Good city thinking The following essay addresses the discourse around the good city, trying to understand the importance of having a thinking on the topic rather than providing solutions for a good city. Providing solutions for the good city pose questions such as: good for whom? what is good? etc. These questions prompt that good and city are two words that form more questions than answers. In these nebula of questions urban design plays an important role because its nature is in the urban and therefore in the city. As Madanipour points out, urban design occupies a potentially strategic place in shaping the city of the future (Madanipour, 2006). Madanipour uses two words that are fundamental in this conversation: city and future. It is therefore important that urban design is concerned not only with the present but also with a long term thinking about cities: the future that is open-ended, even though not infinitely malleable (Friedmann, 2000). The questions that arise are: What does thinking about the future means? How is possible to imagine something in the future? What is the role of this exercise? City and Society When thinking about the good city naturally every person imagines a physical condition to be improved but the physical environment is not the only force that shapes the city. For example, city and urban society cannot be detached (Lefebvre, 1970/2003). Hence the urban society is, combined with the city, an important force in urban development. “Thus, no discussion of the good life can ignore the particularities of the urban way of life” (Amin, 2007, p.1012). To aim for a good city therefore a good society has to be formed. Towards a better view: Utopia and its importance 'Good society for a Good city' ... ... middle of paper ... ...temporary Nigerian novels 1" in Journal of Postcolonial Writing, Routledge, 2008, Vol. 44(4), pp. 321-332. Boyer, M. Christine, 2008, "The many mirrors of Foucault and their architectural reflections" in Michiel Dehaene & Lieven De Cauter, Heterotopia and the city: public space in a postcivil society, Routledge, London. Prozorov, Sergei, 2010, " Why Giorgio Agamben is an optimist" in Philosophy and Social Criticism, Vol. 39(9), 2010, Sage, University of Helsinki, Finland. Wilkinson, Julia, 1993, "A Chinese Magistrate's Fort", in Greg Girard, Ian Lambot, City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City, 1993, Chiddingfold: Watermark. Greg Girard, Ian Lambot, City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City, 1993, Chiddingfold: Watermark. Kipfer, Saber, Wieditz, "Henri Lefebvre: Debates and controversies", in Progress in Human Geography, 37(1), 2013, Sage, pp. 115-134.
Wigley, Mark. "Untitled: The Housing of Pleasure." Sexuality and Space. Ed. Beatriz Colomina. Princeton Papers on Architecture, 1992. 327-389.
Who hasn’t seen the critical examples of overpopulation that are always depicted with large cities, tall buildings and many people? It is a common thought that cities are the cause of air pollution and are in no way thought of to be sustainable or as having a smaller footprint than those residing in rural zones. Yet, this chapter shows that the criticisms have no bearing when it comes to cities and rather, cities are better in terms of stronger economies, those who live in cities have smaller families, and the more the city is developed the lower the level of poverty (unlike rural areas which shows to have a higher level of poverty). The misconception that cities are actually overusing resources and contributing to environmental degradation is not the case. The chapter cites that this is not so, it is rather “industries and commercial and industrial enterprises (or corporations) and middle and upper income groups with high consumption lifestyles.” (56) These wealthier people who want to live more luxuriously, often live on acres of land with multiple cars, thus do not often reside in the city. The chapter continues to list the positive roles of cities, for example, “lower costs per household and per enterprise for the provision of piped, treated water supplies…collection and disposal of human wastes.” (56) Another positive is the efficient use from recycled waste, also a smaller demand for land relative to the population in cities. The fourth advantage is listed as more efficient heating techniques, and fifthly, a greater use of public transportation. The rich culture found in cities is also cited in the chapter. It concludes with the need for “good governance,” whereby the goals are met and cost is not past onto others, without it the cities are left to be sources of pollution, sickness, and waste
city is like a cycle everyone has a part and does something that helps the city function. However
A general situation of urbanization trend in developing countries and developed countries is increasing. In 18th Century only 3% of the world total population lived in urban areas but as projected in 2000 this number will increase at above 50% (UN as cited in Elliot, 1999, p. 144). According to UN (as cited in Elliot, 1999, p.144), it is figured that the total urban population in developing countries has increased from approximately 400 millions people in 1950 to approximately 2000 millions people in 2000. At the same time, total urban population in developed countries is double...
Competition has increased extensively as the ideology of a ‘global village’ has grown in support and has become a goal that many cities are attempting to achieve. This has resulted in cities adopting ingenious and original strategies in order to remain ahead of the game and these strategies have ensued cities to grow into creative cities. But what exactly is a creative city? Sire Peter Hall, an English professor, wrote in his book “Cities in Civilisation” that the phenomenon of the creative city is one that belongs to every age and no city constantly displays creativity.
The cities can be considered either negative or positive depending on pattern that it chooses to follow. The Tipping Points that lead to the Broken Windows Theory serve as minor factors that will lead to reformed habits which will guide the environment in the cities into patterns that will help them stray away from the decline of the city..
