THE BAUHAUS and the German rationalism


the 1. BAUHAUS in Weimar (1919-1925) established by Walter Gropius; “back to the handicraft”
( W. Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement;
- the revival and integration of all the handicrafts in a new synthesis;
- the primacy of the material and the construction principle.
The 2. BAUHAUS in Dessau (1925-1933), the integration of industrial production into social housing
( civil use of technical innovations of the war)
- the analysis of Walter Gropius for a new urban context:
THE PRIMACY OF SANITARY CONDITIONS (orientation, separation from the
noise and the street),
REJECTION OF THE TRADITIONAL URBAN TISSUE for a the model of the
Zeilenbau system (see the transition form the garden city to the german rationalism);
- new housing estates on the periphery of cities (remnants of the garden city idea);
- the German rationalism in cities with social democratic leadership (W. Gorpius in Berlin, Ernst
May in Fankfurt, Bruno Taut in Magdeburg);
- a transition from the garden city to housing estates.

D/3. THE SOVIET AVANT-GARDE

- a “proto-urbanism” movement for a new, collective-oriented way of life by mechanical


repetition of “communes” (as “experimental workshops” of the communisic society)
with full board: the prototype of the new “socialist city” without a centre and without
the peripheries ( Ch. Fourier!);

6
- a “anti-urbanism” movement for a total re-settlement of Moscow dispersed on the country –
supposed en even distribution of energy and transportation infrastructure over the
whole country ( Frank Loyd Wright: Broadacare city)

D/4. The oeuvre of LE CORBUSIER and his heritage: TOTAL DESIGN

- believe in a totalitarian planning system, looking for a dictator ( see Baroque absolutism);
- believe in high density, as a hotbed for urban civilisation and culture;
- believe in (his own) environmental determinism ( Ch, Fourier,
- believe in the absolutistic role of ORGANISATION: social problems are only of technical
nature ( Ch. Fourier);
- a believe in the technical civilisation; skyscrapers, elevators, motorways ( New York) as
symbols of modern technique;
- absolutism of sanitary conditions: sunshine, air, orientation, natural environment, greenery; the
idea of the “flowing space;”

- the idea ot the “VERTICAL GARDEN CITY” (ville radieuse):


high density, but extremely low building percentage,
greenery on the ground, on the elevations and on the flat roof by superimposing
maisonette-type flats with internal corridor system,
free ground plan by eliminating the street.

- the idea for a transformation of Paris (un ilot insalubre):


- total demolishing and rebuilding with the elements of the vertical garden city;
- intolerance and arrogance towards the historical heritage end the urban tissue;

- plastic monumentalism in Alger, a new approach for total design;

- linear cities for the after-war re-development of European network of cities ( Soviet linear
city models!)

- a new idea for the after-war re-development of the historical centre of SAINT DIÉ (celebrated
in all over the world, but refused by the city ); the idea of beginning the life of the
after-war cities with a white paper ( social utopias);

- new model-city in India: CHANDIGHAR: grid and super-blocks, with a monumental civic
centre outside of the city ( ville radieuse).

D/5. The CIAM and the CHARTER of ATHENS

the role of the CIAM (Congres Internationaux d’Architecture Modèrne) in interaction and to furnish
publicity for the modern movement;
the topic of the first 3 congress: the habitat, the minimal home (see Ernst May in Frankfurt with the
Frankfurter kitchen, as a technological innovation for design);
the 4. Congress of Athens (originally planned in Moscow, 1933) for the future of the cities, and
published with the commentaries of Le Corbusier in Paris, 1943);
the main thesis of the Charter of Athens:
1. the basic functions of the city:
- living (residence)
- working (industry)
- leisure activities (sports)
- communication (traffic)
2. the basic functions of the city are to be composed in territorial units and separated from one
another ( mono-functionalism).

