Book UrbanVisions PDF

Carmen Díez Medina
Javier Monclús Editors
Urban Visions
From Planning Culture to Landscape Urbanism
Urban Visions
Carmen Díez Medina
Javier Monclús
Editors
Urban Visions
From Planning Culture to Landscape
Urbanism
123
Editors
Carmen Díez Medina Javier Monclús
School of Engineering and Architecture School of Engineering and Architecture
University of Zaragoza University of Zaragoza
Zaragoza Zaragoza
Spain Spain
Translations: Trasluz SL (Foreword and Introduction); Caterina Fitzgerald (Chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, 24),

Acantho (all other chapters); Hayden Salter (whole book review).
ISBN 978-3-319-59046-2 ISBN 978-3-319-59047-9 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017944206
Translation from the Spanish language edition: Visiones urbanas. De la cultura del plan al urbanismo paisajístico by
Javier Monclús and Carmen Díez Medina, © Abada Editores 2017. All Rights Reserved.
© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018
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Photograph by Michael Dörfler, 2011 © Michael Dörfler
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Contents
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
About the Editors and Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Rafael Moneo
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
Carmen Díez Medina and Javier Monclús
Part I Urban Cultures and Traditions
1 City Beautiful and ‘Architectural Urbanism’ (1893–1940) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Javier Monclús and Carmen Díez Medina
2 Garden Cities and Garden Suburbs (1898–1930) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

3 Social Democracy and Housing Policies (1919–1934). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Carmen Díez Medina
4 Modern Urban Planning and Modernist Urbanism (1930–1950) . . . . . . . . . 33

5 Urban Planning and Ideology: Spain and Italy (1945–1960) . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Carmen Díez Medina
6 Welfare Planning and New Towns (1945–1970s). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Alejandro Dean
7 Modernist Mass Housing in Europe: Comparative Perspectives

in Western and Eastern Cities (1950s–1970s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Javier Monclús, Carmen Díez Medina, and Sergio García-Pérez
8 An Experiment in Freedom (1960–1975) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Raimundo Bambó
Part II Other Urbanisms and Urban Projects
9 Other Urbanisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
10 Urban Projects and Megastructures: Modernist Campuses . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Basilio Tobías
v
vi Contents
11 New Paradigms and Strategic Urban Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Javier Monclús
12 Urban Renewal and Urban Regeneration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Javier Monclús
13 Waterfronts and Riverfronts. Recovery of Urban Waterfronts . . . . . . . . . . 133

Javier Monclús
14 Housing Experimental Projects in the Netherlands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Orsina Simona Pierini
15 New Housing Projects in Latin European Cities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

16 Citizen Participation. Urban Development for and by the People . . . . . . . . 165

Pablo de la Cal
Part III New Strategies and Urban Planning
17 Urban Planning Models and Model Cities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Javier Monclús
18 Urban Transport and Technological Urbanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Javier Monclús
19 New Productive Uses Areas. Central Business Districts (CBD),

Business Parks, Technology Parks and Corporate Cities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Andrés Fernández-Ges
20 Innovative Uses of ICT Technologies in Recent Urban Developments

and Urban Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
21 The Rise of Mixed-Use Urban Developments and Digital Districts . . . . . . . . 217

22 Urban Resilience: Towards a Global Sustainability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Pablo de la Cal and Miriam García
23 Mapping Urbanism, Urban Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Raimundo Bambó and Miriam García
24 Urban Voids and ‘in-between’ Landscapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Part IV Landscape Urbanism
25 From Urban Planning to Landscape Urbanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Javier Monclús
26 From Park Systems and Green Belts to Green Infrastructures . . . . . . . . . . 269

Javier Monclús
Contents vii
27 Landscape Projects: Scale and Place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Carlos Ávila
28 New Urban Landscapes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Carlos Ávila
29 Greenfield/Brownfield: Two Sides of the Same Coin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Pablo de la Cal
30 New Landscapes Perspectives for Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Miriam García
31 The Intangible Values of the Landscape. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Miriam García
32 Urban Agriculture—Towards a Continuous Productive-Space

System in the City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Pablo de la Cal
Sources of the Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Acknowledgements
The editors, Carmen Díez Medina and Javier Monclús, thank the authors Carlos Ávila,
Raimundo Bambó, Pablo de la Cal, Alejandro Dean, Andrés Fernández-Ges, Miriam García,
Sergio García-Pérez, Orsina Simona Pierini and Basilio Tobías for contributing to this book.
The editors would like to express their gratitude to Sergio García-Pérez (scholarship holder
FPI UR-HESP Project) for his time, insight and dedication to this book among which the
preparation of the bibliographic review / index; and also a warm thanks to Isabel Ezquerra
(scholarship holder FPU with the PUPC research group) for her invaluable collaboration in the
review of this edition.
Thanks to Hayden Salter, Caterina Fitzgerald, Acantho and Trasluz SL for their help with
the translation of the book. Special thanks to Hayden Salter for reviewing the chapters.
The editors are grateful to Maria Grazia Folli (coord. SEHUD/TEMPUS), Nora Lombar-
dini, Sara Caspani, Anna Rita Ancora (Polytechnic University of Milan); Cristina Carriedo
(Rafael Moneo’s office); Michael Dörfler, photographer; Pablo Borraz, Beatriz Valiente
(Universidad de Zaragoza); archives, institutions, architecture, urbanism and landscape offices,
researchers, photographers, authors, etc., who have allowed the publication of their graphic
materials in this book. Please see Sources of the Figures in the book back matter.
ix
About the Editors and Contributors
Carmen Díez Medina, Madrid, 1962 obtained a degree in Architecture (1989) from the
Madrid Polytechnic University (ETSAM, UPM) and Ph.D. (1996) from the Technische
Universität Wien (TU Wien). She is Associate Professor of theory and architectural history at
the School of Engineering and Architecture (EINA), University of Zaragoza (Spain), where
she is in charge of the architectural history and theory disciplines and coordinator of the Ph.D.
programme New Territories in Architecture. She was the director of the Department of Theory
and Architectural and Urban Projects at the Polytechnic School from the CEU-San Pablo
University of Madrid (2007–09). More than 60 contributions in books and scientific reviews.
She has been responsible for following research projects: Urban regeneration of housing
estates in Spain (UR-Hesp, Ministry of Economy and FEDER funds) and Architecture and
Sustainable Urban Development based on Eco-Humanistic Principles & Advanced Tech-
nologies Without Losing Identity SEHUD (European Union), both with J. Monclús; España en
los CIAM (Universidad CEU San Pablo). She has also collaborated in several research pro-
jects, among them Espacios para la enseñanza, CEU (2012–14); Paisajes urbanos residen-
ciales, EINA (2010–11); La construcción de la ciudad liberal, UPM (2008–09). Currently, she
is member of the reference research group Paisajes Urbanos y Proyecto Contemporáneo
(PUPC) of the University of Zaragoza.
She has worked as a collaborating architect with Rafael Moneo in Madrid (1996–2001) and
previously at Nigst, Hubmann&Vass in Vienna (1990–96).
Javier Monclús, Zaragoza, 1951 obtained a degree in Architecture (1977) and Ph.D.
(1985) from the Catalonia Polytechnic University (ETSAB, UPC). He is Full Professor of
urbanism at the School of Engineering and Architecture (EINA), University of Zaragoza
(Spain), where he has been chair of the Department of Architecture (2009–2016) and is
currently director of the Master's Degree in Architecture. He was Professor of urbanism at the
Polytechnic University of Catalonia in Barcelona (1980–2005). He has published widely on
planning, urban design and urban planning history. He is a member of the Editorial Board of
Planning Perspectives and director of ZARCH, Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in
Architecture and Urbanism. Currently, he is responsible (with C. Díez Medina) for the
research project Urban regeneration of housing estates in Spain (UR-Hesp, Ministerio de
Economía y Competitividad and FEDER funds, BIA 2014-60059-R) and responsible for the
research group Paisajes Urbanos y Proyecto Contemporáneo (PUPC) of the University of
Zaragoza.
He has worked as a planner and as a consultant in Barcelona and Zaragoza and was head
of the Expo Accompanying Plan of the Zaragoza Expo 2008 (2005–2009).
Carlos Ávila, Zaragoza, 1962 He completed his degree in Biology from Madrid Universidad
Complutense (specialised in Botany). He did Higher Landscape Architectural Studies at the
National School of Landscape Architecture, Versailles (France). He was a Chairman of the
Spanish Association of Landscape Architects (06.2004–09.2006). He was a Landscape
Architecture Manager in the international exhibition Expoagua Zaragoza 2008 project and
xi
xii About the Editors and Contributors
member of the coordination team of the Expo Accompanying Plan. He is an Adjunct Professor
of Urbanism at the School of Engineering and Architecture (EINA), University of Zaragoza
(Spain). He also teaches at the Master’s Degree of Landscape Architecture at the University of
Granada.
Currently, he runs his own Landscape Architecture Studio focusing on the design of green
areas.
Raimundo Bambó, Huesca, 1975 Degree in Architecture from the Navarra University
(ETSAUN), 2000. PhD. from the EINA University of Zaragoza (2016). Second Prize in
Architecture Studies (Spanish Ministry of Education, 2001) and the Extraordinary End of
Studies Award (ETSAUN, 2001). Adjunct Professor of History and Theory of Architecture and
of Urbanism at the School of Engineering and Architecture (EINA), University of Zaragoza
(Spain). Between 2000 and 2013 he has carried out his professional practice at IDOM-ACXT as a
Partner Senior Architect of the firm. His work as an architect has been published in numerous
times and has received various awards, among others, from the Spanish Biennial of Architecture
and Urbanism, the Sao Paulo Architecture Biennial and the European Landscape Biennial.
Pablo de la Cal, Zaragoza, 1964 Degree in Architecture from Navarra University

(ETSAUN), 1989, where he received the Extraordinary End of Studies Award. He graduated
from Harvard University (MAUD-GSD 1992). Since 2009, he is Adjunct Professor of
Urbanism at the School of Engineering and Architecture (EINA), University of Zaragoza
(Spain). He has been closely involved in urban debates about Zaragoza as the transformation
of central areas, AVE Station and Ebro river banks. He is Co-editor of Ríos y Ciudades (2002).
He was Head of Projects Area at International Exhibition Expo Zaragoza 2008 (2004–2008).
Since 1989, he practises in Zaragoza in his own office, CEROUNO ARQUITECTOS SCP,
being awarded numerous prizes. He has developed a special emphasis on urban planning, from
master plans to urban public space interventions.
Alejandro Dean, Valencia, 1974 Degree in Architecture from Navarra University

(ETSAUN), 2001. Adjunct professor of History and Theory of Architecture (2013–14) and
since 2014 in Architectural Design at the School of Engineering and Architecture (EINA),
University of Zaragoza (Spain).
He practices in Zaragoza in his own office, “Dean Delso Arquitects”, having been awarded in
national and international idea competitions. His work, spread across specialist publications and
collective exhibitions, has received notable recognitions the most significant by the Fernando el
Católico Institution (2008/2011/2017) and by Official Professional Association of Architects of
Aragón (2011/2015/2017). He is currently involved in the research and investigation of 20th
century arquitecture from Aragón, in the Registry of Docomomo Ibérico in Aragón (modern
housing and social facilities l-ll) and is a co-author of the book Rationalist Architecture in
Huesca.
Andrés Fernández-Ges, Zaragoza, 1972 He completed his master’s in Architecture and

Urban Planning from Navarra University (ETSAUN). Since 2010, he works as an adjunct
Professor of Urbanism at the School of Engineering and Architecture (EINA), University of
Zaragoza (Spain). He is a Ph.D. candidate in Urban Studies by the Department of Urbanism
and Spatial Planning, Madrid Polytechnic University.
Since 2006, he works as an architect and urban planner at Zaragoza Alta Velocidad 2002,
S.A., a public company in charge of the regeneration of the railway land of Zaragoza.
Previously, he was Head of Technical Section in the Urban Planning Department of the
Zaragoza City Council, (2002–06) and founding partner of ZAZ Architects, Architecture and
About the Editors and Contributors xiii
Planning, (2001–2006). His fields of research are urban regeneration, strategic urban projects
and digital districts.
Miriam García, Sama de Langreo (Asturias), 1971 She is an Architect, landscape architect
and principal of LandLab, based in Barcelona. She has been visiting professor at The
University of Pennsylvania and currently teaches at the Universities of Zaragoza and
Barcelona in Spain. She is a lecturer at courses and workshops related to landscape urbanism
and regional planning and is author of several publications.
Her practice focuses on urban development and landscape regeneration processes, with
projects awarded both nationally and internationally like the First Prize in the XII Biennial of
Spanish Architecture and Urbanism. Her professional expertise so far is a combination of the
skills acquired while working in a regional government institution coupled with research and
private practice. Her current motivation is to expand and share this knowledge to address
pressing ecological and social challenges affecting fragile areas exposed to the effects of
climate change.
Sergio García-Pérez, Zaragoza, 1990 Master Architect from Zaragoza University (2015).
Since then, he is a predoctoral fellow at the School of Engineering and Architecture (EINA),
University of Zaragoza (Spain). He develops his research activity within the framework of the
research project “Urban regeneration of housing estates in Spain” (UR-Hesp, Ministerio de
Economía y Competitividad and FEDER founds, BIA 2014-60059-R, http://pupc.unizar.es/
urhesp/), as research team member. His interest areas are urbanism and urban regeneration. His
research results have been submitted to national and international congresses. He has devel-
oped his educational stage in architecture offices and in public organisations (Zaragoza
Vivienda and Tragsa, Madrid).
Orsina Simona Pierini, Milán, 1962 She completed her degree in Architecture from Milan
Polytechnic. She obtained Ph.D. in Architectural Composition at IUAV, 1996. She is an
Associate Professor in Architectural Composition in the Department of Architecture and
Urban Studies of Milan Polytechnic. After working in Barcelona with Carlos Martí Arís, she
published the books Passaggio in Iberia, (Milan 2008) and Sulla facciata, tra architettura e
città, (Rimini, 2008).
Her research is based on an idea of architectural design that interprets the architecture of the
city in its historical experience as material for contemporary design: the importance of the role
of residence in the urban design of contemporary city has focused recently in the publication
of the volume Housing Primer, le forme della residenza nella città contemporanea (Rimini
2012). www.taccuinourbano.net
Basilio Tobías, Zaragoza, 1954 Degree in Architecture from the Catalonia Polytechnic
University (ETSAB, UPC), 1977. Professor of Architectural Projects in the Catalonia
Polytechnic University, in the International University of Cataluña and in the Navarra
University (ETSAUN). Adjunct Professor of Urbanism at the School of Engineering and
Architecture (EINA), University of Zaragoza (Spain).
Some of his works like the University Sports Center, the Multipurpose hall of Zaragoza, the
Ciudad de Zaragoza Hotel, the Economics Library, the Sports Pavilion of the University of
Castellón or the Building Expo have been finalists or selected at different Biennials of Spanish
Architecture. The Economics Library and the Sports Pavilion of the University of Castellón
were selected for the Spanish Pavilion of the 9th Biennial of Venice.
Foreword
URBAN VISIONS. From Planning Culture to Landscape Urbanism, as clearly intended by the
editors, “responds to an updated concept of the manual”. Aware that all our knowledge about
the growth of cities and land development resists a systematic explanation, they offer us the
collection of chapters gathered in this volume as a selection “as intentional as it is flexible …
from a transversal perspective, combining professional and academic views”. The editors,
therefore, declare themselves responsible for the structure of the content of this book, as broad
as it is diverse. It is a book that begins by offering us a historical overview of the development
of urban thought since the end of the nineteenth century. After examining a diverse set of
interventions in the city and territory, where the influence of the urban planning theory and
principles behind them is carefully documented, it introduces us to the most pertinent issues in
urbanism today.
Urban Visions is a valuable reminder of what the study of urbanism has been. It provides us
with a compendium of singular episodes in the history of urbanism over the last century that
should not be forgotten and, gradually and imperceptibly, bring us to today’s problems as
faced by those responsible for the growth of our cities. The editors’ deliberate selection of
arguments and authors renounces a uniform and homogeneous vision of what urbanism has
been since its origin as a discipline, thus insinuating, with the structure itself of this book, its
underlying thesis: that “the culture of the urban plan has been replaced by other forms of
urbanism”. Other forms and perspectives that are, ultimately, those that most interest us today
and that make manifest how much urbanists must engage strategies linked to resource man-
agement, political impact and respect for the physical environment—a respect that implies a
broad understanding of geography and landscape—in order to achieve the desirable, and
sustainable, conservation of the Earth.
And so, this collection of essays on current urbanism serves as a kind of manual that will be
essential to students and professionals who want to make use of what is known about urban
science. Urban Visions makes us see, once again, the value that reference books have in every
learning process to provide us with an initiation to a discipline, without which it would be
impossible to answer the questions facing us as urbanists. And this without imposing a narrow
editorial authority, but rather trusting that in the multiple approaches and opinions that the
different authors offer, we will find an alternative methodology better suited to engage the
extensive and elusive discipline of urbanism. To renounce a conventionally systematised
structure, and to assume the methodology of the simple juxtaposition of blended and inter-
woven arguments—pertinently, rigorously and carefully chosen—in order to reflect more
precisely the urban problems of today is, in my opinion, one of the most valuable aspects of a
publication like this. In this decision, we recognise the academic and professional trajectory
of the editors, which translates into a vision of urbanism understood in the broadest sense,
from theory, history and architectural culture at the urban scale.
In addition to the value of this book as an updated reference manual, I should add another
observation to further confirm its virtues. Urban Visions is the result of team work, the
documentation of the experience of teaching urbanism and the history of architecture at the
School of Architecture in Zaragoza. This explains the emphasis that Urban Visions gives to
xv
xvi Foreword
some of Zaragoza’s recent urban development projects. Whenever possible, examples illus-
trating the various issues discussed in Urban Visions have been drawn from local episodes.
Aligning the interests of a School of Architecture, and particularly a young school, with the
challenges of its own city is always desirable, such as is the case with Zaragoza. For that
reason, this book represents a goal achieved, in establishing the importance of the school for
the city of Zaragoza.
And so I conclude by congratulating those who have been the promoters of this initiative
and share my conviction that this book will interest anyone who has it in their hands, as much
as it has interested me.
Madrid Rafael Moneo

