Paradoxical Urbanism
Anti-Urban Currents in Modern Urbanism
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Springer Verlag, Singapore
Published:7th Sep '21
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£44.99(9789811563409)
Modernist urbanism seems progressive, even Utopian: design for a better world through a democratic and humane built environment. But two currents undermine this vision from within: an Arcadianism which turns to a rural idyll as retreat from change and the effects of industrialization; and an instrumentalism by which the humane vision becomes prescriptive and anti-democratic. Malcolm Miles argues that these two currents undermine modernism’s progressive vision. This book examines the roots of modernist urbanism in the seamless, self-contained systems of Cartesian space; and identifies contradictions within modernist urbanism in its instrumentalism and reliance on de-politicised professional expertise. Miles adroitly reviews the postmodern culture of industrial ruinscapes; and posits that if cities are to be places of proximity, diversity, mobility and agency, this will require a move from modernist instrumentalism to a creative and radically democratic co-production of the built environment.
ISBN: 9789811563430
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
128 pages
1st ed. 2021