110330 car and the modern city: utopia remix

8/7/2019 110330 Car and the Modern City: Utopia Remix

1/33

The car and the modern city:utopia remix

30/03/2011 1


2/33

1910s - WW11920s - futurism Metropolis Fritz Lang

1930s - Athens Charter 1933 Incr. use ofcars and other motor transport in cities - deaths

1950s - utopia of motorised highways - magic highway, Buckminster Fuller

1970s - cars dominate streets, highway protests reclaim the streets

1990s - cycling and rise ofneighbourhoods - widening accessibility, disability activism

2000s - parkour and alleycat, carnivalesque rebellion2001 - urban terrorism NY WTC 9.11.2001,

2005 - urban terrorism London 7.7.2005

2007 - "collapse offringe drivable suburban housing prices as a fundamental cause ofthemortgage collapse*

30/03/2011 2



3/33


4/33

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P AdQ5anhZE

30/03/2011 4

The car and the modern city:1. Metropolis 1928


5/33


6/33

Task:write five things:how 'modern' occupation of inner

city streets changed1910-2010

30/03/2011 6



7/33

NYC 1928

30/03/2011 7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkqz3lpUBp0


8/33

1.Utopias, 'Sustainism' andarchitecture: betweenthepossibleandtheimpossible ArchitectsJournal / 24 February, 2011 , by James Pallister

Two new books and fear of climate change make James Pallister reconsider architecturesrelationship with utopian thought

2. NoirUrbanisms: Dystopic Images ofthe Modern City, Gyan Prakash, ed.

3. Work ofDionisio Gonzales 1965, Sevilla

http://www.domusweb.it/en/art/the-brutality-of-utopias/

"Like the Marxists and the liberals, Le Corbusier imagined humans working in square, utilitarianoffice blocks with no decoration whatsoever, and their residential buildings would be almost exactly

the same... It is the vision ofa brutal spirit." (Michel Houellebecq, The Map and the Territory, 2010)

4. 'AgainstUtopias' paper for Bare House (in Press 2011) book by Taina Rajanti

(also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhpAxTM_hLU : Finnish)Dr. Taina Rajanti (Urban Planning and Design, Department ofArchitecture, Helsinki University ofTechnology)NIMBYs, LULUs and OtherUnwanted PhenomenaofUrban Planning 2004

30/03/2011 8



9/33

1.Utopias, 'Sustainism' andarchitecture: betweenthepossibleandtheimpossible ArchitectsJournal / 24 February, 2011 , by James Pallister

Two new books and fear of climate change make James Pallister reconsider architecturesrelationship with utopian thought

2. NoirUrbanisms: Dystopic Images ofthe Modern City, Gyan Prakash, ed.

3. Work ofDionisio Gonzales 1965, Sevilla

http://www.domusweb.it/en/art/the-brutality-of-utopias/

"Like the Marxists and the liberals, Le Corbusier imagined humans working in square, utilitarianoffice blocks with no decoration whatsoever, and their residential buildings would be almost exactly

the same... It is the vision ofa brutal spirit." (Michel Houellebecq, The Map and the Territory, 2010)

4. 'AgainstUtopias' paper for Bare House (in Press 2011) book by Taina Rajanti

(also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhpAxTM_hLU : Finnish)Dr. Taina Rajanti (Urban Planning and Design, Department ofArchitecture, Helsinki University ofTechnology)NIMBYs, LULUs and OtherUnwanted PhenomenaofUrban Planning 2004

30/03/2011 9


10/33

cities

mobility compressed space

freedom to move

upward social mobility? labour saving efficiency through proximity

contribution to modern fossil fuel economy

health and transport policy lower settlement density possible

30/03/2011 10


11/33

30/03/2011 11

The car and the modern city:2. Magic Highway 1958

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8jZtwRJnRs


12/33

cities

injury

anxiety

loss ofautonomy effect on exercise

pollution / environment

health and transport policy density ofsettlement

30/03/2011 12


13/33

30/03/2011 13

The car and the modern city:3. Parkour

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5j_DLh2f6E


14/33

texts

Vers une architecture, Le Corbusier c1923

The Death and Life of Great American Cities 1961

Buchanan Report - Traffic in Towns 1962

Mixed Blessing: the Motor in Britain 1958

Planning for Man and Motor 1964

30/03/2011 14


15/33

texts






30/03/2011 15


16/33

texts






30/03/2011 16


17/33

30/03/2011 17

The car and the modern city:4. Alley Cat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= WUTL3oKOCNw


18/33

Chandigarh

Le Corbusiers system for Chandigarh

V1 regional roads (only one leading to Chandigarh)

V2 cross axial boulevards ofthe city

V3 roads for fast-moving traffic

V4 bazaar streets for slow-moving traffic, lined with shops on the south

side

V5 loop roads, intersecting the V4 to distribute traffic within a sector

V6 roads or paths leading to houses

V7 strip of parkland containing schools, open spaces and pedestrian paths

V8 bicycle trails traversing the greenbelt

30/03/2011 18


19/33


20/33

30/03/2011 20


21/33

30/03/2011 21


22/33

Chandigarh

30/03/2011 22


23/33

30/03/2011 23


24/33

30/03/2011 24


25/33


26/33

30/03/2011 26


27/33

30/03/2011 27


28/33

30/03/2011 28


29/33

Jane Jacobs

Link: Neighbourhoods in Action


30/33

Plough Road, Battersea

30/03/2011 30


31/33


32/33

Gregory Cowan

U. WestminsterGregorys research analyses use, design and place making in

inner city mixed use streets, considering the politics of

occupying streets diurnally. Urban regeneration in dense

urban areas near transport hubs are highly complex settings

for balancing link and place characteristic of streets, and for

creating sustainable places, used at all hours.

Case studies compare the Bahnhofsviertel (station district) in

Frankfurt am Main with the case ofthe Kings Crossstation district in London. Gregory will analyse street design

processes and the participation ofdiverse actors through

participation research and visual and field work.

30/03/2011 32


33/33

student responses

Oxford Brookes,

2nd year Architecture

History and Theory

30/03/2011 33

110330 car and the modern city: utopia remix

Documents