Beta City: Temporary, Collaborative City Design

2012-12-11T22:13:23Z

Shmg:

= '''Beta City '''<br/> =

'''Temporary, Collaborative City Design '''<br/>

= '''INTRODUCTION'''<br/> =

''“The Street is dead. That discovery has coincided with frantic attempts at its resuscitation…pedestrianisation intended to preserve-merely channels the flow of those doomed to destroy the object of their intended revereance with their feet.”[[#ftn1|[1]]]''

For as long as man has built he has attempted to incarcerate himself in eternity, building with the mentality that structures will stand indefinitely, echoing their presence through the generations, a trace of mankind’s presence on earth that will remain despite the frailties of our own existence.

''…the quest for permanence, however, guides many of our choices. We want to achieve “lasting results” or find permanent solutions or enduring love, to make commitments, to invest our savings with permanent investment funds and to achieve sustainable regeneration. For most people the notion of permanence brings a sense of security and a hedge against risk and the winds of change.[[#ftn2|[2]]]''

These desires are deep set into the human psyche, an ironic reaction to our own comparatively short existence.

Permanence is nothing new, Since the Greeks and Romans many cities have been laid out according to orthogonal grid patterns, a trend that continues to this day. Within the design of cities and architecture the notion of permanence is also centuries old. Vitruvius wrote of “Firmitas”, a soundness in construction that today has come to constitute the notion of enduring presence:

''“The thickness of the wall should, in my opinion, be such that armed men meeting on top of it may pass one another without interference. In the thickness there should be set a very close succession of ties made of charred olive wood, binding the two faces of the wall together like pins, to give it lasting endurance. For that is a material which neither decay, nor the weather, nor time can harm, but even though buried in the earth or set in the water it keeps sound and useful forever .And so not only city walls but substructures in general and all walls that require a thickness like that of a city wall, will be long (in failing to decay) if tied in this manner.”''

Cities however do not exist in such manner; accreted in layers over time their growth is continually in flux, shifting in aims and influenced by physical and socio-economic factors. Today however City-Authorities continually seek to design for a permanent end-state condition, an approach that is increasingly outdated and irrelevant to the pace of modern urban life. In the UK planned new cities designed in the second half of the twentieth century, such as Craigavon, were intended as a permanent vision of a new method of urban planning and modern means of life, but subjected to the real world of political uncertainty and post-industrial decline they remain a powerful reminder of the shortcomings of having such grand ambitions for urban planning.

= '''ORIGINS'''<br/> =

The Western World experienced a decline in primary and secondary industries in the late 20<sup>th</sup> century. Compounded by the suburbanization of city edges and the creation of out- of- town shopping centres this has hollowed and de-stabilised the city centre. No longer the place of commerce and exchange the once thriving shopping units and industrial areas now lie empty. Recent global events have made many question their means of life. More than ever there is growing uncertainty about the future, whether from human or natural causes. The increasingly “freak” occurrence of large earthquakes, hurricanes and Tsunamis that devastated Burma, New-York and Japan within the past two years. Or the Global financial recession that has shattered the belief in perpetual economic growth; with a mass over-speculation of assets undermining an economic system that was aimed by many to be a permanent “endstate” model of economic development. With this has come a loss of faith “big” thinking and governmental authority, something further compromised by cuts in development funding, a stranglehold on the ability of a political body to steer though uncertain times.

The city of Belfast is embodies many of these factors. Once a thriving industrial city based on linen export and shipbuilding in the city’s docklands, it had a prosperous city centre with shops selling luxury products as well as locally produced goods to the population of the city. However the demise in shipbuilding and foreign competition for the linen trade withered the economic power of the city, reducing expendable incomes and ultimately bringing about the closure of many stores in the city centre. The once iconic Anderson & McAuley's, which opened in 1861 finally closed in 1994, its closure ended a legacy of local traders in Belfast, a layer of the city’s past that has been now replaced with global brands such as Zara, Burger-King and Footlocker.[[#ftn4|[4]]]

The austerity of the recession and the influence of shopping centres also played a significant role in the destabilisation of the city centre. The completion of Victoria Square, a large high-end shopping centre attracted retailers and footfall away from the historic high street of Donegall Place, and the perceived centre of the city. Such a shift has had a profound effect on the city’s socio-economic structure. The city centre is no more the product of local industries, there is no longer a vibrant mix of shops for various incomes along Donegall place. Instead a bargain, low-cost monoculture has developed, with globalised brands and increased amounts of entirely vacant lots as local businesses collapse.[[#ftn5|[5]]]<br/>

This has had a prolific impact on the city’s economy. The traditional central location once attracted the highest rent values, indicating a quality and economic advantage to the location. Units on Dongeall square once retailed at 275 pounds per square foot, but today are available for 150 pounds per square foot. Conversely streets around the new centre have increased their unit value from 35 pounds per square foot in the late 1990’s to around 130 pounds today. Now more than ever landlords are seeking short-term, real-time solutions to prevent any further hollowing and decay of the city centre, attempting to re-sew vibrancy back into these streets and prevent any further loss of occupants and retail value in the area. [[#ftn6|[6]]]

In the past twenty years we have also seen a change in our means of life. The once stiff-collared 9-5 lifestyle is now waning to a more integrated live/work way of life, allowing people to work from home, have condensed working weeks or tap into the office through the Internet as they travel. This all has a fundamental impact on the morphology of cities once designed to cater for the mass of people who commute into and work in city centres. As of 2009 12.8 per cent of the population of the UK now work from home[[#ftn7|[7]]], with offices regularly only filling 50 percent of their desk space. Such a spatial and temporal shift in the very structure of our lives will soon begin to manifest itself in the morphology of our environment as we once again being to accrete another layer into the story of our cities.

The advent of technology on our lives has probably been the most significant shift in the way we live today. No longer separated by time or distance we truly live in a global network, with the Internet facilitating and cultivating an ecosystem of online users who openly move and contribute to the network, and whose very movements are tracked, mapped, analysed and then used to further develop the system. Moreover with the advancements in Mobile technology we can be connected on the move, a more transient system that no longer anchors us to fixed positions in either time or space. The sociologist Zygmunt Bauman spoke of this less anchored reality in ''Liquid Modernity. ''In this Bauman too makes the connection between solidity and permanence, and the perception that liquid is somehow lighter, even though not always scientifically true, furthermore he elaborates and contextualises Marx’s communist manifesto “...''all that is solid Melts into air''”[[#ftn8|[8]]]<br/>

''The 'melting of solids', the permanent feature of modernity, has therefore acquired a new meaning, and above all has been redirected to a new target - one of the paramount effects of that redirection being the dissolution of forces which could keep the question of order and system on the political agenda . The solids whose turn has come to be thrown into the melting pot and which are in the process of being melted at the present time, the time of fluid modernity, are the bonds which interlock individual choices in collective projects and actions - the patterns of communication and co-ordination between individually conducted life policies on the one hand and political actions of human collectivities on the other.''

Such uncertainty and shifts in our lifestyles has led to a counter-culture of activism, those without faith in what they see as a failing late-capitalist system taking to the streets to voice their opinion and make a change in real time and space. This mentality is best observed in the recent Occupy movements that occurred in Liberty plaza with the “Occupy Wall Street” and Occupy London's occupation of St. Paul's Cathedral in 2012, as direct results of capitalist corruption and the continued austerity of the global recession.<br/>

''“... tens of thousands gathered to commemorate the two-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. They filled the Financial District. They occupied the subways. They held mass rallies at Union Square and Foley Square, then filed across the Brooklyn Bridge, beneath “''[https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&biw=1920&bih=1042&gbv=2&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=occupy+verizon+building bat-signal]''” messages projected on the side of the Verizon Building: “This is the beginning of the beginning.”''<br/><br/>

''Moving between the physical and the virtual, participants navigated a hypercity built of granite and asphalt, algorithms and information, appropriating its platforms and creating new structures within it. As they posted links, updates, photos and videos on social media sites; as they deliberated in chat rooms and collaborated on crowdmaps; as they took to the streets with smartphones, occupiers tested the parameters of this multiply mediated world. ''<br/>

These movements also tap into the various dimensions we now occupy, both physical and digital, in order to organise and activate/hacktivate city spaces, using social networks such as Facebook to organise their meetings and activities, and using Twitter to post and contact their specific audience group. Additionally their continued activity, along with the political replies builds an urban fabric which not only creatively re-imagines the public realm, but also shows the frailties of the current political and economic system, where governments grappling for control resort to brute force to remove and silence the majority. What it suggests is that we are moving away from late modernist paradigms of hierarchical control and towards a growth pattern that is succetible to change and evolution in real time and within continuous feedback loops. We are beginning to see the city as a volatile platform for interaction, a Beta city philosophy, a state of continual change.<br/>

= '''CASE STUDIES'''<br/> =

Some examples of this philosophy are described in the following section of the essay. As examples from the UK they show how such an approach to the design of cities can be applied within a British context, moreover at a variety of scales they show that it is not a specific form of masterplanning, but a means of thinking about urban space that can be applied at a variety of scales.<br/>

<br/>

=== '''Incredible Edible Todmorden'''<br/> ===

A movement created in the Lancashire town of Todmorden by a coalition of residents who had grown tired of established policies and procedures for the handling of their public realm decided to take control of their spaces directly. The movement began with guerrilla gardening activities in public spaces, planting edible fruits and vegetables, creating discussion and progress through action:<br/>

''‘You just need to understand how we all tick. And we’re all the same. We’re bored to death and cynical about strategies and policies and rhetoric. But what we like is action, we like to get involved in things and we like things to point at.’''

Their actions did not go unnoticed by local authorties, along with public and private sector landowners, who quickly became supportive of the scheme, providing public places, schools, train-stations, car parks, for the planting of fruit trees. The core objective of the scheme is to create civic pride in the residents of the town, generating further support and reducing “nimby-ism”, opening pathways for increased and more open discussions with residents regarding future ideas for development in the town; whilst simultaneously building a sustainable local economy through reduced rates of vandalism, increased passive surveillance and sales from the produce of these edible landscapes.<br/>

In this example it is not those professions concerned with the built environment affecting change, rather residents who have grown tired of stale attempts at urban renewal based on the canon of professional thinking. By going off-piste and planting in public space the minority have implemented a positive behavioural change in the town, not by physical constructions but simple, direct adaptations and re-imaginations of existing public space.<br/>

<br/>

=== '''Forum for Alternative Belfast '''<br/> ===

Setup in 2009 by Belfast architects Declan Hill and Mark Hackett, FAB is a non-profit organisation that “campaigns for a better and a more equitable built environment in Belfast.” To do this they consider themselves as both a think and do-tank that will counter the unconstrained speculative development that has been responsible for the urban decline in the inner city. By holding summer and winter schools, exhibitions and producing publications they encourage experienced practitioners, students and residents of the areas in which they are working in the city to contribute to discussions and ongoing work to reconsider the possibilities of the post-conflict fabric of Belfast.