7
E. THE SURVIVAL OF THE URBAN TRADITION

E/1. The urbanisation of the garden city. TONY GARNIER in London

- an ideal plan for a small industrial town (1900)


- comprehensive planning: civic centre, industry, housing, communication, separation of the
living and the industrial zones
- a „French grid” with a flexible parcel-system
- multi-story villas (cooperative housing) as an urban version of the garden city

E/2. THE AMSTERDAM SCHOOOL

- Petrus Berlage: Amsterdam-South: a new quarter with closed courtyard building;


- the BLOCK as an integrated property, an organisational and architectural unit
- housing co-operatives as a new form of housing
- traditional urban design: streets and squares;
- an integration of modernism and traditions;

E/3. THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE TRADIIONAL BLOCK SYSTEM IN VIENNA

- the „Red Vienna” in the 20-is: new working class habitat not in the peripheries, but IN the city
(social democratic government!);
- decomposition, break and conjunction of the blocks for the sake of kindergartens and schools
( the desintegration of traditional blocks after the 2. world war);
- a conscious “class architecture” in the HOFs ( Fourier: palace-complex, social realism)

E/4. NEW REGULATION FOR PRIVATE MULTI-STOREY RENT-HOUSING in Middle Europe

- original rent-housing scheme in the 2. half of the 19. century up to the 1. world war (closed
courtyard building with very high building percentage)
- new housing regulation from the 30-ies: interior wings excluded;
- block (courtyard) developments in Middle Europe and in the US ( Amsterdam model)

F. AN INTERLUDE FOR TOTALITARIANISM

F/1. ITALIAN FASCISM

- integration of futurism and fascism (G. Terrani);


- the revival of the classical tradition in rehabilitation works and in the EUR

F/2. GERMAN FASCISM

- break with the modern movement (as a degenerated, “entartete Kunst”);


- urbanism, but a “Heimatstil’: to bring the nation (“das FOLK”) back to the country (a
diabolic parody of traditionalism);
- monumentalism and rigidity in classical style ( social realism!);
- grandiose stadiums as empty wholes in the urban tissue
- the new E-W axis for Berlin as a processional way and the future capital of the Empire.

F/3. The “SOCIAL REALISM” OF THE SOVIET UNION (1933-1953) and in the socialist countries
(1948-1953)

8
- break with the modern movement for classicism and for a “progressive tradition”
-“socialist city” - but what it is? Is there an “ideological town planning”?
- Opened courtyard building forms ( red Vienna) with local supply within ( neighbourhood
system as “rayons”)
- multiple Baroque axes in housing schemes for munumentalism; the revival of the “palace
complex” ( Ch. Fourier)
- the slogan: “we are not a gap, but a bastion on the wall of socialism” translated directly into
architectural form
- the general plan for Moscow: new skyscrapers as landmarks; the city as an artefact?
- a “present” for Warsawa and the Polish monumentalism (near to the Berlin style)
- the Hungarian version; an alternative for traditionalism: the medieval small town.
- Dunaújváros (former Stalin city) as a panopticum for all the building forms of the last 50 years
– as an opposition to the “planned city” conception ( collage)

TQWN PLANNING IN THE 20. CENTURY II. – after the 2. world war
-

historical background:
rebuilding Europe
a new (and last) wave of urbanisation.
the 4 phases of urbanisation/suburbanisation of large cities
absolute concentration
relative concentration
relative decentralisation
absolute decentralisation
parallel processes: dezurbanisation, reurbanisation

G/1. NEW TOWNS IN ENGLAND

- the political situation: the Labour Party


- the 1. Greater London Plan and the Garden City model
- the green belt and the expropriation of the land
- new towns of 80.000 inhabitants: a new challenge!

1 generation: and the birth of a new profession (Harlow, Stevenage


- the satellite (self-contained) town concept
- closed city form for 80.000 inhabitants;
- neighbourhood system and the hierarchy of centres
-

- traditional environmental design: informal, landscape oriented street pattern, closed space-
effects
- town centre: the American model
2. generation: the “Iinear city: Hook, Cumbenauld
- - -

- the lessons of the 1. generation new cities:


growth is inevitable
self-containment is not real
to ensure urbanity (the problem of the centres insulated by a parking ring)
- the effect of motorisation and the traffic segregation ( american garden cities)
- a new model for growth: the linear city
- integration of the centre and the town.
3. generation: instead of new cities enlargement of exising towns: Runcorn
- the role of public transport
- a large variety of models
- a shift toward rationalism: the city as a machine (Team 10 influence)

9
4. generation: the beginning of decentralisation and suburbanisation
- 2. Greater London plan and the model for a regional city: Milton Keynes
- integration of the settlements of a region into a continuous garden city model
- the philosophy of the interaction between communications and activities
- the primacy of infrastructure and the flexibility of super-block-infill housing
- grid and super-blocks with a decentralised supply structure: the deconstruction of the
traditional neighbourhood system: a polycentric model;
- the deconstruction of the garden city model, but the target numeber 250.000. inhabitants
remains
- new-conservationism in design
- the failures of the new regional model-city.