In 1516 Thomas More published Utopia, thereby kindling for the Renaissance as well as four our own times a literary ritual designating an idyllic future society and by outcome evaluating the society already in existence. Throughout history, humans have obsessed with projected Utopias of the world that revealed their perception of it. These multidimensional projections can be viewed as naiveties that leaked to the peripheral world nothing more than subjective thoughts. Half a century after More, Leon Battista Alberti promoted a parallel Utopian tradition of designing the Utopian city, one dedicated to Francesco Sforza. This utopian urban planning initiated a multitude of efforts to install a desirable geometrical pattern for future living without narrating how to achieve it. Another few centuries into the future and we view how this obsession with planning for a Utopia still lives through Le Corbusier’s Villa Radieuse master plan. A master plan proposed as the resolution to the enigma of human existence in an industrialized world. Nonetheless with the acknowledgment of the concept of Utopia and the designing for this we come to ponder even more on whether a Utopia can truly exist aside from within ones mind and whether it turns to dystopia when physically established. Can one collective Utopian vision exist or does a Utopic city stem from the coexistence of a variety of utopian thoughts and ideas.
description of the construction of a good city. The good city is a relation to
The theory was proposed by the publication of the book Garden Cities of To-morrow. The author proposed more than harmony between man and nature, in fact he introduced a policy to maintain the social balance, threatened by the sordid conditions of urbanization of English folk layers during the nineteenth century. This concept of urbanization beyond plan forms, functions, financial and administrative resources of an ideal, healthy and beautiful city mainly considers the satisfaction of the masses, controlling their concentration in metropolitan centres. Initially, Howard uses diagrams to warrant the creation of a garden city.
According to Geertz (1973) a society can be defined as ̒ the actual arrangement of social relations.̓ Due to the fact that societies can be influenced by a number of factors, there are likely to be several social problems in each community. Moreover, these problems can lead to deteriorated conditions especially if governments and organisations do not act toward them. Regarding this significant connection between individuals and their communities, it is worth investigating these problems in order to reach some solutions or reduce the noticeable effects of these issues. This essay will limit itself to the predicaments appearing above the age of in British cities. In general, these cities usually suffer from three main problems.
As previously implied, cities are currently the antithesis of even the barest sense of sustainability. To succinctly define the term “sustainability” would be to say that it represents living within one’s needs. When it comes to the city, with almost zero local sources of food or goods, one’s means is pushed and twisted to include resources originating far beyond the boundaries of the urban landscape. Those within cities paradoxically have both minimal and vast options when it comes to continuing their existence, yet this blurred reality is entirely reliant on the resources that a city can pull in with its constantly active economy.
Over the past few centuries, after mankind had almost fully embraced the thought of living life within the confines of a city, the people in charge of the maintenance and upkeep of the sprawling metropolises that now dominate the world scene have used methods that are equally alike and different in order to accomplish their goals. Often considered one of the first great city planners of pre-modern times, Haussmann was given the task to recreate the sprawling mass that Paris had become into a landmark of both beauty and power. His personal style, although having its own fair share of critics, is now considered to have been at least fairly successful in completely retrofitting and modernizing the monuments, the roadways and the main public systems that we have grown accustomed to seeing in today’s Paris. Many of the same schemes that Haussmann employed his citywide power are still in use today, but as time went on modern planners have also brought new ideas to the table. Robert Moses was able to completely revolutionize the thought of how much power a city planner could actually have, but at the same time he displaced thousands of people. His housing architecture and magnificent public buildings made Frank Lloyd Wright famous, but history remembers him most for his attempt to create the perfect planned community. Most recently the leaders of the Masdar project have been grabbing the limelight in the world of city planning, as they attempt to forever change how human beings interact in the urban area around them. As it is with everything involving millions of people, the architects mentioned above laid plans that had both pros and cons in the eyes of the population. Perhaps if all of the more effective methods that these great vision...
As the result of urbanization, cities have more problems to overcome such as pollution, overpopulation, drug abuse, congestion, crime, poverty, traffic jam, slum areas, and many more. There must be something to solve these problems. Government and citizens should be involved because taking care of city problems can’,t be done entirely by government. The community can be even more successful because it deals directly with problem areas.
However, architecture is not just the future, after all, buildings are intended to be viewed, traversed and lived by us, people. Despite this, many architects today rarely think deeply about human nature, disregarding their main subject matter in favour for efficiency and an architecture of spectacle. In this there seems to be a misconception that underlies much of architecture, that is, human’s relationship with the city, the building and nature. In much of today’s architecture, people are treated with as much concern much as we treat cars, purely mechanically. The post-modern search for the ‘new’ and ‘novel’ has come to disregard the profound affect design has on our lives, impacting our senses, shaping our psyche and disposition.
If there are more people, more, density, and a good mixture of uses, it will be a safer city... You cannot find a single city that does not wish to make the city center more vibrant or livelier.” This quote from Jan Gehl, the principal of Gehl Architects, illustrates the importance of having a sustainable city. The Central Park project has showcased to the world on how the landscape we design or occupy, can affect our daily activities and surrounding neighborhood. It sets an example of how design must be appreciated as a crucial factor in sustainability and emphasized on the fact the connection of people and nature should not be ignored. All in all, landscape architects are the ones to determine the physical characteristics of the public realm environment, to decide whether a city is attractive to people and whether people will choose to live in the city in the long