FAB establishes a platform in the city for discussion, to create interest and activity, not through technological or guerrilla activities but by continually tapping into the experience of skilled and passionate planners, architects and developers, continuously publishing online, advertising in the city, exhibiting in the local architecture centres, and remaining in the public conscious through radio and newspaper.

Recently their contribution to the Venice Biennale was an attempt to highlight the urban plight of Belfast to a global community, using the “Missing Map” a part of their ongoing research into the city they showed how over 35% of the inner city lies vacant, dormant spaces awaiting a new life. Within their summer schools they also provide potential solutions and re-imaginations of these spaces, with projects such as the Bank Square scheme that reinterprets one of Belfast’s existing vacant spaces and by subtly teasing out the identity of the space begins to create a place in Belfast of true public character. Additionally their fight against the infrastructure that has been used as a segregating barrier in the city between conflicting communities has seen them develop proposals for the Integration of these motorways into the fabric of the city, creating new flows in urban space and crucially re-humanising areas of the city long lost to the car.<br/>

<br/>

'''Muf Architects. '''<br/>

The work of Muf architects extends much further than the perceived notions of an architecture practice. In so far as possible they work to include, and work by, the voice of others; a practice engrained in ''“mutual knowledge', and the context of the public realm indicat(ing) a social (spatial) ambition beyond the fixity of the building as object.”''[[#ftn13|[13]]] This also leads to the production of much more than just physical constructions, they treat design of urban space as a negotiation between spatial arrangements and material resolutions ''“that come about through consultation between public and private, communal and individual”''[[#ftn14|[14]]] The inclusivity of this design process, fused with Muf’s role as design leaders allows them to thread lines between both corporate developers, local residents and government officials, creating often unexpected and richer outcomes than had been imagined.<br/>

One such example of this is their recent work in Dalston, London. A work that was “driven by observation, conversation and testing on the ground. It (began) with the identification and celebration of existing assets, social cultural and physical.” Which formed the basis of a collaborative, bottom-up masterplan for the area.

A strategy of design moves and cultural activity was devised to enhance the public realm for both residents and the everyday needs of residents; valuing the existing, nurturing all possibilities and defining what is missing. What originates from this is not architecture or urbanism of a conventional guise, more a manifesto that is embodied in a framework strategy for the area. The interventions into the urban fabric too are of a less architecturally permanent state. By creating places such as the guerrilla gardens of Dalston Lane, the creation of “Host Spaces” to deepen the culture of Dalston, or the Release spaces of Winchester Place, they engage with the city on a more transient, light-footed manner, but unlike permanent approaches also engrains itself into the rhythms and needs of everyday life in Dalston; intervening and improving the quality of space within a short timeframe.

= '''PROS AND CONS'''<br/> =

Much of what has been described above involves an integrated participation on behalf of the designers/activists. We see those responsible for designing behaving like glue between the various parties involved in the process of creating urban spaces, negotiating between each and bringing together all to achieve a common goal. This is contrary to the traditional image of an architect-centred design process, making major decisions from the top of a hierarchical structure and in isolation. To many practicing professionals this may be a concern, with the influx of “laypersons” into the process degrading the profession from a respected institution to a public forum and negatively affecting their livelihoods; though there are also many potentials in this process.

In writing the article “Against Kickstarter Urbanism” Alexandra Lange confronts this issue directly. Being an open-sourced “funding platform for creative projects”[[#ftn15|[15]]] Kickstarter taps into the power of the internet to gather attention and attract funding from online participants. Originally intended for product design it was never considered as a tool in open-sourcing the public realm, and within that emerged a critical flaw:

''“You can’t Kickstart affordable housing, but the really cool tent for the discussion thereof. Gizmo is close to gimmick, and worthy goals have to be dressed up in complex geometries for Kickstarter.”[[#ftn16|[16]]]''

Using an online website makes it difficult to address serious urban topics that will make real change to a place, too often it is the “money-shots” that attract attention to a scheme which may not have the richness or appropriateness of a more subtle, less enthralling strategy. The lowline in New-York is an example of such criticism, which seeks to resuse an underground tram network to create a public park-like space, a grand vision, but a massive gamble in the public realm. The fundamental risk is that those without a comprehensive understanding of the built environment could affect detrimental changes to our cities; seduced by high resolution renders and persuasive video presentations to create instant gains and short-term success, but never fostering a sense of meaningful placemaking.

On the contrary however an integrated engagement with the public can also have positive outcomes on the built environment. In the example of Peter Zumthor’s recent gateway proposal for Isny it was the population who rejected the design through majority, their lack of belief in the scheme strong enough to halt any further development or realisation.[[#ftn17|[17]]] Such openness and transparency of process can open up channels for greater dialogue between professionals and populations, generating greater involvement and the potential for a more meaningful, representative outcome. At a time when decisions regarding cities are made by teams, committees, commissions and panels this gives the individual some hope that they can make a contribution to their immediate world and its physical representation.

This division between decision makers and the larger city also creates a divide between the philosophy of the decision makers and that of a city. “''City Authorities continue to seek permanent and final solution and plan to an endstate...Plans are often outdated before they are published...perpetuat(ing) categories of use that are inflexible and unsuited to times of continuous change.”''[[#ftn18|[18]]] In planning for an ultimate condition they overlook the fact that a city, often through necessity, is continually evolving in order to stay relevant, remain competitive and provide for its population. Is it possible that as these processes continue designers can tap into them and in doing so incorporate still elusive elements of the city ''“ephemerality, cacophony, multiplicity and simultaneity”''[[#ftn19|[19]]]''? ''Would this then overcome the abstraction of urban design and the formalism of architectural thinking, observing the everyday as opposed to a utopian endstate?

This too is not without risk. Consumerist western cultures live with the obsession of immediacy, with cost and speed taking preference to quality and durability. Would this then result a disposable built environment, its material nature becoming throw-away and impermanent?

This point returns me to the topic of Firmitas discussed earlier. Firmitas, meaning strong, firm, steadfast has been extrapolated today to refer to permanence; however referring to it in its original context it is possible to have a temporary firmitas, a soundness of construction that is not intended to be permanent in one location or incarnation, but when constructed creates a sense of architectural delight to satisfy Vitruivan principles. Many forms of Filigree construction satisfy this for example, and are also more ecologically resolute through reduced material consumption.

Psychologically too, this also opens up an alternate avenue within the notion of permanence:

''Entities existing in the physical world and those that live only in the minds of human beings both have durability. But the two obey quite different rules, and the destiny of objects made of resistant matter varies from that of their counterparts in memory.''

When we speak of a building, or city, and speak of permanence we speak of more than just material strength. Irrespective of its incarnation, a beautifully crafted, coveted and required solution to an urban need will outlive any physical manifestation of material. Over time the material will change, nevertheless the intent that it originally embodied will remain; altered, adapted, moved or rebuilt; permanent in the city, but impermanent in construction, dynamic as opposed to static.<br/>

= '''SUMMARY/CONCLUSION'''<br/> =

If urban thinking continues along its current path the result will be evermore cities, with evermore generic conditions, a repetition of form set within a late modernist paradigm, an obsession with order and formal gestures; unable to fully represent the complexities and multiplicities of our near-augmented daily lives. Our current “professional” approach all too often creates sedated spaces, passive and neutral; a possible alternative may lie in adapting a collaborative, integrated approach. By handing the city back to the will of the public the urban fabric will adapt, becoming representative of the conditions of place and more meaningful to both residents and the urban fabric of a city. By no means does this make the process easier or more streamlined, it will remain a complex, messy and at times conflict-laden endeavour; however it will gain relevance, and become more representative of the everyday situations and rhythms of an urban space.<br/>

Cities are places of continuous change and in themselves are a reflection of the cultures and forces that shape them, there can be no endstate. The means for future approaches should better aim to represent this condition. An approach that could produce tangible results within short-timeframes. As we live in an increasingly multi-dimensional era so too should our urban fabric, no longer resigned as physical artefacts in the real world, but networked and meshed into the web of contemporary living.