March 2017
Einführung
How can we relearn the forgotten art of urbanism? In his last book, Peter Hall, one of the most
renowned figures in urban planning due to his theoretical and professional engagement in the
discipline, suggested studying the best examples of European urbanism to address the decline
in the ‘art of urbanism’. His comments were specifically directed at British urbanism, whose
leadership and essential role in the ‘the golden age of planning’ (after the Second World War
over half a century ago) is undisputed. In this book, he refers to the contrast between the
French concept of urbanisme and planification,1 in other words between the dominant
paradigm in the culture of urban planning and the Latin European version, which also applies
to the Spanish urbanismo or the Italian urbanistica. We should start, therefore, by recognising
the diverse ways of understanding urbanism in each of the cultural and national traditions in
which the discipline has arisen and evolved.2
Other authors have referred to the struggle between two paradigms, town planning and
urbanism. The roots of the former are embedded in social reform as it emerged as a new
discipline, independent from architecture, at the beginning of the twentieth century. The latter
is more concerned with a wider understanding of urban forms, but without disassociating itself
entirely from architectural culture. Following Giorgio Piccinato’s theories, Michael Hebbert
emphasises the contrasts between the vision of planning, conceived as a different profession to
architecture and engineering, and the vision of urbanism, as a ‘shared culture’ between these
two professions.3 In fact, this dichotomy is rather forced, since both traditions deal with
complex scales and processes. Other traditions and ‘urban planning cultures’, such as the
Städtebau in Germany, contributed to our contemporary understanding of urbanism as a set of
concepts, strategies and techniques for controlling urban growth and defining the urban forms
of our cities.
We cannot absorb the wealth and diversity of urban planning traditions and experiences by
applying just one strictly chronological criterion, although it is true that a diachronic view
helps to understand how urbanism has evolved as a discipline with a scientific vocation.
Planning history has provided novel interpretations in recent years, especially the contribu-
tions made by Anthony Sutcliffe, Stephen Ward, Michael Hebbert and Donatella Calabi.4 The
coexistence of various paradigms and urban visions, understood in their broadest sense (as
‘urban knowledges’, to paraphrase Michael Foucault), has been the subject of other analyses
that have paid greater attention to economic, sociopolitical and cultural fluctuations and cycles.
They are dominated by ‘progressive’ or functionalist perspectives as opposed to ‘culturalist’
1
Hall, P.G. 2014. How can we all re-learn the lost art of urbanism? In Good Cities, Better Lives. How Europe
Discovered the Lost Art of Urbanism, 277. Oxford: Routledge.Hall stresses once again this argument: “It is
lamentable, but the truth, that British planners have lost the art of urbanism”, ibídem, 306. About differences
between urbanism and planification: “(…) the French concept of urbanisme (as opposed to planification) is
essentially about creating liveable places”, ibídem, 212.
2
Monclús, J., and C. Díez Medina. 2017. Urbanisme, Urbanismo, Urbanistica. Latin European Urbanism: Italy
and Spain. In Planning History Handbook, ed. C. Hein. London: Routledge.
3
Hebbert, M. 2006. Town planning versus urbanismo. Planning Perspectives 21: 233–251.
doi:10.1080/02665430600731153.
4
See Editorial—Thirty Years On. 2015. Planning Perspectives 30: 1–10. doi:10.1080/02665433.2014.971856.
xvii
xviii Introduction
views or those stemming from architectural urbanism.5 Given these interpretations, combining
chronological and thematic approaches is logical if your aim is to explore the complexity
of the intellectual, technical and instrumental legacy that urbanism has provided since it was
consolidated as a discipline. Consequently, this volume illustrates how planning-based
urbanism has switched to ‘other urbanisms’. These include ‘urban design’ and ‘landscape
urbanism’, understood as an updated version of the discipline’s initial paradigms,
encompassing a variety of sensibilities and the desired integration to address new urban and
territorial realities.
One of the subjects inciting intense debate in historical terms, but also in the broader sense
of cultural or socioeconomic reflection with a historical perspective, has explored whether the
principles of modern urbanism are still current or are now obsolete.6 Architectural
historiography usually highlights attempts to control urban growth while emphasising the
‘canonical’ models and movements: from the Garden City to the City Beautiful movement,
and from the latter to modern urbanism, the urbanism of the CIAMs and the Athens Charter.
Also considered are successive legislative efforts, the systematisation of instruments to
intervene in the existing or new city (from the tradition of urban reforms or ensanches—
suburban developments—and new urban features).7 But most of the more specific
contributions have focused on ‘internal’ developments in the professional community of
architects and urbanists, of the successive CIAMs or planning professionals.8 Our approach
here takes these contributions into account, but also shies away from ‘grand narratives’, in the
style of Lewis Mumford in his monumental work The City in History (1961), and also from
more endogamous and ‘heroic’ visions of urban planning, understood as a panacea and
all-inclusive technique capable of controlling urban development when faced with resistance
from reactionary agents—owners, speculators and technocrats—obstructing planning. Instead,
we favour cross-cutting analyses that explore urban subjects and episodes in specific contexts,
similar to the collective work published more than twenty years ago, the historical atlas of
European cities.9
Why have we called them ‘urban visions’? Rather than traditional descriptions often made
to sum up notional experiences or as a historical compendium, we believe a book offering a
panoramic perspective that better mirrors the complex and fragmentary understanding we hold
of the world today is more relevant. Our starting point is that urban planning and design result
from a combination of discipline traditions, focuses and cultures. For that reason, we have
pursued a historical and thematic approach to bring together the visions of an architect and an
urbanist, and those of a historian and a theorist. This is the origin of these ‘urban visions’ that
have shaped our cities and the variety of landscapes they entail supported by many discourses,
strategies and techniques.
The book’s format is, therefore, a series of thematic chapters presented as a sum of
fragments with a common denominator: throwing light on urbanist strategies. Despite the risks
involved in bringing together the authors’ varied stances on the topic, the outcome—a
collection of academic and professional opinions—benefits from this approach. All the
chapters follow a strict script that lends them coherence, and they are ordered in an overall
structure that gives meaning to the whole. Various plans, projects and interventions are
contextualised within the framework of the most systematic interpretations of urbanism in the
past 100 years, but they are not necessarily accepted or refuted. The mosaic of chapters
resulting from coordinating the viewpoints of several authors is in keeping with the way the
5
Choay, F. 1965. L’urbanisme, utopies et réalités. Une anthologie. Paris: Seuil; Sutcliffe, A. 1981. Why
Planning History? Built Environment 7: 64–67; Kostof, S. 1992. The city assembled: the elements of urban
form through history. Boston: Little Brown.
6
Berman, M. 1982. All that is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity. London: Verso.
7
For instance, Sica, P. 1978. Storia dell’urbanistica: Il Novecento. Bari: Laterza.
8
Mumford, E. 2000. The CIAM Discourse on Urbanism, 1928-1960. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press.
9
Guardia, M., J. Monclús, and J.L. Oyón. 1994. Atlas histórico de ciudades europeas: Península Ibérica.
Barcelona: CCCB Salvat; Guardia, M., J. Monclús, and J.L. Oyón. 1996. Atlas histórico de ciudades europeas:
Francia. Barcelona - Paris: CCCB Hachette.
Introduction xix
recent urbanist debate is evolving through specific specialised contributions that delve deeper
into the issues raised. The increasing relevance of collective works is by no means casual.
They contain an ample range of contributions, sometimes from quite diverse disciplines, other
times resulting from specific works on urban planning episodes or different cultural and
national approaches and traditions (such as exhibition catalogues or reports and sector
studies).10 Combining and integrating the visions of historians, architects, urbanists and
geographers is an absolute necessity. Even though this intense dialogue is already partly
present in readings and interpretations of the past, it needs to intensify further if we are to
understand more recent processes, particularly reconsidering the nature and role of
contemporary urbanism given that traditional paradigms are in crisis. This is proved by
accelerated development processes taking place in some countries and the radical redefinition
of the actual concept of a city that has been around for some years (Zwischenstadt, città
diffusa, urban sprawl, etc.).11 Understanding recent developments and projects provides new
clues for explaining the role of urban strategies implemented in the past decades, and
analysing them with new perspectives can better illustrate the nature of current proposals and
urban projects.12
In this type of approach, which covers such an extensive, almost infinite, field of study, the
selection of subjects and case studies is especially relevant if we wish to make a global, yet
fragmented picture coherent. The urban visions presented here stem from a selection process,
the result of a balance between a critical, personal reading and an objective look at reality.
However, we have also been forced to set space and time limits to our work. This book
contains an implicit theme: it aims to demonstrate how the discipline of urbanism has evolved
throughout the twentieth century from an initial ‘planning culture’, consolidated in the
Anglo-Saxon world, to the far more cross-cutting and fragmentary experiences of current
‘landscape urbanism’ and including the recent Italian tradition that regenerates the city as a
key component in architecture and urbanism. Understanding how and where these urban
visions arose is another objective behind this work.
Our emphasis is on the past 50 years, although the main trends, movements and schools
that contributed to consolidating what we can term a ‘culture of urbanism’, from the beginning
of the twentieth century to the 1970s recession, are presented in the first part of chapters.
Despite the fact that the diachronic discourse is as difficult today as it is misleading,
particularly when applied to the second half of the twentieth century, it is still necessary to
impart some sort of logical order. That is why we have proposed a relatively chronological
structure (seen clearly in the first part of chapters, but less so in the three other parts), as we
have already said, with a thematic approach that highlights some issues or episodes that have
been, or are currently, hotly debated. This cross-cutting reading of architectural urbanism
linking the historic view with contemporary debate is perhaps one of the most novel aspects of
this publication. This book contains some references to the USA as well as in Asia and Latin
America, although the episodes we have studied essentially focus on Europe. By choosing this
option, we can limit contents and focus subjects and cases on those interventions that either
come from Europe or have created real experimentation laboratories there, in order to prevent
the extreme divergences and fragmentation that would result from an approach that was
excessively broad.
10
Dethier, J., and A. Guiheux. 1994. Visiones urbanas. Europa 1870-1993. La ciudad del artista. La ciudad del
arquitecto. Barcelona: CCCB Electa; Bosma, K., and H. Hellinga. 1997. Mastering the City: North-European
City Planning, 1900-2000. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers.
11
Sieverts, T. 2003. Cities without cities: an interpretation of the Zwischenstadt [Zwischenstadt, 1998].
London: Spon Press.
12
As evidenced by the debates introduced in recent international congresses, such as the round table:
“Exploring the links between history and conservation of modernist housing complexes: a EAHN Roundtable”,
organized by European Architectural History Network within the frame of 14th International Docomomo
Conference, Adaptive Reuse. The Modern Movement Towards the Future, Lisbon, 2016. Chairs: Gaia
Caramellino and Filippo De Pieri.
xx Introduction
This book, therefore, has a two pronged approach. On the one hand, it presents an overall
picture putting forward an explanation for the evolution of the urbanism discipline in the
twentieth century, but with no pretence of being complete and far less encyclopaedic. On the
other, this evolution is defined by a series of episodes that are not only valuable in themselves,
but as a whole contribute to defining this polysemic picture. Each of them also invites readers
to immerse themselves in a small universe through the references and the select bibliography
at the end of each chapter. Nearly 400 illustrations accompanying the chapters form a parallel
graphic mosaic or collage.
This book was conceived during a Tempus programme within the framework of the
European Union in which five Ukrainian universities—Kharkiv National University of Civil
Engineering (KNUCEA), Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture
(KNUCA), Lviv Polytechnic National University (LPNU), Odessa State Academy of Civil
Engineering and Architecture (ODABA) and Prydniprovska State Academy of Civil
Engineering and Architecture (PSACEA)—and seven universities of member countries
of the European Union—Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI, programme coordinator), University
of Cambridge (UCAM), Institut national des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon (INSA),
Technological Educational Institute of Athens (TEIA), Escuela de Ingeniería y Arquitectura
de la Universidad de Zaragoza (UZ), Varna Free University (VFU) and Instituto Politécnico da
Guarda (IPG)—were involved. The programme was entitled: Architecture and Sustainable
Development based on Eco-Humanistic Principles & Advanced Technologies without Losing
Identity (SEHUD). Visits to the universities where meetings were held over a period lasting
more than two years highlighted the contrasting visions between ‘the West and the East’ and
between ‘the North and the South’ of Europe. The difficulty in standardising work methods,
programmes and proposals and reconciling different viewpoints became a problem and, at the
same time, a passionate challenge. The Soviet urbanism tradition can be felt in Kiev,
Dnipropetrovsk, Odessa, Kharkov and so on; in Cambridge, planning was viewed quite
differently to how it was approached in Lyon; and, at the same time, the architectural roots of
urbanism flourished in the more southern or ‘Latin European’ countries.
That is when the idea arose of re-examining a series of concepts that could be broadly
applied, not so much through definitions or analogies, but through the analysis of specific
subjects and cases linked to particular cultures and traditions. And after that, we decided to
publish a manual of urban visions and strategies illustrated with case studies that could be
useful to students at the above-mentioned universities. Later, participation in international
meetings and fora, such as the journal Planning Perspectives, or conferences organised by
associations, such as the International Planning History Society (IPHS) or the International
Seminar on Urban Form (ISUF), or even the activity of the journal ZARCH, enabled us to
detect processes of convergence and differentiation so that we can speak of specific urban
cultures along the lines already broached by other authors, for example Bishwapriya Sanyal.13
For these reasons, Urban Visions came as the result of these experiences.
This publication embodies a renewed concept of the manual, as intentional as it is flexible.
Four parts help to organise these urban visions. The first of them, Urban Cultures and
Traditions, is the most clearly arranged in historical sequence. This deliberately historical start
to the book is essential for understanding more recent positions: it assembles and emphasises
the main traditions, cultures, theories and discourses from the consolidation of the discipline to
the 1970s recession. This first part forms the basis for the other three. Although they respect
the historical sequence, their purpose is not ultimately to construct a diachronic discourse but
rather to present a more thematic structure of parallel discourses and a variety of strategies
focusing on the last 30 years of the twentieth century. The second part, Other Urbanisms and
Urban Projects, covers the emergence of paradigm shifts and new strategies, which, through a
series of specific projects with varying levels and forms of completion, have had a decisive
impact on transforming cities in recent decades. The last two parts, New Strategies and Urban
13
Sanyal, B., ed. 2005. Comparative Planning Cultures. New York: Routledge.
Introduction xxi
Planning and Landscape Urbanism, are grouped around two major themes that have led to a
debate on the future of cities from a planning and landscape perspective.
Each of these four parts contains eight chapters (32 in total) expounding urban theories,
proposals and projects illustrating relevant episodes in the history of urbanism. Each chapter
includes a specific bibliography giving readers an opportunity to explore the subject in more
depth and concludes by putting two carefully selected paradigmatic case studies in context (as
an exception, three chapters have four examples). The 72 cases documented here provide in
themselves a mosaic vision of the evolution of urbanism in the twentieth century, a huge
legacy of theories, proposals and interventions that have shaped our cities and metropolitan
landscapes in the last 10 to 12 decades. They help to reconstruct the overall picture from
fragments and give us an opportunity to compare urban perspectives.
The first part, Urban Cultures and Traditions, presents urban cultures and paradigms that
have played an important role from the beginning of the twentieth century to the turning point
marked by the 1970s recession. The cultural dimension of urbanism and its relationship with
the historical context are emphasised in an impressionist picture containing the main urban
theories and strategies and how they have evolved in the ‘absorption of modernity’ to the
1970s recession.
The first two chapters, “City Beautiful and ‘Architectural Urbanism’” and “Garden Cities
and Garden Suburbs” (Monclús and Díez), present the main ideas, contexts and means of
dissemination of the first movements seeking to modernise major cities through either
large-scale architectural interventions or alternative solutions to the city of the industrial era.
They outline the beginnings and the type of considerations we could term the ‘first modern
urban visions’, in other words those associated with the birth of the discipline and the
emergence of specific terminology: urban and town planning, urbanisme, urbanistica,
urbanism, Städtebau, etc. The housing policies implemented by European social democracy in
the period between the two world wars are studied in the third chapter, “Social Democracy and
Housing Policies” (Díez) based on the urban experience of the Red Vienna. The chapter
highlights the importance of tradition in this city (specifically the Hof tradition linked to the
Viennese renting culture from the eighteenth century onwards) when defining urban models
and forms in the period between the two world wars. The fourth chapter, “Modern Urban
Planning and Modernist Urbanism” (Monclús and Díez), is based on the interpretations that
recent historiography has made of the nature and emergence of modern functionalist urbanism,
virtually parallel to the birth of the urban planning discipline. After studying the principles laid
out in the Athens Charter, applied to some paradigmatic cases, it goes on to consider the
impact of functionalist urbanism after the Second World War. The compromise between
ideology and design is not always univocal; sometimes, surprising situations prove how
complex this relationship is. That is the aim of the chapter “Urban Planning and Ideology:
Spain and Italy” (Díez), which presents some innovative proposals carried out within the
“Poblados dirigidos” programme in Madrid during Franco’s dictatorship interpreted in
parallel with some Italian neighbourhoods linked to the Neorealism movement developed
during the first years of the Italian republic. The sixth chapter, “Welfare Planning and New
Towns” (Dean), analyses experiences emanating from socioeconomic policies implemented
for social welfare housing. It looks at the British model of new towns, followed by the
Scandinavian forest-town model and concludes with the vertical town, the unité d’habitation,
as a collective European housing prototype after the Second World War. The question posed
in “Modernist Mass Housing in Western and Eastern European Cities” (Monclús, Díez and
Pérez) is the extent to which the dissemination of an international modern urban culture was
responsible for adopting similar urban forms in mass housing projects, with controversial
results that deserve to be explored in more detail. The chapter compares these projects built in
the 1950s and 1960s in Europe on both sides of the Iron Curtain. The first part concludes with
the chapter “An Experiment in Freedom” (Bambó). It explains the new sensitivity to other
lifestyles that arose in the 1960s and 1970s and in which residents’ decision-making capacity
is essential. Its main ideas and best-known manifestations are expounded in three pairs of
‘genealogies’ based on their cultural origin, their reaction to the modern city and their attitudes
towards technology.
xxii Introduction
The second part, Other Urbanisms and Urban Projects, begins with the complex situation
European cities found themselves in after the Second World War and which led to the
emergence of ‘other urbanisms’. The renewal and updating of ‘qualitative’ urbanism that
began in the 1980s stem from traditions focused on their architectural dimension and stimulate
debates whose underlying current is the dilemma between planning and design. From then on,
the experiences that stand out most are linked to city regeneration or reconstruction and the
emergence of the urban project.
The chapter that starts this part, “Other Urbanisms” (Monclús and Díez), clarifies the main
visions coexisting since the end of the Second World War to the 1980s. These include
approaches most linked to internal debates similar to the CIAMs and others developed in
parallel with functionalist urbanism, such as townscape, the new urban design subdiscipline
and those that support the idea of the city as a cultural creation sensitive to the values of
history, focused on urban forms. In this context, economic growth and the democratisation of
higher education, a distinguishing feature of the welfare state, led to a significant increase in
the planning of new universities. The chapter “Urban Projects and Megastructures: Modernist
Campuses” (Tobías) explores this episode, centring the analysis on some 1960s paradigmatic
university campus projects. The recession that began in 1973 marked the end of a long period
in which the principles of functionalist urbanism had been adopted on a general scale and it
questioned their validity. The chapter “New Paradigms and Strategic Urban Projects”
(Monclús) explains how after the ‘golden age of planning’ new cultural and environmental
sensitivities arose resulting in new strategic projects that tackle the changes cities were
experiencing and also the emergence of an urban project culture. Along the same lines, the
next chapter, “Urban Renewal and Urban Regeneration” (Monclús), centres on studying some
specific episodes that have become paradigmatic and are still the subject of the urban renewal
and regeneration debate today. It updates the classic debate that has been fluctuating for and
against urban reform for over 150 years. The chapter “Waterfronts and Riverfronts. Recovery
of Urban Waterfronts” (Monclús) talks about the transformation of these city waterfronts and
riverfronts, one of the central episodes in recent urban processes, which began taking place in
the 1980s and 1990s. Unlike the urban regeneration processes examined in the previous
chapter, the landscape dimension of these interventions was highly important. The next two
chapters in this part, “Experimental Housing Projects in the Netherlands” and “New Housing
Projects in Latin European Cities” (Pierini), focus on new experimental housing projects with
an urbanist dimension that have been rolled out in many European cities, especially in the last
two decades. The first of the two chapters looks at the Netherlands, a country with an
important tradition in this area that was consolidated in modern movement phases and
improved in the 1990s with the figure of the landscape architect. The second, focusing on
France, Italy and Spain, contrasts with the previous chapter by presenting some projects that
return to and reinterpret these three countries’ traditions linked to the urban morphology of the
part and regular schemes of urban tissues. The second part concludes with the chapter entitled
“Citizen Participation and Social Mobilisation” (De la Cal). This chapter returns to the
discourse begun at the conclusion of the first part by transferring it to some specific
experiences in recent decades that have led to the emergence of new terminologies and
increasingly more generalised participation processes.
The third part, New Strategies and Urban Planning, brings together a significant sample of
episodes seeking new urban planning references in a quickly changing society. New strategies
and plans exploit the advances of the technological revolution and new information
technologies by applying strategies that involve more use of infrastructures and developing
new city models and innovative analysis and representation techniques. While the first two
parts essentially centre on Europe, since the subjects they cover originated or evolved in this
continent, the contents of the third introduce us to experiences in Brazil, Abu Dhabi, the USA,
Japan, Korea and China.
The first of the chapters, “Urban Planning Models and Model Cities” (Monclús), addresses
one of the recurring themes in the debate on international urbanist culture: city models. Rather
Introduction xxiii
than considering abstract theoretical proposals, it explores action models based on specific
cases to open a debate covering the theory, history and practice of urbanism. The increasing
prominence of transport in cities and its impact on transforming them is the subject of “Urban
Transport and Technological Urbanism” (Monclús). The chapter emphasises the key role
transport plays in new urban strategies in a series of chapters, case studies and projects that
bring to the debate the issues of pedestrianisation, mobility control, public transport
improvement, densification and decentralisation problems and so on. The next three chapters,
“New Productive uses Areas. Central Business Districts (CBD), Business parks”, “Innovative
Uses of ICT Technologies in New Urban Development and Urban Planning” and “The Rise of
Mixed-Use Developments and Digital Districts” (Fernández-Ges), addressed the emergence of
new urban developments linked to the technological revolution that has been changing the
configuration of our cities for some decades. The first chapter analyses the emergence of new
districts for non-residential uses as offices, businesses and economic activities based on the
zoning idea of functionalist urbanism. It describes the development of business districts and
various types of new production areas. The second describes the development and influence of
new information and communication technologies (ICTs), a revolution that is changing the
economy, society and production processes. The use of these technologies in the design of
urban development and planning strategies results in new approaches and provides new design
tools. The third defines digital districts, describes their main components and types and
identifies factors found in good designs. The concept of urban or regional resilience has often
cropped up in recent international bibliographies and everything points towards it remaining
an important aspect. The chapter “Urban Resilience. Towards a Global Sustainability” (De la
Cal and García) explores the concept of resilience in a series of chapters and pioneering
projects of varying scales, examples of a current of thought that can be understood as resilient
to the global challenges of urban ecology. In design disciplines, a map is more than a tool
representing reality; it is a means of responding to questions asked during the design process,
and it is even an inherent part of that process. The chapter “Mapping Urbanism, Urban
Mapping” (García and Bambó) explores how it is possible to conceive the city through
mapping it and it also focuses on the evolution of urbanism and the city’s relationship with
nature. The last chapter in this third part, “Urban Voids and Intermediate landscapes”
(Monclús, Díez), addresses the issue of vacant urban lots that have appeared in the recent
decades in the outskirts of cities as a result of unprecedented expansion and it explains the
basis for the space syntax method as a basic tool for quantifying ‘spatial accessibility’.
The fourth part, Landscape Urbanism, places the role of urbanism in the context of major
transformations determined by infrastructure and forms of metropolitan expansion, which has
led to reconsidering the landscape tradition. This part concludes an account that shows how
planning culture has been replaced by other forms of urbanism that have emerged in parallel
with the changes that have affected cities, which include recent experiences linked to
landscape urbanism.
The first chapter of this part, “From Urban Planning to Landscape Urbanism” (Monclús),
paints an overview of the subject based on classic and recent texts and projects. It highlights
how the ecological paradigm and landscape tradition in urbanist and architectural culture
converge in landscape urbanism, in which discourses and integrating strategies come together
and the landscape becomes the primary organising agent, above and beyond architecture. The
chapter “From Park Systems and Green Belts to Green Infrastructures” (Monclús) introduces
the genealogy of greenbelts and green infrastructures in the urbanism of the second half of the
twentieth century, highlighting changes and continuities in the switch from original models to
renewed concepts of green systems, environmental networks and green infrastructures linked
to the most sophisticated recent systems. Some general considerations on landscape urbanism
design are put forward in “Landscape Projects: Scale and Place” (Ávila). This chapter refers to
issues such as understanding location, defining limits and the importance of scale in both time
and place. All are essential factors for determining strategic project lines. The chapter “New
Urban Landscapes” (Ávila) reflects on the need to implement new city models. In these
models, green systems must play a fundamental role in the correct operation of urban
ecosystems to promote more metropolitan biodiversity and foster greater balance in the natural
xxiv Introduction
cycles taking place in our cities. The chapter “Brownfield vs Greenfield, Two Sides of the
Same Coin” (De la Cal) considers the debate on the opportunity of building projects on
brownfield sites compared with urban expansion into natural or agricultural areas (greenfield).
Reference to relevant texts and projects demonstrates that economic, legal and social aspects
are interconnected when implementing these proposals. The chapter establishes a comparison
between how the two models are applied in the UK and Latin European countries and stresses
the north–south dichotomy evident in other chapters in the book. Given that the planet has
finite resources and is changing, the chapter “New Landscape Perspectives for Planning”
(García) looks at the most current debates on the need to readdress the practice of modern
urbanism to bring it into line with the limits involved in living on Earth. A series of recent
texts, projects and initiatives emphasises the potential of landscape as a design instrument. The
chapter “The Intangible Values of the Landscape” (García) begins with the need to pay
attention to all landscape dimensions, including intangible ones, and to plan their
transformations and promote future collective and private, global and local scenarios. The
chapter vindicates the importance of cultural heritage; not only is it always dynamic and
constantly being created, it can also provide each place with identity and continuity. The urban
agriculture topic has enjoyed spectacular growth in the past 10 years by introducing farming in
consolidated urban spaces and overcoming previous approaches that related the city to
peri-urban spaces. The chapter “Urban Agriculture. Towards a Continuous Productive Spaces
System in the City” (De la Cal) describes some of the most important current experiences
related to this type of proposal and confirms the relevance of their implementation.
We began this introduction referring to Peter Hall’s reaction to what he considered ‘the lost
art of urbanism’, a view shared by Richard Sennett in his proposals for the open city. Despite
this generalised perception expressed by Hall, Sennett and other authors, who mention the
decline of the discipline in the twentieth century, there were ‘exemplary’ projects and
interventions at the beginning of the century and also in the recent decades. Many of them
incorporate a temporal dimension, typical of the open city, in contrast to the
over-determination characterising closed systems.14 Just as Hall recognises that there is much
to learn from a European tour analysing recent policies, strategies and results in continental
European cities, in this volume we expand the tour with some examples from outside Europe.
Our book is aimed at students and professionals interested in understanding how certain
twentieth-century visions that have pervaded the twenty-first century have become decisive in
shaping the contemporary city and landscape. This collection of chapters on diverse subjects
and cases does not aim to establish universal interpretations, but rather to highlight some
outstanding episodes that can help us understand why the planning culture has given way to
other forms of urbanism, from urban design to strategic urbanism or landscape urbanism.
Compared with global interpretations of urbanism based on socioeconomic history or
architectural historiography, the purpose of the book Urban Visions. From Planning Culture
to Landscape Urbanism is to help us understand the discipline couched in international
contemporary debate and adopt a historic and compared perspective.
And, finally, we would like to conclude with a special thanks to Rafael Moneo for his
thoughtful, pertinent criticism, and for the particular awareness, his architecture has always
shown for the city and urban landscape. Over the course of his long, illustrious career, his
relentless commitment to never settle for anything less than the very best is for us a great
lesson.
Madrid–Zaragoza Carmen Díez Medina

January 2017 Javier Monclús
14
“(…) it is exactly this critical imagination of the city which is weak. This weakness is a particularly modern
problem: the art of designing cities declined drastically in the middle of the 20th century”. Sennett, R. 2006.
The open city. LSE Cities, November.
Part I
Urban Cultures and Traditions
“Storia della città e storia dell’urbanistica sono cose differenti, ma come la città anche il sapere dell’urbanista è l’esito
di un processo di selezione cumulativa.”
(Urban history and urban planning history are not the same, since, as is the case in the city, the urbanist’s knowledge is the
outcome of an accumulative selection process.)
Bernardo Secchi, Prima lezione di urbanística, Roma-Bari: Laterza, 2000, 47.
City Beautiful and ‘Architectural Urbanism’
(1893–1940) 1
Abstract
This chapter focusses on the first movements seeking to modernise major cities through
large-scale architectural interventions as alternative solutions to the industrial era cities. It is
in this context that the City Beautiful Movement emerged using the opportunity to present a
renewed image of Chicago at the 1893 World’s Fair. The emergence of Civic Art in the
USA and Public Art in England, Art Urbain in France and Belgium, or Stadtbaukunst in
Germany and Austria, despite their notable differences, is encompassed in this context of
shared reactions to the loss of urban quality in different countries. Parallel to those
movements, after 1900 and through to 1914, there was a gradual emergence of what could
be considered European urbanism, going beyond the formal, architectural dimensions. The
numerous urban plans and projects, studies and publications that appeared at that time
indicate a turning point concerning the work carried out over the previous century, such as
the first world congress on town planning which was held in London in 1910.

