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Colin Rowe - Collage City PDF
Colin Rowe - Collage City PDF
Essay
for
Theory II Module
March 2007
by
Philip Kassanis
In 1977 the great taxonomist, Charles Jencks, in The Language of Post-Modern Architecture, put
a name to a face that had been putting its head around the door of the built environment for
about a decade (fig 1). The term “Post-Modernism” was thereafter used to refer to manifestations
of the paradigm shift away from the ideologies of the Modern Movement. This essay examines
whether Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter’s Collage City (1975 and 1978), produced at that time, and
which was critically acknowledged to have influenced the body of thinking and practice, was
mere midwife to the birth of a new era or also mother to the subsequent outworking of the new
era some 30 years later. This is done by distilling the themes from the writing and seeing if they
have any relevance in critically appraising the author’s submission for the Issues II module of
the JCUD MA course in Urban Design (Kassanis, 2006) as an example of a contemporary effort to
Figure 1
Collage City - enduring ideas for the 21C ? - Philip Kassanis Theory II Essay Mar 07
Apart from its acknowledged seminal influence, Collage City is also chosen because of several
specific links to the Issues II project. Firstly, the author’s submission drew heavily on Grahame
Shane’s Recombinant Urbanism (2005) and in particular the concept of “heterotopias”, derived
from Foucault’s founding work (1964, cited by Shane). Collage City is pivotal in the development
of Shane’s argument and recurs throughout the book including a whole section devoted to it (pp.
128-33). Rowe is further acknowledged in Shane’s introductory pages (Fig. 2). What strategies for
the Issues II project could, perhaps, come straight from Collage City or are they only relevant
through Shane’s lens? Secondly, the Issues II project was grounded in Stratford City, arguably,
potentially London’s third generation business centre following the City as the first and Canary
Wharf, the second. The design guidelines for Canary Wharf were drawn up by Fred Koetter and
Susie Kim working alongside Skidmore, Owings and Merrill in 1988-89 - does this mean that the
Figure 2
A main theme of Collage City is to expose the triple irony of the Modern Movement. It paraded
as a coolly rational and scientific endeavour but in reality was anything but, as it dogmatically
pursued “truth” with messianic fervour, intent on “delivering the city” but achieving quite the
reverse - an unloved and impoverished environment; and then because of its very expediency it
is guaranteed “unadulterated and all-devouring growth.” (p. 6). The philosophical cause for this
Collage City - enduring ideas for the 21C ? - Philip Kassanis Theory II Essay Mar 07
position is extensively set out by tracing a stream of influence from classical utopia, through the
Enlightenment, to the 19th century active utopia (Saint Simon) animated by the determinism
of the Hegelian “world spirit”. The critical position adopted is further buttressed by fulsome
In the situation where “modern architecture had certainly arrived but the New Jerusalem was not
exactly a going concern” (c. late 1940’s) the authors detect two critiques of the “ville radiuse”
concept concluding that neither can provide the real substance of a way forward. On the one hand
the townscape movement is identified as influential, acting as a reference point for a number
of related arguments - Jane Jacobs sociological and economic ideas; Kevin Lynch’s scientific
notational systems; Robert Venturi’s Pop-inspired appraisals of the Strip at Las Vegas; Archigram’s
work as a sort of futuristic townscape; and most popularly the Disney World phenomenon. On the
other hand the utopian images of Superstudio’s work are put forward as the “more of the same”
Superstudio - the imaginary utopia, is contrasted with Disney World - the real utopia, to set up
the dialectical position, already posited in the introduction of the book as the “despotism of
‘science’” (representing the modern movement) and the “tyranny of the ‘majority’” (representing
the world as mass humanity wants it - useful, real and densely familiar) from which Collage City
then derives its positive constructs. These constructs can be summarised as follows.
Morphological:
A Legibililty In terms of “optical mechanics” put limits on free open space (integral to the
modern movement ideal) by field definition to avoid perceptual disorientation (p.65). This by
another name is the concept of legibility now well engrained in urban design methodology.
B Public/private realms From the model of the city as a collection of objects in hygienic, free
space (which is exposed as untenable using examples of Le Corbusier’s St Dié and Harlow as
attempts at town centre) abandon the proposition that all outdoor space should be in public
ownership and accessible to all (p.66) and reinstate a public and private realm relishing the
Collage City - enduring ideas for the 21C ? - Philip Kassanis Theory II Essay Mar 07
C Contextualise object However don’t abandon the object altogether but allow it to perform in
a context. In doing so the its iconic status can still be read but so also can the meaning of the
context - the duality of building “as object and its reinterpretation as texture” (p.77).