<br/>

This Article was created by --[[User%3AShmg|Shmg]] 22:10, 11 December 2012 (UTC)
<div>
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<div id="ftn1">
[[#ftnref1|[1]]] R.Koolhaas, B. Mau, Generic City, ''S,M,L,XL,'' 1995 p.1253
</div><div id="ftn2">
[[#ftnref2|[2]]] P.Bishop and L.Williams . ''Temporary City'', Routledge, 2012 P.11
</div><div id="ftn3">
[[#ftnref3|[3]]] Vitruvius Pollio, and M. H. Morgan. 1960. Vitruvius : The ten books on architecture [De architectura.], Book I, Chap. 5.3
</div><div id="ftn4">
[[#ftnref4|[4]]] C.Weir and M.Canning, ''Is Belfast still the place to be for retailers? ''[http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/business-news/is-this-still-the-place-to-be-for-retailers-16234315.html#ixzz2DvX9qf00 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/business-news/is-this-still-the-place-to-be-for-retailers-16234315.html#ixzz2DvX9qf00] (accessed 06 November 2012)
</div><div id="ftn5">
[[#ftnref5|[5]]] Ibid
</div><div id="ftn6">
[[#ftnref6|[6]]] Ibid
</div><div id="ftn7">
[[#ftnref7|[7]]] T.Dwelly, A.Lake, and L.Thomson, ''Workhubs: Smart Workspaces for the Low Carbon Economy, ''2010, www.ruralsussex.org.uk/assets/assets/HHB-Workhubsfinal report2010%20part1.pdf (accessed 07 November 2012)
</div><div id="ftn8">
[[#ftnref8|[8]]]K. Marx and F.Engels, ''The Communist Manifesto, ''1888 p.6
</div><div id="ftn9">
[[#ftnref9|[9]]] Z.Bauman. ''Liquid Modernity. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, ''2006, pg.6
</div><div id="ftn10">
'''[[#ftnref10|[10]]]''' J.Massey and B.Snyder. ''Occupying Wall Street: Spaces and Places of Political Action, ''[http://places.designobserver.com/feature/occupy-wall-street-places-and-spaces-of-political-action/35938/ http:]'''[http://places.designobserver.com/feature/occupy-wall-street-places-and-spaces-of-political-action/35938/ /]'''[http://places.designobserver.com/feature/occupy-wall-street-places-and-spaces-of-political-action/35938/ /places.designobserver.com/feature/occupy-wall-street-places-and-spaces-of-political-action/35938/]''' '''(Accessed 10 November 2012)
</div><div id="ftn11">
[[#ftnref11|[11]]] ibid
</div><div id="ftn12">
[[#ftnref12|[12]]] 00:/, ''Compendium for the civic economy, ''00:/,2011 p.89
</div><div id="ftn13">
[[#ftnref13|[13]]] J.Till, T.Schneider and N.Awan, ''Spatial Agency: Other Ways of Doing Architecture'' [http://www.spatialagency.net/database/muf http://www.spatialagency.net/database/muf] (Accessed 4- December 2012)<br/>
</div><div id="ftn14">
[[#ftnref14|[14]]] ibid
</div><div id="ftn15">
[[#ftnref15|[15]]] [http://www.kickstarter.com/ http://www.kickstarter.com/] (Accessed 28 November 2012)
</div><div id="ftn16">
[[#ftnref16|[16]]] A.Lange, ''Against Kickstarter Urbaninsm, ''[http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/against-kickstarter-urbanism/34008/ http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/against-kickstarter-urbanism/34008/], 2012 (Accessed 24 November 2012)<br/>
</div><div id="ftn17">
'''[[#ftnref17|[17]]] '''K.Rosenfield ''Majority rules against Zumthor’s “Glass Underpants''” in Isny, [http://www.archdaily.com/208941/majority-rules-against-zumthor%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Cglass-underpants%E2%80%9D-in-isny/ http://www.archdaily.com/208941/majority-rules-against-zumthor%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Cglass-underpants%E2%80%9D-in-isny/] 2012 (Accessed 16 November 2012)
</div><div id="ftn18">
[[#ftnref18|[18]]]P.Bishop and L.Williams 2012. ''Temporary City'', Routledge p.19
</div><div id="ftn19">
[[#ftnref19|[19]]] J.Kaliski, ''The Present City and the Practice of City Design'', in ''Everyday Urbanism'', J. Chase, M. Crawford, and J. Kaliski, Editors. 1999, The Monacelli Press, Inc.: New York. p
</div><div id="ftn20">
[[#ftnref20|[20]]] R.Arnheim [1904-]. 1977. Thoughts on durability: Architecture as an affirmation of confidence. ''AIA Journal ''66, (7): 48-50.
</div></div>

Beta City: Temporary, Collaborative City Design

2012-12-11T22:10:34Z

Shmg: Created page with " = '''Beta City '''<br/> = '''Temporary, Collaborative City Design '''<br/> = '''INTRODUCTION'''<br/> = ''“The Street is dead. That discovery has coincided with frantic atte..."

= '''Beta City '''<br/> =

'''Temporary, Collaborative City Design '''<br/>

= '''INTRODUCTION'''<br/> =

''“The Street is dead. That discovery has coincided with frantic attempts at its resuscitation…pedestrianisation intended to preserve-merely channels the flow of those doomed to destroy the object of their intended revereance with their feet.”[[#_ftn1|[1]]]

For as long as man has built he has attempted to incarcerate himself in eternity, building with the mentality that structures will stand indefinitely, echoing their presence through the generations, a trace of mankind’s presence on earth that will remain despite the frailties of our own existence.

''…the quest for permanence, however, guides many of our choices. We want to achieve “lasting results” or find permanent solutions or enduring love, to make commitments, to invest our savings with permanent investment funds and to achieve sustainable regeneration. For most people the notion of permanence brings a sense of security and a hedge against risk and the winds of change.[[#_ftn2|[2]]]

These desires are deep set into the human psyche, an ironic reaction to our own comparatively short existence.

Permanence is nothing new, Since the Greeks and Romans many cities have been laid out according to orthogonal grid patterns, a trend that continues to this day. Within the design of cities and architecture the notion of permanence is also centuries old. Vitruvius wrote of “Firmitas”, a soundness in construction that today has come to constitute the notion of enduring presence:

''“The thickness of the wall should, in my opinion, be such that armed men meeting on top of it may pass one another without interference. In the thickness there should be set a very close succession of ties made of charred olive wood, binding the two faces of the wall together like pins, to give it lasting endurance. For that is a material which neither decay, nor the weather, nor time can harm, but even though buried in the earth or set in the water it keeps sound and useful forever .And so not only city walls but substructures in general and all walls that require a thickness like that of a city wall, will be long (in failing to decay) if tied in this manner.”''

Cities however do not exist in such manner; accreted in layers over time their growth is continually in flux, shifting in aims and influenced by physical and socio-economic factors. Today however City-Authorities continually seek to design for a permanent end-state condition, an approach that is increasingly outdated and irrelevant to the pace of modern urban life. In the UK planned new cities designed in the second half of the twentieth century, such as Craigavon, were intended as a permanent vision of a new method of urban planning and modern means of life, but subjected to the real world of political uncertainty and post-industrial decline they remain a powerful reminder of the shortcomings of having such grand ambitions for urban planning.

= '''ORIGINS'''<br/> =

The Western World experienced a decline in primary and secondary industries in the late 20<sup>th</sup> century. Compounded by the suburbanization of city edges and the creation of out- of- town shopping centres this has hollowed and de-stabilised the city centre. No longer the place of commerce and exchange the once thriving shopping units and industrial areas now lie empty. Recent global events have made many question their means of life. More than ever there is growing uncertainty about the future, whether from human or natural causes. The increasingly “freak” occurrence of large earthquakes, hurricanes and Tsunamis that devastated Burma, New-York and Japan within the past two years. Or the Global financial recession that has shattered the belief in perpetual economic growth; with a mass over-speculation of assets undermining an economic system that was aimed by many to be a permanent “endstate” model of economic development. With this has come a loss of faith “big” thinking and governmental authority, something further compromised by cuts in development funding, a stranglehold on the ability of a political body to steer though uncertain times.

The city of Belfast is embodies many of these factors. Once a thriving industrial city based on linen export and shipbuilding in the city’s docklands, it had a prosperous city centre with shops selling luxury products as well as locally produced goods to the population of the city. However the demise in shipbuilding and foreign competition for the linen trade withered the economic power of the city, reducing expendable incomes and ultimately bringing about the closure of many stores in the city centre. The once iconic Anderson & McAuley's, which opened in 1861 finally closed in 1994, its closure ended a legacy of local traders in Belfast, a layer of the city’s past that has been now replaced with global brands such as Zara, Burger-King and Footlocker.[[#_ftn4|[4]]]

The austerity of the recession and the influence of shopping centres also played a significant role in the destabilisation of the city centre. The completion of Victoria Square, a large high-end shopping centre attracted retailers and footfall away from the historic high street of Donegall Place, and the perceived centre of the city. Such a shift has had a profound effect on the city’s socio-economic structure. The city centre is no more the product of local industries, there is no longer a vibrant mix of shops for various incomes along Donegall place. Instead a bargain, low-cost monoculture has developed, with globalised brands and increased amounts of entirely vacant lots as local businesses collapse.[[#_ftn5|[5]]]<br/>

This has had a prolific impact on the city’s economy. The traditional central location once attracted the highest rent values, indicating a quality and economic advantage to the location. Units on Dongeall square once retailed at 275 pounds per square foot, but today are available for 150 pounds per square foot. Conversely streets around the new centre have increased their unit value from 35 pounds per square foot in the late 1990’s to around 130 pounds today. Now more than ever landlords are seeking short-term, real-time solutions to prevent any further hollowing and decay of the city centre, attempting to re-sew vibrancy back into these streets and prevent any further loss of occupants and retail value in the area. [[#_ftn6|[6]]]

In the past twenty years we have also seen a change in our means of life. The once stiff-collared 9-5 lifestyle is now waning to a more integrated live/work way of life, allowing people to work from home, have condensed working weeks or tap into the office through the Internet as they travel. This all has a fundamental impact on the morphology of cities once designed to cater for the mass of people who commute into and work in city centres. As of 2009 12.8 per cent of the population of the UK now work from home[[#_ftn7|[7]]], with offices regularly only filling 50 percent of their desk space. Such a spatial and temporal shift in the very structure of our lives will soon begin to manifest itself in the morphology of our environment as we once again being to accrete another layer into the story of our cities.

The advent of technology on our lives has probably been the most significant shift in the way we live today. No longer separated by time or distance we truly live in a global network, with the Internet facilitating and cultivating an ecosystem of online users who openly move and contribute to the network, and whose very movements are tracked, mapped, analysed and then used to further develop the system. Moreover with the advancements in Mobile technology we can be connected on the move, a more transient system that no longer anchors us to fixed positions in either time or space. The sociologist Zygmunt Bauman spoke of this less anchored reality in ''Liquid Modernity. ''In this Bauman too makes the connection between solidity and permanence, and the perception that liquid is somehow lighter, even though not always scientifically true, furthermore he elaborates and contextualises Marx’s communist manifesto “...''all that is solid Melts into air''”[[#_ftn8|[8]]]<br/>

''The 'melting of solids', the permanent feature of modernity, has therefore acquired a new meaning, and above all has been redirected to a new target - one of the paramount effects of that redirection being the dissolution of forces which could keep the question of order and system on the political agenda . The solids whose turn has come to be thrown into the melting pot and which are in the process of being melted at the present time, the time of fluid modernity, are the bonds which interlock individual choices in collective projects and actions - the patterns of communication and co-ordination between individually conducted life policies on the one hand and political actions of human collectivities on the other.''