Keywords
City Beautiful World’s Columbian Exposition Chicago Plan of 1909 Civic Art
Stadtbaukunst Art Urbain
The City Beautiful Movement, although consolidated in world, could be included in that urban beautification and
American cities, fundamentally due to the Chicago World’s monumentality movement that flourished from the turn of
Fair, had its origins in urban reforms of the nineteenth the century until the 1940s. As Peter Hall pointed out:
century, materialising in boulevards and walkways, in public “Despite the superficially very different contexts, there are
spaces and civic buildings that some decades earlier had strange similarities in the outcomes, with implications that
modified the image and structure of the European capitals perhaps should be disquieting” (Hall 2014, 203).
(Olsen 1986). The renewal of Paris by Haussmann and the
construction of the Ringstrabe in Vienna were models that
the urban elite at the start of the twentieth century tried to City Beautiful and the 1893 Chicago World’s
emulate, having overcome a certain sense of inferiority as a Fair
result of the pragmatism that had been employed during the
rapid transformations of these commercial cities in the sec- Some specific factors present in North American cities, clo-
ond half of the nineteenth century. In a broader sense, the sely related to the scale and rate of urban growth in New
aspirations of other cities, in Europe and in the rest of the York, Philadelphia, and above all, Chicago, allow us to call
them the birthplaces of the City Beautiful movement. In its
origins, it was driven by a wish to provide solutions to the
J. Monclús (&) C. Díez Medina lack of nature and infrastructure in urban development that
School of Engineering and Architecture (EINA),
characterised cities at the end of the nineteenth century. In
University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain
e-mail: [email protected] particular, the Park Movement represented this desire to
improve the modern city. The Municipal Improvement
C. Díez Medina
e-mail: [email protected] Associations attempted to direct and further these
© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 3

C. Díez Medina and J. Monclús (eds.), Urban Visions,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_1
4 J. Monclús and C. Díez Medina
Fig. 1.1 The city as a work of art: Paris as a model
Fig. 1.2 Court of Honour of the administration building at the Chicago World’s fair, 1893. Photographs: C. D. Arnold and H. D. Higinbotham
1 City Beautiful and ‘Architectural Urbanism’ (1893–1940) 5
improvements, expressed in new building with interventions Plan of 1791. And the reform of Cleveland, where he
more in the line of Civic Art and landscaping, surpassing the designed a Plan (1903) which served as the model for the city
small scale (trees, aesthetic control of streets, etc.) for more centre: big public buildings grouped together and a system of
ambitious objectives (Ward 2002, 36). This search for a parks forming a promenade along the lake. In San Francisco
large-scale architectural language, i.e. an urbanistic scope, (1905), the intervention linked to the exposition extended to a
led to a growing interest in classicist urban forms, originating large territory with a series of radial boulevards emanating
from the École des Beaux Arts, where many North American from the city centre (Monclús 2009, 16–44).
architects had trained. As was the case in Europe, it was Werner Hegemann recognised the importance of the fairs
during those years when the new public or semi-public for the City Beautiful movement and for Civic Design in his
buildings were designed, from city halls to libraries or uni- handbook The American Vitruvius in 1922 (Hegemann and
versities, as well as museums and theatres. Peets 1998, 98–107). The Chicago World’s Fair, baptised as
The exceptional occasion to present a renewed image of the the ‘White City’ because of the contrast of its unitary image
city, coherent with these new principles of ‘enhancement’, was with the chaotic appearance of the city, was as short-lived in
presented at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. It is important to reality as it was permanent in the imagination of Chicagoans
point out that at the end of the nineteenth-century, international and urbanistic culture, thus considered an ‘urban micro-
exhibitions began to change in concept, varying the layout of cosmos’ and a product of the movement led by Burnham.
buildings and pavilions, from centralised models arranged Although it was not the only episode that showed this type
around a monumental building (such as the case of Crystal of approach, the Chicago World’s Fair marked the definitive
Palace in London built for the 1851 Great Exhibition) to other emergence of the City Beautiful Movement, with all its
decentralised layouts that included multiple, national or spe- achievements and limitations (Ward 2002, 35–36, 69–70).
cialised pavilions. These changes meant the layout of these Other international expositions organised over the following
complexes, designed in unison, had to be rethought as a new years, from Paris in 1900 to Barcelona in 1929, followed the
urban component. The Beaux Arts approach utilized to design same classicist schemes and geometrical principles, charac-
them permitted grouping the main buildings together, as well as terised by monumental axes, expansive avenues and sym-
structuring the hierarchy of axial perspectives and symmetrical metrical building groups (Monclús 2009, 24–44).
compositions. The layouts of exhibition centres, structured
around visual axes, represented the North American version of
the Parisian World fairs. Similar to what had happened in Paris, Civic Design, Civic Art, Urban Art, Urbanism
the impact was decisive on North American town planning
culture. The Chicago Colombian Exposition was not only a The urban enhancement and monumentalist movements that
propagandistic and skillfully staged show of power and effi- arose at the turn of the century can be understood as a reac-
ciency of the American industry, but it also served as a town tion to the ‘engineered’ urban forms that had characterised
planning model (Lampugnani 2011, 43). The most obvious the expansion plans of the nineteenth century. This occurred
example is the new 1909 Chicago Plan, which, after the suc- in many North American cities, but also in some European
cessful exposition of 1893, employed the same strategy to cities, such as Barcelona, with its singular Ensanche (city
monumentalise not only the specific areas but the entire city, extension), designed by the engineer Ildefonso Cerdà (Lab-
with special emphasis on the centre and urban façade over- oratorio de Urbanismo 1992). Broad and vocal criticism of
looking the lake. Local political forces worked at defining a these interventions considered them to be excessively prag-
joint Plan to convert industrial Chicago into the ‘Paris on the matic and without urban qualities, responding to certain
Prairie’. The fundamental difference between Chicago and attitudes that were already ripe in the cultural environment at
Paris or other European cities, where the central power took on the time, as illustrated by Camilo Sitte, in his book City
the new reform strategies, is that in Chicago it was the Com- Planning according to Artistic Principles published in 1889.
mercial Club and later the Merchant Club (like the Chamber of The emergence of Civic Art in the USA and Public Art in
Commerce) that sponsored the effort to reform the city with the England, Art Urbain in France and Belgium, or Stadt-
improvement of its appearance and general working conditions. baukunst in Germany and Austria, despite their notable dif-
But the influence of the Chicago Exposition also reached ferences, is encompassed in this context of shared reactions in
other cities as mentioned previously. The architect Daniel H. different countries against the loss of urban quality. Indeed,
Burnham, co-author with Edward H. Bennett of the Colom- although the term Civic Art was originally associated more
bian Exposition and the Chicago Plan of 1909, also reformed with the idea of ‘art in the city’ than with the more disci-
the Washington Mall (1902), where the symbolic and com- plinary concept of ‘the art of building cities’, the more
memorative aspects were relevant ever since the L’Enfant comprehensive meanings gradually took over, as in the case
Fig. 1.3 Aerial view of the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, Jackson Park, Chicago. Image originally published in F.A. Brockhaus, Berlin and
Vienna, 1894
Fig. 1.4 Souvenir map of the Chicago World’s Fair, held in Jackson Park and Midway Plaisance in 1893. Recovered and drawn with updated
information by Hermann Heinze, Chief Draughtsman, Surveys and Grades Department, World’s Columbian Exposition
Fig. 1.5 Comparison of International Expositions of the nineteenth century: Paris 1889, Vienna 1873, Philadelphia 1876, Chicago 1893.
Published in Hegemann and Peets 1998
Fig. 1.6 Representative layouts of Civic Art. Published in Hegemann and Peets (1998)
of Raymond Unwin or Léon Jaussely, who identified Art urbanism in Europe” (Sutcliffe 1994), when numerous
Urbain as the modern discipline of urbanism (Toutcheff technical questions were considered. The first major con-
1994, 169–170). Similarly, much of the work and urban gresses were held, leading to the new discipline of Town
projects from the first half of the twentieth century can be Planning (with the versions of Urbanisme in France,
understood in this same tradition of architectural urbanism Urbanistica in Italy or Urbanismo in Spain) (Monclús and
(Monclús 1995, 92–99). Medina 2017). The numerous urban plans and projects,
Parallel to those movements, between 1900 and 1914, studies and publications that appeared at that time indicate a
there was a gradual emergence of what could be considered turning point concerning the work carried out over the pre-
European urbanism, going beyond the architectural formal- vious century. In this context, the first town planning
ities. It was in that period, “the richest in the evolution of magazine was published, prior to the one founded by Sitte,
in Germany in 1904, Der Städtebau (Ward 2002, 55). In the cities of our times that shows a continuous tradition in town
institutional terrain, the Department of Rural and Urban planning, unbroken since 1900”—became a more than
Hygiene was created at the Paris Musée Social, the heart of notable urban laboratory (Giedion 1941). Hendrick Petrus
the French School of Urbanisme. In 1910, the first world Berlage, urbanist and theorist, developed the Amsterdam
congress on town planning was held at the RIBA facilities. South Plan (1900–1917) after having tested innovative
In the same year, a town planning contest, the most impor- solutions for residential expansion in The Hague Plan
tant during the pre-war period, was held in Berlin. The (1907). Berlage, who considered Haussmann’s Paris an ideal
zoning strategy soon became a fundamental instrument for example of urbanism (Van Rossem 1994), presented the
planning and was put into practice in Germany (particularly South Expansion Plan in 1915 after drafting several ver-
in Frankfurt) from the end of the nineteenth century and sions, the first of which were rejected for their similarity to a
extended as of 1914 to become “the very foundation of garden suburb. Meanwhile, some authors such as Giedion,
European and world urbanism” (Sutcliffe 1994, 122). recognised a strong commitment to ‘traditional’ town plan-
Among the very different urban episodes in the first third ning in the Plan, whereas others, such as Wolfgang Sonne,
of the twentieth century, certain residential expansion considered it a paradigmatic example of ‘another urbanism’
developments stand out, where a complex relationship of high ‘urbanity’ (Giedion 1941, in the English version the
between architecture and urban layouts was established. The page is 794; Sonne 2014). In any the case, Amsterdam South
development of Amsterdam during that period—in the represents a key episode that connects urban art with mass
words of Sigfried Giedion, “Amsterdam is one of the few housing projects in Central Europe between the wars.
Fig. 1.7 Jaussely Plan, 1907, connection Plan for Barcelona and the suburbs, 1904–07: zoning
Case Studies the city and metropolitan area; to organise a street system to
facilitate transit; to dignify the business areas with civic and
Chicago Plan (1909) cultural administration centres giving coherence to the daily
life in the city.
The Chicago Plan, by D. H. Burnham and E. H. Benett, was The most disseminated proposal for the Plan is among the
a milestone in the history of town planning. Despite the very few that were not executed. It defined Congress St. as the
protagonism of the formal aspects, the Plan tried to integrate main axis associating the new Civic Centre with Michigan
very different questions and strategies, economic, functional Avenue, parallel to the Lake Michigan promenade. Instead, a
and social, aimed at eradicating the slums and to provide highway junction was built. The efforts, however, focussed on
more amenities and parks for the city. the new urban façade overlooking the lake and renewing the
The specific objectives of the Plan were much more main avenues. In any case, the limits of the Plan were high-
varied than what the images suggest: to improve the lakeside lighted by numerous critics. These included Lewis Mumford,
area for public use; to extend the existing park and boulevard who in 1922 qualified these strategies as ‘municipal cosmet-
system and protect woodlands; to improve the railway ics’, denouncing the scarce interest the Plan had in subjects
transport system; to create a concentric highway system for related to housing, educational or healthcare facilities.
Plan Zuid (“South Plan”). Amsterdam (1905–17) and the station (not built until the 1970’s). However, within
that classicist scheme, a certain urbanistic variety was intro-
Plan Zuid, the new urban development plan of Amsterdam duced with inner avenues, streets and plazas that on some
South designed by H. P. Berlage, is an essential episode in occasions worked as highway connectors and others as
Twentieth-century town planning culture. The starting point closed-off spaces, etc. The sensation of uniformity is likewise
was the unitary conception of a major complex (12,000 qualified through the contrast between the horizontality of the
dwellings on 400 ha), based on an arrangement of blocks as blocks and some vertical items or the singular treatment of
architectural units. The bird’s-eye view depictions (as can also corners, which underscore the symmetry or emphasize focal
be seen in the Chicago Plan) shows that same interest for points. The project was not carried out in blocks, but rather
unitary control of the complex. The town planning scheme, ‘continuing corridor streets’ in a similar way to the Parisian
with a layout of monumental axes with tridents and secondary boulevards, although here the streets are shorter. The archi-
roadways, is characterised by the importance of axial, sym- tectural uniformity of the housing guarantees uniformity of the
metrical compositions with two superimposed highway net- complex. The blocks are elongated, ranging between 100 and
works. The existing urban structures influence the layout, 200 m by 50 m, and are conceived as a continuing perimeter
where the main roads converge in a Y layout near the Amstel of 4-storey buildings surrounding an open, central area.
References Further Readings
Giedion, S. 1941. Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Garcia Espuche, A., M. Guardia, J. Monclús, and J.L. Oyón. 1991.
Tradition. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Modernization and urban beautification: The 1888 barcelona
Hall, P.G. 2014. Cities of Tomorrow. An Intelectual History of Urban world’s fair. Planning Perspectives 6: 139–159. doi:10.1080/
Planning and Design in the Twentieth Century [1988]. 4th ed. 02665439108725724.
Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. Gravagnuolo, B. 1991. La Progettazione Urbana in Europa,
Hegemann, W., and E. Peets. 1998. The American Vitruvius: An 1750-1960: storia e teorie. Bari: Laterza.
Architects’ Handbook of Urban Design [1922]. New York: Panerai, P., J. Castex, J.-C. Depaule, and I. Samuels. 2004. Urban
Princeton Architectural Press. Forms: The Death and Life of the Urban Block [Formes urbaines,
Laboratorio de Urbanismo (ed.). 1992. Treballs sobre Cerdà i el seu 1980]. Oxford: Architectural Press.
Eixample a Barcelona/Readings on Cerdà and the Extension Plan Polano, S. 1987. Hendrik Petrus Berlage. Opera Completa. Milan:
of Barcelona. Barcelona: Ayuntamiento de Barcelona y CEHOPU. Electa.
Lampugnani, V.M. 2011. Die Stadt im 20. Jahrhundert. Visionen, Sica, P. 1978. Storia Dell’urbanistica: Il Novecento. Bari: Laterza.
Entwürfe, Gebautes. Berlin: Klaus Wagenbach. Sitte, C. 1965. City Planning According to Artistic Principles [Der
Monclús, J. 1995. Arte urbano y estudios histórico-urbanísticos. Städtebau nach seinen künstlerischen Grundsätzen, 1889]. New
Tradiciones, ciclos y recuperaciones. 3ZU: revista d’arquitectura York: Random House.
4. Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona: 92–99. Wilson, W.H. 1989. The City Beautiful Movement. Baltimore: Johns
Monclús, J. 2009. International Exhibitions and Urbanism: The Hopkins University Press.
Zaragoza Expo 2008 Project. Farnham: Ashgate.
Monclús, J., and C. Díez Medina. 2017. Urbanisme, Urbanismo,
Urbanistica. Latin European Urbanism: Italy and Spain. In Planning
history handbook, ed. C. Hein. London: Routledge.
Olsen, D.J. 1986. The City as a Work of Art: London, Paris, Vienna.
Yale: Yale University Press.
Sonne, W. 2014. Urbanität und Dichte im Städtebau des 20.
Jahrhunderts. Berlin: DOM publishers.
Sutcliffe, A. 1994. El nacimiento de una disciplina. In Visiones
Urbanas. Europa 1870–1993. La ciudad del artista. La ciudad del
arquitecto, ed. J. Dethier and A. Guiheux, 121–128. Barcelona:
CCCB Electa.
Toutcheff, N. 1994. Léon Jaussely (1875–1932). Los inicios del
urbanismo científico en Francia. In Visiones Urbanas. Europa
1870-1993. La ciudad del artista. La ciudad del arquitecto, ed.
J. Dethier and A. Guiheux, 169–171. Barcelona: CCCB Electa.
Van Rossem, V. 1994. H.P. Berlage. In Visiones Urbanas. Europa
1870–1993. La ciudad del artista. La ciudad del arquitecto, ed.
J. Dethier and A. Guiheux, 148–151. Barcelona: CCCB Electa.
Ward, S.V. 2002. Planning the Twentieth-Century City: The Advanced
Capitalist World. New York: Willey.
Garden Cities and Garden Suburbs
(1898–1930) 2
Abstract
Howard’s concept of Garden City, one of the most powerful ideas that urbanism came up
with in the early twentieth century, became crucial for the new, modern discipline of urban
planning. Howard’s abstract proposal was adapted in the most carefully designed ‘Garden
Suburbs’ as a model for an ideal environment, and at the same time, it was understood as a
territorial reform project. Its aspirations for radical social reform became controversial
when they were indiscriminately adopted. Both the theoretical ideas and building projects
following them have given rise to a large number of different interpretations. The debate is
still open.

Keywords
Garden City Garden Suburbs Howard Unwin Letchworth Hampstead
From the Garden City of Howard less work, few training possibilities and a lack of social life.
to the Garden Suburbs The third magnet is the town-Country, bringing together the
advantages of both while avoiding the disadvantages. At the
The concept of the Garden City is one of the most powerful centre are “The People” and the rhetorical question “Where
ideas to emerge from urbanism in the early twentieth century. will they go?”. Howard, with the aim of finding a system that
The term was coined by Ebenezer Howard in 1898, in his incorporated the virtues of both country and town, proposes a
book To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform, a mile- theoretical diagram based on circles, which he named Central
stone in the Anglo-Saxon world and later in the international City—Garden City, where he depicted settlements of around
discourse on the new, modern discipline of urban planning . 30,000 inhabitants, grouped around a central nucleus of
The diagram titled The Three Magnets is one of the most 50,000 to form a social city of 250,000 inhabitants. The
widely circulated and concise documents in which Howard nuclei are surrounded by a permanent community-owned
expressed his ideas. The first magnet represents the town, green belt, home to farms, as well as all kinds of urban
signifying a job market, training possibilities as well as institutions, such as reformatories or rest homes, all in a rural
society but also polluted air, noise and the loss of nature. The environment (Sutcliffe 1994, 126). With his idea of a Garden
second is the country, where the air is pure, and there are City, he did not design any specific urban plans, insisting that
tranquillity and a natural environment on the doorstep, but these should be adapted to each site. His diagrams are
therefore abstract, and more specifically, in Central City—
Garden City, the city is drawn as a perfect circle, with a
radius of approximately 1 Km.
J. Monclús (&) C. Díez Medina
In Howard’s proposal, the Garden City is understood
University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain as a radical solution to the ills of industrial cities, there-
e-mail: [email protected] fore entailing two reformist concepts: that of new commu-
C. Díez Medina nities and that of decentralisation. These ideas had
e-mail: [email protected] actually been the subject of debate in the nineteenth

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_2
Fig. 2.1 Ebenezer Howard, drawing titled “The Three Magnets”, with their three poles: town, country and town-country. Published in To-
Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform, (1898)
2 Garden Cities and Garden Suburbs (1898–1930) 15
based on anarchist thinking. The second concept comes from

the model industrial colonies, which had already been suc-
cessfully tested, such as Saltaire, not far from Bradford
(1851–71), Port Sunlight (1887) and Bournville (1897)
(Lampugnani 2011, 16–24).
Howard’s ideas gave rise to a large number of inter-
pretations. On the one hand, his proposal was adapted in
the most carefully designed suburbs, or ‘Garden Suburbs’
as a model for an ideal environment. On the other hand, it
was understood as a territorial reform project that would
end up with the nationalisation of land and a cooperative
system or a socialist society. These aspirations for radical
social reform gradually gave way, particularly after the
foundation of the Garden City Association (1899) and the
publication of the second edition of Howard’s book under
the title of Garden Cities of To-morrow (1902), to liberal
reformism in which the Garden City model would lose its
schematic nature and became an increasingly physical
entity, focussing interest on the urban and environmental
features of the new settlements. As Robert Fishman pointed
out, instead of a peaceful alternative to capitalism, the
Fig. 2.2 Ebenezer Howard, drawing titled “Central City—Garden Garden City thus became a device for preserving it (Fish-
City”. Published in To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform, (1898)
man 1977, 71–72).
From the urban and architectural design point of view,
the Garden City can be included in the English tradition of
protecting the environmental quality of small settlements
and traditional architecture, reinterpreted in model villages
of the nineteenth century, as mentioned and praised by the
spokesmen of the Arts and Crafts. This circumstance partly
explains why the construction of Letchworth (1903), the
first Garden City meeting Howard’s tenets, was understood
as an example that managed to fulfil his theoretical prin-
ciples in an attractive residential environment, despite
compromising his reformist ideals. Hence, the Garden
Suburb, as a redefinition of Howard’s theory and funda-
mental landmark in British urbanism, was only a few steps
away. It only meant applying the theories of the Garden
City to existing cities and developing low-density urbanism
in the suburbs.
That was how the ideal model of the Garden City
Fig. 2.3 Ebenezer Howard, drawing of the Garden City with an proposed by Howard—understood as overcoming bour-
agricultural belt. Published in To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real geois Garden Suburbs and ‘by-law’ working-class land-
Reform, (1898) scape,2 in keeping with ideas of decentralisation, joint
ownership of land and self-sufficient communities—was
century.1 The proposal of alternative communities could be gradually diluted in conventional town planning, giving
included in those that Robert Owen and other reformists had way to the reality of Garden Suburbs. The result was
designed (discounted by Marx and Engels as Utopian low-density suburban growth that did not question the
socialists), or the communities that later arose out of the Arts basis of urban growth as such, but contributed to resi-
and Crafts Movement or in the autonomous communities dential suburbanisation.
2
Namely, following the strict regulations for worker’s housing imposed
“The ingredients, then, were far from original” (Hall 2014, 96).
1
in nineteenth century.
Garden Suburbs and Town Planning
The plan by Raymond Unwin and Barry Parker for Hamp-

stead Garden Suburb (1905–1907), in the north of London,
was conceived as a model, cross-class settlement, in accor-
dance with the visions and interests of Henrietta O. Barnett’s
liberal, philanthropic reformism.3 Despite the fact that even
the name, Hampstead Garden Suburb, intentionally referred
to Howard’s Garden City and the intentional choice of urban
architects—Parker and Unwin had been responsible for the
design of Letchworth in 1906—Hampstead soon became a
suburb that was a far cry from the concept of a reforming
Garden City. As had happened in Letchworth, or in Bedford
Park, it became a small-scale elitist suburb, not far from the
noisy, polluted, anonymous metropolis, functionally depen-
dent upon it, but a charming refuge from it (Lampugnani
Fig. 2.4 Ebenezer Howard, complementary diagram to Garden City.
2011, 36). This went hand in hand with the progressive
Published in Garden Cities of Tomorrow (1898)
increase in land and housing prices in the area (Hall 2014,
110).
The publication of the manual Town Planning in Prac-
tice. An introduction to the Art of Designing Towns and
Suburbs (1909), by Unwin, was another milestone in terms
of the urbanistic technique focussing on site planning scale.
Unwin based his work on criticism of industrial cities and
the pragmatism of urban and suburban expansion. The titles
of the first six chapters in this book are illustrative of the
principles of that ‘art of designing towns and suburbs’:
(1) Of Civil Art as the Expression of Civic Life; (2) Of the
Individuality of Towns; (3) Of Formal and Informal Beauty;
(4) Of the City Survey; (5) Of Boundaries and Approaches;
(6) Of Centres and Enclosed Places. The following chapters
are of a more practical nature, focussing on the arrangement
of roads, streets and plots, buildings and the placing of
buildings (Unwin 1984).
In the subsequent pamphlet Nothing Gained by Over-
crowding (1912), Unwin put forward a proposal for creat-
ing quality environments, applying appropriate planning to
achieve much more space without occupying more land.
The premise was that the conventional layouts on which
expansion of British cities between 1870 and 1910 was
based were inefficient due to over-sizing of excessively
wide roads. Instead of reserving 40% for the roadway, as
was the usual standard, this would be reduced by 17%, thus
leaving at least 55% for open spaces (Hall 2014, 111).
Moreover, he proposed low density, more specifically
12 houses per acre—30 houses/ha, instead of the 75 or 100
3
Social worker, philanthropist, puritan y co-founder of the National
Trust, H. O. Barnett bought 100 ha in the idyllic Hampstead Heath in
1905 and announced in the magazine Contemporary Review her
intention to build in that marvellous fragment of nature a Garden Fig. 2.5 Advertising poster announcing the advantages of Letchworth
Suburb (Barnett in Lampugnani 2011, 33). Garden City (1925)
Fig. 2.6 Raymond Unwin and Barry Parker, details of the layout of Pixmore in Letchworth, 1907–09
Fig. 2.7 Comparison drawings between a conventional layout and an alternative one reducing roadways and increasing clear spaces. Published in
Unwin, R. Unwin (1984)
Fig. 2.8 Louis de Soissons, Welwyn Garden City, 1920. General plan
cities, the first part purely Sittesque,4 although that should

not be confused with folkloric picturesqueness. His prefer-
ences are recognised in town planning “obtaining its beauty
from putting order to the difficulties of the site” and attention
to detail.5
Welwyn Garden City, Prototype or Exception?
In the opening third of the twentieth century, despite the