G/2. NEW TOWN IN SCANDINAVIA

- the decentralised development model in Sweden (Vällingby) and Finland (Tapiola) multi-
storey Flats good quality housing
- the decentralised development model in Sweden (Vällingby) and Finland (Tapiola): multi-
storey Flats, good quality housing
- the importance of the natural environment
- strive for national traditions (Sweden)
- the five-finger plan for Copenhagen

G/3. NEW TOWNS IN FRANCE

- the 4 new towns’ in Paris: an integrated planning philosophy


- the importance of public transport: decentralisation of the historical centre
- the “new city” as an integrating core for a sector of agglomeration
- prescription to limit the amount of flats allowed to design for an architect
- pluralism and post-modernism in design
- the importance of character, culture and variety

G/4. NEW TOWNS IN EAST EUROPE AND IN THE SOVIET UNION

- the primacy of large industrial estates


- from social realism toward a large-scale functionalism
- the Calvary of “socialist city” or the failure of overall planning (e.g. Dunaújváros)
- in Budapest: instead of new cities the primacy of mass housing production

TQWN PLANNING IN THE 20. CENTURY III – the architecture of large numbers
-

- historical situation: the last wave of urbanisation


- the changing family-structure (dramatic drop of the average household-size: dramatic increase of
housing shortage);
- a shift from private flats (19. century) through local government housing (1. half of 20. century)
toward a state financed mass housing (2. half of 20. century).
- technological, economical and sanitary rationalism in crisis: environmental misery
-

- the result of the slogan of LC.: “liberate the cities from the tyranny of the street!”
-

- the disintegration of the traditional urban tissue


- foreign bodies alienated from the city

H/1. STRUCTURALISM IN URBAN DESIGN: the emergence of the Team 10.

- the story of the CIAM after the 2. world war

10
- a new philosophy for design: the rehabilitation of the street
- linear concentration: a new design model
- the Bakema-model for the Dutch polders: the fish-bone system
- the hexagonal system of Candilis (Toulouse-le Miraille)
- Aldo van Eyck and the principle of “labyrinthine cleanness”
-

- structuralism: a design methodology for today

H/2. THE CITY QF THE FUTURE: urban fictions in the 60-s

- enlargement of building structures: tent, column-beam tower, wall, mast- and cable net, circus,
pyramid””megastructures”
- metabolism (Kenzo Tange)
- absolute flexibility (three-dimensional grid at Yona Friedman)
- vernacularism and the new kasbah (Moshe Shafdi: 1’labitat 67 in Montreal)
- Archigram: technical happenings in the p!ug-in-city, walking city
- the organic city (Paolo Soleri): back to the handicraft ( W. Morris)
- the ecumenopolis of Doxiadis

H/3. LARGE-SCAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN EUROPE


-
- DEFENSE quarter in Paris: a misunderstanding of the American model
- the BARBICAN development in London
- large-scal rehabilitation: the LONDON DOCKLAND RE-DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
- new capitals: Brasilia, Chandighar, New Belgrad
- the problems of rehabilitation

H/4. POST MODERNISM

- historical background: a new conservative wave (right-wing political course)


- the fall of mass housing and the crisis of modernism in the shadow of suburbanization
- the PM critics: a hysterical denial of functionalism; the new eclecticism, but the principle of
“quotation marks” in architecture;
- formalism and/or realism: the problem of cultural identity
- New Rationalism: The TENDENZA
- latin tradition: M. Culot, Bofil, A. Rossi, the Krier brothers,
- Leon and Robert Krier: the revival of Haussmann’s Paris
- the revival of the small city ( W. Morris)
- “Realism” and regionalism in architecture:
- Roberto Venturi: regionalism and vernacularism; capitalist realism and the kitsch: ”Learning
from Las Vegas” and the landscape of the freeways;
- “complexity and contradiction in architecture”
- ChristopherAlexander the Pattern Language;
- contextualism: the revival of the urban tissue (the psychology of figure-ground)
- the collision city and the city as collage;
- identity and national traditions: locality vs. globality

Lecture notes by prof. dr. Tamás MEGGYESI


11, 2005

11

You might also like