Such uncertainty and shifts in our lifestyles has led to a counter-culture of activism, those without faith in what they see as a failing late-capitalist system taking to the streets to voice their opinion and make a change in real time and space. This mentality is best observed in the recent Occupy movements that occurred in Liberty plaza with the “Occupy Wall Street” and Occupy London's occupation of St. Paul's Cathedral in 2012, as direct results of capitalist corruption and the continued austerity of the global recession. <br/>

''“... tens of thousands gathered to commemorate the two-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. They filled the Financial District. They occupied the subways. They held mass rallies at Union Square and Foley Square, then filed across the Brooklyn Bridge, beneath “''[https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&biw=1920&bih=1042&gbv=2&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=occupy+verizon+building bat-signal]''” messages projected on the side of the Verizon Building: “This is the beginning of the beginning.”''<br/><br/>

''Moving between the physical and the virtual, participants navigated a hypercity built of granite and asphalt, algorithms and information, appropriating its platforms and creating new structures within it. As they posted links, updates, photos and videos on social media sites; as they deliberated in chat rooms and collaborated on crowdmaps; as they took to the streets with smartphones, occupiers tested the parameters of this multiply mediated world. ''<br/>

These movements also tap into the various dimensions we now occupy, both physical and digital, in order to organise and activate/hacktivate city spaces, using social networks such as Facebook to organise their meetings and activities, and using Twitter to post and contact their specific audience group. Additionally their continued activity, along with the political replies builds an urban fabric which not only creatively re-imagines the public realm, but also shows the frailties of the current political and economic system, where governments grappling for control resort to brute force to remove and silence the majority. What it suggests is that we are moving away from late modernist paradigms of hierarchical control and towards a growth pattern that is succetible to change and evolution in real time and within continuous feedback loops. We are beginning to see the city as a volatile platform for interaction, a Beta city philosophy, a state of continual change. <br/>

= '''CASE STUDIES'''<br/> =

Some examples of this philosophy are described in the following section of the essay. As examples from the UK they show how such an approach to the design of cities can be applied within a British context, moreover at a variety of scales they show that it is not a specific form of masterplanning, but a means of thinking about urban space that can be applied at a variety of scales. <br/>

<br/>

=== '''Incredible Edible Todmorden'''<br/> ===

A movement created in the Lancashire town of Todmorden by a coalition of residents who had grown tired of established policies and procedures for the handling of their public realm decided to take control of their spaces directly. The movement began with guerrilla gardening activities in public spaces, planting edible fruits and vegetables, creating discussion and progress through action:<br/>

''‘You just need to understand how we all tick. And we’re all the same. We’re bored to death and cynical about strategies and policies and rhetoric. But what we like is action, we like to get involved in things and we like things to point at.’''

Their actions did not go unnoticed by local authorties, along with public and private sector landowners, who quickly became supportive of the scheme, providing public places, schools, train-stations, car parks, for the planting of fruit trees. The core objective of the scheme is to create civic pride in the residents of the town, generating further support and reducing “nimby-ism”, opening pathways for increased and more open discussions with residents regarding future ideas for development in the town; whilst simultaneously building a sustainable local economy through reduced rates of vandalism, increased passive surveillance and sales from the produce of these edible landscapes. <br/>

In this example it is not those professions concerned with the built environment affecting change, rather residents who have grown tired of stale attempts at urban renewal based on the canon of professional thinking. By going off-piste and planting in public space the minority have implemented a positive behavioural change in the town, not by physical constructions but simple, direct adaptations and re-imaginations of existing public space. <br/>

<br/>

=== '''Forum for Alternative Belfast '''<br/> ===

Setup in 2009 by Belfast architects Declan Hill and Mark Hackett, FAB is a non-profit organisation that “campaigns for a better and a more equitable built environment in Belfast.” To do this they consider themselves as both a think and do-tank that will counter the unconstrained speculative development that has been responsible for the urban decline in the inner city. By holding summer and winter schools, exhibitions and producing publications they encourage experienced practitioners, students and residents of the areas in which they are working in the city to contribute to discussions and ongoing work to reconsider the possibilities of the post-conflict fabric of Belfast.

FAB establishes a platform in the city for discussion, to create interest and activity, not through technological or guerrilla activities but by continually tapping into the experience of skilled and passionate planners, architects and developers, continuously publishing online, advertising in the city, exhibiting in the local architecture centres, and remaining in the public conscious through radio and newspaper.

Recently their contribution to the Venice Biennale was an attempt to highlight the urban plight of Belfast to a global community, using the “Missing Map” a part of their ongoing research into the city they showed how over 35% of the inner city lies vacant, dormant spaces awaiting a new life. Within their summer schools they also provide potential solutions and re-imaginations of these spaces, with projects such as the Bank Square scheme that reinterprets one of Belfast’s existing vacant spaces and by subtly teasing out the identity of the space begins to create a place in Belfast of true public character. Additionally their fight against the infrastructure that has been used as a segregating barrier in the city between conflicting communities has seen them develop proposals for the Integration of these motorways into the fabric of the city, creating new flows in urban space and crucially re-humanising areas of the city long lost to the car.<br/>

<br/>

'''Muf Architects. '''<br/>

The work of Muf architects extends much further than the perceived notions of an architecture practice. In so far as possible they work to include, and work by, the voice of others; a practice engrained in ''“mutual knowledge', and the context of the public realm indicat(ing) a social (spatial) ambition beyond the fixity of the building as object.”''[[#_ftn13|[13]]] This also leads to the production of much more than just physical constructions, they treat design of urban space as a negotiation between spatial arrangements and material resolutions ''“that come about through consultation between public and private, communal and individual”''[[#_ftn14|[14]]] The inclusivity of this design process, fused with Muf’s role as design leaders allows them to thread lines between both corporate developers, local residents and government officials, creating often unexpected and richer outcomes than had been imagined. <br/>

One such example of this is their recent work in Dalston, London. A work that was “driven by observation, conversation and testing on the ground. It (began) with the identification and celebration of existing assets, social cultural and physical.” Which formed the basis of a collaborative, bottom-up masterplan for the area.

A strategy of design moves and cultural activity was devised to enhance the public realm for both residents and the everyday needs of residents; valuing the existing, nurturing all possibilities and defining what is missing. What originates from this is not architecture or urbanism of a conventional guise, more a manifesto that is embodied in a framework strategy for the area. The interventions into the urban fabric too are of a less architecturally permanent state. By creating places such as the guerrilla gardens of Dalston Lane, the creation of “Host Spaces” to deepen the culture of Dalston, or the Release spaces of Winchester Place, they engage with the city on a more transient, light-footed manner, but unlike permanent approaches also engrains itself into the rhythms and needs of everyday life in Dalston; intervening and improving the quality of space within a short timeframe.

= '''PROS AND CONS'''<br/> =

Much of what has been described above involves an integrated participation on behalf of the designers/activists. We see those responsible for designing behaving like glue between the various parties involved in the process of creating urban spaces, negotiating between each and bringing together all to achieve a common goal. This is contrary to the traditional image of an architect-centred design process, making major decisions from the top of a hierarchical structure and in isolation. To many practicing professionals this may be a concern, with the influx of “laypersons” into the process degrading the profession from a respected institution to a public forum and negatively affecting their livelihoods; though there are also many potentials in this process.

In writing the article “Against Kickstarter Urbanism” Alexandra Lange confronts this issue directly. Being an open-sourced “funding platform for creative projects”[[#_ftn15|[15]]] Kickstarter taps into the power of the internet to gather attention and attract funding from online participants. Originally intended for product design it was never considered as a tool in open-sourcing the public realm, and within that emerged a critical flaw:

''“You can’t Kickstart affordable housing, but the really cool tent for the discussion thereof. Gizmo is close to gimmick, and worthy goals have to be dressed up in complex geometries for Kickstarter.”[[#_ftn16|[16]]]

Using an online website makes it difficult to address serious urban topics that will make real change to a place, too often it is the “money-shots” that attract attention to a scheme which may not have the richness or appropriateness of a more subtle, less enthralling strategy. The lowline in New-York is an example of such criticism, which seeks to resuse an underground tram network to create a public park-like space, a grand vision, but a massive gamble in the public realm. The fundamental risk is that those without a comprehensive understanding of the built environment could affect detrimental changes to our cities; seduced by high resolution renders and persuasive video presentations to create instant gains and short-term success, but never fostering a sense of meaningful placemaking.

On the contrary however an integrated engagement with the public can also have positive outcomes on the built environment. In the example of Peter Zumthor’s recent gateway proposal for Isny it was the population who rejected the design through majority, their lack of belief in the scheme strong enough to halt any further development or realisation.[[#_ftn17|[17]]] Such openness and transparency of process can open up channels for greater dialogue between professionals and populations, generating greater involvement and the potential for a more meaningful, representative outcome. At a time when decisions regarding cities are made by teams, committees, commissions and panels this gives the individual some hope that they can make a contribution to their immediate world and its physical representation.

This division between decision makers and the larger city also creates a divide between the philosophy of the decision makers and that of a city. “''City Authorities continue to seek permanent and final solution and plan to an endstate...Plans are often outdated before they are published...perpetuat(ing) categories of use that are inflexible and unsuited to times of continuous change.”''[[#_ftn18|[18]]] In planning for an ultimate condition they overlook the fact that a city, often through necessity, is continually evolving in order to stay relevant, remain competitive and provide for its population. Is it possible that as these processes continue designers can tap into them and in doing so incorporate still elusive elements of the city ''“ephemerality, cacophony, multiplicity and simultaneity”''[[#_ftn19|[19]]]''? ''Would this then overcome the abstraction of urban design and the formalism of architectural thinking, observing the everyday as opposed to a utopian endstate?

This too is not without risk. Consumerist western cultures live with the obsession of immediacy, with cost and speed taking preference to quality and durability. Would this then result a disposable built environment, its material nature becoming throw-away and impermanent?

This point returns me to the topic of Firmitas discussed earlier. Firmitas, meaning strong, firm, steadfast has been extrapolated today to refer to permanence; however referring to it in its original context it is possible to have a temporary firmitas, a soundness of construction that is not intended to be permanent in one location or incarnation, but when constructed creates a sense of architectural delight to satisfy Vitruivan principles. Many forms of Filigree construction satisfy this for example, and are also more ecologically resolute through reduced material consumption.

Psychologically too, this also opens up an alternate avenue within the notion of permanence:

''Entities existing in the physical world and those that live only in the minds of human beings both have durability. But the two obey quite different rules, and the destiny of objects made of resistant matter varies from that of their counterparts in memory.''

When we speak of a building, or city, and speak of permanence we speak of more than just material strength. Irrespective of its incarnation, a beautifully crafted, coveted and required solution to an urban need will outlive any physical manifestation of material. Over time the material will change, nevertheless the intent that it originally embodied will remain; altered, adapted, moved or rebuilt; permanent in the city, but impermanent in construction, dynamic as opposed to static. <br/>

= '''SUMMARY/CONCLUSION'''<br/> =

If urban thinking continues along its current path the result will be evermore cities, with evermore generic conditions, a repetition of form set within a late modernist paradigm, an obsession with order and formal gestures; unable to fully represent the complexities and multiplicities of our near-augmented daily lives. Our current “professional” approach all too often creates sedated spaces, passive and neutral; a possible alternative may lie in adapting a collaborative, integrated approach. By handing the city back to the will of the public the urban fabric will adapt, becoming representative of the conditions of place and more meaningful to both residents and the urban fabric of a city. By no means does this make the process easier or more streamlined, it will remain a complex, messy and at times conflict-laden endeavour; however it will gain relevance, and become more representative of the everyday situations and rhythms of an urban space. <br/>

Cities are places of continuous change and in themselves are a reflection of the cultures and forces that shape them, there can be no endstate. The means for future approaches should better aim to represent this condition. An approach that could produce tangible results within short-timeframes. As we live in an increasingly multi-dimensional era so too should our urban fabric, no longer resigned as physical artefacts in the real world, but networked and meshed into the web of contemporary living.