confusion caused by the original ideas surrounding garden
cities having been adopted in other national and urban
contexts, Howard’s original idea can be seen in a variety of
creative experiences. The English garden cities designed
with a certain degree of autonomy stand out above all, as
satellite towns that have ended up integrating with
metropolitan agglomerations.
The confusion began from the start, when “a large
number of projects indiscriminately adopted the name of
‘Garden City’, without having the right to use it since the
results were completely different from the ideas by the
founders of the movement. Today, projects of this kind are
only seen in Hertfordshire, in Letchworth and the Welwyn
Garden City” (Purdom in Hall 2014, 114).6 In fact, the
creation of ‘Garden Suburbs’, apparently based on the
concept of Howard’s garden cities, but actually a far cry
from his principles, was the norm in many European cities,
not only in the UK.
Fig. 2.9 Advertising poster announcing the advantages and disadvan- It was Howard himself who promoted the outstanding
tages of living and working at Welwyn Garden City yesterday, today Garden City of Welwyn, after having founded the first
and tomorrow, 1925 Garden City in Letchworth. The easy access to London by
railway favoured successful development; management was
entrusted to Welwyn Garden City Limited, the owner of the
that were typical at the end of the century—with lower land; and the estate became an independent town in 1927.
infrastructure costs. The Welwyn experience, as a satellite town, was so
The formal principles were based on the Arts and Crafts innovative that it became a benchmark for post-war New
tradition and the ideas of William Morris, and later on the Towns, planned within the framework of Abercrombie’s
theories of Camillo Sitte, although Unwin appears to be Greater London Plan. In exchange, the urban forms adopted
unaware of them in his New Earswick, York (1902) and in Louis de Soissons’s project for Welwyn were not entirely
Letchworth projects. The diversity in the design of the novel. The wide avenues and regular layouts were more in
roadways, with main roads and secondary roads or cul-de- line with Beaux-Art criteria, with picturesque variations in
sacs, is accompanied by a wide variety of housing types, the residential clusters. Indeed, the environmental and
with different ways of grouping houses together as a fun- architectural quality of the estate is unquestionable and can
damental mechanism for creating picturesque effects. The be considered a model development.
formal definition of these suburbs reveals Unwin’s eclecti-
cism. On the one hand, the layouts show connections with
the picturesque tradition: preference for curved streets, uni-
formity of façades, albeit often with asymmetrical perspec- 4
Almost 40 pages are devoted to summarise Sitte’s ideas about historic
tives, a taste for a changing view comprising separate centres and closed squares (Swenarton 1992, 234).
fragments, open spaces, etc. On the other hand, the regular 5
“Sus preferencias están por un urbanismo que obtiene la belleza de
geometry defines the central areas. In Spiro Kostof’s words, poner un orden sobre las dificultades del sitio y de la necesidad” (Solá-
“His conception of the street was Modern, not Modernist” Morales, foreword in Unwin 1984, VIII).
6
Purdom, C. B. (ed.), Town Theory and Practice. London: Benn, 1921
(Kostof 1992, 231). In his book, Unwin analyses European (quoted in Hall, Cities of Tomorrow, 114).
Case Studies access gate. The drawings show an attempt to combine the
English preference for a detached home and individual gar-
Hampstead Garden Suburb, London (1905–1907) den, with the volumetric dynamics of old European cities. All
of this meant that close attention had to be paid to the
Hampstead Garden Suburb is a Garden Suburb prototype topography, the setting back of buildings, the search for
owing its good fortune to success as a business as well as curves closing views, the emphasis on crossroads, etc., and
being an example of high-quality town planning. One of the careful subdivision work. Nevertheless, the eclecticism is
most important contributions made by Unwin and Parker lies evident in the contrast—as was the case of Letchworth, or as
in making separate plans for the street and the buildings, thus proposed in “Town Planning in Practice”—between the
gaining landscape quality. Unwin was mainly interested in informal geometry of the roadway layout and the strict reg-
obtaining attractive street views. His sources of inspiration ularity of the central plaza. Edwin Lutyens took part in the
were not only the traditional English villages, but also the project, designing the two big churches and the adjacent
mediaeval German towns. An example of this ‘Sittesque secondary school (religion, community and knowledge), “an
mediaevalism’ is also evident in the Great Wall and the huge abnormal exercise in the City Beautiful tradition” (Hall, 111).
Siedlung Römerstadt, Frankfurt (1927–28) policies that were being generalised in Europe after the end
of World War I.
The German Siedlungen from the period between the wars The decisive role in these initiatives by the architect Ernst
represent a paradigmatic example of how the Garden May, hailed in the magazine Das neue Frankfurt, points to the
Suburb model was applied in the ambitious housing and direct connections with the British Garden Suburbs movement.
advanced town planning Garden Suburb project that was May had worked with Unwin in Hampstead Garden Suburb
implemented in the Weimar Republic (1918–1933). Among and continued his relations with the expert in the following
the 14 colonies that were built, similar to Garden Suburbs years. Years later, in 1925, he was appointed head of municipal
(with around 15,000 dwellings), Römerstadt, with its 1200 services in Frankfurt, with wide authority on planning and
houses, stands out as the most emblematic settlement and urban projects. The novelty of Römerstadt resides in its desire
the best example of the Siedlung ideal. Although it is for the integration and awareness of the site, which included
frequently presented as a statement of modern urbanism in projects for conserving the valley as a leisure, sports and
the period between the wars, Römerstadt can also be seen education park. At the same time, the settlement reflects the
as a modern version or interpretation of the Garden City, at new attitudes to leisure and modernity (standardised housing,
a time when the German Social Democrat townships new facilities) and to the picturesque and landscape ideals of
became an ideal testing ground for the new mass housing integration in the place and nature (walls, plazas, earthworks).
Fishman, R. 1977. Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century: Ebenezer Gay, P. 2001. Weimar Culture: the Outsider as Insider [1968]. New
Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier. New York: Basic York–London: W. W. Norton & Company.
Books. Gleiniger, A. 1994. La Siedlung de Römerstadt en el marco del ‘nuevo
Hall, P.G. 2014. Cities of Tomorrow. An Intelectual History of Urban Fráncfort’. In Visiones Urbanas. La ciudad del artista, la ciudad del
Planning and Design in the Twentieth Century [1988]. 4th ed. arquitecto, ed. J. Dethier and A. Guiheux, 316. Barcelona: CCCB
Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. Electa.
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Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza.
Social Democracy and Housing Policies
(1919–1934) 3
Carmen Díez Medina
Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to present the controversial episode of Red Vienna, an
outstanding example of European Social Democrat housing policies during the interwar
period. In contrast to the internationally recognized Siedlungen built during the Weimar
Republic, the Viennese Höfe has frequently been the subject of criticism and debate. The
text highlights the importance of understanding the realization of this ambitious plan as a
continuation of a deeply rooted Viennese tradition with regards to rented housing, in terms
of urban forms, architectural typologies as well as management of rental properties. This
urban model, away from political considerations and architectural language, had important
consequences for the city of Vienna up until today, which make it worthy of a place among
the urban visions of this book.

Keywords
Red Vienna Hof Social housing Mietskaserne Volkswohnpalast Karl-Marx-Hof
Architectural historiography has paid considerable attention Republic of Austria, the Social Democratic Party was to
to the Red Vienna period, presented here as an outstanding revive a tradition which, although consolidated in the eigh-
example of the housing policies of European Social teenth century, dated back to the sixteenth century, at a time
Democracy during the interwar period (Tafuri 1980; Blau when the German branch of the Habsburgs chose Vienna for
1999).1 The aim of this chapter is to attempt to explain the their residence and rented or otherwise occupied properties
colossal political project driven by the Social Democratic belonging to the clergy in the city centre.2 With regards to
administration of the Vienna City Council, which resulted in social housing, the Viennese residential policy is therefore
the production of social housing on a vast scale. The real- an undeniable benchmark among European housing policies
ization of this ambitious plan may be seen as a continuation during the period between the wars, owing both to its sin-
of a deeply rooted Viennese tradition concerning rental gularity and the magnitude of its achievements.3
accommodation, in the sense of urban forms, architectural The dramatic situation in Vienna after World War I had
types as well as rental management. During the early years led to a proliferation of illegal settlements on the outskirts of
of the twentieth century, after the proclamation of the
2
The choice of Vienna as the Habsburgs’ Residenz and their Court in
1
In Chap. 9 Blau’s monography (‘Architecture and proletariat’, 342, 1533 required accommodation, which led to introducing a legislative
343, 344) other outstanding studies can be found, from the first instrument, namely the Hofquartierpflicht (obligation to rent housing to
opinions of the interwar period to historians, critics or architects in the Court). For the first time, residential buildings became a direct
more recent times. Among them: Haiko and Reissberger (1974), source of revenue, and therefore an item of barter. It was at that moment
Ungers (1978), Krischanitz and Kapfinger (1980), Pirhofer and Sieder that the concept of rented housing appeared in Vienna (Fabbri in
(1982) or Achleitner (1980). See Blau (1999). Aymonino et al. 1975, 1: 215).
3
Between 1934 and 1938, Austrian fascism persecuted social democ-
C. Díez Medina (&) racy, bringing an abrupt end to its housing policy programme. For
School of Engineering and Architecture (EINA), further information about other projects of the second half of the
University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain twentieth century following similar lines to those of Red Vienna, see
e-mail: [email protected] Steiner and Peichl (1991).

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_3
24 C. Díez Medina
the period.4 Alternatively, occupying available plots in the

consolidated city, between Ringstrabe and Gürtel,5 was
identified as the most effective solution as the existing
infrastructure of paved streets, sewage system, as well as
gas, electrical and water supplies, allowed for operations to
begin immediately.
The strategy approved in 1923 as an ambitious housing
construction project began under the auspices of the Vienna
City Council governed by the Sozialdemokratische Arbeit-
erpartei Österreichs, SDAPÖ (Austrian Workers Social
Democratic Party), led to the party’s claim on mass pro-
duction of rental housing as the expression of a new social
order. The typological instrument that allowed these pro-
posals to be formalized in an exemplary manner was the
Hof, which became the Viennese residential model par
excellence during the interwar period. It is worth examining
this architectural and urban model which was so successful
in Red Vienna and which is still present today in a large
part of the city’s urban framework. The word Hof (literally
‘courtyard’) is used to refer to a large-sized dwelling block,
arranged around a courtyard. The entrances are usually
located inside the courtyard, a public sheltered area, with
communal facilities. As a meeting point and extension of
the living space, particularly for the elderly and children,
the courtyard contributed a great deal to the improvement in
Fig. 3.1 Electoral propaganda by the Social Democratic Party at the
the quality of life in these municipal tenement complexes.
1919 elections, after proclamation of the Republic: ‘Against the united
front of capitalism, the united front of the workers: vote Social The high number of inhabitants—each block contained an
Democrat’. Poster by M. Biró average of between 400 and 500 dwellings—warranted the
installation of secondary social services. Those who
the city. Despite the fact that some notable social democrats defended the construction of these super-blocks, which were
and architects, such as Adolf Loos or Josef Frank, supported known as Volkswohnpaläste (people’s palace housing)
municipal housing construction initiatives backed by the might be likened, at least in their approach, to the sup-
Siedlerbewegung (a movement in favour of the settlements), porters of the Garden City; in fact, examples considered
they ran into great difficulties in bringing projects to com- paradigmatic such as Karl-Marx-Hof or Reumann-Hof did
pletion. Unlike Germany, where under the sponsorship of feature extensive green spaces, garden areas similar in
the Weimar Republic, the Siedlungen became a laboratory character to Garden Cities, although of a much higher
for modern architecture and urbanism; in Austria, the density.
Siedlerbewegung was only ‘appeased’ by the municipal Historians such as Manfredo Tafuri and Gianni Fabbri
administration after recognizing that the huge demand for have established clear links between the Volkswohnpaläste of
accommodation could not be met by building settlements on the period between the wars and a Viennese tradition deeply
the outskirts. Supporters of Garden Cities, both politicians rooted in the city for over two centuries. The precedent of the
and architects, were given the opportunity of making some eighteenth century Wohnhöfe, which belonged to and was
relevant contribution only at the beginning and at the end of managed by the clergy, provided a perfect archetype for the
arrangement of community life which the Social Democrats
aspired to recreate two hundred years later (Díez Medina
4
In fact, in the early 1920s Adolf Loos, the director of the Wiener
Siedlungsamt (Viennese Office for Construction of Settlements) built
the Heuberg settlement and developed several housing typologies in
projects following this model. Josef Frank designed many projects for
self-managed, cooperative settlements and flats for the City Council,
5
and at the end of the decade was appointed the Wiener Werkbund- The Gürtel (belt) is the second of the ring roads surrounding the
siedlung planning director (1930–32), perhaps the most significant historical centre of Vienna. The first is the Ring and the third is the
demonstration of modern architecture in Austria, the result of contacts Zweierlinie (jurisdictional enclosure also known as Lastenstrabe). It
with the Bauhaus movement and the Frankfurt and Stuttgart settlement dates back to 1861 when Emperor Franz Joseph authorized construction
construction programme. of a street 76 m wide. The first buildings started to appear in 1863.
3 Social Democracy and Housing Policies (1919–1934) 25
Fig. 3.2 ‘Das Neue Wien/Vienna of Today’, 1931. Map showing the new municipal buildings and equipment, published in Fremden-
verkehrskommission der Bundesländer Wien und Niederösterreich (ed.), Das Neue Wien: Ein Album mit Plan, 1932
2015, 196). But the increase in density at the time of the degenerated into what was known as Mietskasernen (literally
Gründerzeit,6 at the end of the nineteenth century, had led to rental barracks). These were very densely populated build-
the degradation of this architectural type, which had ings, housing industrial workers. The rental housing was the
property of the so-called ‘Zinsherren’ (landlords) belonging
6
to the nobility and upper classes. High rents, overcrowded
In the last third of the nineteenth century, Vienna was the centre of units and poverty were the consequences of the absence of
power of the so-called Donaumonarchie (Danube Monarchy). Archi-
tecture benefited from economic growth stemming from the Industrial housing policy regulations. The apartments in the Viennese
Revolution. During the time of the ‘founders’ or perhaps better said the Höfe of the Gründerzeit featured three spatial strips bands,
‘knights of industry’, known as the Gründerzeit (foundational period), a Zimmer/Küche/Kabinett (living room, kitchen and bedroom),
large number of companies were created, which led to a vast amount of arranged with the first of these along the street façade, and the
architectural commissions, a lot of them related to the world of industry
and technology (industrial equipment and railway stations) or to the second and third aligned towards the back courtyard or Hof.7
development of trade (department stores, banks, stock market build-
ings, etc.). At that time, a large number of public buildings were also
constructed (theatres, art academies, concert halls, universities, muse-
ums) and also private buildings, the latter direct commissions from the
7
bourgeois class which was on an unquestionable upward trend (villas). In the room that overlooked the street, regardless of orientation, was
The reference models were based on the highly admired former the most important part of the house, i.e. the main room which was a
architecture, which led to development of a historical eclecticism that combined living room, dining room, bedroom (Zimmer); on the other
established the taste of the time. But at the same time, the breathtaking side, overlooking the courtyard was the corridors of the super-block,
population growth gave rise to the other side of the coin, a world of surrounding the Hof and from where access to the houses was gained,
misery and substandard housing—Vienna then had two million and between both these zones was the kitchen (Küche) lit from the
inhabitants. See glossary in Díez Medina (2005). corridor and a small bedroom (Kabinett).
26 C. Díez Medina
Fig. 3.3 Situation of the Höfe and Siedlungen in Vienna during 1928–
30, in Manfredo Tafuri, Vienna Rossa, 1986
This is the meaning of the shortening ‘ZKK’, widely used in

reference to this housing type.8 Both the toilets and the water
supply (taps in the wall called ‘Bassenas’) were located along
the corridors and were shared by a large number of tenants.
The Bassenas became a place for the residents of the building
to meet and socialize.
The Hof developed by the Social Democrats in the in-
terwar period was to introduce certain improvements to the
Gründerzeit model. The apartments became larger and now
included indoor toilets and running water.9 In addition, there Fig. 3.4 ‘Thanks to the health accommodation and social care,
was more variety in the housing types, so as to meet the currently only 75 out of every 1000 children die per year in Red
residents’ needs.10 Most importantly, these homes were part Vienna’. Socialist propaganda published in Der Kuckuck, 20 March
1932. Der Kuckuck was published by the Austrian Social Democratic
of a large urban and social system which offered advantages Party from April 1929 until it was banned in February 1934
and benefits which greatly contributed to an improved
quality of life. In addition to communal bathrooms, nurs-
eries, social services, etc., they had cooperatives where the
residents could buy food at convenient prices. The apart-
ments had balconies, loggias or terraces, providing a visual
8
The smallest dwellings had between 16 and 18 m2 (Küche/Kabinett),
extension of the living spaces. The possibility of enjoying
whereas a normal home (Zimmer/Küche/Kabinett) had between 24 and open air spaces for leisure or the caring of children and the
26 m2. These dwellings were occupied by an average of six people. elderly significantly improved the level of sanitation and
Since rent accounted for between 25 and 40% of income, tenants were hygiene within these complexes. The limited space in the
often forced to sub-rent rooms, either for Bettgeher (literally those who
go there to sleep) or people who used the bedrooms during the day and
homes themselves was therefore offset by these communal
vacated them at night. There is some wonderful literature that illustrates living spaces.
life in Vienna during those years. See, for example Werfel (2004). The political and social consequences of the construction
9
The average size of the dwellings was now between 8 and 48 m2. of these super-blocks were enormous; since these huge ‘red
Obviously, we have to take into account the housing situation of the
fortresses’ were built within the historical urban quarters, the
time, when in those years 70% of existing housing was below the
minimum levels, and construction of this accommodation was an emergence of dispossessed suburban areas was avoided.
undeniable improvement, in addition to making viable the construction From a formal point of view, the cultural presence and
of a large number of housing in a short time, thus effectively halting, political power of the working class was manifest in the clear
and practically eradicating the housing shortage problem. Even so,
despite the unquestionable improvement over the previous model, the
references to typological and morphological models and
small size of the homes was, right from the 1920s, the subject of iconographies borrowed from polite architecture, symbol of
criticism (Reppè 1993). the defeated bourgeoisie: palatial courtyards, archways,
10
In the Karl Marx Hof, for example, of the total of 1382 homes, 125 towers, belvederes, etc., were elements familiar to the
were kitchen/bedroom, 748 were kitchen/bedroom/cabinet, 159 were
Viennese who turned these mass housing projects into a
kitchen and two bedrooms and 136 had a kitchen, bedroom and two
cabinets. The remaining 200 homes were either smaller or larger than focus of attention. But it went even further, for the con-
those listed above (Reppè 1993). struction of these Höfe undermined the position of power
Fig. 3.5 Vienna, district 3: Robert Oerley, Hanuschhof, 1923–25, with 434 dwellings (above right); Heinrich Schmid and Hermann Aichinger,
Rabenhof, 1925–27, with 1109 dwellings (above left)
Fig. 3.6 Mietskaserne or speculation housing building in Vienna. Layout and diagram of the urban environment. The courtyard or Hof is filled
with two built internal bodies, being reduced to a sequence of inner patios. The services are communal and are located at the areas near the
communications nuclei
28 C. Díez Medina
Fig. 3.7 Hubert Gessner, Reumannhof, Vienna, 1924–26, with 478 dwellings. General plan
acquired by some upper-class districts. Indeed, their char- nature of this episode can be explained by exceptional cir-
acter changed radically with the appearance of these ‘peo- cumstances. Despite the Social Democrats having won a
ple’s palace housing’ and a new social class in parts of the significant victory in the municipal elections of May 1919,
city that until then had been exclusively bourgeois.11 For the converting Vienna into the first European capital governed by
Social Democrats, this was a tremendous political a Socialist majority, it was to be an ephemeral victory. One
achievement. year later, the SPÖ was defeated at the national elections by
The financing of this housing programme was possible, the Social Christian party, which aroused antisocialist and
thanks to the City Council’s implementation of certain legal anti-Semitic feeling among the voters in rural areas. The
measures, defensive measures and rent control as well as the Social Democrats were excluded from national power and
creation of specific taxes levied exclusively on the housing were left with Vienna, the capital city, as their last and only
owners’ income and on luxury items in general. This both stronghold. On the other hand, the Social Democrats invested
prevented the City Council assuming debt and helped to heavily in transforming Vienna into their own laboratory
reduce unemployment.12 The result was the construction of (ideological and architectural), a project which could be
more than 63,000 council houses (Steiner 1988, 18–23) carried out thanks to the 1921 constitutional decision of
between 1923 and 1934, year in which the Austrian fascist granting Vienna the status of independent province. In
movement interrupted its development. Tafuri’s words: ‘From 1920 to 1934 Vienna was transformed
The Viennese initiative for the construction of municipal into a ‘State within a State’ thanks to the autonomy of its
tenement housing was an extraordinary event internationally, Landrat in the new Federal Republic: the city was ready to
both because of its practical success—it provided affordable become the experimental laboratory of Social Democracy’.14
housing for thousands of people in record time—and because In this way, Red Vienna became the biggest experiment in
of the diversity of the architectural solutions.13 The epic municipal socialism, both in Europe and the world.
11
As was the case in Döbling, a traditional district of villas for the
Viennese bourgeois. The Karl Marx Hof, with its 1100 m of ‘red wall’
intercepted the connection between this residential area and Heiligen-
stadt station.
12
The numerous taxes imposed to finance construction of Red Vienna
were called Breitner-Steuern (Breitner Taxes), in reference to the then
Treasury Minister, Hugo Breitner.
13
Several authors (Steiner, Blau, Tafuri) have observed that the great
project for Red Vienna was possible, among other reasons, because the
generation of architects in charge of designing these huge urban estates 14
‘Dal 1920 al 1934, Vienna diviene comunque un vero ‘Stato nello
(H. Aichinger, H. Gessner, E. Hoppe, O. Schönthal, R. Perco, K. Ehn, Stato’, grazie anche all’autonomia del suo Landrat all’interno della
etc.) had been educated in great city urbanism at the Wagnerschule, a nuova repubblica federale: la città è pronta a divenire il banco di
school where they had also acquired a wide formal repertoire. sperimentazione della democracia socialista’ (Tafuri 1980, 10).
Fig. 3.8 Hubert Gessner, Reumannhof, Vienna, 1924–26, with 478 dwellings. View of the main entrance to the Hof
Criticism followed quickly after the construction of the represent the advancement of the working class was in many
first Höfe.15 ‘In antisocialist propaganda, the municipal ways retrograde.16
housing blocks were portrayed as socialist ‘voter blocks’ and It is therefore clear that historians and critics were not
‘red fortresses’, which, it was suggested, were massive and very tolerant of this episode, particularly, when compared to
strategically sited throughout the city (in middle-class dis- the admiration that the experience of the German Siedlungen
tricts and near bridges, railway stations and major traffic was to awaken in their peers. In any case, aside from
arteries) for paramilitary or defensive purposes’ (Blau 1999, political considerations and avant-garde criticism, the great
6). Some architects affiliated with the architectural and urban urban quality of the open spaces can today be appreciated
avant-garde of the time also criticized the socialist experi- from a historical perspective, in the same way as the fitting
ment, not so much because of their ideological or political scale and density of most of those innovative residential
aspect, but because they represented a solution that did not settlements or super-blocks and the way they fit into the
compare well with the functional, modern complexes built in urban fabric integrating quite naturally, far from existing as
Frankfurt by Ernst May or in Berlin under the direction of peripheral or marginal islands.
Martin Wagner (Tafuri 1980, 6–7). Tafuri went even further,
judging the Austro-Marxist exploit to be tragic, despite its
exceptional nature, because the architectural strategy used to
16
The Italian architectural historian clearly explains the paradoxes that
this ideological strategy entailed: ‘Ne discende un nuovo ‘dovere’ per la
città che si risveglia dopo la ‘seria Apocalisse’ delle mitologie
asburgiche. Bisognerà realizzare un ‘rotes Wien’, una Vienna rossa, a
costo di negare—sulla base dell’assurdo político ed económico imposto
dalle contingenze—le funzioni specifiche della metropoli moderna, a
costo di fare dell’anacronismo e del carattere parassitario di una capitale
che concentra in sé un terzo circa della popolazione dell’intero paese, la
condizione stessa di un’esperienza urbanística eccezionale’ (Tafuri
1980, 10). (A new ‘duty’ is imposed for the city (Vienna) that awakes
15
Red Vienna has generally been censored by architectural critics for after the ‘serious Apocalypse’ of the Habsburg myths. It will be
proposing a rhetorical model that aimed to take advantage of the boost necessary to build a ‘rotes Wien’, a Red Vienna, at the price of denying
of Austro-Marxism, rather than the innovative research that was being —on the basis of the political and economic absurdity imposed by the
carried out at the same time in the Weimar Republic and other Central contingencies—the specific functions of a modern metropolis, at the
European countries such as Holland, creating a powerful image that price of making the anachronism and parasitic nature of a capital where
permitted extolling the victors, more specifically the Austrian Social approximately one third of the country's population is concentrated, the
Democrat Party (SPÖ) (Díez Medina 2015). same condition of an exceptional urbanistic experience).
30 C. Díez Medina
Case Studies transit hubs, thereby guaranteeing its connection with the
city. However, for the inhabitants of the Döbling residential
Karl-Marx-Hof, Vienna (1926–30) district, the Karl-Marx-Hof worked as an ideological ‘red
wall’ which effectively blocked off access to the station. It
The Karl-Marx-Hof, designed by Karl Ehn, is the best known spans 1100 m in length and includes two large independent
example of the Viennese super-blocks, not only because of its courtyards, connected by a central line within the building.
name, its huge size and its physical impact, but also the This centre block, the most photographed part of the
exemplary character that it acquires within the vast repertoire building, has become an icon, opening up a perspective view
of projects developed under this urban typology. In addition through a large archway, towards the courtyard of honour, a
to its 1382 homes, it had two laundries that included 62 kind of park that separates the two main bodies of the
washing points, two bathing facilities with 20 bath tubs and building arranged around the open Hof. Despite what some
30 showers, two nurseries, one dental clinic, one mother’s images might suggest this monumental and expressive
advisory, a library, a youth hostel, a post office, a health entrance, which has become the symbol of the complex,
centre, a pharmacy and 25 shops all on the premises. actually represents a very small, insignificant part of the
It is located on a privileged site, next to the metro station work as a whole.
and the local Heiligenstadt railway station, one of Vienna’s
Casa de Las Flores, Madrid (1930) The city block is comprised of two parallel bands, which
leave 35% of the area between them open. The complex has
This housing complex located in the western part of the ten staircase shafts, with four apartments per floor. The two
Madrid Ensanche (city extension) is one of the most inter- building blocks have a lower exterior, in line with regula-
esting examples of an architectural intervention with an tions limiting building height, whereas the interior is higher.
urban dimension. Secundino Zuazo proposed one of the few The layout of the parallel north/south blocks is designed to
avant-garde alternatives to the typical closed city block of allow each dwelling the maximum amount of natural light
the Ensanche by Carlos María de Castro. It is the only and ventilation. Each of the four apartments of the six
example in the Madrid city extension of the 1930s that might central houses is ventilated on two sides (street—inner
be considered an heir to Red Vienna. As with the Viennese courtyard, or inner courtyard—Hof), whereas the four cor-
precedent, the emphasis is on the urban nature of the housing ners, with four houses per floor, face outwards on three
layout, although here the housing types are more elaborate sides: two towards the street and one towards the inner
and larger. There is also a certain formal influence of the garden.
Amsterdam School in the use of brick.
32 C. Díez Medina
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bridge, London: MIT Press. Vivienda.
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vivienda colectiva. ¿Revolución o evolución? In Otra historia. secolo: Parigi e Vienna, vol. 1. Roma: Officinaedizioni.
Estudios sobre arquitectura y urbanismo en honor de Carlos Bauer, O. 1919. Der Weg zum Sozialismus. Berlin: Freiheit.
Sambricio, ed. J. Calatrava, C. Díez Medina, S. Guerrero, and R. Díez Medina, C. 2005. Ferdinand von Feldegg, Der Architekt y la
Sánchez Lampreave, 188–205. Madrid: Lampreave. metamorfosis del historicismo en la Viena fin-de-siècle. In Der
Reppè, S. 1993. Der Karl-Marx-Hof: Geschichte eines Gemeindebaus Architekt, 1–12. Zaragoza: Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de
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London: University of Nebraska Press.
Modern Urban Planning and Modernist
Urbanism (1930–1950) 4
Abstract
The different names used to call the new modern visions that appeared around the middle of
the nineteenth century in association with each European country (Town Planning,
Städtebau, Urbanisme, Urbanistica, Urbanismo) are proof of the diversity in the approaches
and traditions that accompanied the emergence of modernist urbanism. Despite these early
approaches, architectural historiography has tended to see the emergence of ‘modernist
urbanism’ linked to the avant-garde who reached their climax in the twenties and thirties of
the twentieth century. This chapter is based on the interpretations that recent historiography
has made of the nature and emergence of modern functionalist urbanism, virtually parallel
to the birth of the urban planning as a discipline. After studying the principles laid out in the
Athens Charter, applied to some paradigmatic cases, it goes on to consider the impact of
functionalist urbanism after the Second World War.

