Urban Planning, Then and Now
While reading Kenneth Frampton’s “Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance” and reflecting on it in class this week, I saw his main points as a type of ‘guidebook’ of do’s and do not's when it comes to city planning. Specifically, in talking about ‘The Resistance of the Place Form,’ I found his reflection on the uniform approach to urban planning very interesting. I would be curious on what Frampton would say if he were writing this today, forty years later. In a lot of ways there is a serious disconnect between designers and the cities, both when Frampton wrote this and today. I do think more recently, specifically due to the Covid-19 pandemic, designers and city planners are becoming more aware of the need for thoughtful design of public spaces. There have been much more conversations regarding how to better plan for public spaces, especially those that are outdoors in cities. While the pandemic has been a very tragic and harmful global crisis, I do think one positive that has come from it is adaptability in design. There has been a ‘wake up call’ of sorts for designers to consider not only what we have always known to be important – the site, community, etc. – but also the most up to date needs for well-being.
I highly recommend the book Space, Structures, and Design in a Post-Pandemic World, by one of my previous professors, Tom Fisher, for anyone who is also interested in this topic.
https://www.cts.umn.edu/news/2023/march/space
I concur that after the outbreak, public areas have received somewhat more attention. But I believe it matters how we go about accomplishing that. Rather than being an attempt to preserve cultural identity, I believe it is still the product of global capitalism. For this reason, I think the reading is still quite relevant even though it was written forty years ago.
ReplyDeleteKelsey, I agree that design in a post-pandemic world is very different from how we designed 40 years ago. My undergraduate thesis was titled "Design During a Pandemic" and focused on these differences in response to human well-being. It can be found here if you're interested in reading it! https://scholar.utc.edu/honors-theses/307/
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, one of the best things that came out of the pandemic was consideration of people's needs in public spaces. I think this is something that we should continue working on as designers because we all experienced what it as like to be forced to stay home and not have any interaction with the outside world, I think having this experience will allow us to think about what people would want in a public space and in their homes.
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