<br/>

This Article was created by --[[User:Shmg|Shmg]] 22:10, 11 December 2012 (UTC)
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<div id="ftn1">
[[#_ftnref1|[1]]] R.Koolhaas, B. Mau, Generic City, ''S,M,L,XL,'' 1995 p.1253
</div><div id="ftn2">
[[#_ftnref2|[2]]] P.Bishop and L.Williams . ''Temporary City'', Routledge, 2012 P.11
</div><div id="ftn3">
[[#_ftnref3|[3]]] Vitruvius Pollio, and M. H. Morgan. 1960. Vitruvius : The ten books on architecture [De architectura.], Book I, Chap. 5.3
</div><div id="ftn4">
[[#_ftnref4|[4]]] C.Weir and M.Canning, ''Is Belfast still the place to be for retailers? ''[http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/business-news/is-this-still-the-place-to-be-for-retailers-16234315.html#ixzz2DvX9qf00 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/business-news/is-this-still-the-place-to-be-for-retailers-16234315.html#ixzz2DvX9qf00] (accessed 06 November 2012)
</div><div id="ftn5">
[[#_ftnref5|[5]]] Ibid
</div><div id="ftn6">
[[#_ftnref6|[6]]] Ibid
</div><div id="ftn7">
[[#_ftnref7|[7]]] T.Dwelly, A.Lake, and L.Thomson, ''Workhubs: Smart Workspaces for the Low Carbon Economy, ''2010, www.ruralsussex.org.uk/assets/assets/HHB-Workhubsfinal report2010%20part1.pdf (accessed 07 November 2012)
</div><div id="ftn8">
[[#_ftnref8|[8]]]K. Marx and F.Engels, ''The Communist Manifesto, ''1888 p.6
</div><div id="ftn9">
[[#_ftnref9|[9]]] Z.Bauman. ''Liquid Modernity. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, ''2006, pg.6
</div><div id="ftn10">
[[#_ftnref10|[10]]] J.Massey and B.Snyder. ''Occupying Wall Street: Spaces and Places of Political ''''Action''http://places.designobserver.com/feature/occupy-wall-street-places-and-spaces-of-political-action/35938/ (Accessed 10 November 2012)
</div><div id="ftn11">
[[#_ftnref11|[11]]] ibid
</div><div id="ftn12">
[[#_ftnref12|[12]]] 00:/, ''Compendium for the civic economy, ''00:/,2011 p.89
</div><div id="ftn13">
[[#_ftnref13|[13]]] J.Till, T.Schneider and N.Awan, ''Spatial Agency: Other Ways of Doing Architecture'' [http://www.spatialagency.net/database/muf http://www.spatialagency.net/database/muf] (Accessed 4- December 2012)<br/>
</div><div id="ftn14">
[[#_ftnref14|[14]]] ibid
</div><div id="ftn15">
[[#_ftnref15|[15]]] [http://www.kickstarter.com/ http://www.kickstarter.com/] (Accessed 28 November 2012)
</div><div id="ftn16">
[[#_ftnref16|[16]]] A.Lange, ''Against Kickstarter Urbaninsm, ''[http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/against-kickstarter-urbanism/34008/ http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/against-kickstarter-urbanism/34008/], 2012 (Accessed 24 November 2012)<br/>
</div><div id="ftn17">
= [[#_ftnref17|[17]]] K.Rosenfield ''Majority rules against Zumthor’s “Glass Underpants''” in Isny, [http://www.archdaily.com/208941/majority-rules-against-zumthor%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Cglass-underpants%E2%80%9D-in-isny/ http://www.archdaily.com/208941/majority-rules-against-zumthor%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Cglass-underpants%E2%80%9D-in-isny/] 2012 (Accessed 16 November 2012) =
</div><div id="ftn18">
[[#_ftnref18|[18]]]P.Bishop and L.Williams 2012. ''Temporary City'', Routledge p.19
</div><div id="ftn19">
[[#_ftnref19|[19]]] J.Kaliski, ''The Present City and the Practice of City Design'', in ''Everyday Urbanism'', J. Chase, M. Crawford, and J. Kaliski, Editors. 1999, The Monacelli Press, Inc.: New York. p
</div><div id="ftn20">
[[#_ftnref20|[20]]] R.Arnheim [1904-]. 1977. Thoughts on durability: Architecture as an affirmation of confidence. ''AIA Journal ''66, (7): 48-50.
</div></div>

City beautiful

2012-12-09T16:05:48Z

Shmg:

City beautiful

2012-12-09T16:04:28Z

Shmg:

“'''''H'''''<b>''appy is the city governed by the laws of art''”[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn1 [1]] stated Thomas Hastings; however the America of the 1890’s, the birthplace of the City Beautiful movement, did not comply with this statement. With an economic system in crisis through depression and civil upheaval, a shift in industry from agrarian means to more advanced secondary industries and corrupt governmental rule the USA was fast becoming a nation of great power and wealth; but a nation living in, and scarred by, spasmodic urban growth; lacking a “''conscious hand''”[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn2 [2]] (a logic/reasoning) to their planning. Such growth often resulted in a vibrant expanding outer city and an outdated, squalor, overpopulated inner core.[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn3 [3]] This visual blight was then intensified by modern intrusions; such as overhead cables and railroads, into the core of many mid-west cities, cores which resembled Frontier Villages rather than Industrial Powerhouses.[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn4 [4]]</b>

Many of the problems with these urban centres resided in their undisciplined growth. At this time architects refused to consider that they built more than individual buildings, but a much larger urban network. To this Hastings stated:

''''“...every man is for himself, more thoughtful of making a personal impression than doing a beautiful thing.”[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn5 [5]] ''

Architects were becoming more obsessed with creating architecture which was a credit to their name and skill for individual glory, rather than co-operating, ‘working in unison’ for the greater good. Relative to the grandeur of European cities such as Paris and Venice the USA was leagues behind; the rich upper classes of the USA were acutely aware of this, and in a rather selfish, self-aware approach they wanted to amend this, if not for their dignity then simply for that the fact that the quality of life in many European cities far surpassed the overpopulated centres in the USA.[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn6 [6]]

However the aims of urban planning in the USA had to deal with a different function than many of the cities which were inspirational to this movement. For example Venice relied on traders and markets to generate capital in an enigmatically bustling yet beautiful city; however a city such as New York or Chicago would base its function around manufacture. Therefore in order to create a truly great city plans had to create spatial wonder on a par with Venice, along with industrial productivity to rival Manchester or Birmingham.

The first physical step to amending and “beautifying” American cities was literally that. The 1893 World Exposition, held in Chicago was effectively a 1:1 model of how Daniel Burnham, John Root and Fredrick Law-Olmsted envisioned American architecture and urban planning.

Within this were a number of architectural/planning firsts. It was the first co-ordinated approach to planning in the sense that a team of architects, surveyors and landscape architects worked together to create a coherent city plan which was designed with a ''“conscious hand”'' and was to be followed ,without exception, at all times.

Added to this the exposition incorporated both art and sculpture into its design and on a vast scale, a feature of architecture which had been omitted in many urban areas in the USA, leading to slum like living conditions.[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn7 [7]]

Some of the most important themes that came from this exposition would have been the use of the Beaux-Arts Architectural styling, the concept of the White City and the harmony and balance with which the exposition was designed. However the main undercurrent theme of the entire exposition was the concept of American Exceptionalism[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn8 [8]], which the exposition was soon to become a symbol of, showing Americans, through demonstration, that the USA was the greatest nation on Earth.

{| width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"
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'''[[File:Burnham-1.jpg|649x510px|RTENOTITLE]]'''

'''Figure 1: Drawing of proposed civic centre of Chicago (Burnham and Bennett)'''
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The theory supporting the concept of the city beautiful movement was initially to improve the aesthetic of US cities. However by doing this with reference to the classic periods of architecture (Renascence, Classical and Greek) it quickly became more than simply “Urban Beautificaton.” Buildings were often finished in white, connected by long colonnades and surrounded by Sculpture and vistas[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn9 [9]], and though this may seem aesthetically driven the reasoning for this lay in the French inspiration for the plans of these new cities.

Baron Haussmann, responsible for the plan of Paris designed through “''seizing strategic points and opening up their approaches”''[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn10 [10]]; his method of designing urban areas was to “''make no little plans.''”[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn11 [11]] From this Burnham and his colleagues knew that an effective city plan is one which details every area and aspect of the city. This they applied to their work, most notably in the regional plan created for Chicago in 1909 (Burnham and Bennett.)[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn12 [12]] Unknown to them was the fact that Pierre Charles L'Enfant, regarded by some to be the forefather of the City Beautiful movement, used a similar approach to his work in the planning of Washington D.C in 1791. In this he made the Capitol a strategic point, upon which all major routes lead out from; in his words “prolonging (The Capitol) on far distant points of view.”[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn13 [13]]

{| width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"
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[[File:Central Station.jpg|RTENOTITLE]]

''''''Figure 2: Grand Central Station, New York '''''
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[[File:White House.jpg|656x551px|alt=White House.jpg]]

'''Figure 3: The White House '''
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The image of the Chicago plan (Figure 1) shows how Burnham based the city around a central public area, which can be accessed along long boulevards which cut right through the city to ensure that the centre of the city remains both visible and easily accessible even from the urban fringe of the city. This was soon to become a theme intrinsically linked with the City Beautiful.

Added to this the City Beautiful manifesto strove to enforce the monumental. This however was not to be executed through the scale or mass of a building, rather through ''“Consistency, Proportion and Detail”[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn14 [14]]'' within their design. Examples of this may be the White house in the city of Washington D.C (Figure 2), or Grand Central Station, New York (Figure 3). In both it is easy to see that they are not the largest buildings in the surrounding area, however their detail, consistency and dominance of their site leads them to appear as a more defiant, almost stronger building than any of the surrounding buildings, thus creating a sense of true monumentality without the need for excessive scale.

All plans for any city designed within the City Beautiful movement made prolific use of white materials and finishes. The reasoning for such a dramatic finish was to further the original aim of this movement. Clearly such a finish when applied to an entire urban area creates a strikingly beautiful city; however it was hoped that the ‘White City’ in all its opulence would facilitate civic and moral rectitude, ridding these urban areas from their former lives of crime and unrest, and tempting wealthy persons to gentrify these renewed urban centres.

