BOOK REVIEW

COLLAGE CITY
BY FRED KOETTER AND COLIN ROWE

INTRODUCTION
The modern city proposes utopian models of cities in which it is
sought to generate a better functionalism of the same, to
segregate the functions of the city in order to improve the quality
of life of its habitants, however the part will never be taken into
account social, natural and undervalued the historical part of it.
They were radical approaches that sought to change the
morphology of cities, with a simple organization of the various
functions within a territory. In Rowe's book "Collage City", the
author evidences a strong criticism against the modern city and
clearly tells us that these were not built and that they probably will
not be built because of the postulates that they propose will never
adapt to reality and nature of the operation of a city, in addition to
questioning the architecture that composes it. Certainly the author
generates a choice between sciences and organic, the architect
tells us of two clear positions which are: the physical model where
an orthogonal city focuses on the organized city and the
psychological model, which makes us have an environment much
more natural. Consequently, this clearly shows how modern
architecture, which was simply management, succumbs to a New
Architecture much more sensitive to the spirit of the time. The new
architecture according to the author was the end of deception, of a
simulation, vanity and imposition proposed by modern
architecture, a city must meet a series of requirements, a city must
be inhabited, record and perceive by the user, it cannot be like a
machine or a beautiful sculpture.
Colin Rowe, in this work Collage City clearly shows a position totally
against modernism, both its urban planning and the architecture that
composes it. Rowe makes a harsh criticism against the urban and
architectural thought that modernism had and how it fails on its own
principles. Through facts, documents and works the author explains
to us from the beginning in a sarcastic but very direct way how the
thought of modernism was the complete opposite of what is really
the nature of a city. It reviews the different contemporary theories of
urban planning and design as well as the planned architectural
object in these great rigid ideas that turn the city into a morphological
object with segregated functions. Likewise, this text can be
considered as a philosophical manifestation of the way of life of
people, urban life, the interaction between the different activities that
were totally left aside in the conception of Utopian ideologies of
segregation of activities that the modern movement. On the other
hand, the author evaluates some important examples for the modern
movement that had a very functionalist and utopian approach that
tried to generate perfect cities that, after all, only seek to satisfy the
morality of a movement and of the architects. Likewise, this text
should be considered as a critical reevaluation of the aspects not
considered in the ways of living, the functional and social needs of
people as well as their need to move through the territory.
All these aspects that are criticized by the author, are considerable
for the naturalness and the various activities and needs of people
who inhabit a territory or a city, an idea of segregation does not
combine all these various aspects that each of the inhabitants,
architecture must go beyond satisfying an urban landscape and an
absolute order that, in the end, ends up creating a barrier between
the diverse relationships of the city's different lifestyles. But in
addition to generating only architectural beauty, the book leads us to
a reflection on what cities should be, ironically determining that
utopias were nothing more than a way to form an ideally healthy
society, this approach was sought to replace social life for a
programmed order is to undo the natural part of a city, thus idealizing
an alternative city composed of solids and voids; where the solids
will be the raised blocks of the ground. As an example, the Marseille
Housing Unit is presented. The void will be the interstitial space,
capable of giving freedom and dynamism to the man of the future.
the author takes us on a journey through various architectural works,
urban plans and architects that promote modernism and criticism with
various examples of plans that were proposed and failed and were
directly compared to ways of living that have really worked Thus in this
way modernism exposes is capricious and omits the historical
background, erases to generate an architecture that meets an
expectation of beauty rather than use, proposes an architecture that
generates a landscape and creates at the same level urban planning
models that see and they read clearly as planned areas that
segregate the various functions. On the other hand, the book brings
us a reflection on what affects cities, using the architecture of
modernism in an ironic and mocking way to determine the utopias that
were nothing more than a way to form an ideally healthy society. His
approach replaces social life with a program in which order and good
planning is to undo and destroy the natural part, the historical identity
and the way of living and inhabiting a city, thus idealizing an
alternative city made up of solids and voids One of Rowe's strong
criticisms is directly to the Architect Le Corbusier and his work the
Marseille Housing Unit, in which this rigid form of available spaces and
spatial organization fail, however this relationship takes the author a
generation relationship between the solid and the empty, preventing
one from prevailing over the other. Thus and using this example, the
author says that a modern city must avoid any extreme, the chaos of
the medieval city or the alien and despotic order of the CIAM city.

In conclusion, the book lets us see clearly how modernism fails by

trying to avoid the naturalness of a city. It invites a deep reflection on
how a city is understood seen as a collage of elements, history and
utopian plans that have been coupled to each other over time, always
integrating all urban parts and ways of living. In addition to
understanding that these natural aspects of the city are determining
factors which cannot be omitted or left aside, since they help us to
generate a more humanized and democratic space in which there can
be enriching elements of the relationship between people and
ambient.