D Space between buildings Transform any tendency to freestanding figure (object) by inverting it
with ground (space). This is strikingly illustrated by comparing Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation
as an object of approximately the same size and proportion as the space (void) within Vasari’s
Uffizi in Florence (p.68) (Fig 3). The contrast is again illustrated by the difference between
Figure 3
E Typology Use typology as a set of heuristics to replace the functionalist approach of “logical
induction from concrete facts” (every building derived from first principles), allowing iconic
Collage City - enduring ideas for the 21C ? - Philip Kassanis Theory II Essay Mar 07
F Embedded plans Understand that a free plan doesn’t have to result in a skin that wraps the
plan thereby expressing its shape to the outside world - the modernist tendency; but can be
fitted into the residual space left within the structure of the city as illustrated by Hotel de
Beauvais in Paris (p.78). The concept is extended further by identifying a particular building
type: “ambiguous and composite buildings” which “quietly collaborate” with their locale at
the same time as “strenuously asserting themselves” (pp.168-9) and very much seem to also
G Perimeter blocks Recover and overhaul the notion of poché in which the buildings act as poché
at a city scale - somewhat akin to the current perimeter block orthodoxy. The “habitable
poché” mediates by providing the appropriate reference in relation to the public realm at
the same time as providing the necessary conditions for the whatever is desired in the private
court (p.79).
H Heterotopia 1 Embrace the possibilities for public access to some block interiors (the courtyard
of the Palais Royale, Paris is cited - p.83) which could considered as “urban rooms”. This is
I Character and visual richness In addition to poché as a matrix of “figure” defining “ground”
allow it also carry different objects, say towers of whatever specification, because the
and means of collective orientation” - and thus visually can accommodate plurality without
Enactment:
J Multifaceted approach Recognise and adopt the temperamental qualities of fox in preference
to hedgehog - “the fox knows many things but the hedgehog knows one big thing”, (Rowe citing
K Benefits of pluralism 1 Criticise “total design” by using the analogy of “total politics”- the pursuit
of a single vision, which is demonstrably less liberating than a collection of smaller multiple
Collage City - enduring ideas for the 21C ? - Philip Kassanis Theory II Essay Mar 07
“fraternities”, in which the strength and identity gained from such cantons has empowered
each to negotiate its own freedoms (pp.115-7). Versailles (total control) is compared with
L Benefits of pluralism 2 Let the city reflect the collision of interest - a “permanently maintained
debate of opposites” and from this dialectical position can flow negotiated “interstitial
debris”. Rome, London, Los Angeles and Houston are cited as examples albeit at different
scales (p.107).
politics” evidently is, then the architect-urbanist should not jettison his science altogether but
combine it with a role as “bricoleur” - a way of working set out by Lévi-Strauss (1966, cited
by Rowe) that uses the tools “of whatever is at hand” and materials that are contingent on
N Heterotopia 2 Recognise the place of “the garden as criticism of the city” - a laboratory for
urban models (p.88 and 175-7). A number instances including Versailles are cited and this
concept seems to parallel Foucault’s thinking, developed by Shane (2005), on the role of
heterotopias.
O Embedded memory Recognise that cities are a didactic instrument (p.124) in which the built
environment cannot help but be iconic and therefore carry meanings from history as well as
utopian meanings. Cities therefore act as both a “theatre of prophecy” and a “theatre of
memory”, this latter idea following Yates’ (1966, cited by Rowe) notion of Gothic cathedrals as
P Museum City If the unlikely circumstances permit, use the city as a literal museum. Von Klenze’s
Munich and Napoleon I’s plans for Paris are cited as large scale examples but with other more
Collage City - enduring ideas for the 21C ? - Philip Kassanis Theory II Essay Mar 07
Q Structure and content More helpfully, consider the “city as a scaffold for exhibition
demonstration”, which sets up a dialectic of: scaffold vs. exhibited object; necessity vs.
freedom; utopia vs. tradition. Thus modernism delivered “an all-pervasive scaffold which
largely exhibited itself, a scaffold which pre-empted and controlled any incidentals”; and
Disney World presents “the opposite condition in which the exhibits take over, even to the
R Collage Solve this predicament by adopting the technique and state of mind of “collage”, the
commentary on his piece: Bulls Head of 1944 (Fig. 4) and then illustrating his actual collage
Still life with chair caning of 1911-12 (Fig 5), which has four levels of reading (pp.138-9).
Figure 4 Figure 5
Ilustration from Collage City, p.138, titled: Picasso: Bull’s Head Ilustration from Collage City, p.139, titled:
1944 Picasso: Still life with chair caning, 1911-12
Collage City - enduring ideas for the 21C ? - Philip Kassanis Theory II Essay Mar 07
The significance of “collage” as a state of mind is exposed by reference to a quotation from
Samuel Johnson (p.148). Collage avoids either utopia or tradition becoming the only zeitgeist by
accommodating them all in fragments without having to support them in toto (p.149).