Keywords
Modern urban planning Modernist urbanism Functionalist urbanism Athens charter
CIAM
The Modern Discipline of Urban Planning discipline with ambiguous status and different meanings
as a Technical Tool for Intervention depending on national and cultural traditions.
and Control of Urban Growth Some authors ascribe the roots of the new ‘modern
visions’ to the eighteenth century, when a new discourse
The nature and emergence of modernist functionalist paved the way for seeing cities as entities subject to being
urbanism, virtually parallel with the birth of urban planning, entirely transformed (Gravagnuolo 1991). However, more
has been the subject of different interpretations in recent recent historiography places the origins of modern urbanism
historiography. The contrast between them might be ascri- to the middle of the nineteenth century in response to the
bed to the different views that the history of urbanism has new conditions arising from the industrial revolution.
taken (see approaches by Sutcliffe (1981), Hall (2014) Ward Indeed, Leonardo Benevolo, in his classic “Le origini
(2002)) on urbanistic historiography with an architectural dell’urbanistica moderna”, believes that “modern urbanism
approach (as shown by Benevolo (2000), Choay (1965) o was born to try to correct the flaws of industrial cities: with
Gravagnuolo (1991)). The difficulty of unifying different the Utopian proposals on the one hand, and the new urban
approaches and traditions only proves the complexity of a planning legislation on the other” (Benevolo 2000).
In any case, it is clear that there are notable differences
depending on respective national traditions and the different
School of Engineering and Architecture,
University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain rates and forms of urban growth, some conditioned by the
e-mail: [email protected] industrial revolution and others depending on the need to
C. Díez Medina regulate growth through expansion or renewal responding to
e-mail: [email protected] new developments in transport and housing. In this sense, the

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_4
Fig. 4.1 Cover page of the publication by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), designed by one of its members, Edwin Alfred
Rickards, in honour of Sir Christopher Wren. Published in Town Planning Review, 1911, 5
turning point occurs during the early decades of the twentieth Town Planning, Städtebau, Urbanisme,
century, when the first international conferences were held and Urbanistica, Urbanismo
these new terms were coined. The different names that appear
in each country are proof of the diverse visions and traditions Although it is possible to recognise the coexistence of dif-
that accompanied the emergence of modern urbanism: town ferent urbanistic traditions during the twentieth century as a
planning, Städtebau, urbanisme, urbanistica, urbanismo whole (Calabi 2004), one can also see their convergence in
(Monclús and Díez Medina 2017), each with its particular set the discipline of town planning. Despite the originality and
of manuals, projects, competitions, etc. In addition, this new importance of Cerdà’s theory and the 1859 Ensanche (city
urban planning discipline was linked to the need to identify the extension) of Barcelona, the superiority of the Städtebau is
‘modern’ techniques which permitted systematising and inte- obvious, understood as the modern practice of controlling
grating visions of the various sectors in the new concept of urban growth that emerged so strikingly in Germany
town planning and the technique of zoning. beginning at the end of the nineteenth century. As Stephen
4 Modern Urban Planning and Modernist Urbanism (1930–1950) 35
Fig. 4.2 Hermann Jansen, plan for the Great Berlin competition, 1910
Ward remarked, “(…) most key innovations took place in (Hebbert 2006). We might see this as a ‘battle between two
the recently united Germany, or at least in the German paradigms’, one of a more social, reformist nature and the
speaking world” (Ward 2002, 26). There is nothing com- other more closely linked to architecture. In essence, the nature
parable in England or any other countries to the urbanism of ‘Planning’ refers to the beginning, when it emerged as a
manual Der Städtebau (1890), the monumental work by number of techniques used to control urban growth in complex
Josef Stübben, author of over thirty plans of city extensions. socio-economic situations. Architecture did not play a leading
His leading role in the development of modern urbanism has role in them, as it did at the École Français d’Urbanisme
been established in urban historiography (Piccinato 1974). (EFU). In any case, the dearth of English translations of the
Some authors compare the Anglo-Saxon visions of Plan- copious literature on Latin Urbanism hinders a better under-
ning to Urbanisme in the Latin European culture. Anthony standing by the Anglo-Saxon researchers on Planning History.
Sutcliffe, one of the sponsors of urban history, referred to the The terminology that appeared at the birth of modern
culture of urbanisme, in the sense of contextualised planning urbanism is key to understanding the origins of the disci-
and architecture, as something specifically Latin (Sutcliffe pline. The Spanish word ‘urbanización’ appeared for the
2002). In Spain and Italy, modern urban planning emerged and first time in 1867, in the Teoría General de la Urbanización
was institutionalised later than in the UK or Germany, due to a (General Theory of Urbanisation) by Cerdà. “For Cerdà,
slower process of industrialisation. Michel Hebbert also urbanización covered both urbanism, with its urban impli-
referred to this difference in traditions in his article ‘Town cations, and urban planning, with its economic, social,
Planning versus Urbanismo’ in which he stated: “Town political, ideological and philosophical aspects. This made
planning is Anglo-Saxon, whereas urbanismo is Latin” him the founder of a new discipline, which started to be
Fig. 4.3 Le Corbusier, contemporary city of 3 million inhabitants, 1922
Fig. 4.4 Le Corbusier, sketch of a contemporary city, 1922

Fig. 4.5 Le Corbusier, diagram with the four functions of zoning, 1933
developed at the end of the nineteenth century, and above all his ‘urbanización’ neologism. It is hardly surprising that
in the twentieth century” (Lampugnani 2011). The French some years later urbanisme became the official term, both for
term ‘urbanisme’ arrived a little later, at the beginning of the the field of urban studies and for the modern discipline of
twentieth century.1 This is a fascinating story that goes way planning (Choay 1983). Despite the complex nature of ur-
beyond the ‘parenthood’ of the term. According to some banisme or urbanismo as a field of study and as a modern
authors, the term ‘urbanisme’ was coined in 1910. Never- discipline, urbanists, or better said ‘Latin urbanists’, appro-
theless, Henri Prost, one of the most representative architects priated the term, emphasising the physical aspects of the
of the EFU, claimed that “the term was created by four concept (Monclús and Díez Medina 2017).
architects and an engineer”, including himself and Léon
Jaussely, winner of the 1905 competition for a new plan for
Barcelona. Of course, Jaussely knew of Cerdà’s work and CIAM and the Athens Charter
In response to those visions of the modern discipline of

1
According to the German architect and urban planner Oskar Jürgens, urbanism, focussing on the development of general plans
‘From the word urbanización, coined by Cerdà, the French formed
and zoning as fundamental techniques in planning urban
urbanisme to replace the terms used until then, a term which Spaniards
later adopted as urbanismo to designate their urbanism (Städtebau)’ growth, architectural historiography has tended to see the
(Jürgens 1992, 271). emergence of ‘modernist urbanism’ as linked to the
Fig. 4.6 Le Corbusier, plan of Chandigarh, 1951
avant-garde which reached its climax in the 1920s and 30s. years, such as Vertikalstadt by Ludwig Hilberseimer (1924),
In these interpretations, there is a tendency to identify it can be said that the differences are not substantial (vertical
modernist urbanism as another aspect, although fundamen- zoning) (Monclús and Díez Medina 2016). Other later pro-
tal, of the gradual imposition of modern architecture. posals are in line with the spirit of new urbanism, in which
Beginning in the 1920s, modern urbanism developed urban blocks with conventional ‘corridor streets’ are gener-
some radical innovations in housing and in urban forms that ally rejected in favour of open arrangements, independent of
became consolidated with the support of the CIAM (Inter- the highway system. Previously, in CIAM 3, the high linear
national Congresses of Modern Architecture) which began in block had been gaining ground as an alternative. Moreover,
1928. In 1924, El Lissitzky had been instrumental in the the arterial system of high-speed highways isolates high-rise
formation of an international modern architecture congress buildings, and the green areas became dominant in modern
and for this purpose had approached Le Corbusier who, four planning. This was actually a significant change of paradigm
years later, was to implement the idea albeit with a different related to the prestige of Taylorism and Fordism which
format (Lampugnani 2011, 407). The subject of the debate involved in new ways of arranging urban spaces (Hilper
began with basic considerations concerning minimal housing 1978; Monclús 2014).
(Die Wohnung für das Existenzminimum, CIAM 2, 1929), The clearest and most concise expression of the principles
but shifted onto the subject of the functional city which of modernist urbanism can be found in the so-called Athens
gradually took over the debates, most likely under the Charter which came out of the 4th CIAM Congress, held in
influence of Cornelis van Eesteren, who replaced Karl Moser Athens in 1933 (starting on-board a ship which had set out
as president of CIAM in 1931. The spirit of that ‘new ur- from Marseilles) which consecrated ‘functionalist urbanism’
banism’ was the subject of a great deal of academic literature as it is understood in the language of international urbanism.
that emphasised its relationship with certain urban visions, The baseline for that extraordinary congress was an
such as the well-known Ville Contemporaine model by Le exchange of analyses and diagnoses of 33 cities, using a
Corbusier (1922), a radical proposal for cities of the indus- systematic approach translated into plans of the same scale
trial era. Although different proposals coexisted during those (van Es et al. 2014). The centre role taken by the Amsterdam
Fig. 4.7 Secundino Zuazo and Hermann Jansen, Plan for Madrid, 1929
Fig. 4.8 Le Corbusier, José Luis Sert, Plan Maciá, Barcelona, 1933
Plan (1933), drafted by the Van Eesteren team, explains its approach. Despite criticism, the functionalist paradigms
paradigmatic nature (Galindo 2003). Although there was no were widely imposed in the 1960s. Curiously, this coincided
official publication with the results of the CIAM 4 analysis, precisely with more widespread criticism. That was not only
the keys to the new urbanism were canonised as the famed due to the ‘arrogance’ of some of the main players in
four functions: dwelling, work, leisure, circulation. It was to functionalist urbanism, such as Le Corbusier (Hall 2014).
be José Luis Sert who, during his exile in the USA, pub- But other factors also came into play, particularly those
lished a book, Can our Cities Survive?, with the subheading associated with the extraordinary process of construction and
An ABC of Urban Problems, Their Analyses, Their Solu- proliferation of mass housing estates in Europe in the 1960s
tions: Based on the Proposals Formulated by CIAM (1942). and 1970s, for several reasons: first of all, owing to the
The book, like a manifesto, might be considered the ‘North critical shortage of housing and the intent to quickly solve
American Version’ of the Athens Charter and appeared a the problem and secondly, because standardisation and
year before Le Corbusier published a version of his own (Le prefabrication led to increasingly rapid construction. Con-
Groupe CIAM—France 1943). sequently, both architects and urbanists and their respective
governments believed it was correct to apply the CIAM
theories. The problem arose when these principles were
The Impact of Modernist Urbanism After indiscriminately applied in a context of rapid urban growth
World War II (Monclús and Díez Medina 2016, 5) (see Chap. 7).
One of the most widely debated issues in architectural
Adopting modernist functional urbanism prevailed among historiography is that of continuity and changes of paradigm
the cities affected by World War II. London, with the two which took place after World War II in relation to the
plans by Patrick Abercrombie and his team, was an exem- revisions of the principles defended by CIAM and the
plary model of modernity: both the County of London Plan Athens Charter which had begun to emerge during the first
(1943) and the Greater London Plan (1944) were key post-war period. Of special interest were the debates on the
moments in the maturing process of urbanism in the significance of CIAM 8, held in Hoddesdon in 1951, dedi-
post-war period (Gold 2007; van Es et al. 2014). On a dif- cated to ‘The Heart of the City’ illustrating a renewed
ferent level, particularly concerning the design of new resi- attention to public urban space after the rejection and
dential areas, there was a greater commitment to a functional indifference to the streets and plazas of traditional urban
Fig. 4.9 Johannes Hendrik van den Broek and Jacob Berend Bakema, proposal for Lekkumerend housing in Leeuwarden, Holland, 1962
fabric which had characterised the former approach of It is important to bear in mind that the work of Alison and
functionalist urbanism (Mumford 2000). Peter Smithson, including the paradigmatic project for Robin
On the other hand, the counterpoint or the ‘Socialist Hood Gardens (1969–72), formed part of a wider movement
version’ of the Athens Charter may be found in the docu- which included other architects. In this context, a mode of
ment under the title ‘16 Grundsätze des Städtebaus’ (16 technological urbanism appeared as an alternative to the
Principles of Urbanism) published in 1950, a year before the traditional city, structured around networks of ‘streets in the
‘Heart of the City’ congress was held. This text combined air’, elevated volumes and spaces, with vehicles travelling at
the ideas of functionalist urbanism of the thirties with Stal- ground level, etc. Nonetheless, it is worthwhile to recall that
inist concepts of the Soviet era. Paradoxically, in spite of the optimism with respect to technology formed a long tradition,
principles of the Athens Charter being widely disseminated with peaks in periods of accelerated urban growth, as was
in the 1950s, the Socialist document partly added to a par- the case in the 60s and 70s.
allel process of review in the re-examination of traditional As part of the heated debate on the impact of the Athens
urban forms began to gain strength (Monclús and Díez Charter, a wave of criticism has addressed urban forms
Medina 2016, 4). generated by a system of strict zoning—that separates
In western Europe, criticism of the CIAM proposals housing from industry and attempts to rationalise transport—
began to grow within the very heart of the organisation itself. which has contributed to disintegration of urban fabric. The
Team 10 efforts to overcome the coldness of the models that negative effects of what was initially a bold effort to create
had marked the beginnings of the CIAM are well known. In open space have also been recognised. The causes for the
the 1960s, structuralist concepts dominated the field of loss of ‘urbanity’ are undoubtedly generalised and complex
architecture and urbanism. Although structuralism was ini- (see Chap. 7).
tially introduced as a scientific method in anthropology and
other human sciences, the strong reaction to the excessive
radicalism of the ‘functional city’ had given rise to a pro-
found review of its principles at CIAM 10, held in Dubro-
novik in 1956. Abandonment of the CIAM spirit in favour of
the proposals by Team 10 at the meeting in Otterloo in 1959
began to become evident through rejection of the four
functions of the Athens Charter in favour of other more
complex visions associated with ‘Urban Re-identification
Grid’.2
2
Mumford, The CIAM Discourse on Urbanism.
Case Studies himself, President of the International Congresses on Mod-

ern Architecture (CIAM) from 1930 to 1947, had a lot of
Amsterdam South Extension Plan (1934) influence. The analysis of the Amsterdam Extension Plan,
drafted by a team that he directed, represents one of the
In the 1930s, the ‘architectural urbanism’ of Amsterdam major milestones in modernist urbanism.
South of H. P. Berlage opened up to the city of ‘modernist The model adopted is centralised, in direct connection
urbanism’ of the Algemeen Uitbreidingsplan (AUP) or 1934 with the economic structure of the city centre, but retaining
Extension Plan by Cornelis van Eesteren. On the basis of the chief advantages of a garden city, i.e. a more independent
this plan, new areas of expansion were configured, based on nature, structural clarity and the use of detached houses. In
the principles of the Athens Charter (1933–42) that might be the AUP report, this position was clearly stated: “A link with
considered the bible of functionalist urbanism, in which the the city limits is possible, arranging the necessary surface
work not only of Le Corbusier but also of Van Eesteren areas to define residential zones, work areas and leisure areas
in an organised fashion. Each residential area forms a
complete urban complex, but the need for connection makes
a comprehensive development a necessity. Hence, we find a
centralised type of expansion, with the advantages of a
garden city and its isolated nature but we avoid the disad-
vantages of a remote location which is both uneconomical
and impractical”. Van Eesteren himself expresses that
duality when defining the AUP assignment as a project in
which the aim is to implement the quality of a garden city
within the city limits.
Brasilia (1957–1960)
The new city of Brasilia, designed by Lucio Costa and Oscar

Niemeyer, is a paradigmatic example of modernist urbanism.
As in other newly founded capital cities (Washington, St.
Petersburg, etc.), the conditions for construction of the new
capital of Brazil were exceptional, comprising a true labo-
ratory where one could experiment with ‘the functional city’
consecrated in CIAM 4. The starting point was an ambitious
programme with the intention of transferring the political
centre and part of the population along with business
activities from the coast to the interior of the country. It was
therefore an economic wager within the framework of ‘de-
velopmentalism’ in which the image of the new city was
highly significant in the political context at the time.
The plan by Lucio Costa for the capital had a simple
layout, defined by an axis running east–west, crossed by a
curved line running north–south, depicting an allegorical
aeroplane or bird entering the interior of the country. The
principles of strict functional zoning are evident in the seg-
regation of the residential areas from the industrial areas and
open spaces, in addition to the predominance and autonomy
of the transit system, with the clear distinction between the
different types of traffic. The civic–commercial axis, both
monumental and metaphorical, crosses the residential
‘wings’, grouped in ‘super-quadras’ (super-squares) of
500 m 500 m, in accordance with the neighbourhood unit
criteria. Moreover, adopting the ideas by Le Corbusier to
separate the ‘Acropolis’ or head of the city gives rise to the
Praça dos Três Poderes.
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Paris: Seuil. Díez Medina, C., and J. Monclús. 2017. On urbanity and urban forms.
Choay, F. 1983. Pensées sur la ville, arts de la ville. In Histoire de la Some remarks on modernist urbanism’s legacy. ed. M.G. Folli.
France urbaine. La ville de l’âge industriel, le cycle haussmannien, Urbanity. A New Opportunity for Ukrainian Cities. Milan: Politec-
vol. 253. ed. G. Duby, Paris: Seuil. nico di Milano—Gioacchino Onorati editore.
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(eds.) 2014. Atlas of the Functional City CIAM 4 and Comparative Ashgate.
Urban Analysis. Bussum, Zurich: Thoth Publishers, gta Verlag. Paquot, T., Y. Tsiomis, C. Secci, and S. Bonzani. 2003. La Charte
Le Groupe CIAM—France. 1943. Urbanisme des C.I.A.M. La charte d’Athènes, et après? Urbanisme 330: 35–36.
d’Athènes: avec un discours liminaire de Jean Giraudoux. Paris: Piccinato, G. 1974. La costruzione dell’urbanistica: Germania,
Plon. 1871-1914. Roma: Officina.
Hall, P.G. 2014. Cities of Tomorrow. An Intelectual History of Urban
Planning and Design in the Twentieth Century [1988]. 4th ed.
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bedingungen, motive, hintergründe. Braunschweig: Vieweg.
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urbanística [Spanische Städte: ihre bauliche Entwicklung und
Ausgestaltung, 1926]. Madrid: Instituto Nacional de Adminis-
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Entwürfe, Gebautes. Berlin: Klaus Wagenbach.
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Capitalist World. New York: Wiley.
Urban Planning and Ideology: Spain
and Italy (1945–1960) 5
Carmen Díez Medina
Abstract
The compromise between ideology and architecture or urban planning is not always
univocal; sometimes surprising situations prove how complex this relationship is. This
chapter presents two episodes linked to opposing political systems, the Spanish
dictatorship and the Italian Republic, both developed in the post-war period. In this
context, some innovative proposals carried out within the ‘Poblados dirigidos’ program in
Madrid can be interpreted in parallel to some Italian neighbourhoods linked to the
Neorealism movement. Far from representing obvious attitudes, surprisingly they seem
politically interchangeable.

Keywords
Poblados dirigidos Post-war urbanism INV INA-Casa Neorealism Tiburtino
In an article written in 1966, Rafael Moneo suggested that of the CIAM models during the government of the Second
architecture might act as a “surgical instrument effective Republic (1931–39). Despite ideological differences, the
disentangling the intellectual state of a given era”.1 In some same thing happened in Italy during the first years of the
projects, the commitment to a specific political and social fascist era (1922–45), where a clear commitment to
climate is evident, such as those linked to what has become rationalism contributed to the creation of a political image of
known as ‘regime’ architecture or urbanism, conceived modernity and innovation until a more demagogic position
along the demagogic lines of a dictatorship. Nevertheless, began to assert itself in the mid-1930s.
the relation between ideology and project is not always In other cases, a contradiction arises where the architec-
clearly delineated and interesting situations have arisen that tural and urban planning solutions are contrary to what
show the complexity of this relationship. Occasionally, the might be expected from a political point of view. This is
same ideology gives rise to surprisingly different architec- precisely how we might interpret the following two cases
tural and urban proposals, whereas quite the opposite can be analysed in this chapter. The first is the 1950s construction
true and opposing regimes can produce paradoxically similar of the Madrid ‘poblados’, during Franco’s dictatorship,
models. Spain, for instance, contributed to the dissemination which in some cases showed a definite commitment to
modernist housing models which tested the creativity of the
architects. At the same time in Italy, during the first years of
the new Republic, in a move away from rationalist
abstraction and towards populism, Neorealism in Rome was
to make ample use of the vernacular language. This chapter
provides a brief reflection on the meaning of social housing
1
“[la arquitectura] eficaz bisturí para comenzar a desentrañar la
situación mental de una determinada época”. Moneo, R. 1966. A la policies in each of the two countries during the later post-war
conquista de lo irracional. Arquitectura (Madrid) 87: 1. period, and about the attitudes of two politically opposed
systems, namely an autocracy and a democracy, towards
C. Díez Medina (&)
common problems stemming from housing shortages.
e-mail: [email protected]