The movement made great use of architectural detailing normally reserved for cathedrals or strictly for the upper classes of society; though seemingly glutinous and purely aesthetic this had a greater moral value. Train Stations, Shops and Warehouses were all designed to the same level of detail, regardless if it was to be used by the wealthiest or poorest members of society. Moreover the extensive use of art and sculpture throughout the city attempted to create a vivid backdrop to the lives of all in the city. In doing this planners hoped that the radically new cities would not descend into bleak urban gloom, but would rather facilitate the growth of a positive democratic culture. Effectively planners were demonstrating that everything was possible for every person, regardless of wealth or cultural background[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn15 [15]]. Once again we see the use of this movement as more than urban planning, but as a beacon of American Exceptionalism and the American Dream.

Throughout the time of the City Beautiful movement there were protagonists to the movement. Most notably Louis Sullivan, a cornerstone of the Chicago school of architecture, rather damningly stated that the implications of the City Beautiful movement would result in ''“...no American architecture for Fifty years.”''[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn16 [16]] A statement made due to the movements reliance on the theory and movements of European schools of design. This potential flaw was not to be condemning of the movement, as advocates of the city beautiful were quick to point out that European schools, such as L’Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris, was one of the few in the world teaching architects to design with the then new materials of reinforced concrete and steel. Irrespective of one’s moral stance on the issue it was the education of American architects in Europe which allowed them to design many of the new buildings (Department Stores, Large Warehouses, Hotels) required by the USA in a manner appropriate to the City Beautiful movement.[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn17 [17]]

So what of this movement today? Inevitably this movement, though in principle was perfect for the revolutionised USA, it remained so for only a few decades. In the end too few were able to see the core values of the movement, the principle of urban composition in tandem with an appreciation of art, and the often symbolic and powerful effects this can have.[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn18 [18]] Instead what was seen was a revival of an archaic form of European Architecture which could simply not be tolerated.

The movement may also have been condemned by the advancement in both technology and fashion, in the words of Christopher Tunnard:

''“...too often technology, fashion or ignorance dictates form, the movement is thus lost.”[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn19 [19]]''

As the USA accelerated into a more modern era it was perceived that to represent their civilisation using such old design techniques was grossly inappropriate. In my mind at least this seems to focus too much on the aesthetic; what has been left behind by this movement is much more significant and meaningful to urban design and planning today than is immediately apparent.

For the first time in Modern American History this movement made an attempt to base the planning of settlements on artistic compositional values to attain regularity, and harmonious design throughout a city; rules which had for centuries been applied to the architecture of an individual building, but not an entire urban area. This was contrary to the previous trend of focusing on the economic profitability, which often resulted in unregulated sprawl development, with the resulting social ills of crime and poverty.

In previous movements of urban planning nothing more than the arrangement of buildings was considered. The City Beautiful attempted to not only provide order to the layout of a city, but also order to the society inhabiting it, hoping that the order and harmony would rid the USA of the violence experienced during the Civil War and Revolution preceding the birth of this movement.

The movement also introduced the idea of a thoroughly thought out plan for an entire urban area, ridding cities of the menagerie of design were individual buildings may be of great architectural splendour; however the proximity of radically differing designs made for a confusing urban fabric. A trait often observed in preceding movements, such as the artistic planning movement.

My final lingering thought regarding this movement, and indeed the thought which drew me to researching the City Beautiful initially, was the concept behind the movement itself. Due to its then radical replace, not retain stance, it could be argued that it was this movement that initiated the thoughts that lead to radical and fiercely contested movements; such as modernism, the Utopian theories developed by CIAM (Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne), along with redevelopment and renewal approaches to planning.

'''Bibliography '''

Anthony Sutcliffe, ''Towards the Planned City''

(Blackwell, 1981)

Christopher Tunnard, ''The City of Man''

(Architectural Press, 1953)

John W. Reps, ''Monumental Washington, ''

(Prinston University Press Princeton, New Jersey, 1967)

(Julie K. Rose, ''City Beautiful: The 1901 plan for Washington D.C, (1996) ''

<'''[http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/citybeautiful/city.html http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/citybeautiful/city.html]'''> [accessed January 2010])

Kevin Forsythe and others, ''World’s Columbian Exposition (February 2007)''

<[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition]> [accessed 10 January 2010]
<div><br/>
----
<div id="ftn1">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref1 [1]] Christopher Tunnard, ''The City of Man'', Architectural Press, 1953, p.303
</div><div id="ftn2">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref2 [2]] Tunnard, p.325
</div><div id="ftn3">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref3 [3]] Julie K. Rose, ''City Beautiful: The 1901 plan for Washington D.C, (1996) ''

<'''[http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/citybeautiful/city.html http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/citybeautiful/city.html]'''> [accessed January 2010]
</div><div id="ftn4">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref4 [4]] Anthony Sutcliffe, ''Towards the Planned City'', Blackwell, 1981, p.96-97
</div><div id="ftn5">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref5 [5]] Ibid., p.303
</div><div id="ftn6">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref6 [6]] Sutcliffe, p.96-97
</div><div id="ftn7">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref7 [7]] Sutcliffe, p.98
</div><div id="ftn8">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref8 [8]] Kevin Forsythe and others, ''World’s Columbian Exposition (February 2007)''

<[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition]> [accessed 10 January 2010]
</div><div id="ftn9">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref9 [9]] Sutcliffe, p.98
</div><div id="ftn10">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref10 [10]] Tunnard, p.310
</div><div id="ftn11">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref11 [11]] Ibid., p.310
</div><div id="ftn12">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref12 [12]] Ibid., p.311
</div><div id="ftn13">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref13 [13]] Tunnard, p.311
</div><div id="ftn14">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref14 [14]] Ibid., p.321
</div><div id="ftn15">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref15 [15]] Anthony Sutcliffe, ''Towards the Planned City'', Blackwell, 1981, p.96-97
</div><div id="ftn16">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref16 [16]] Christopher Tunnard, ''The City of Man'', Architectural Press, 1953, p.304
</div><div id="ftn17">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref17 [17]] Ibid., p.325
</div><div id="ftn18">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref18 [18]] Ibid., p.327
</div><div id="ftn19">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref19 [19]] Ibid., p.327
</div></div>
This article was created by --[[User%3AShmg|Shmg]] 15:34, 9 December 2012 (UTC)

[[Category:Student_architect_essay_competition]]

City beautiful

2012-12-09T16:00:57Z

Shmg:

“'''''H'''''<b>''appy is the city governed by the laws of art''”[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn1 [1]] stated Thomas Hastings; however the America of the 1890’s, the birthplace of the City Beautiful movement, did not comply with this statement. With an economic system in crisis through depression and civil upheaval, a shift in industry from agrarian means to more advanced secondary industries and corrupt governmental rule the USA was fast becoming a nation of great power and wealth; but a nation living in, and scarred by, spasmodic urban growth; lacking a “''conscious hand''”[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn2 [2]] (a logic/reasoning) to their planning. Such growth often resulted in a vibrant expanding outer city and an outdated, squalor, overpopulated inner core.[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn3 [3]] This visual blight was then intensified by modern intrusions; such as overhead cables and railroads, into the core of many mid-west cities, cores which resembled Frontier Villages rather than Industrial Powerhouses.[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn4 [4]]</b>

Many of the problems with these urban centres resided in their undisciplined growth. At this time architects refused to consider that they built more than individual buildings, but a much larger urban network. To this Hastings stated:

''''“...every man is for himself, more thoughtful of making a personal impression than doing a beautiful thing.”[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn5 [5]] ''

Architects were becoming more obsessed with creating architecture which was a credit to their name and skill for individual glory, rather than co-operating, ‘working in unison’ for the greater good. Relative to the grandeur of European cities such as Paris and Venice the USA was leagues behind; the rich upper classes of the USA were acutely aware of this, and in a rather selfish, self-aware approach they wanted to amend this, if not for their dignity then simply for that the fact that the quality of life in many European cities far surpassed the overpopulated centres in the USA.[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn6 [6]]

However the aims of urban planning in the USA had to deal with a different function than many of the cities which were inspirational to this movement. For example Venice relied on traders and markets to generate capital in an enigmatically bustling yet beautiful city; however a city such as New York or Chicago would base its function around manufacture. Therefore in order to create a truly great city plans had to create spatial wonder on a par with Venice, along with industrial productivity to rival Manchester or Birmingham.

The first physical step to amending and “beautifying” American cities was literally that. The 1893 World Exposition, held in Chicago was effectively a 1:1 model of how Daniel Burnham, John Root and Fredrick Law-Olmsted envisioned American architecture and urban planning.

Within this were a number of architectural/planning firsts. It was the first co-ordinated approach to planning in the sense that a team of architects, surveyors and landscape architects worked together to create a coherent city plan which was designed with a ''“conscious hand”'' and was to be followed ,without exception, at all times.

Added to this the exposition incorporated both art and sculpture into its design and on a vast scale, a feature of architecture which had been omitted in many urban areas in the USA, leading to slum like living conditions.[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn7 [7]]

Some of the most important themes that came from this exposition would have been the use of the Beaux-Arts Architectural styling, the concept of the White City and the harmony and balance with which the exposition was designed. However the main undercurrent theme of the entire exposition was the concept of American Exceptionalism[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn8 [8]], which the exposition was soon to become a symbol of, showing Americans, through demonstration, that the USA was the greatest nation on Earth.

{| width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"
|-
| <div>
'''[[File:Burnham-1.jpg|RTENOTITLE]]'''

'''Figure 1: Drawing of proposed civic centre of Chicago (Burnham and Bennett)'''
</div>
|}

The theory supporting the concept of the city beautiful movement was initially to improve the aesthetic of US cities. However by doing this with reference to the classic periods of architecture (Renascence, Classical and Greek) it quickly became more than simply “Urban Beautificaton.” Buildings were often finished in white, connected by long colonnades and surrounded by Sculpture and vistas[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn9 [9]], and though this may seem aesthetically driven the reasoning for this lay in the French inspiration for the plans of these new cities.

