The Unique City
The city, in the words of urban sociologist Robert Park, is: “man’s most successful attempt to remake the world he lives in more after his heart’s desire. But, if the city is the world which man created, it is the world in which he is henceforth condemned to live. Thus, indirectly, and without any clear sense of the nature of his task, in making the city man has remade himself.”
This quote by Robert Park describes the impact at which cities have on human society. Obviously cities house businesses, people, and goods, however the way in which cites are created are equally just as important. The development of the city is a unique, iterative process and cannot be replicated though destructive, large-scale developments. The city is a reflection of society and of the inhabitants living in it. Just as a room is representative of a person, the streetscape is representative of the community. As Jane Jacobs argued for urban diversity, large scale, planned developments achieve the opposite, as they are no longer representative of the people or community in which they house. This has to do with several factors. First being the human scale is lost once large developments are produced and designed. Second the diversity of program comes from a unique collective altercation to the built environment from several generations. By demolishing buildings and building new blocks, all of this diversity is lost, and therefrom no longer representative of the community and people living there.
I agree that the organization of a city must be organic in order to reflect its diversity of its community however history and politics are a big factor in that development as well. If we don't destroy and rebuild it might be equally as detrimental to diversity as if we do. I will take the example of segregation. If we do not try to rethink the city and how it can be more integrated there will be a clear division not only ethnic but also socio-economic and cultural. This is in my opinion not for the best. I do agree that the mass destruction and redesign is not the solution either. Is there something we could do to take all of these factors into consideration?
ReplyDeleteThis is really well put. I think that cities often times suffer from really prescriptive design that happened because someone had the money for it and thought it would work for them, now that city has to suffer the consequences. Considering the diversity of a community and its culture should be one of the first things we consider when designing.
ReplyDeleteI think the issue of overly prescriptive design leading to loss of history and community diversity is one of the central issues of a growing city. We talk about providing a general or open framework but it often seems that even the slightest suggestion of a guide can cause significant issues and changes for a space. How can we promote organic growth that is responsible to people and infrastructure?
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