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_5
46 C. Díez Medina
The ‘Poblados Dirigidos’ of Madrid
In Spain, the 1950s brought a new economic and social

optimism resulting from the lifting of the North American
blockade. As was the case in Italy, the post-war period saw
large cities become a magnet for people escaping the
countryside in search of a better life. In Spain, a series of
circumstances converged during this time opening the way
to the development of one of the most interesting experi-
ences of the century. On the one hand, after an initial
post-war period when agricultural interests had been pro-
tected, a general industrialisation took place. On the other, a
group of young architects later recognised as the masters of
the Modern Movement in Spain (Alejandro de la Sota,
Fig. 5.1 José Luis Romany, study on housing for Hogar del Miguel Fisac, Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oíza, Antonio
Empleado, 1956 Corrales, Ramón Vázquez Molezún) became involved in
Fig. 5.2 Proposal for eight satellite towns around Madrid, 1948. The city centre is surrounded by the Manzanares River as well as by the
Abroñigal and Los Pinos streams, along which the M-30 highway now runs. The scheme of an urban centre surrounded by a belt of satellite towns
in rural territory comes from Germany and was already present in the 1929 competition and in the Madrid Regional Plan of 1939, which preceded
the Pedro Bidagor plan of 1941
5 Urban Planning and Ideology: Spain and Italy (1945–1960) 47
social housing (Fernández-Galiano et al. 1989). Under these

circumstances, the modernist housing undertaking was to
take place in Spain thirty years after the heroic period of the
German Siedlungen supported by the Weimar Republic.
Franco’s regime actively promoted a housing policy
known as ‘casas baratas’ (cheap housing) with some sig-
nificant results,2 based on the creation of three public
organisations: the Instituto Nacional de la Vivienda, INV
(National Housing Institute), dependent on the Ministry of
Employment3; the Organización Sindical del Hogar, OSH
(Housing Union Organisation), linked to the General Sec-
retariat of the Movement (Sambricio 2003, 41–43); and the
Comisaría para la Ordenación Urbana de Madrid, COUM
(City Planning Commission), subordinated to the Ministry of
Governance.4 By 1955 the mechanism to promote new
housing plans was under way.5
Of the several proposed objectives, two were ultimately
realised. This episode is known in Spain as the poblados
madrileños. The first goal was to eradicate the shanty towns
with the construction of the so-called poblados de absorción
(absorption settlements), conceived to ‘absorb’ almost
120,000 people who lived in the slums near the Ensanche
(city extension).6 Approximately, 4800 dwellings were built,
in conditions of extreme austerity, including predominantly
single-family two storey homes and four- or five-storey
housing blocks. If the poblados de absorción were precari-
ous, the poblados mínimos (minimum settlements) were
even more so.7 The second goal was to define a model that
permitted ownership of modest housing. The formula
Fig. 5.3 Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oíza, Manuel Sierra and José Luis
Romany project for construction of 600 dwellings in the Río
Manzanares estate, 1956. Sketch by Sáenz de Oíza
2
In 1949, the Official College of Architects of Madrid (COAM) called
an architectural competition for proposals for low-rental housing,
following the ten-year anniversary of Franco’s government. The active consisted of introducing self-built homes: the future resi-
participation by the architect Miguel Fisac contributed to activating a dents, supported by the technical management and the
heated debate.
3 architects, contributed to the construction of their own
José Fonseca, an expert on council and social housing, took over
leadership of the INV in 1939. He was relieved from his post by Luis homes on weekends (hence the name ‘domingueros’ or
Valero Bermejo, who became the fundamental figure from the end of Sunday workers). The Poblados dirigidos (targeted settle-
1954 until 1958, (Sambricio 2003, 274–276). ments) were the result of the innovative cooperation
4
Julián Laguna headed it up from 1954 to 1958. The decision to
between politicians, experts and residents.8 This strategy,
transform the green belt foreseen in the Bidagor Plan in development
land was down to him. His closeness to Franco and his far-sighted with the aim of addressing the shortage of around 60,000
search for promising, young architects was crucial. dwellings in Madrid, was also adopted a year later in
5
That year, he launched three major housing plans: the Plan Nacional,
the Plan Municipal and the Plan Sindical, (Sambricio 2003, 50–58).
6
In the early 1950s, Laguna proposed creating eight new nuclei:
Manoteras, Canillas, San Blas, Palomeras and Villaverde in 1950;
Peñagrande, Vicálvaro and Carabanchel in 1953. These first eight
8
poblados were approved by COUM in 1955 and were developed and The poblados dirigidos were covered by the Ley de Viviendas de
built by the OSH and financed by the INV. Construction was covered Renta Limitada (Low-Rental Housing Law) of 1954, which afforded
by the decree of 1954 on social housing. owners the change to pay up to 20% of the total price through a
7
In order to gradually integrate the immigrants from the countryside in ‘personal service, i.e. in the form of working in the construction. The
the city, some poblados, such as Orcasitas, were rated as agricultural rest of the financing was an interest-free advance payment by the INV.
and had even a stable in each home. Naturally, speculation about these The poblados dirigidos formally arose through a decree of 1957 and an
interventions took place, which concealed the strategy of freeing up the order within the framework of the Plan de Urgencia Social (Social
former slums to allow for growth of the city. Urgency Plan) of Madrid.
48 C. Díez Medina
Fig. 5.4 Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oíza, Manuel Sierra and José Luis Romany project for construction of 600 dwellings in the Río Manzanares
estate, 1956. Detail of a two levels dwelling with access from a corridor by Sáenz de Oíza
Fig. 5.5 Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oíza, Manuel Sierra and José Luis Romany project for construction of 600 dwellings in the Río Manzanares
estate, 1956. Advertising image by the Hogar del Empleado
Barcelona, Asturias and Vizcaya. In some cases, the models of social housing (Sambricio and Sánchez Lamp-
Poblados dirigidos became an interesting laboratory of reave 2008). Despite the need to adapt in most of the cases,
experimental housing.9 the advanced construction systems developed in Europe
The experience of these poblados in Madrid stimulated between the wars to traditional construction methods,
the development of more innovative projects and the search examples exist in terms of housing typology and construc-
for experimental solutions, as well as fostering the call for tive solutions that show an ingenious ability to respond to
architecture competitions and contributing to the introduc- the precarious situation.10 Attitudes towards modernity were
tion of modernity in Spain based on German and Dutch varied. Compared to the scepticism of Miguel Fisac,
expressed in his 1955 design for the Zofío neighbourhood in
Madrid (“I have just come back from visiting the Marseilles
Unité d’Habitation which, as an example of functionality, is
9
Seven poblados dirigidos were developed, most of them on land
adjoining the poblados de absorción: Almendrales, by J. Carvajal, J.M.
García de Paredes, R. Vázquez Molezún; Canillas, by L. Cubillo; Caño
Roto, by J. L. Íñiguez de Onzoño and A. Vázquez de Castro; Entrevías,
10
by J. Alvear, F.J. Sáenz de Oíza and M. Sierra; Fuencarral, by For example, the prefabricated cube by Antonio Goicoechea, the
J. L. Romany; Manoteras, by M. Ambrós, M. García, E. García and E. corrugated membrane of the Rafael de La-Hoz Arderius prefabricated
Quereizaeta; and Orcasitas, by R. Leoz and J. Ruíz Hervás, (Sambricio houses, the adaptation of Dutch typologies and Anglo-Saxon and American
2003, 62–64). models developed by Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oíza in Entrevías.
most suitable and effective types, to then be replicated by

the INV.12 With the approval of the Ley del Suelo (Land
Law) that same year (1956), legislation was in place for
the Segundo Plan Nacional de la Vivienda (Second
National Housing Plan). Competition submissions were
judged on the basis of the process as a whole, from
architectural and urban planning concepts to construction
quality and execution times, from the budget to the ability
to reproduce the different building types in other parts of
Spain.
However, in 1957 social housing policy began to change
as a result of the creation of the Housing Ministry, which
centralised initiatives and administrative management. The
appointment of José Luis Arrese, together with the removal
of Luis Valero and Julián Laguna, key figures in the
poblados episode, marked a turning point towards a more
pragmatic position leading to private initiatives and pro-
viding land on a large scale for the real estate business. The
Plan de Urgencia Social (Social Urgency Plan) of the same
year created the legal framework that brought housing pro-
motion to the private sector, including private banks.13
Arrese’s policy, with private developers defining the con-
ditions and lines of action, put an end to the debate on public
housing which, in 1960, was now largely in the hands of
private developers.
Fig. 5.6 Official propaganda for dissemination of the Poblados

dirigidos, partially built using the self-construction formula. The Plan Roman Neorealism
Nacional de Viviendas de renta limintada (National Housing Plan for
low-rental housing) forecast construction of 550,000 dwellings over a
five-year period 1956–1960 In Italy, the architects involved in post-war reconstruction
took off from a shared, ethical position: the search for a truth
other than that which had been manipulated for over two
decades by the demagoguery of the regime’s ‘contrived
a disaster”11), architects like Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oíza,
along with Manuel Sierra, José Luis Romany and Luis
Cubillo, made a particular, if rather humble, homage to the
Unité in the Calero block in Ventas, Madrid, a poor version
of an 1956 project for 600 dwellings along the Manzanares
12
River (Pozo 2000, 133–140). The master plan, with two housing types, single-family houses and
blocks, was designed by Luis Cubillo and Ramón Vázquez Molezún.
The 1956 initiative for an experimental housing com-
36 teams submitted proposals to the competition. Among the architects
petition in Carabanchel, in the south-east of Madrid, were Romany, Oíza, Cubillo, Cassinello, Colomina, and among the
attracted both architects and construction companies constructors, Helma S.A., Capel, Constructura San Martín, Constructora
(Sambricio 1997). The proposals were submitted in tandem Asturiana S.A., etc. Since the end of the Civil War, housing competition
had promoted construction of rural housing, focusing mainly on partial
(architect—constructor), with the intention of introducing
aspects of furniture or installations. Only in 1949, the Colegio Oficial de
concepts such as ‘prototype’ or ‘prefabrication’ in the field Arquitectos de Barcelona and the Instituto Técnico de la Construcción
of experimental housing. The intent was to advance put forward the problem of large-scale housing construction linked to
building techniques as well as the organisation of works, construction problems (Sambricio 2004, 398–407).
13
In two years, 85 developments were built with over 100 dwellings, 29
the optimisation of resources and the identification of the
following the official initiative. Almost 48,000 dwellings were built by
major developers, and slightly over 18,000 by small developers.
Surprisingly, at no time did the plan debate what housing types should
11
“(…) vengo de ver la Unidad de Habitación de Marsella que, como be, although it did define the kind of rental protection. The policy of
ejemplo de funcionalidad, es un desastre”. Boletín Informativo de la quantity rather than quality was the result of the lack of thought on
Dirección General de Arquitectura, April 1950, 15–18 and Revista innovation that had taken place during 1954–57, (Sambricio 2004,
Nacional de Arquitectura 109, January 1951, (Sambricio 2004, 363). 407–417).
50 C. Díez Medina
Fig. 5.7 José Luis Romany, Fuencarral Poblado dirigido, 1956 Fig. 5.8 Publicity leaflet to guide work by the architects during
reconstruction, published in Milan in the early 1950s
architectural styles. Neorealism was one of the ways psychologically familiar to emigrants from Lazio and other
explored during those years, mainly in central Italy, Rome, regions in central Italy and which was in stark contrast with
being the point of reference. Its principal objective was to the human error of rationalism (Rossi 1991). Some years
show the socio-economic conditions of post-war Italy.14 later, Quaroni regretted that the project had succumbed to
Before extending itself to other disciplines, the neorealist “(…) theatrical sentimentality, in its attempt to re-evaluate
movement began with cinema, which presented Italian cities urban environment in contrast with the puritan romanticism
with powerful immediacy during the war, with the resistance of the Garden City”.17
to fascism and in the post-war period.15 In architecture, the Bruno Zevi, who introduced and staunchly defended
neorealist experiment was mainly linked to reconstruction organic architecture, was a key figure in the initial stages of
and planning, more specifically in social housing. It was a the neorealist experience. Upon his return to Italy in 1944,
cry for freedom of expression symbolising a longed-for after his exile in the USA, Zevi immediately gathered a
alternative to the recent works carried out under the fascist group of militant architects in the Scuola per l’Architettura
regime. “Closely linked to the real difficulties of the post-war Organica, where teaching began in the autumn of the same
period, Neorealism aimed to fit architecture into an opera- year, representing an alternative to the more academic
tional social context, rejecting the rationalist forms consid- teachings of the Faculty of Architecture.18 Zevi was to work
ered acceptable in expressing the social reality of the tirelessly to promote other cultural initiatives such as the
country”.16 According to Ludovico Quaroni, who with the creation of the Associazione per l’Architettura Organica
architect Mario Ridolfi was to lead the Tiburtino project for a (APAO) in 1945, stemming from the School by the same
new district on the outskirts of Rome, the immediate result name, where he intended to create a “new technical/
was the recovery of an atmosphere meant to be professional culture”.19 Zevi was also involved in other
14
In the immediately post-war period, Roman and Milan were the two
cities which catalysed the intellectual discourses that became the
architecture’s engine. Among them, Neorealism can be identified as an
entirely Roman phenomenon.
15
Cinema, and the literature, sought to set down stories of everyday life, 17
“(…) sentimentalismo scenografico, nella tentata rivalutazione
experienced in the first person by writers and readers, with clear, dell’ambiente urbano, contro il romanticismo puritano della città
communicative language, rejecting tradition and exploiting the expres- giardino” (Quaroni 1957, 24–33).
18
sive possibilities of verism. In 1945, R. Rossellini started a movement Parallel to this in Milan, in October 1945, a proposal by a group of
with his film Roma città aperta that would be followed by other students came to light, the “Scuola libera di architettura”, proposing a
directors like L. Visconti (La terra trema, 1947) or V. de Sica (Ladri di cycle of conferences and open debates in order to contribute to the
biciclette, 1948). Literature, painting and architecture followed in the “spiritual” and “moral” education of students.
steps of cinema. 19
See “La costituzione per l’Associazione per l’Architettura Organica”,
16
“Strettamente legato alla difficile realtà del dopoguerra, il neorealismo in Metron n. 2, 1945. Within this context, the APAO found its
aspira a inserire l’attività dell’architetto in un operante contesto sociale, counterpoint in the MSA (Movimento Studi di Architettura) of Milan,
nel rifiuto netto dei modi razionalisti, retenuti inadeguati a esprimere la an association of modern architects who were against academicism.
realtà sociale del paese”. Enciclopedia dell’Architettura Garzanti. Both were used as rallying calls, to boost renovation in Italian
1996. Milan: Garzanti. architecture, and led to true mobilisation of the more spirited minds.
Fig. 5.9 Mario De Renzi and Saverio Muratori (team leaders), L. Fig. 5.10 Photogram from the film Ladri di biciclette, by Vittorio de
Cambellotti, F. Fariello, G. Perugini, G. Roisecco, D. Tassotti, L. Sica, 1945
Vagnetti, Tuscolano 2 District, Rome, 1952–1956
initiatives at an editorial level, such as the launching of the Added to these types of initiatives, was the essential
architecture journal Metron, founded in 1945 and conceived enactment in 1949 of the Fanfani Law, an attempt to increase
as a free association promoting work and study.20 In 1946, the number of jobs in the construction industry by building
he also published the Manuale dell’architetto.21 This hand- workers’ house. It was within the framework of this law that
book, written in a practical style, was a compendium of the plan to increase worker occupation known as Piano
architectural and construction solutions featuring 264 tables INA-Casa was developed (1949–63),24 a state action plan for
and construction details and dwelling layouts. The contri- building low-cost public housing and creating new jobs,
bution to the book by the Ridolfi, a close friend of Zevi’s, defined by Giuseppe Samonà as a “magnificent machine for
was fundamental (Capobianco 1998).22 Even if it was producing houses” (Samonà 1949). The results, however,
restricted by the historical circumstances of the time, it was were somewhat contradictory.25
nevertheless a major initiative (it was freely distributed It was in this context that the neorealist movement
among Italian technical experts), despite the opinions of became involved in architecture, represented in the work of
some critics like Manfredo Tafuri, who judged it to nothing Ridolfi in Terni and in Rome and with the rural estate
more than a “workshop handbook”, “vernacular esperanto” UNRRA26-CASAS27 La Martella, by Quaroni,28 as well as
or “a celebration of regionalism dressed up as folklore”.23 the Quartiere INA-Casa Tiburtino in Rome (1949–53),
20 24
Cino Calcaprina, Eugenio Gentili, Luigi Piccinato, Silvio Radiconcini The plan was coordinated by Gestione INA-Casa, directed by the
and Enrico Tedeschi accompanied Zevi in this editorial initiative. architect Arnaldo Foschini, representative of the Roman School,
Another important magazine was “Comunità”, founded in Ivrea by director of the Faculty of Architecture in Rome and president of
Adriano Olivetti in 1946, with a more Mumfordian slant. associations such as the Istituto Nazionale delleAssicurazioni INA
21
Zevi was also involved in this initiative, thanks to his ties to the USA, (National Insurance Institute).
25
returning with the liberating troops following the United States On the one hand, the approximately two million dwellings built over
Information Service (USIS). Zevi managed to publish a manual with fourteen years of activity under this plan provided housing for over
similar characteristics to those existing in the USA at the time. The 350,000 Italian families, improving their living conditions. One-third of
“Consiglio Nazionale delleRicherche” which was chaired by the the Italian architects who were exercising their profession at that time
engineer Gustavo Colnnetti and did not hesitate to cooperate and were involved in that experience. On the other hand, it contributed to
cover the editing costs. In the organisation, committee were Nervi, emphasising speculation mechanism that used those districts and
Zevi, Bongioannini and Ridolfi. houses as an excuse to increase the value of development areas,
22
The Manuale updated and adapted the previous manuals by G. particularly in the big cities, (Rossi 1991).
26
Curioni (1884), G. A. Brymann (1885), C. Formenti (1893–95) and UNRRA: United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.
27
Daniele Donghi (1906–1925) to the demands of those times, too CASAS: Comitato Amministrativo Soccorso ai Senza tetto (Admin-
extensive and not particularly useful for the reconstruction of Italy, and istrative Committee for Aid for the Homeless).
28
those by Neufert were not much use either as they were drafted With Federico Gorio, Piero Maria Lugli, Michele Valori and Luigi
according to German regulations. Agati, the borgata La Martella was built to house families who had
23
“(…) prontuario ‘da bottega’ (…) esperanto vernacolare (…) been evacuated from Sassi. The Unra-Casas Institute was directed by
celebrazione del regionalismo in abito folk”, (Tafuri 1982, 18). Adriano Olivetti, who drove the project.
52 C. Díez Medina
Fig. 5.11 Luigi Nervi, Bruno Zevi, Biagio Bongioannini and Mario Ridolfi (coord.), a page from Manuale dell’architetto, 1946
Fig. 5.12 Ludovico Quaroni, Federico Gorio, La Martella, Matera, 1952–54. Within the framework of restructuring the agricultural land, the
American Organisation Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) defined the foundation of a new town. Adriano Olivetti, along with
UNRRA-CASAS and the Istituto Nazionale di Urbanistica (INU) organised a study committee endorsed by the architects Quaroni and Gorio, who
finally developed the project. This town is one of the paradigmatic examples of Italian Neorealism
with antiquated models of ‘popular purity’ in the country-

side.30 Tafuri was to pinpoint this paradox within the
neorealist language and recognise in it “a desire for
anti-rhetoric which, unfortunately, resonated with the inef-
fective ambitions of the farm lobby’s economic policies”
(Tafuri 1982, 14).
In his moving article “Il paese dei barocchi” (a play on
‘Il paese dei balocchi’—‘Toyland’ in Pinocchio, an imag-
inary place described by Carlo Collodi in Chap. 30)
Quaroni does not see Neorealism as resulting from a
deep-rooted culture, or a living tradition, but rather from a
state of mind. As such, it could not provide a solid
foundation. “In the drive towards the city, we were held up
in the country”31.
Fig. 5.13 Mario Ridolfi, housing blocks in Viale Etiopia, Rome,

1951–54. The so-called INA blocks were built on commission by the
Istituto Nazionale delle Assicurazione (National Insurance Institute) as
a large-scale real estate investment. The estate consisted of 8 high-rise
tower blocks with 9 or 10 floors, a strip for facilities and generous green
areas. Construction was based on the principles of modulation, series
and repetition. The colour, the use of enamelled ceramics and iron
worked on a small scale show Ridolfi’s usually working method,
approaching craftsmanship
by both architects.29 The underlying question of all these

projects—building cheap housing for workers in new dis-
tricts—was interpreted not only as a technical issue, but
also as a moral question, stemming from social responsi-
bility and the profession’s public commitment (Di Biagi
2013). These projects sought to create more human spaces
that contrasted with the rather rigid, rationalist grids and 30
Some components of that new popular poetical scenography were the
alluded to some of the experiences in Sweden like the Sven ingenious protective canopies in the landscape of the neighbourhood,
Backström and Leif Reinius neighbourhoods built during the modest rendered walls, the ever-present lattice brickwork for
the war [see Chap. 6]. But the difference with the Skandi- ventilation on the enclosures and patios, the bold, pointed balconies
navian neoempiricism is that these Italian projects reveal an overhanging the streets to promote street life, the profusion of chimneys
in harmony with the surrounding pine trees and lamp posts, the partly
internal Sartrian conflict against the rhetoric and bombast of open shutters or the visible roof gutters, (Díez Medina 1995).
the previous decades. However, it was to be here that the 31
“Il paese dei barocchi non è il risultato appunto d’una cultura
paradox would become most apparent and most bitterly solidificata, d’una tradizione viva: è il risultato di uno stato d’animo.
criticised. In their striving to fight against the aesthetic of (…) Ma uno stato d’animo non potrà mai essere una base solida per una
collaborazione. Nella spinta verso la città ci si è fermati al paese”.
fascism, they fell into the trap of populist sentimentality, Quaroni, “Il paese dei barocchi”, 24–33. Also Vittorio de Sica had
discussed the ability of cameras to capture a state of mind a wish, which
later on they shared with some architects of neorealism, after the
filming of Ladri di biciclette: “La letteratura ha scoperto da tempo
questa dimensione moderna che puntualizza le minime cose, gli stati
d’animo considerati troppo comuni. Il cinema ha nella macchina da
29
With Carlo Aymonino, Carlo Chiarini, Mario Fiorentino, Federico presa il mezzo più adatto per captarla.” (Some time ago, the literature
Gorio, Maurizio Lanza, Sergio Lenci, Piero Maria Lugli, Carlo discovered this modern dimension that emphasises little things or states
Melograni, Giancarlo Menichetti, Goiulio Rinaldi, Michele Valori. of mind that in the past were considered too common. Cinema, through
Tirburtino and Valco S. Paolo were the first of the INA-Casa districts its cameras, is the best means to capture them). See La Fiera letteraria,
built in Rome. 6 febbraio 1948, 3.
54 C. Díez Medina
Case Studies create architecture and urban planning that was based more on
the quality of the environmental than on individual buildings,
Quartiere Tiburtino, Rome (1949–50) which were deliberately designed to be anonymous. The
urban space was intended above all to meet the psychological
Designed by a group of members of the Associazione per demands of future residents, most of whom were to be
l’Architettura Organica (APAO), young, recently graduated immigrants from Lazio and other central regions of Italy.
architects brought together by M. Ridolfi and L. Quaroni, this The wish to establish an organic urban layout can be seen
neighbourhood is built on a surface area of 8.8 ha, with 771 from the general plan of this Roman quarter. It was an
dwellings for 4000 residents. The housing types are varied: attempt to create an informal atmosphere, where the variety
semi-detached houses, three-, four- and five-storey linear of architecture and flexible layout, adapted to the topogra-
blocks and seven-storey towers. The Tiburtino project was phy, shows a deliberate alternative to the rigid version of
used as a programmatic statement of Neorealism. It sought to rationalism that had been used in the borgate (outlying
neighbourhoods) between the wars. Both the urban mor-
phology and the popular iconography refer to a search for
communication with those emigrants who, in response to a
long past of dire poverty in the countryside, flooded the
cities (Rossi 1991).
Entrevías Poblado, Madrid (1956) housea rchitectural type), is repeated in a modular layout,
based on an arrangement which, despite the rigidity of the
The Entrevías Poblado, built by F.J. Sáenz de Oíza, M. elementary solution, provides flexibility in the general lay-
Sierra and J. Alvear, is one of the seven Poblados dirigidos out. The development is arranged in a number of horizontal
built between 1956 and 1957 in Madrid, for the specific terraces, each measuring one hectare, adapted to the topog-
purpose of improving the living conditions of the inhabitants raphy. Each of the so-called planning units is structured
of the shanty towns located over the Manzanares River, using a system of orthogonal streets in six blocks, each one
called Pozo del Tío Raimundo. With the help of Padre comprising 24 dwellings. The chosen module for the homes
Llanos, a Jesuit priest directly involved in the development was 3.60 m, i.e. each block of 24 dwellings is defined by a
and construction of the poblado for 20,000 people, the section of 9 12 modules. One of the six blocks in the unit
architects decided on an orthogonal grid for the road system, is set free, and the resulting void is a green space
strongly rooted in Spanish urban tradition, still a valid (Moneo 1961).
solution in minor city extensions. Criteria of speed and
economy in construction prevailed, as well as simple options
for expansion.
An adaptation of the proposal submitted by Oíza to the
experimental housing competition in 1956 (a detached
56 C. Díez Medina
Di Biagi, P. 2013. Il piano INA-Casa: 1949–63. In Il contributo Aymonino, C. 1957. Storia e cronaca del quartiere Tiburtino. Casabella
Italiano alla storia del pensiero: tecnica. Roma: Treccani. Continuità 215: 18–43.
Capobianco, M. (ed.). 1998. Gli anni Quaranta ‘la via più fura’ Conforto, C. 1977. Il dibattito architettonico in Italia 1945–1975.
dell’architettura italiana. In Architettura italiana 1940–50. Roma: Bulzoni.
Nápoles: Electa. Cucci, G., and F. Dal Co. 1996. Architettura italiana del ‘900. Milan:
Díez Medina, C. 1995. Reflexiones sobre los años de reconstrucción Electa.
italiana, a partir de la experiencia del Tiburtino en Roma. Moya González, L. 1983. Barrios de promoción oficial. Madrid, 1939–
Arquitectura: Revista del Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Madrid 1976. Madrid: Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Madrid.
301: 14–19.
Fernández-Galiano, L., J.F. Isasi, and A. Lopera. 1989. La quimera
moderna. Los poblados dirigidos de Madrid en la arquitectura de
los 50. Madrid: Blume.
Moneo, R. 1961. El poblado dirigido de Entrevías. Hogar y Arquitec-
tura 34. Ediciones y Publicaciones Populares, 2–28.
Pozo, J.M. (ed.). 2000. Los años 50: la arquitectura española y su
compromiso con la historia. Pamplona: Escuela Técnica Superior
de Arquitectura de la Universidad de Navarra.
Quaroni, L. 1957. Il paese dei barocchi. Casabella Continuità 215:
24–33.
Rossi, P.O. 1991. Roma. Guida all’architettura moderna 1909–1991.
Roma–Bari: Laterza.
Sambricio, C. (ed.). 1997. Concurso de viviendas experimentales de
1956. Madrid: Fundación Cultural COAM.
Sambricio, C. (ed.). 2003. Un Siglo de vivienda Social en Madrid.
Madrid: Nerea.
Sambricio, C. 2004. Madrid, vivienda y urbanismo: 1900–1960.
Madrid: Akal.
Sambricio, C., and R. Sánchez Lampreave (eds.). 2008. 100 años de
historia de la intervención pública en la vivienda y la ciudad.
Madrid: Asociación Española de Promotores Públicos de Vivienda
y Suelo (AVS).
Samonà, G. 1949. Il piano Fanfani in rapporto all’attività edilizia dei
liberi professionisti. Metron 33–34: 14.
Tafuri, M. 1982. Storia dell’architettura italiana 1944–85. Turin:
Einaudi.
Welfare Planning and New Towns
(1945–1970s) 6
Alejandro Dean
Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to analyse the experiences in the field of housing associated with
the welfare state that emerged during the process of rebuilding the devastated countries of
Western Europe after the Second World War. This process was marked by a period of
economic growth that allowed the implementation of socio-economic policies and
ambitious social welfare programmes with the aim of improving the lives of citizens.
The three concepts explained in the following chapter attempt to summarise these
interventions. Although they responded to ideas developed in specific geographical, social
and cultural contexts, they quickly became paradigmatic actions that had a decisive
influence on much of the urban development that took place in the latter half of the
twentieth century.