Turning now to the main themes of the author’s submission for Issues II project. The purpose was
to devise five block types capable of delivering very high density; see how they could populate
part of a masterplan set in Stratford City; and then evaluate how they would interact with
one another. An ambition was to incorporate as much potential heterotopic space as possible,
following Shane’s view that it is an increasing phenomenon of the so called informational city,
the latest transformation of the post- modern city. A complex solution was offered combining
the five blocks with nine networks (Fig 6) to generate a whole series of different intersections
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Figure 6
Page 10 from author’s Issues II submission (2006) showing the masterplan framework, the 5 block types and the 9
networks
Wit, you know, is the unexpected copulation of ideas, the discovery of some occult relation between images
in appearance remote from each other; and an effusion of wit, therefore, presupposes accumulation of knowledge; a
memory stored with notions, which the imagination may cull out to compose new assemblages. Whatever may be the
native vigour of the mind, she can never form many combinations from few ideas, as many changes can never be rung on
a few bells. Accident may indeed sometimes produce a luck parallel or a striking contrast; but these gifts of chance are
not frequent, and he that has nothing of his own, and yet condemns himself to needless expenses must live upon loans or
theft. (Rowe, 1978 citing Johnson, 1752)
Collage City - enduring ideas for the 21C ? - Philip Kassanis Theory II Essay Mar 07
and interfaces with the intention of cataloguing a typology of intersections, noting the variables
that give rise to the differences and finally assessing how far this sort of solution conformed to or
The scheme is first assessed using Collage City principles at the same time comparing both with
A number of Collage City’s precepts, grouped around challenging the modern movement’s notion
of pavilions in free flowing space, have found their way into conventional urban design practice
perimeter blocks) and thus would expect to be seen in the Issue II project. Interestingly, because
the Issues II project was itself potentially challenging conventional urban design practice, several
of these (B, F and G) are closer to Collage City’s original (looser) formulation than urban design’s
subsequent (narrower) derivative. For example Collage City allows more interaction between
block centres and the public realm, a trait found in Issues II but not in strict urban design.
are the direct stuff of Issues II, which was attempting via work such as Shane (2005) to press strict
Another cluster of Collage City’s preoccupations is the translocation of the modernist’s building
as an isolated object into the urban fabric (C contextualise the object, I character and visual
richness, Q structure and content). There is a fair degree of coincidence here with urban design’s
main interest in buildings for legibility and placemaking but Issue II is weak in this area probably
because it stopped at a framework stage where this would be the next layer of thought to be
For Collage City, meaning (including memory or prophecy) conveyed by buildings and urban fabric
from Butina-Watson and Bentley (2007) the author has not yet found this to be a major part of
urban design thinking and, admittedly, neither is there a trace in Issues II; again probably for the
Collage City - enduring ideas for the 21C ? - Philip Kassanis Theory II Essay Mar 07
reasons stated in the previous paragraph.
The same conclusion is true for the Collage City theme of temporal juxtaposition through the
form of collage and the act of bricolage (M enlightened pragmatism, and R collage).
However in respect of its twin theme of collisive spatial juxtaposition (K and L benefits of pluralism
1 and 2, M enlightened pragmatism, P museum city, R collage), although urban design does not
appear to have much to say about this, Issues II is deliberately full of it at the scale of the block (a
laboratory for juxtaposing five block types); the intersections with networks; and at the scale of
the masterplan area where it is also a patch having to negotiate its edges with its neighbours.
In conclusion, this brief excursion with an admittedly limited frame of reference, into Collage
City territory seems to have shown there is good reason for it being enduringly regarded as one
of the iconoclastic works of its time. The rigour of its arguments and originality of its propositions
must have made it one of the main sources for the current make up of urban design practice.
That same rigour and originality seem to have given it the ability to outlast its offspring concepts,
which through urban design practice have tended to become narrower and less able than its
The Issues II project could well have been stimulated to achieve much of its submitted form by a
direct reading of Collage City but probably would not have got as far without the contemporary
reinterpretation supplied by Shane (2005). Having said that, the Issues II scheme has still a long
way to go before it can be said to have the depth and richness that a full use of all Collage City’s
BIBLIOGRAPHY
JENCKS, C., 1977. The Language of Post-modern Architecture 6th ed. London : Academy
Editions.
ROWE, C. AND KOETTER, F., 1975. Collage City. The Architectural Review, Aug. 66-91.
ROWE, C. AND KOETTER, F., 1978. Collage City 7th ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Collage City - enduring ideas for the 21C ? - Philip Kassanis Theory II Essay Mar 07 10