The car and the modern city:

utopia remix

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 The car and the modern city:
utopia remix
1910s - WW1
1920s - futurism Metropolis Fritz Lang
1930s - Athens Charter 1933 Incr. use of cars and other motor transport in cities - deaths
1950s - utopia of motorised highways - magic highway, Buckminster Fuller
1970s - cars dominate streets, highway protests ‘reclaim the streets’
1990s - cycling and rise of neighbourhoods - widening accessibility, disability activism
2000s - parkour and alleycat, carnivalesque rebellion
2001 - urban terrorism NY WTC 9.11.2001,
2005 - urban terrorism London 7.7.2005
2007 - "collapse of fringe drivable suburban housing prices as a fundamental cause of the
mortgage collapse”*
 

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 The car and the modern city:
utopia remix
Task:
write five things:
how 'modern' occupation of inner city streets
changed, 1910-2010

What is YOUR utopia?

 

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 The car and the modern city:
1. Metropolis 1928

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PAdQ5anhZE

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 NYC 1928

• Driving Around New York City - 1928

• Look for accidents / near collisions
• Driving licence issues
• Appreciation of the Urban scene
• Effect of time
• Who and what comprises the urban street

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 The car and the modern city:
utopia remix

Task:
write five things:
how 'modern' occupation of inner city
streets changed
1910-2010
 

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 NYC 1928

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

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 The car and the modern city:
utopia remix
1.Utopias, 'Sustainism' and architecture: between the possible and the impossible Architects Journal / 24
February, 2011 , by James Pallister

Two new books – and fear of climate change – make James Pallister reconsider architecture’s relationship with
utopian thought

2. Noir Urbanisms: Dystopic Images of the Modern City, Gyan Prakash, ed.

3. Work of Dionisio Gonzales 1965, Sevilla

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

"Like the Marxists and the liberals, Le Corbusier imagined humans working in square, utilitarian office blocks with
no decoration whatsoever, and their residential buildings would be almost exactly the same... It is the vision of a
brutal spirit." (Michel Houellebecq, The Map and the Territory, 2010)

4. 'Against Utopias' paper for Bare House (in Press 2011) book by Taina Rajanti
(also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhpAxTM_hLU : Finnish)
Dr. Taina Rajanti (Urban Planning and Design, Department of Architecture, Helsinki University of Technology)
NIMBYs, LULUs and Other Unwanted Phenomena of Urban Planning 2004

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 1.Utopias, 'Sustainism' and architecture: between the possible and the impossible Architects Journal / 24
February, 2011 , by James Pallister

Two new books – and fear of climate change – make James Pallister reconsider architecture’s relationship with
utopian thought

2. Noir Urbanisms: Dystopic Images of the Modern City, Gyan Prakash, ed.

3. Work of Dionisio Gonzales 1965, Sevilla

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

"Like the Marxists and the liberals, Le Corbusier imagined humans working in square, utilitarian office blocks with
no decoration whatsoever, and their residential buildings would be almost exactly the same... It is the vision of a
brutal spirit." (Michel Houellebecq, The Map and the Territory, 2010)

4. 'Against Utopias' paper for Bare House (in Press 2011) book by Taina Rajanti
(also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhpAxTM_hLU : Finnish)
Dr. Taina Rajanti (Urban Planning and Design, Department of Architecture, Helsinki University of Technology)
NIMBYs, LULUs and Other Unwanted Phenomena of Urban Planning 2004

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 cities
• mobility – compressed space
• freedom to move
• upward social mobility?
• labour saving ‘efficiency’ through proximity
• contribution to modern fossil fuel economy
• health and transport policy
• lower settlement density possible

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

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

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 cities
• injury
• anxiety
• loss of autonomy
• effect on exercise
• pollution / environment
• health and transport policy
• density of settlement

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 The car and the modern city:
3. Parkour

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

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 texts
• Vers une architecture, Le Corbusier c1923

• The Death and Life of Great American Cities 1961

• Buchanan Report - Traffic in Towns 1962

• Mixed Blessing: the Motor in Britain 1958

• Planning for Man and Motor 1964

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 texts
• Vers une architecture, Le Corbusier c1923

• The Death and Life of Great American Cities 1961

• Buchanan Report - Traffic in Towns 1962

• Mixed Blessing: the Motor in Britain 1958

• Planning for Man and Motor 1964

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 texts
• Vers une architecture, Le Corbusier c1923

• The Death and Life of Great American Cities 1961

• Buchanan Report - Traffic in Towns 1962

• Mixed Blessing: the Motor in Britain 1958

• Planning for Man and Motor 1964

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 The car and the modern city:
4. Alley Cat

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

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 Chandigarh
• Le Corbusier’s system for Chandigarh

• V1 regional roads (only one leading to Chandigarh)

• V2 cross axial boulevards of the city
• V3 roads for fast-moving traffic
• V4 bazaar streets for slow-moving traffic, lined with shops on the south
side
• V5 loop roads, intersecting the V4 to distribute traffic within a sector
• V6 roads or paths leading to houses
• V7 strip of parkland containing schools, open spaces and pedestrian paths
• V8 bicycle trails traversing the greenbelt

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 Chandigarh

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 Perth

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 Jane Jacobs
Link: Neighbourhoods in Action
 Plough Road, Battersea

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 The car and the modern city:
utopia remix
Task:
write five things:
how 'modern' occupation of inner city streets
changed, 1910-2010

what is YOUR utopia?

 

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 Gregory Cowan
U. Westminster
Gregory’s research analyses use, design and place making in
inner city mixed use streets,  considering the politics of
occupying streets diurnally. Urban regeneration in  dense
urban areas near transport hubs are highly complex settings
for balancing link and place characteristic of streets, and for
creating sustainable places, used at all hours.

Case studies compare the Bahnhofsviertel (station district) in

Frankfurt am Main with the case of the Kings Cross station 
district in London. Gregory will analyse street design
processes and the participation of diverse actors through
participation research and visual and field work.

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 student responses
Oxford Brookes,
2nd year Architecture
History and Theory

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