Baron Haussmann, responsible for the plan of Paris designed through “''seizing strategic points and opening up their approaches”''[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn10 [10]]; his method of designing urban areas was to “''make no little plans.''”[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn11 [11]] From this Burnham and his colleagues knew that an effective city plan is one which details every area and aspect of the city. This they applied to their work, most notably in the regional plan created for Chicago in 1909 (Burnham and Bennett.)[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn12 [12]] Unknown to them was the fact that Pierre Charles L'Enfant, regarded by some to be the forefather of the City Beautiful movement, used a similar approach to his work in the planning of Washington D.C in 1791. In this he made the Capitol a strategic point, upon which all major routes lead out from; in his words “prolonging (The Capitol) on far distant points of view.”[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn13 [13]]

{| width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"
|-
| <div>
[[File:Central Station.jpg|RTENOTITLE]]

''''''Figure 2: Grand Central Station, New York '''''
</div>
|}

{| width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"
|-
| <div>
[[File:White House.jpg|582x500px]]

'''Figure 3: The White House '''
</div>
|}

The image of the Chicago plan (Figure 1) shows how Burnham based the city around a central public area, which can be accessed along long boulevards which cut right through the city to ensure that the centre of the city remains both visible and easily accessible even from the urban fringe of the city. This was soon to become a theme intrinsically linked with the City Beautiful.

Added to this the City Beautiful manifesto strove to enforce the monumental. This however was not to be executed through the scale or mass of a building, rather through ''“Consistency, Proportion and Detail”[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn14 [14]]'' within their design. Examples of this may be the White house in the city of Washington D.C (Figure 2), or Grand Central Station, New York (Figure 3). In both it is easy to see that they are not the largest buildings in the surrounding area, however their detail, consistency and dominance of their site leads them to appear as a more defiant, almost stronger building than any of the surrounding buildings, thus creating a sense of true monumentality without the need for excessive scale.

All plans for any city designed within the City Beautiful movement made prolific use of white materials and finishes. The reasoning for such a dramatic finish was to further the original aim of this movement. Clearly such a finish when applied to an entire urban area creates a strikingly beautiful city; however it was hoped that the ‘White City’ in all its opulence would facilitate civic and moral rectitude, ridding these urban areas from their former lives of crime and unrest, and tempting wealthy persons to gentrify these renewed urban centres.

The movement made great use of architectural detailing normally reserved for cathedrals or strictly for the upper classes of society; though seemingly glutinous and purely aesthetic this had a greater moral value. Train Stations, Shops and Warehouses were all designed to the same level of detail, regardless if it was to be used by the wealthiest or poorest members of society. Moreover the extensive use of art and sculpture throughout the city attempted to create a vivid backdrop to the lives of all in the city. In doing this planners hoped that the radically new cities would not descend into bleak urban gloom, but would rather facilitate the growth of a positive democratic culture. Effectively planners were demonstrating that everything was possible for every person, regardless of wealth or cultural background[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn15 [15]]. Once again we see the use of this movement as more than urban planning, but as a beacon of American Exceptionalism and the American Dream.

Throughout the time of the City Beautiful movement there were protagonists to the movement. Most notably Louis Sullivan, a cornerstone of the Chicago school of architecture, rather damningly stated that the implications of the City Beautiful movement would result in ''“...no American architecture for Fifty years.”''[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn16 [16]] A statement made due to the movements reliance on the theory and movements of European schools of design. This potential flaw was not to be condemning of the movement, as advocates of the city beautiful were quick to point out that European schools, such as L’Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris, was one of the few in the world teaching architects to design with the then new materials of reinforced concrete and steel. Irrespective of one’s moral stance on the issue it was the education of American architects in Europe which allowed them to design many of the new buildings (Department Stores, Large Warehouses, Hotels) required by the USA in a manner appropriate to the City Beautiful movement.[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn17 [17]]

So what of this movement today? Inevitably this movement, though in principle was perfect for the revolutionised USA, it remained so for only a few decades. In the end too few were able to see the core values of the movement, the principle of urban composition in tandem with an appreciation of art, and the often symbolic and powerful effects this can have.[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn18 [18]] Instead what was seen was a revival of an archaic form of European Architecture which could simply not be tolerated.

The movement may also have been condemned by the advancement in both technology and fashion, in the words of Christopher Tunnard:

''“...too often technology, fashion or ignorance dictates form, the movement is thus lost.”[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn19 [19]]''

As the USA accelerated into a more modern era it was perceived that to represent their civilisation using such old design techniques was grossly inappropriate. In my mind at least this seems to focus too much on the aesthetic; what has been left behind by this movement is much more significant and meaningful to urban design and planning today than is immediately apparent.

For the first time in Modern American History this movement made an attempt to base the planning of settlements on artistic compositional values to attain regularity, and harmonious design throughout a city; rules which had for centuries been applied to the architecture of an individual building, but not an entire urban area. This was contrary to the previous trend of focusing on the economic profitability, which often resulted in unregulated sprawl development, with the resulting social ills of crime and poverty.

In previous movements of urban planning nothing more than the arrangement of buildings was considered. The City Beautiful attempted to not only provide order to the layout of a city, but also order to the society inhabiting it, hoping that the order and harmony would rid the USA of the violence experienced during the Civil War and Revolution preceding the birth of this movement.

The movement also introduced the idea of a thoroughly thought out plan for an entire urban area, ridding cities of the menagerie of design were individual buildings may be of great architectural splendour; however the proximity of radically differing designs made for a confusing urban fabric. A trait often observed in preceding movements, such as the artistic planning movement.

My final lingering thought regarding this movement, and indeed the thought which drew me to researching the City Beautiful initially, was the concept behind the movement itself. Due to its then radical replace, not retain stance, it could be argued that it was this movement that initiated the thoughts that lead to radical and fiercely contested movements; such as modernism, the Utopian theories developed by CIAM (Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne), along with redevelopment and renewal approaches to planning.

'''Bibliography '''

Anthony Sutcliffe, ''Towards the Planned City''

(Blackwell, 1981)

Christopher Tunnard, ''The City of Man''

(Architectural Press, 1953)

John W. Reps, ''Monumental Washington, ''

(Prinston University Press Princeton, New Jersey, 1967)

(Julie K. Rose, ''City Beautiful: The 1901 plan for Washington D.C, (1996) ''

<'''[http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/citybeautiful/city.html http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/citybeautiful/city.html]'''> [accessed January 2010])

Kevin Forsythe and others, ''World’s Columbian Exposition (February 2007)''

<[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition]> [accessed 10 January 2010]
<div><br/>
----
<div id="ftn1">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref1 [1]] Christopher Tunnard, ''The City of Man'', Architectural Press, 1953, p.303
</div><div id="ftn2">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref2 [2]] Tunnard, p.325
</div><div id="ftn3">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref3 [3]] Julie K. Rose, ''City Beautiful: The 1901 plan for Washington D.C, (1996) ''

<'''[http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/citybeautiful/city.html http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/citybeautiful/city.html]'''> [accessed January 2010]
</div><div id="ftn4">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref4 [4]] Anthony Sutcliffe, ''Towards the Planned City'', Blackwell, 1981, p.96-97
</div><div id="ftn5">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref5 [5]] Ibid., p.303
</div><div id="ftn6">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref6 [6]] Sutcliffe, p.96-97
</div><div id="ftn7">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref7 [7]] Sutcliffe, p.98
</div><div id="ftn8">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref8 [8]] Kevin Forsythe and others, ''World’s Columbian Exposition (February 2007)''

<[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition]> [accessed 10 January 2010]
</div><div id="ftn9">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref9 [9]] Sutcliffe, p.98
</div><div id="ftn10">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref10 [10]] Tunnard, p.310
</div><div id="ftn11">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref11 [11]] Ibid., p.310
</div><div id="ftn12">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref12 [12]] Ibid., p.311
</div><div id="ftn13">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref13 [13]] Tunnard, p.311
</div><div id="ftn14">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref14 [14]] Ibid., p.321
</div><div id="ftn15">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref15 [15]] Anthony Sutcliffe, ''Towards the Planned City'', Blackwell, 1981, p.96-97
</div><div id="ftn16">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref16 [16]] Christopher Tunnard, ''The City of Man'', Architectural Press, 1953, p.304
</div><div id="ftn17">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref17 [17]] Ibid., p.325
</div><div id="ftn18">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref18 [18]] Ibid., p.327
</div><div id="ftn19">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref19 [19]] Ibid., p.327
</div></div>
This article was created by --[[User%3AShmg|Shmg]] 15:34, 9 December 2012 (UTC)

[[Category:Student_architect_essay_competition]]

File:White House.jpg

2012-12-09T15:59:08Z

Shmg:

City beautiful

2012-12-09T15:57:14Z

Shmg:

“'''''H'''''<b>''appy is the city governed by the laws of art''”[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn1 [1]] stated Thomas Hastings; however the America of the 1890’s, the birthplace of the City Beautiful movement, did not comply with this statement. With an economic system in crisis through depression and civil upheaval, a shift in industry from agrarian means to more advanced secondary industries and corrupt governmental rule the USA was fast becoming a nation of great power and wealth; but a nation living in, and scarred by, spasmodic urban growth; lacking a “''conscious hand''”[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn2 [2]] (a logic/reasoning) to their planning. Such growth often resulted in a vibrant expanding outer city and an outdated, squalor, overpopulated inner core.[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn3 [3]] This visual blight was then intensified by modern intrusions; such as overhead cables and railroads, into the core of many mid-west cities, cores which resembled Frontier Villages rather than Industrial Powerhouses.[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn4 [4]]</b>

Many of the problems with these urban centres resided in their undisciplined growth. At this time architects refused to consider that they built more than individual buildings, but a much larger urban network. To this Hastings stated:

''''“...every man is for himself, more thoughtful of making a personal impression than doing a beautiful thing.”[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn5 [5]] ''

Architects were becoming more obsessed with creating architecture which was a credit to their name and skill for individual glory, rather than co-operating, ‘working in unison’ for the greater good. Relative to the grandeur of European cities such as Paris and Venice the USA was leagues behind; the rich upper classes of the USA were acutely aware of this, and in a rather selfish, self-aware approach they wanted to amend this, if not for their dignity then simply for that the fact that the quality of life in many European cities far surpassed the overpopulated centres in the USA.[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn6 [6]]

However the aims of urban planning in the USA had to deal with a different function than many of the cities which were inspirational to this movement. For example Venice relied on traders and markets to generate capital in an enigmatically bustling yet beautiful city; however a city such as New York or Chicago would base its function around manufacture. Therefore in order to create a truly great city plans had to create spatial wonder on a par with Venice, along with industrial productivity to rival Manchester or Birmingham.

The first physical step to amending and “beautifying” American cities was literally that. The 1893 World Exposition, held in Chicago was effectively a 1:1 model of how Daniel Burnham, John Root and Fredrick Law-Olmsted envisioned American architecture and urban planning.

