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In the Suburbs of History

Modernist Visions of the Urban Periphery

Steven Logan author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:University of Toronto Press

Published:16th Dec '20

Should be back in stock very soon

In the Suburbs of History cover

In the 1960s, socialist and capitalist urban planners, architects, and city officials chose the urban periphery as the site to test out new ideas in modernist architecture and planning: the outskirts of Prague and a bedroom suburb of Toronto would be the sites for experimental urban development.

In the Suburbs of History overcomes the divisions between East and West to reassemble the shared histories of modern architecture and urbanism as it shaped and re-shaped the periphery. Drawing on archives, interviews, architectural journals, and site visits to the peripheries of Prague and Toronto, Steven Logan reveals the intertwined histories of capitalist and socialist urban planning.

From socialist utopias to the capitalist visions of the edge city, the history of the suburbs is not simply a history of competing urban forms; rather, it is a history of alternatives that advocated collective solutions over the dominant model of single-family home ownership and car-dominated spaces.

"The thorough bibliography comprises 279 references of both original sources and secondary literature, and along with the notes displays the breadth of intellectual reach at the foundation of the book, which together with excellent illustrations forms a functional, coherent, and inspiring book." -- Dragana Ćorović, University of Belgrade * Slavic Review *

ISBN: 9781487525439

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 14mm

Weight: 330g

248 pages