Thesis Statement On Civic Spaces

Jane Jacobs compared old buildings to a “necessary ingredient in city diversity,” which emphasizes the essentiality to city’s aesthetic value and economic vitality. Jacobs believes that both characters are indispensable to city’s public life and people’s social life. In addition to more discussion on the implication of building preservation in terms of economic vitality, Jacobs also believes that communities often develop a physical attachment to the people, places, and events in the past. Therefore, retaining the “sense of old places” becomes even more critical to generate the “sense of community”, especially along with the fast pace of globalization and urbanization, building preservation also means to preserve the heritage for the future

Cities have been traditionally seen as the breeding grounds for citizenship, the latter usually framed in terms of dwellers having specific rights, duties, some sort of political participation and frequent interactions with each other. Yet, urbanization can also present many challenges that further disenfranchise and marginalize residents. As the most urbanized region in the world, Latin American cities highlight both of these sceneries. Industrialization and neoliberal economic policies led to the continent’s rapid urbanization, introducing large developments but also deeply segregated urban centers, characterised by strong tensions between their formal and informal dimensions. Latin American leaders’ efforts to tackle this issue have presented both setbacks and opportunities to transform the city into a more integrated space, and set the path to recognize every dwellers’ right to the city: to be in it, to enjoy it, and to build it.

These new design concepts for these new neighbourhoods may be aesthetically pleasing, but aesthetics alone do not create community or urbanity. The New Urbanism and Fused Grid design concepts still follow segregate zoning. These neighbourhoods follow the standard planning principle of the past fifty years, a zoning principles that practice separate zones according to use. The zoning segregation keeps these new neighbourhoods communities from resembling the small towns and urban feeling they strive to become. These new concept plans of New Urbanism and Fused Grid try to obtain the old traditional urban design, but these old urban design were not planned and further more they were not zoned, they just happen.

This has inspired me to explore the separate interpretations of ‘urban’, possibly exploring the contrast between the two- both the concepts and the effect they have on the shape and style of designs.

At the time of production, Modernism was influencing real world design. ‘Works of engineering were happily co-opted as manifestations of a kind of noble savagery compatible with twentieth-century styles of life.’ (Banham, 1989, P. 15). It is noteworthy that the design of the utopia endorses Modernist doctrines and its characteristics can be seen throughout the city.

This creates a narrative of inherent inequality within global cities, that will be explored in the following text. By using this as a starting point to asses the functioning of cities, this paper will draw upon various international cities to compare and contrast individual effects of globalisation. Primarily Tokyo will be used as a case study for deeper analysis allowing greater understanding of the real world effects that globalisation is inflicting upon the composition of highly

In the era of constant networking and relaying of information, the world has become a much smaller place. The shrinking world has somewhat become a familiar spectacle of identical fads and lifestyles. At least in the developed countries, globalisation has given birth to homogenous consumer culture. Demonstrated not only by the expansion of multi-national cooperations such as Apple and Starbucks but also by the indistinct architecture. It is a common sighting in urban cities today to see the identical steel, concrete and glass structures. This occurrence might be innate due to the easy exportation of concepts and architects, however not obligatory. Whilst advancing towards a modern society, architects have adapted this “universal style” of architecture that fails to represent the unique topography of different cities. Architects have the choice to either “repeat the same building everywhere or to push ourselves forward, to create an encounter between ourselves and the local culture” (Koolhaas, 2012). If the notion of Critical Regionalism were to be practiced by architects through the integration of the local culture with modern techniques, it could potentially return the missing identities of these cities.

Architecture that was once specific and local has now become global. It would seem that the national identity of the past has been sacrificed for the development of modernity.

Here it is possible to see how, for Rossi, typological study, as a form of rational study, was based not on norma­ tive facts but on the possibility of architectural form to evoke urban themes. Le Corbusier's Unite d'Habitation in Marseille with its rue int~rieure, or the Smithsons' project for the Golden Lane residential complex in London and its "streets in the air," are among the examples Rossi considered true representations of the city in the form of urban themes.l 8 Here, type is rendered not through universal rules but by the immediacy and singularity of an architectural event.