Keywords
Second post-war period Welfare state New towns New empiricism Unité
d’habitation
The process of rebuilding the devastated countries of Wes- quickly became paradigmatic methods that had a decisive
tern Europe after the Second World War was marked by a influence on much of the urban development of the latter
period of economic growth that allowed the implementation half of the twentieth century.
of socio-economic policies with ambitious social welfare
programmes designed to improve the lives of citizens. These
programmes were financed by the state and became the main ‘New Towns’: The British Model
drivers for the changes made in architecture and urbanism of Decentralisation and Planned Settlement
for rebuilding and planning new cities.
The aim of this chapter is to analyse the experiences in The conflict between rebuilding and planning that arose in
the field of housing associated with the welfare state that the devastated cities was reflected in the urbanism of Europe
emerged in the post-war period. The impossibility of after the Second World War.1 The case of London was
extending this analysis to the numerous interventions particularly significant because the plans required for action,
undertaken in the affected countries leads us to limit our and which contained the most advanced urban design ideas
description of only the most significant episodes associated of the time, were set in motion before the end of the war. The
with the welfare state that served as models to guide the
difficult task of rebuilding and planning cities. The three 1
“When the war was over the main reaction was one of simple
concepts explained in the following chapter, while devel- elementary relief. There came a feeling of weariness, a desire to avoid
oped in specific geographical, social and cultural contexts, basic problems, to be content with immediate, tangible results:
unpropitious conditions for the careful consideration demanded by
the gravity of the contemporary problems. (…) Since this process was a
very rapid one, there was conflict almost everywhere between the
A. Dean (&) emergency measures necessitated by the war damage and long-term
University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain measures necessitated by economic development; in short, between
e-mail: [email protected] reconstruction and planning.” (Benevolo 1971, 684).

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_6
58 A. Dean
Fig. 6.2 Frederick Gibberd, Harlow New Town, 1947. Partial aerial
view of the Mark Hall neighbourhood, where the different types of
residential buildings (terraced houses and multi-level dwellings) and
disperse nature of the development are seen
Fig. 6.1 Patrick Abercrombie and John Henry Forshaw, Greater Howard, but unlike his idea for garden cities, the ‘new
London Plan, 1944. Diagram showing London’s growth through a
structure of 4 concentric rings. From the centre: the County of London towns’ were planned and developed by the state on public
(in black), the ‘inner ring’, the ‘suburban ring’, the ‘green belt’ (in land or land acquired through expropriation.
green) and the ‘outer ring’ where the ‘new towns’ would be built as a Urban planning received a definitive boost when the New
territorial response to the need to decentralise London’s growth Town Act was passed in 1946, establishing the financing and
setting the rules for the first generation4 of ‘new towns’
1946–51). A total of 13 ‘new towns’ were built (8 of which
London County Council2 commissioned Patrick Abercrom- were around London) with a capacity for between 20,000
bie in collaboration with John Henry Forshaw (chief archi- and 60,000 inhabitants, designed as independent towns
tect of the LCC) to prepare the County of London Plan comprising a ‘town centre’, with public services and com-
(1943) and the Greater London Plan (1944). While the for- merce, an industrial area separate from housing, and a resi-
mer was limited to the principle of organisation by district dential area divided into self-sufficient ‘neighbourhood
and relieving congestion in the county, the latter laid down units’ for a maximum of 10,000 inhabitants, provided with
the aims for the future growth of London based on a struc- primary services such as shops, schools, play grounds, etc.,
ture of 4 concentric rings.3 and surrounded by green spaces for the purpose of main-
This territorial response to decentralisation caused the taining their own identity.
growth of London to be channelled towards the ‘new towns’, Featured among these first efforts is the work by Fred-
creating a constellation of satellite cities occupying the erick Gibberd5 in Harlow. For the most part, however, the
‘outer ring’, establishing a regional influence located outside
of the ‘green belt’ in an attempt to limit London’s sprawl.
This strategy of planned settlements in rural areas continued
the concept of decentralisation defended by Ebenezer
4
The 13 first-generation ‘new towns’ were: Stevenage (1946),
Harlow (1947), Crawley, (1947), Hemel Hampstead (1947), Hatfield
(1948), Welwyn Garden (expanded 1948), Basildon (1949), Brack-
nell (1949), East Kilbride (1947) in Lanarkshire (Scotland), Peterlee
(1948) in County Durham, Glenrothes (1948) in Fifeshire (Scotland),
2
The London County Council (LCC) was the main government body Cwmbran (1949) in South Wales, and Corby (1950) in
for the County of London, which had broad authority over matters such Northamptonshire.
5
as education, planning and social housing. F. Gibberd acted as a great disseminator of the principles of the
3
The 4 rings of the Greater London Plan comprised: the ‘inner ring’ Athens Charter, which made him one of the most salient figures of the
(area of the County of London), the ‘suburban ring’ (suburban zone), Modern Movement in Britain. He took part in the CIAM 7 and 8
the ‘green belt’ (green space that surrounded the present city and should meetings, where he was able to share the experience of the British
be maintained) and the ‘outer ring’ (area destined for ‘new towns’). ‘new towns’, and he published the book Town Design in 1953, which
This plan based on concentric rings was totally contrary to the linear was a reference manual for the construction of ‘new towns’ where
plans made for London by Ludwig Hilberseimer (1941) and by the special attention was given to the visual aspects of the urban space
MARS Group (1942) (Pizza 1987). (Gibberd 1953).
6 Welfare Planning and New Towns (1945–1970s) 59
Fig. 6.3 Hugh Wilson and Geoffry Copcutt, civic centre in Cumber-
nauld New Town, 1955–67. This project shows clear influence from
Team 10, and was directly connected to the main roadway system from
its low-lying area
disperse nature of these ‘new towns’, based on the imple-

mentation of urban concepts espoused by the Athens Char-
ter,6 and the use of an architecture that owed much to
traditional and popular English tastes produced results that
were closer to the picturesque than to the Modern Movement
(Ordeig Corsini 2004, 125–137). These first experiments
were harshly criticised by the British journal The Architec-
tural Review, with articles such as “The Failure of the New
Towns”,7 epithets like ‘subtopia’ and the descriptive terms
such as New Empiricism.8
As a result of the criticism received, the experience
gained and the maturation of the first generation of devel-
Fig. 6.4 Sven Backström & Leif Reinius, residential development,
opments, substantial changes were made to the ‘new town’ Gröndal, Sweden, 1944–46. Aerial view of the suburb where the strong
model, which brought about a streamlining of the initial geometric design of the star-shaped dwellings can be observed, either
concepts. While the second generation9 (1951–61) advo- forming small, interlocked 3/4-storey blocks creating hexagonal
cated greater density in residential districts and condensation courtyards between them, or freely placed seeking the best orientation
of activity in a single town centre with evident influence
from Team 10 (the case of Cumbernauld New Town), the
third generation10 (1964–71) placed special emphasis on
transport systems owing to the increased population density
and introduced new methodological orientations that would
produce results close to the vernacular designs typical of the
late 1970s (as was the case of Milton Keynes).
6
“New towns represented the implementation of such urban concepts There is no doubt that when the ‘new town’ experience—
espoused by the Athens Charter as master planning, separation of which emerged from an anti-urban idea to satisfy the great
functions, urban hierarchy and separated circulation systems” (García demand for housing by offering an alternative and ideal
Alonso and Luque Valdivia 2004).
lifestyle—reached its peak, it ultimately defended the need
7
In his article “The Failure of the New Towns”, J.M Richards described
these urban settlements as a social, economic and architectural failure for high urban density without offering a coherent form to
(Richards 1953).
8
With perhaps the odd exception, the setting of the ‘new towns’ formed
a type of ‘architectural style’ defined as ‘new empiricism’ by the critics
at The Architectural Review.
9
Two ‘new towns’ can be considered part of this second generation: 10
Standing out from among the third generation of ‘new towns’ are
Hook (1960–61) in Hampshire, designed by the London County Runcorn (1964–65) and Milton Keynes (1968–71), with the latter
Council for 100,000 inhabitants but not built, and Cumbernauld reaching the threshold of 250,000 inhabitants. The criticism directed at
New Town (1955–67), designed by the planner Hugh Wilson for the latter was due to the excessive fragmentation of the land, which
70,000 inhabitants, was created to decentralise the Scottish city of gave rise to a subdivision into ‘island neighbourhoods’, to the
Glasgow. The result of the latter was criticised because its layout replacement of the urban value of the square with the central area for
did not allow for future growth processes and produced significant services located in a single container, and to the loss of the
traffic problems. physiognomy of a city by turning it into a ‘Road Town’.
60 A. Dean
Fig. 6.5 Sven Markelius, satellite city Vällingby, Sweden, 1953–59. Located to the north of Stockholm, it was designed as a self-sufficient town
for 25,000 inhabitants. The large variety of residential housing types are grouped in organic clusters scattered around the town centre. It was used
to disseminate an image of the harmonious Swedish welfare state around the world
meet this unavoidable requirement, as Benedetto Gravagn- architecture that broke with the excessively schematic
uolo explained.11 architecture of the 1930s, quickly becoming a role model for
post-war European societies.
This Swedish reform movement was christened New
‘Forest Towns’: The Scandinavian Model Empiricism12 “In general, it is a reaction against a too rigid
of the Satellite City formalism. The first excitement of structural experiment has
gone and there is a return to workaday common sense. There
The socially progressive policies implemented in the 1930s is a feeling that buildings are made for the sake of human
in most of the Scandinavian countries gave rise to a beings rather than for the cold logic of theory. The word
favourable context for the development of residential expe- spontanietet, so often on the lips of the young Swedish
riences linked to the welfare state. Owing to its neutrality
during the Second World War, Sweden did not have to face
the conflict between planning and rebuilding that affected 12
“So far no strong reaction is evident against the principles upon
other countries, which allowed it to advance and develop an which functionalism was founded. Indeed, these principles were never
more relevant than now. The tendency is, rather, both to humanize the
theory on its aesthetic side and to get back to the earlier rationalism on
the technical side. (…) However, the effort to humanize the aesthetic
11
“We can say, in short, that at its peak the new town experience expressions of functionalism is open to many interpretations. The
stagnated into a double paradox: on the one hand, as a movement born Swedish one, which is illustrated here, may, on the basis of statements
out of an anti-urban ideology ending up defending the need for high made by Swedish architects themselves, be called The New Empiri-
urban density, but on the other, owing to a flawed initial approach, cism. Briefly, they explain it as the attempt to be more objective than
being unable to give a coherent shape to this unavoidable requirement.” the functionalism, and to bring back another science, that of psychol-
(Gravagnuolo 1991). ogy, into the picture.” in Richards (1947, 199).
Fig. 6.6 Arne Ervi, civic centre in Tapiola, Finland, 1953–61. View of the entrance to the platform which provides access to the shopping
centre and services, where possible influences from the civic centres of the British ‘new towns’ and the urban projects by Alvar Aalto can be
appreciated
architect today, perhaps gives the key to the new approach. the residential units designed for Gröndal (1944–46) and
(…) Indigenous traditional materials are used both inside Rösta (1946–51) [see case study at the end of the chapter].
and out, especially brick and timber. (…) Building are In addition to showing certain analogies with the British
married carefully to the sites and to the landscape, and ‘new towns’, the planning processes brought about by the
flowers and plants are made and integral part of the whole expansion of the larger Nordic cities were favoured by
design” in De Maré (1948, 9–10) by critics at the The previous policies of acquiring large areas of peripheral land,
Architectural Review in 1947, and it produced a residential giving rise to a balanced decentralisation by means of
architecture that focused on humans and their habits, without satellite cities integrated with their natural setting. This set-
sacrificing categories inherent to the Modern Movement. ting was mainly forested, which became a physical and
Architects such as Sven Backström and Leif Reinius made mental context that would favour the harmony between
their mark on the international scene through their residential architecture and landscape in the new settlements.14
investigation that combined organic modern macro- Satellite cities would generally have a similar layout,
typologies with traditional building designs that paid atten- based on the use of different residential typologies grouped
tion to the psychology of the user,13 as can be appreciated in
14
Together with this empiricist attitude, the interpretation of nature
emerges as a crucial concept that is more influential in the urban setting.
The mental context, apart from the real, physical setting, continues to
13
As with the first generation of British ‘new towns’, this architecture be the forest… “For example, for a Finn, the forest signifies protection
“proposed a style of urban planning that paid attention to the psychology and comfort, while for a Central European, it signifies a threat and
of the user, accumulating experiences from the past, the specific and the anxiety. In summer, most Finns renounce the modern conveniences of
detail. It meant, therefore, a reinterpretation of the vernacular architecture the city and take pleasure in returning to the lifestyle of the earliest
by looking to traditional tastes…” (Ordeig Corsini 2004, 125–126). inhabitants of the forest.” (Ordeig Corsini 2004, 96).
62 A. Dean
Fig. 6.8 Le Corbusier’s Unité d’habitation, Marseille, France, 1945–

52. Designed as a small, self-sufficient ‘vertical town’ for 1600
inhabitants, raised above the ground
Fig. 6.7 Le Corbusier’s Unité d’habitation, Marseille, France, 1945– These experiences would create parameters and strategies
52. Le Corbusier’s reasoning to justify the suitability of his design for for Nordic cities that were of great influence on the creation of
350 residential units for 1600 inhabitants. In black, the ‘vertical town’ new residential areas. In Denmark, the residential suburbs
of the unité; in white, the land that would be occupied by the same
population in a horizontal garden city with its respective facilities designed by Arne Jacobsen (Klampernborg 1950–63 and
Solholm 1950) and by Jørn Utzon (Kingo 1956 y Fredensborg
1959–65), would become model post-war developments.
in organic units around a large centre. The General Plan for

Stockholm, produced by Sven Markelius,15 gave rise to two ‘Vertical Town’: Unité d’Habitation
examples used to publicise Swedish welfare, Vällingby as a Prototype
(1953–59), designed by Markelius himself, and Farsta
(1958), designed by Backström & Reinius. Greater Helsinki While the two previously analysed episodes were based on
(1918), the town plan designed by Eliel Saarinen, with its the planned settlement of land influenced by Howard’s
decentrist guidelines for development, made possible the Garden City, the concept behind Le Corbusier’s Unité
construction of the first Finnish ‘forest town’16 of the d’Habitation, emerged from the inverse idea of freeing land
post-war period, Tapiola17 (1952–56), paradigm of a from construction by concentrating all the activity in a small
high-quality residential suburb integrated with nature. ‘vertical town’ raised above the ground and designed as a
self-sustaining community.18
Le Corbusier was able to develop this concept for the first
time in the Unité d’Habitation of Marseille between 1945
15
“Calling to mind the successful, early 20th-century garden suburb and 1952 thanks to the commission from the Ministry for
(villastad) interventions in Stockholm, Markelius based his plan on the Reconstruction and Urban Development of France,19
complementarity between the high-density city centre and a ring of
peripheral satellite cities to be built starting in the early 1950s: Vällingby
(1953–1959), Färsta (1958), Skärholmen (1963–1968), Tenska-Rinkeby
(1975), Norra Järvafältet (1977).” (Gravagnuolo 1991). 18
Like Fourier’s utopian designs for phalansteries dating from the first
16
The term ‘forest town’ comes from the housing project designed by half of the nineteenth century, the unité was defined as a self-sustaining
the Finnnish master Alvar Aalto for workers of the Sunila Cellulose community in which the relationship between the number of residents,
Factory (1935–39) and would have a decisive influence on Nordic communal services and the space occupied by these is balanced by a
urban design owing to its particular harmony between the landscape functional organisation based on the social analysis of the time. Eduard
and the architecture. In addition to carrying out other planning projects Calafell, Las unités d'habitation de le Corbusier, Aspectos formales y
of special relevance, Aalto was the head of the Finnish Office for constructivos. (Barcelona: Fundación Caja de Arquitectos, 200), 17.
19
Reconstruction in 1944. (Torres et al. 2006, 12–19). The Ministry of Reconstruction and Urban Development of France
17
Tapiola was the initiative of Heikki von Hertzen, executive director of was created in 1944 to confront the problems created by the war.
Väestöliitto (Population and Family Welfare Federation of Finland) and Minister Claudius Petit dealt with urban and rural planning and
it was planned by Otto-Ivari Meurman, in collaboration with brilliant organised specific interventions that would attract the interest of the
Nordic architects such as Aulius Blomstedt, Arne Ervi, Viljo Revell and general public, and the unité in Marseilles would be the most
Markus Tavio, among others. outstanding project under his leadership (Benevolo 1971).
allowing him total freedom to express his ideas on modern The dwellings were double height using his Modulor
housing.20 Le Corbusier’s interpretation of modern life scale based on human proportions, and were laid out as a
materialised in the prototype of the unité, designed as a series of juxtaposed cells assembled by means of Le Cor-
single architectural object that comprised two differentiated busier’s system called bouteille-bouteiller (bottle and rack),
parts. An upper level crowned by a garden terrace and and connected by interior streets.
containing 350 residential units of different types, together Le Corbusier developed this prototype of ‘vertical town’
with the facilities required for an estimated 1600 residents, in other locations (Nantes, Berlin, Briey-en-Forêt and Fir-
and a lower level comprising the artificial ground supported miny) , and it became a basic reference for the field of
on pilotis which, in addition to keeping the volume raised European housing in the period after the Second World War
over the terrain, houses the necessary elements for this ideal and one of the most radical and important architectural
city to function and develop (Monteys 1996). models of the twentieth century.21
21
“Architects such as Jaap Bakema and Jo van der Broek, who were
20
The break in his career caused by the start of the Second World War leaders in Dutch post-war urban planning, took Le Corbusier’s unitary
allowed Le Corbusier to organise his ideas on architecture and urban idea and totally deconstructed the volume into different blocks, giving
development developed in recent years and to bring them together in rise to their most important contribution: the self-sufficient neighbour-
the Unité d’Habitation à Grandeur Conforme (Calafell 2000, 15). hood” (Benevolo 1971).
64 A. Dean
Case Studies broad, south-facing communal green spaces. The interlock-

ing buildings create small courtyards open to the façade from
Rösta Housing Area, Örebro, Sweden which the dwellings are entered, and are interrupted from
(1946–1951) time to time to interconnect the large green spaces to resolve
pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
From its beginnings, the work by Backström & Reinius was A 3-storey block structure was developed to combine the
characterised by the constant research into types of resi- advantages of a double-sided, narrow block with a wide
dences and new ways of grouping them. This project was the residential block in which communal services have been
result of a design competition held by the municipal housing optimised. The three wings of each ‘star’ building converge
company. The result is based on the large-scale repetition of in a vertical communication core and give rise to three
star-shaped residential buildings to create a modern macro- dwellings per floor, with double or triple orientation,
structure with the strong geometric presence of the buildings, depending on their position in the block. This same type of
using traditional building techniques and decorative forms. building was projected previously by the architects in the
The design is based on the interlocking repetition of the Gröndal residential development (1944–46), where
same pattern to create an organic cluster that is not subor- smaller-scale clusters were made forming a hexagonal pat-
dinated to the road network, but rather set around a series of tern with small, isolated towers.
Kingo Housing Complex, Helsingør, Denmark Different versions were made of a standard 3-bedroom
(1956) house with a limited built surface area of 110 m2 to take
advantage of the favourable system of state funding. The idea
Utzon designed this project for the Helsingør authorities was that the ground-floor dwellings laid out in an L around a
in order to provide housing for shipyard workers. The square courtyard would continue to develop over time within
layout is based on a prototype of courtyard house that the enclosing wall. The courtyard would become the differ-
originated with the competition for economical housing entiating element of the dwellings and act as a connector with
won three years before for the Swedish province of the surrounding communal green space (Weston 2004).
Skåne, together with the architect Ib Møgelvang. The The use of traditional materials in the construction of a
orderly succession of the 63 dwellings over 15 15 m design that owed much to the concept of additive architec-
plots, adapted to the irregular terrain around a lake and ture, a principle based on the patterns of natural growth,
seeking good orientation and views conveys the idea of would be used by Utzon in later projects in the Swedish
community without sacrificing the privacy of each family localities of Bjuv (1956) and Lund (1957), and years later
through the construction of a courtyard enclosed by over a gently sloping hillside to the south of the Danish
stepped brick walls. locality of Fredensborg (1959–65).
66 A. Dean
Benevolo, L. 1971. History of modern architecture [Storia dell’ar- Avermaete, T., and D. van den Heuvel, ed. 2011. The European
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Arquitectos. Documents de Projectes d’Arquitectura. Vol. 26. Barcelona: UPC.
Gravagnuolo, B. 1991. La progettazione urbana in Europa, 1750– Canizaro, V.B. 2007. Architectural Regionalism. New York: Princeton
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Monteys, X. 1996. Una síntesis. La Unité d’habitation. In La gran Colquhoun, A. 2002. Neoclassicism, organicism, and the welfare state:
máquina. La ciudad en Le Corbusier, 147–161. Barcelona: architecture in scandinavia 1910–1965. Modern Architecture.
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Ordeig Corsini, J.M. 2004. Diseño urbano y pensamiento contem- 1953, Town Design, Architectural Press, London. In Constructores
poráneo. Barcelona: Monsa. de la ciudad contemporánea. Aproximación disciplinar a través de
Torres, J., D. Domingo, F.J. Nieto, R. Castellanos, C.E. Mejía, los textos, 413–420. Madrid: Cie Inversiones Editoriales—Dossat
J. Deltell, M. Pérez, et al. 2006. Tapiola. DPA Documents de 2000.
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Copenhage: Nordic Council of Ministers.
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Modernist Mass Housing in Europe:
Comparative Perspectives in Western 7
and Eastern Cities (1950s–1970s)
Javier Monclús, Carmen Díez Medina, and Sergio García-Pérez
Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to compare and contrast modernist European mass housing
projects built from the 1950s to the 1970s, namely during the period of rapid urban growth,
on both sides of the Iron Curtain. (As a reference, we take the size of French ‘grands
ensembles’, more than 1000 housing units.) This comparison could easily focus on the
well-known characteristics of the socialist cities, due to the different nature of their urban
policies, the absence of a free land market or the relative impact of industrialisation in
construction. Nevertheless, many urban planning concepts and urban processes were
evidently shared by ideological, political and economic blocs during that period. Despite
their different names—housing estates in the UK and in other English-speaking countries;
grands ensembles in France; Grobsiedlungen in the Republic of Germany; polígonos de
vivienda in Spain; panelaky in some Socialist countries such as the former Czechoslovakia;
Plattenbau in East Germany, etc.—most of these estates rely on similar urban forms.
Therefore while mass social housing is a concept difficult to define, it is one with a clear
morphological dimension: “a form and landscape characterised by clusters of blocks and
towers in a space subjected to the zoning rules” (Dufaux and Fourcaut 2004, 45–61). The
question is to what extent these similar urban forms are the result of the dissemination of
modernist international urban culture. The text explores the nuances of these opposed
positions, both those which consider functionalist urbanism—and modernist urban forms—
responsible for the failure of many of these estates and those which claim that sociological
and economic factors to be the cause of their degradation in ghettos. The aim is to
understand to what extent the project might be responsible for the low quality and the early
obsolescence of most of these estates.

