Lecture Notes
Lecture Notes
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)
- 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.
- 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!).
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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.
- 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!
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.
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- 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.
- 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.
- 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)
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B/5. SZEGED
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).
- 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).
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- 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.
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:
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):
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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 “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;
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- 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)
- 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;”
- 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).
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).
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E. THE SURVIVAL OF THE URBAN TRADITION
- 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)
- 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/3. The “SOCIAL REALISM” OF THE SOVIET UNION (1933-1953) and in the socialist countries
(1948-1953)
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- 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
- traditional environmental design: informal, landscape oriented street pattern, closed space-
effects
- town centre: the American model
2. generation: the “Iinear city: Hook, Cumbenauld
- - -
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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.
- 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
TQWN PLANNING IN THE 20. CENTURY III – the architecture of large numbers
-
- the result of the slogan of LC.: “liberate the cities from the tyranny of the street!”
-
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- 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”
-
- 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
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