Within this were a number of architectural/planning firsts. It was the first co-ordinated approach to planning in the sense that a team of architects, surveyors and landscape architects worked together to create a coherent city plan which was designed with a ''“conscious hand”'' and was to be followed ,without exception, at all times.

Added to this the exposition incorporated both art and sculpture into its design and on a vast scale, a feature of architecture which had been omitted in many urban areas in the USA, leading to slum like living conditions.[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn7 [7]]

Some of the most important themes that came from this exposition would have been the use of the Beaux-Arts Architectural styling, the concept of the White City and the harmony and balance with which the exposition was designed. However the main undercurrent theme of the entire exposition was the concept of American Exceptionalism[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn8 [8]], which the exposition was soon to become a symbol of, showing Americans, through demonstration, that the USA was the greatest nation on Earth.

{| width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"
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'''[[File:Burnham-1.jpg|RTENOTITLE]]'''

'''Figure 1: Drawing of proposed civic centre of Chicago (Burnham and Bennett)'''
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The theory supporting the concept of the city beautiful movement was initially to improve the aesthetic of US cities. However by doing this with reference to the classic periods of architecture (Renascence, Classical and Greek) it quickly became more than simply “Urban Beautificaton.” Buildings were often finished in white, connected by long colonnades and surrounded by Sculpture and vistas[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn9 [9]], and though this may seem aesthetically driven the reasoning for this lay in the French inspiration for the plans of these new cities.

Baron Haussmann, responsible for the plan of Paris designed through “''seizing strategic points and opening up their approaches”''[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn10 [10]]; his method of designing urban areas was to “''make no little plans.''”[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn11 [11]] From this Burnham and his colleagues knew that an effective city plan is one which details every area and aspect of the city. This they applied to their work, most notably in the regional plan created for Chicago in 1909 (Burnham and Bennett.)[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn12 [12]] Unknown to them was the fact that Pierre Charles L'Enfant, regarded by some to be the forefather of the City Beautiful movement, used a similar approach to his work in the planning of Washington D.C in 1791. In this he made the Capitol a strategic point, upon which all major routes lead out from; in his words “prolonging (The Capitol) on far distant points of view.”[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn13 [13]]

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[[File:Central_Station.jpg]]

''''''Figure 2: Grand Central Station, New York '''''
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file:///C:\Users\Shea\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image005.jpg

'''Figure 3: The White House '''
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The image of the Chicago plan (Figure 1) shows how Burnham based the city around a central public area, which can be accessed along long boulevards which cut right through the city to ensure that the centre of the city remains both visible and easily accessible even from the urban fringe of the city. This was soon to become a theme intrinsically linked with the City Beautiful.

Added to this the City Beautiful manifesto strove to enforce the monumental. This however was not to be executed through the scale or mass of a building, rather through ''“Consistency, Proportion and Detail”[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn14 [14]]'' within their design. Examples of this may be the White house in the city of Washington D.C (Figure 2), or Grand Central Station, New York (Figure 3). In both it is easy to see that they are not the largest buildings in the surrounding area, however their detail, consistency and dominance of their site leads them to appear as a more defiant, almost stronger building than any of the surrounding buildings, thus creating a sense of true monumentality without the need for excessive scale.

All plans for any city designed within the City Beautiful movement made prolific use of white materials and finishes. The reasoning for such a dramatic finish was to further the original aim of this movement. Clearly such a finish when applied to an entire urban area creates a strikingly beautiful city; however it was hoped that the ‘White City’ in all its opulence would facilitate civic and moral rectitude, ridding these urban areas from their former lives of crime and unrest, and tempting wealthy persons to gentrify these renewed urban centres.

The movement made great use of architectural detailing normally reserved for cathedrals or strictly for the upper classes of society; though seemingly glutinous and purely aesthetic this had a greater moral value. Train Stations, Shops and Warehouses were all designed to the same level of detail, regardless if it was to be used by the wealthiest or poorest members of society. Moreover the extensive use of art and sculpture throughout the city attempted to create a vivid backdrop to the lives of all in the city. In doing this planners hoped that the radically new cities would not descend into bleak urban gloom, but would rather facilitate the growth of a positive democratic culture. Effectively planners were demonstrating that everything was possible for every person, regardless of wealth or cultural background[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn15 [15]]. Once again we see the use of this movement as more than urban planning, but as a beacon of American Exceptionalism and the American Dream.

Throughout the time of the City Beautiful movement there were protagonists to the movement. Most notably Louis Sullivan, a cornerstone of the Chicago school of architecture, rather damningly stated that the implications of the City Beautiful movement would result in ''“...no American architecture for Fifty years.”''[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn16 [16]] A statement made due to the movements reliance on the theory and movements of European schools of design. This potential flaw was not to be condemning of the movement, as advocates of the city beautiful were quick to point out that European schools, such as L’Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris, was one of the few in the world teaching architects to design with the then new materials of reinforced concrete and steel. Irrespective of one’s moral stance on the issue it was the education of American architects in Europe which allowed them to design many of the new buildings (Department Stores, Large Warehouses, Hotels) required by the USA in a manner appropriate to the City Beautiful movement.[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn17 [17]]

So what of this movement today? Inevitably this movement, though in principle was perfect for the revolutionised USA, it remained so for only a few decades. In the end too few were able to see the core values of the movement, the principle of urban composition in tandem with an appreciation of art, and the often symbolic and powerful effects this can have.[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn18 [18]] Instead what was seen was a revival of an archaic form of European Architecture which could simply not be tolerated.

The movement may also have been condemned by the advancement in both technology and fashion, in the words of Christopher Tunnard:

''“...too often technology, fashion or ignorance dictates form, the movement is thus lost.”[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftn19 [19]]''

As the USA accelerated into a more modern era it was perceived that to represent their civilisation using such old design techniques was grossly inappropriate. In my mind at least this seems to focus too much on the aesthetic; what has been left behind by this movement is much more significant and meaningful to urban design and planning today than is immediately apparent.

For the first time in Modern American History this movement made an attempt to base the planning of settlements on artistic compositional values to attain regularity, and harmonious design throughout a city; rules which had for centuries been applied to the architecture of an individual building, but not an entire urban area. This was contrary to the previous trend of focusing on the economic profitability, which often resulted in unregulated sprawl development, with the resulting social ills of crime and poverty.

In previous movements of urban planning nothing more than the arrangement of buildings was considered. The City Beautiful attempted to not only provide order to the layout of a city, but also order to the society inhabiting it, hoping that the order and harmony would rid the USA of the violence experienced during the Civil War and Revolution preceding the birth of this movement.

The movement also introduced the idea of a thoroughly thought out plan for an entire urban area, ridding cities of the menagerie of design were individual buildings may be of great architectural splendour; however the proximity of radically differing designs made for a confusing urban fabric. A trait often observed in preceding movements, such as the artistic planning movement.

My final lingering thought regarding this movement, and indeed the thought which drew me to researching the City Beautiful initially, was the concept behind the movement itself. Due to its then radical replace, not retain stance, it could be argued that it was this movement that initiated the thoughts that lead to radical and fiercely contested movements; such as modernism, the Utopian theories developed by CIAM (Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne), along with redevelopment and renewal approaches to planning.

'''Bibliography '''

Anthony Sutcliffe, ''Towards the Planned City''

(Blackwell, 1981)

Christopher Tunnard, ''The City of Man''

(Architectural Press, 1953)

John W. Reps, ''Monumental Washington, ''

(Prinston University Press Princeton, New Jersey, 1967)

(Julie K. Rose, ''City Beautiful: The 1901 plan for Washington D.C, (1996) ''

<'''[http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/citybeautiful/city.html http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/citybeautiful/city.html]'''> [accessed January 2010])

Kevin Forsythe and others, ''World’s Columbian Exposition (February 2007)''

<[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition]> [accessed 10 January 2010]
<div><br/>
----
<div id="ftn1">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref1 [1]] Christopher Tunnard, ''The City of Man'', Architectural Press, 1953, p.303
</div><div id="ftn2">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref2 [2]] Tunnard, p.325
</div><div id="ftn3">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref3 [3]] Julie K. Rose, ''City Beautiful: The 1901 plan for Washington D.C, (1996) ''

<'''[http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/citybeautiful/city.html http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/citybeautiful/city.html]'''> [accessed January 2010]
</div><div id="ftn4">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref4 [4]] Anthony Sutcliffe, ''Towards the Planned City'', Blackwell, 1981, p.96-97
</div><div id="ftn5">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref5 [5]] Ibid., p.303
</div><div id="ftn6">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref6 [6]] Sutcliffe, p.96-97
</div><div id="ftn7">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref7 [7]] Sutcliffe, p.98
</div><div id="ftn8">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref8 [8]] Kevin Forsythe and others, ''World’s Columbian Exposition (February 2007)''

<[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition]> [accessed 10 January 2010]
</div><div id="ftn9">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref9 [9]] Sutcliffe, p.98
</div><div id="ftn10">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref10 [10]] Tunnard, p.310
</div><div id="ftn11">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref11 [11]] Ibid., p.310
</div><div id="ftn12">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref12 [12]] Ibid., p.311
</div><div id="ftn13">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref13 [13]] Tunnard, p.311
</div><div id="ftn14">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref14 [14]] Ibid., p.321
</div><div id="ftn15">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref15 [15]] Anthony Sutcliffe, ''Towards the Planned City'', Blackwell, 1981, p.96-97
</div><div id="ftn16">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref16 [16]] Christopher Tunnard, ''The City of Man'', Architectural Press, 1953, p.304
</div><div id="ftn17">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref17 [17]] Ibid., p.325
</div><div id="ftn18">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref18 [18]] Ibid., p.327
</div><div id="ftn19">
[http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/index.php?title=City_Beautiful&action=edit&redlink=1#_ftnref19 [19]] Ibid., p.327
</div></div>
This article was created by --[[User%3AShmg|Shmg]] 15:34, 9 December 2012 (UTC)

[[Category:Student_architect_essay_competition]]

Shmg: Created page with " Name: Shea McGibbon Qualification: Bsc Architecture University: Queen's University Belfast (QUB) 2009-2012 Occupation: Part 1 Architectural Assistant, MaccreanorLavington ..."

Name: Shea McGibbon

Qualification: Bsc Architecture

University: Queen's

University Belfast (QUB) 2009-2012

Occupation: Part 1 Architectural Assistant, MaccreanorLavington Architects, Rotterdam