In 1967, the french theorist Guy Debord, outlined his concept for a future spectacle society, whereby ….. “Quote about capital”. Presented as a treatise on the modern humman condition; Society of the Spectacle is a piece that explores the contemporary effects of power, which it seems in more recent times are becoming increasingly tied with the idea of a media and consumer society; a system based off the production and consumption of images, information and commodities. In the discourse of arhcitecture specifically, it seems Debords predictions have bled into the culture of modern design, as expressed by Anthony Vidler: “Recent proposals and debates over the architectutural devlopment of ground zero have highlighted the way in which, over the last two decades, the public role of architecture has been gradually reduced to the symbolic and the emblematic. Its forms of expresion are no longer closely tied back to urban issues and physical planning questions.” (Toward a theory of the architectural program, antohny vidler, page 1) These discussions and critiques, indeed, seem to bear out Guy Debords 1964 anticipation of an all-pervading spectacle culture where in essense, we have moved into a system of architecture overinvested in symbolic form, “where flash and bravura win out over contemplation”. (- nordic from on aestehtics and function in architecture - page 1. )

Contextualism is an important paradigm in architectural education and practice based research. Context in architecture refers to the surroundings or setting in which the building is placed. In doing so, architectural cues derived from the context play an important role in creating architectural vocabulary. The changing dynamics of society is forcing designers to think beyond the locals. In the process, new development is fulfilling the demands of the society, but at the same time it is generating the sense of placelessness. Traditional built forms as physical context and social anchorage are remaining only as a backdrop for urban development. In such situation, lack of sense of place, identity and continuity are the major challenges in proposing architectural language. Various theories and approaches have been suggested to address the issue. This paper is an attempt to provide an approach of contextualism to maintain architectural identity and continuity of a place. The paper also verifies different strategies to the conserve historic context of a place and methodologies for responding to it logically in the present context. Here contextualism is seen as an approach to conserve our indigenous way of life by continuing the identity of the traditional urban landscape.

in spite of false steps and inadequate tools, in spite of political turmoil and social upheaval, local efforts continued. At no time during this half century did such efforts stop, although sometimes they slowed and became practically invisible. Someone was always trying to plan and develop a better city, and someone always will, for the foreseeable future (Thomas, 2005: 221)

Transition in a social sense is a change from one system into another. Globally, the modernist paradigm changed to the post-modern with the disappearance of central authorities, universal dogmas and foundational ethics. The post-modern world introduced fragmentation, instability, indeterminacy and insecurity. Architectural responses to these conditions occurred as a 'semantic nightmare' of the post-modern discourse and/or the attempted completion of 'the modern project'.

I took advantage of the opportunities provided during my undergraduate career to appraise the present performance of the city against the conceived, modernist planning ideals. In an assignment for the urban design class, I investigated the image of the city as perceived by the largely illiterate rickshaw-pullers, which navigate through it on a daily basis. It helped me to learn how the vocabulary of nodes and landmarks synonymous with traditional towns, still continues to be used by them. I illustrated this by drawing sector maps using Lynch’s taxonomy of urban elements. For a national competition to design a people’s mall, I looked into the supply chains and networks across the city, which transform sliver spaces within its formal fabric, appropriated by informal vendors and hawkers. Each sector, devised as homogeneous, self-sufficient neighborhood units, now specializes in various resources leading to a differential development of the uniform grid layout.

Kevin lynch’s book ‘Good city form’ gives us the answer of the question that what are the factors and aspects which makes good city and how to achieve it as cities are too complicated objects, they are far beyond the control, and they also affect the too many people with too many cultural variations. The book provides knowledge of various urban theories through comprehensive discussions.