Keywords

Modernist mass housing Socialist housing estates Urban design Urbanity Eastern
bloc Functionalist urbanism Athens charter
J. Monclús (&) C. Díez Medina S. García-Pérez

Modern Ideals and Criticism of Radical
School of Engineering and Architecture (EINA), Modernity
e-mail: [email protected] Urban processes including major construction of mass
C. Díez Medina housing between the 1950s and the 1970s reveal features
e-mail: [email protected] that should be discussed from a comparative international
S. García-Pérez perspective. The fact that they were built during the same

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_7
68 J. Monclús et al.
time rules out some claims that time lags or disparities in a virtues of traditional cities.2 It is therefore essential to
common process of modern urbanisation account for their identify the weaknesses and paradoxes of the radical appli-
differences. It is perhaps more relevant to delve deeper into cation of the principles of functionalist urbanism, without
the variations of that similar process to discover to what this becoming ‘anti-modern’.
extent they are in debt to modern functionalist urbanism as
defined in CIAM, particularly in the Athens Charter (1933–
1943) [see Chap. 4]. It is important to assess how those Mass Housing in Western Europe: A Vulgate
modern visions contributed to defining the peripheral of CIAM Urbanism?
landscapes that were configured in the years of interna-
tional urban ‘developmentalism’. And this should be done The construction of huge mass housing estates was a com-
without attributing excessive responsibility to modern mon practice throughout Europe during the 1960s and
urban forms. 1970s, with the paradox that at that time those principles
Despite the fact that the application of the principles of were under heavy scrutiny.
functionalist urbanism lies, at least partly, at the heart of a While the specific features of the estates built during that
certain obsolescence that took place in the following dec- period in different cities and countries certainly reflect dif-
ades, it is worth considering in some detail. Much ferent national traditions or cultures, there can be no doubt
‘post-modern’ criticism attributes the social problems in the that, as Frank Wassenberg pointed out, “there has never been
North American projects to architectural and urbanistic a period in house building in which the similarities between
decisions, as was the case of the emblematic Pruitt-Igoe. Its countries have been as great. High-rise estates dominated the
demolition in 1972, just 17 years after it was built, led to building in this era” (Wassenberg 2013, 169).
generalised, abusive criticism of the modernist mass housing While avoiding generalisations, particularly in assessing
projects, in the USA and in Europe (Hall 2014). Neverthe- their architectural, urban and environmental quality, it is
less, criticism of this type of residential estates had already important to bear in mind the legacy these estates represent
taken place in the middle of the 1960s, when construction fifty years after they were built. Beyond the considerations
started to intensify.1 In addition to the well-known texts by of their eventual ‘failure’, the diagnosis of an inoperative
Jane Jacobs (1961), Gordon Cullen (1961), Christopher process appears to be shared: starting with more generic
Alexander (1964), Alexander Mitscherlich (1965) and Aldo aspects such as the lack of urban life due to rigid function-
Rossi (1966), among others, discontent was already manifest alist zoning; or the difficulty of integrating isolated, auton-
in the West and in the East, as illustrated by two contem- omous estates with the city; and including other more
porary texts published in West Berlin and East Berlin at the specific factors such as the obsolescence of housing types
start of the 1970s, The Murdered City by J.W. Siedler (1964) and specific amenities, the inadequacy of construction
and The City of Tomorrow based on correspondence methods according to current standards, over-sizing or the
between Brigitte Reimann and Hermann Henselmann poor design of urban spaces. (López de Lucio 2013).
(1963), give an idea about the speed at which utopian visions Are these shortcomings the consequences of an indis-
on modern urbanism soon turned into negative, critical criminate, large-scale application of the principles of mod-
outlooks. While it is important to qualify these critical ern, functionalist urbanism? It is important to differentiate
visions, they should also be read more deeply, avoiding and bear in mind that the quality, although difficult to
simple interpretations as ‘post-modern’ or even assess, varies markedly between countries and cities, as
‘anti-modern’. An undeniably ‘modern’ author such as well as in scale and the time in which construction took
Marshal Berman pointed out the contradictions of indis- place. There can be no doubt that the best examples are
criminately defending modernity, blaming the modernists for rare, whereas those of average quality represent the
the loss of urban values caused through the radicalism majority; the average account for most of the suburbs in
through which orthodox modern urbanism neglected the that period, and those of ‘low urbanistic and construction
1
The case of West Berlin was especially interesting, changing from 2
“Ironically, then, within the space of a generation, the street, which
positive views to the ‘fall from public grace’ towards the middle of the had always served to express dynamic and progressive modernity, now
1960s: “In the case of the Märkisches Viertel, the fifth Bauwochen came to symbolize everything dingy, disorderly, sluggish, stagnant,
(Building Fair) in 1968 marked a sudden swing in public opinion” worn-out, obsolete-everything that the dynamism and progress of
(Urban 2012, 60). modernity were supposed to leave behind” (Berman 1982).
7 Modernist Mass Housing in Europe: Comparative … 69
Fig. 7.1 Park Hill, located in Sheffield, 1954–61, is one of the most paradigmatic episodes of modernist mass housing construction in England.
The decline of the estate was almost immediate, due to the slump in the steel industry: public spaces soon became desolate, abandoned corridors,
while the most radical modern concepts led to complete standardisation of architectural solutions
Fig. 7.2 Bijlmermeer, in Amsterdam, 1966–72, was presented as an advanced suburb in the motorised age, an achievement for the most radical
functionalists. Nevertheless, this modernity soon became the icon of an acknowledged mistake. However, as is true in other cases, the urban and
architectural designs were not the only factors to blame for the problems. In Holland, construction of Bijlmermeer coincided with the arrival of a
large number of immigrants after independence of the former Dutch colony of Surinam in 1975
Fig. 7.3 Sarcelles, built on the outskirts of Paris in 1958, is the most significant French grand ensemble, an estate with a monolithic composition
of residential blocks and towers arranged on a rigid grid in perfect harmony with the rationalist principles of CIAM. The consequential monotony,
the vulgar architecture and lack of equipment, commercial areas and activities are the causes of the poor urban quality that was so heavily criticised
in the mid-1970s
Fig. 7.4 The Märkisches Viertel built in West Berlin, 1963–1974, is a textbook example. In essence, it is not so different from the grands
ensembles or the Dutch or British equivalents, since it was a sleeping town, an assembly of high-rise blocks and enormous open areas. But what
was initially a proposal of democratic urbanism in just a few years also ended up being a failed attempt
Fig. 7.5 Quarto Cagnino, built in Milan, 1967–73, represents an alternative model to self-sufficient districts, being an unusual example of a
coordinated programme. Nevertheless, the economic limitations prevented development of the original project, which featured well-designed
intermediate spaces and different housing types, paying special attention to the connection between communal areas and private areas
quality’ are those that coincide with the so-called vulnera- liberal ideas of (…) the Athens Charter could be assumed in
ble areas (Monclús and Díez Medina 2016, 779–787). The Socialist planned economy conditions” (Goldzamt 1980, 171–
latter, since they are districts undergoing processes of 172). Urbanism of the new estates in Eastern Bloc countries
deterioration, are currently the object of more or less was also based on the ‘neighbourhood unit’, although, in the
comprehensive urban renewal strategies (Monclús and Díez ‘microraion’ (microdistrict) version, a fundamental item in the
Medina 2015, 13–34). organisation of infrastructures and services.
Indeed, it is obvious that the success or failure of these Therefore, in spite of the different cultural traditions and
estates does not exclusively depend on the features of open, political situations, the new residential estates were planned
modern urbanism design, but on the conditions of their in accordance with the postulates of functionalist modern
construction and on the particular circumstances of a period urbanism. Of course, this was a complex process that was
in which increased scale and rapid construction processes led both contradictory and paradoxical, proof of which are the
to a significant loss of their urban quality. “16 Principles of Urbanism” approved in East Berlin in
1951,3 or other versions of the functional city, such as the
‘ideal communist city’, intensely theorised during the 1960s
Mass Housing in the Socialist Bloc: Modern (Gutnov et al. 1970).
Ideals and Communist Cities Predictably, the Moscow model was highly influential in
urban planning of the Socialist bloc countries, from the
The Socialist Bloc and the West European countries underwent 1930s onwards.4 In the theoretical work produced after the
a strong period of accelerated urban growth after World War II middle of the 1950s, it can be seen how ‘open urbanism’ was
as a result of the heavy demand for housing. In the East and adopted, in a way similar to Western models. The most
West alike, the principles and strategies of modern urbanism significant difference between the two is in the proportion of
appeared appropriate for the new situation. In his book the population living in Eastern estates as much higher,
Urbanism in Socialist Europe (1971), the influential architect
and communist theorist, Edmund Goldzamt, claimed that
urbanism in socialist countries could be understood as a con-
3
“Grundsätze des Städtebaus. Von der Regierung der Deutschen
Demokratischen Republik am 27. Juli 1950 beschlossen” (Clelland
tinuation of the tradition of experiences developed in Europe 1982; Strobel 2003).
during the period between the wars. Goldzamt upheld that “the 4
Starting with the Plan of Moscow of 1935.
Fig. 7.6 Sykhiv Stryis’kyi district, Lviv, Ukraine, 1970s. As with the other figures of this chapter we can see that all these paradigmatic housing
estates belong to a ‘family’ or a typology of urban forms which show how CIAM tenets were widely applied in housing estates after 1950 both in
Western and Eastern cities. This case study is a good illustratration of how big open spaces often become a problem, especially when the building
of public facilities is delayed or neglected, as is frequently the case
Fig. 7.7 In Pobeda (victory) district, residential area Solnechny (sunny) built in the soviet period in Dnipropetrovsk (Ukraine), unlike Western
models, industry was the factor leading to construction, in accordance with the Soviet urbanism principles of the 1930s. This circumstance
introduced a new problem: many cities were abandoned when the factories closed down. It is interesting to note in this case the privileged location
of the estate, facing southwards and enjoying the best canonical view of the city centre. The ‘Dnipropetrovsk Sunrise’, a solar-themed installation
by Olafur Eliasson (2013), brings a literal injection of light into a predominantly grey landscape. It is an example of how environmentally
progressive enterprises, such as Interpipe steel factory, are trying to activate, through artistic actions, degraded industrial areas
Fig. 7.8 In Moscow, the estates located in the districts to the Fig. 7.9 The example of Nowa Huta, Krakow, Poland, is one of the
northeast of the city, such as Khimki-Khovrino (shown in the most significant episodes. This was an attempt to learn from the Soviet
picture), Fili-Izmajlovo or Chorosevo-Mnevniki, demonstrate how the experiences, from both the positive and negative aspects. Given the
problems related with prefabrication (indiscriminately used for enormity of the estate and the autonomous organisation of each
economic reasons) are obvious in the large estates built during the residential unit (microraion), different urban forms and designs coexist
1960s. With Kruschev in power, the commitment to industrialisation on this estate. The succession of linear blocks, arranged in rows with
and prefabrication brought well-known consequences with it to these wide greed areas between them and linked to a hierarchically arranged
estates traffic network, reveals the legacy of functionalist urbanism by CIAM,
despite the fact that the Athens Charter never dealt with the subject of
relating cities to industry
generally over 50%. The degree of standardisation and East. But it is the higher number of estates and the increase
prefabrication is also evident well through the 1980s which, in their size that represents the main difference in the East,
according to Lydia Coudroy de Lille, makes those estates where the uniformity of the urban landscape reflects the
“an expression of European modernity and not of socialism” codes of social equality imposed by centralised administra-
(Coudroy de Lille 2004, 90–95). tion. Basically, the common weaknesses of mass housing in
the ‘age of modernity’, in addition to the commitment to
strict zoning and uniform typology, are a result of the speed
Obsolescence and Urbanity of construction processes and the significant increase in scale
of the estates.
We could complete this comparative vision with some All this led to a generalised (although not indiscriminate)
considerations about both positive aspects and the heated loss of ‘urbanity’ giving rise to the publication of many
criticism that occurred on both sides of the Iron Curtain. studies in search of ‘indicators’ that would allow guaran-
Firstly, it should be noted that both in the East and in the teeing an acceptable level of urban quality. Despite the fact
West, construction of mass housing estates responded to the that urban forms are the basic material of the project, iden-
urgent demand for housing at the end of the war and tifying which of them most favours the sought after urbanity
accounted for a substantial improvement in living conditions is not an easy task. The challenge consists in clarifying what
for the new urban population. As the demand for housing is required from urbanity today and understood from a
increased in the 1960s, more pragmatic visions were contemporary perspective, and how to give it shape (Díez
developed, leading to higher standardisation of housing and Medina 2016). In the specific case of mass housing estates,
the extreme uniformity of urban forms. tackling situations of functional and urbanistic obsolescence
It is true that there is more diversity in the architecture of that stemmed from a general loss of urbanity is one of the
western countries, if not so much in terms of urbanism. biggest challenges cities face at the outset of the twenty-first
Construction quality is also better in the West than in the century (Díez Medina 2015).
Case Studies the city and the radical, simplified forms of this huge modern
complex can be seen. On the one hand, the 11,500 dwellings
Bijlmermeer, Amsterdam (1968–1970s) on 11 floors were built to high standards for the time. On the
other, segregating functions (residential, commercial, traffic
Bijlmermeer was presented as a solution for a ‘new and leisure, with different levels for traffic,raised roadways
advanced suburb in the age of the machine’, an achievement for cars and buses, inner streets for facilities and lower level
for the most radical rationalism in the southeast of Amster- for parking) were applied strictly,leading to a very rigid
dam. Despite the fact that the authors of the project (the layout. Moreover, the blocks were designed in hexagons,
municipal team responsible for housing and town planning) thus leading to large, undefined open spaces. The result was
were disciples of the great architects of the previous gener- that this modern icon soon became the subject of severe
ation (van Eesteren, Bakema), an important contrast between criticism and, for many, an acknowledged mistake of mod-
the careful design of the former expansions to the West of ern, functionalist urbanism.
Gropiusstadt, Berlin (1962–1975) the 1960s, contrasting with those built in the 1950s. Despite
the diversity of typology, the principles of functionalist
The Grobsiedlung Gropiusstadt is one of the most paradig- urbanism are very present: large, fluid open areas, without
matic examples of this period in West Berlin. The project was any clear hierarchy and formally undefined. Its image was
by W. Gropius with Wils Ebert and his North American stigmatised after association with the successful book and
studio TAC (The Architects Collaborative). This extraordi- subsequent film, Christiane F. Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo,
nary example provides interesting keys to be able to under- which blamed this kind of inhospitable urban form for the
stand the strengths and weaknesses of housing estates built in marginal world of drugs and the social problems in the area.
Southwest Besós Estate, Barcelona (1958–1965) common in this kind of estate. The designers of the project
(López Íñigo, Giráldez y Subías/LIGS) arrange the sector
The case of the so-called Polígono del Sudoeste del Besós can according to a partial plan that defines the general conditions
be considered a prototype within the higher quality estates that for the area (number of dwellings: 4843; surface area:
were built in Barcelona. The estate is located in the far 34.5 ha). In accordance with strictly modern principles, the
northeast of Barcelona, to the southeast of the Besós river. authors laid out a system of volumes at an alternative coun-
Despite its autonomous design as a unitary item, its adaptation terpoint to masses and voids. The blocks adapt to the directives
to the Cerdá Expansion zone permits a continuity that is not of super-blocks that structure the roadways and equipment.
Rusanovska Microraion, Kiev (1961–1974) subsequent integration. On the other hand, the open spaces
are relatively controlled in terms of structure and dimen-
Rusanovska was planned in accordance with the microraion sions, in addition to having been designed in accordance
principles (number of dwellings: 12,000; surface area: with notable landscaping standards. The weaknesses
84 ha). Unlike other estates at the time, it was not linked to are the low construction quality and obsolescence of the
industrial complexes, but was conceived as a model equipment.
sleeping neighbourhood. Its location on the left bank of the
Dnieper, facing the historical city, worked in favour of its
Coudroy de Lille, L. 2004. Une idéologie du préfabriqué? In Le monde Bater, J.H. 1980. The Soviet City. London: Edward Arnold.
des grands ensembles, ed. F. Dufaux, and A. Fourcaut, 90–95. Berman, M. 1982. All that is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of
Paris: Creaphis. Modernity. London: Verso.
Díez Medina, C., ed. 2015. El legado de la vivienda Busquets, J. 2004. La construcción urbanística de una ciudad
moderna/Modernist Mass Housing Legacy. ZARCH: Journal of compacta. Barcelona: Serbal.
Interdisciplinary Studies in Architecture and Urbanism 5. Clelland, D. 1982. From ideology to disenchantment. Architectural
Dufaux, F., and A. Fourcaut. 2004. Le monde des grands ensembles. Design 52: 41–45.
Paris: Créaphis. Díez Medina, C. 2016. Sobre el concepto de urbanidad. Un rastreo por
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krajów socjalistycznych, 1971]. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili. uestas Para El Barrio Oliver, Zaragoza/ Urban regeneration (III).
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Buenos Aires: Nobuko. Ferrer i Aixalá, A. 1996. The undeserved credit of the housing estate. In
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regeneración de conjuntos de vivienda masiva en Europa/ Emer- Gaviria, M.J. (ed.). 1968. Gran San Blas. Análisis sociourbanístico de
gence, obsolescence and regeneration of European Housing Estates. un barrio nuevo español. Arquitectura: Revista del Colegio Oficial
In Regeneración urbana (II). Propuestas para el polígono Balsas de Arquitectos de Madrid 113–114. Madrid: Colegio Oficial de
de Ebro Viejo. Zaragoza/ Urban regeneration (II). Proposals for Arquitectos de Madrid.
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Labarta, and C. Díez Medina, 13–33. Zaragoza: Sociedad Municipal European cities of the Western and Eastern Blocs. Planning
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Wiley.
An Experiment in Freedom (1960–1975)
8
Raimundo Bambó
Abstract
This text explores the new sensitivity to other lifestyles that arose in the 1960s and 1970s
and in which the decision-making capacity by residents themselves was essential during the
design process, the subsequent occupation of the dwelling, or both. However, it was not
unique to this time: we can trace various genealogies in their origins and ideals, which form
a set of sometimes contradictory concepts. The aim of this chapter is to present these
concepts and their best-known manifestations, which are fundamental for the revision of
the way of thinking about housing and the city by orthodox modernism, presented as three
pairs of ‘genealogies’ according to their cultural origin, their reaction to the modernist city,
and their attitude toward technology.

Keywords
1960s Participation Freedom Perfectible housing Modernism revisited
and tastes, for the most part leaving few traces of the
The Narrow Confines of Modernism original design. The project had failed, and even Le Cor-
busier himself admitted his mistake.1 Boudon documented
The official inauguration of sectors C and D of the Quartiers
these changes in his book Lived-in Architecture. Le Cor-
Modernes Frugès social housing development in Pessac,
busier‘s Pessac Revisited, presenting them not in a nega-
designed by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, took place in
tive way, but as a means of letting life in, a manifestation
June 1926. The commission came from the industrialist
of the occupants’ capacity for decision-making (Boudon
Henri Frugès after his hearing the ideas of the Swiss archi-
1972).
tect. The guidelines were clear: “Pessac should be a labo-
The book is representative of a new sensitivity toward
ratory of standardization and mass production” (Le
different lifestyles that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, in
Corbusier and Jeanneret 1937).
which the decision-making capacity of the user was essential
Forty years later, a young French architect and town
during the design process, the subsequent occupation of the
planner, Philippe Boudon, visited the spot, now very dif-
dwelling, or both. The house was no longer a machine for
ferent from how it had been originally conceived: users
living, but the spatial expression of the occupants’ will. This
had modified their dwellings, adapting them to their needs
way of thinking was not limited to housing; it could also be
R. Bambó (&)
University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain 1
“You know, it’s always life that’s right and the architect who is
e-mail: [email protected] wrong” (Le Corbusier in Boudon 1972, 2).

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_8
80 R. Bambó
Fig. 8.1 Pessac Revisited, Philippe Boudon, 1967: diagrams showing the different modifications made by the occupants in one of the three types
of houses in Pessac designed by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret (1924–1926). The original design is at the top left
found in public facilities,2 or even town planning (Banham

et al. 1969, 435–443). Nor was it unique to this time: we can Contradictory Genealogies: USA/Europe
trace various genealogies in their origins and ideals, which
form a set of sometimes contradictory concepts. The aim of The term ‘freedom’ is central to numerous social, political,
this chapter is to present these concepts and their most vis- cultural, architectural, and urban movements, both in the
ible manifestations, which are fundamental for the revision USA and Europe, but in each of these traditions this word is
of the way of thinking about housing and the city by understood in a very different way.
orthodox modernism, presented as three sets according to The idea of freedom is inextricably linked to the history
their cultural origin, their reaction to the modernist city, and of the USA,3 a country founded by pioneers defined by two
their attitude toward technology. fundamental ideas: freedom and cooperation. Both form the
basis of diverse architectural and urban proposals present in
popular culture: for example, barn raising, where an entire
community unites to build the barn for one of its members,
or utopian visions like the skyscraper designed by A. B.
Walker, combining collective urban life with privacy and
independence, acting as an urban metaphor of the North
2
See for example the Fun Palace, conceived by Cedric Price and theater American city (Koolhaas 1978) .
director Joan Littlewood between 1962 and 1971 as a reprogrammable All of these ideas were part of Frank Lloyd Wright’s cul-
facility according to visitor flows, or the work of the British collective
Archigram, particularly the Sin Centre in Leicester Square, London, tural background, and he compiled his notions about the city
1959–1962, the Montreal Tower for the city’s World’s Fair, and their in his book The Living City (1958). The book is a critique of
design for an entertainment building in Monte Carlo, 1970–1971, none
of them built. For further information on the Fun Palace, see Mathews
(2007). For further information on works by Archigram, see Chalk, W.,
3
P. Cook, D. Crompton, D. Greene, R. Herron, and M. Web. 1999. The term can be related to many of its founding myths, like Walt
Archigram. New York: Princeton Architectural Press; or Sadler, S. 2005. Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, not to
Archigram: Architecture without Architecture. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press. mention the American War of Independence.
8 An Experiment in Freedom (1960–1975) 81
Fig. 8.3 Frank Lloyd Wright, Broadacre City, 1934: the model of the
proposal, which would be developed in The Living City, shows the aim
to move back to the country, integrating housing in an agricultural
environment
which looked in depth at the relations between fine arts, arts

Fig. 8.2 Skyscraper, A. B. Walker published “Real Estate Number” in and crafts, and social structures.4 In the twentieth century, the
Life, March 1909. The text below says: “Buy a cozy cottage in our steel contribution of French philosopher and sociologist Henri
constructed choice lots, less than a mile above Broadway. Only 10 min by Lefebvre must be highlighted. In such works as Le droit a
elevator. All the comforts of the country with none of its disadvantages.”
la ville (The right to the city in: Lefebvre 1996)5 or
La production de l’espace (The Production of Space, Lefebvre
urban society and identifies the principles that should govern 1991), he defended the city as a collective construction and
the relationship of man with nature. The low-density, proposed the re-appropriation and recovery of urban space.6
decentralized city proposed receives the name of Broadacre
City since it is based on a minimum area of one acre for each
family. Within this area, dwellings are given total freedom of
shapes and distributions; the only control would be the 4
See Morris, W. 1884. How We Live and How We Might Live, lecture
“agreeable established social superintendence given… by the delivered to the Hammersmith Branch of the Socialist Democratic
cultivated society of which he would… be a cultural unit Federation (S.D.F.) at Kelmscott House, on November 30th, 1884,
himself” (Wright 1958, 172). The whole proposal is attractive available online at https://www.marxists.org/archive/morris/works/
in its defense of the return to nature but has been criticized as 1884/hwl/hwl.htm Accessed Feb 11, 2015, or his utopian novel News
from Nowhere, available online at https://www.marxists.org/archive/
foreshadowing inhuman and unlimited suburban growth morris/works/1890/nowhere/nowhere.htm. Accessed Feb. 11, 2015.
based on the culture of the automobile (Mumford 1968, 189). 5
Henri Lefebvre, Le droit à la ville. Paris: Anthropos, 1968. English
In Europe, the genealogy of the term is very different. translation, Right to the City, compiled in Henri Lefebvre, Writings on
‘Freedom’ is associated with different popular insurrections Cities. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1996. The Right to the City is
described by David Harvey as follows: “The right to the city is far more
like the French Revolution, the Paris Commune, and the than the individual liberty to access urban resources: it is a right to
Spartacus League, generally linked to left-wing politics. With change ourselves by changing the city. It is, moreover, a common
regard to urbanism and architecture, the nineteenth-century rather than an individual right since this transformation inevitably
desire for a life away from the industrial city where the depends upon the exercise of a collective power to reshape the
processes of urbanization. The freedom to make and remake our cities
individual could regain his lost autonomy is revealed in the and ourselves is, I want to argue, one of the most precious yet most
proliferation of utopian self-sufficient communities, such as neglected of our human rights” (Harvey 2008).
6
the settlements proposed by Robert Owen, Charles Fourier’s Lefebvre’s thought is in line with that of the Situationist International,
Phalanstère, and Jean-Baptiste André Godin’s Familistère . which will be discussed in the next section. See Eleonore Kofman,
Elizabeth Lebas, “Recovery and Reappropriation in Lefebvre and
The same ideas can be found in the works of William Morris, Constant” (Hughes and Sadler 2000).
82 R. Bambó
Fig. 8.4 Chinese underground village near Tungkwan (Honnan), as Fig. 8.5 Village artisan’s self-built house in Arquipa (Peru), docu-
appears in Architecture Without Architects. The caption says “One of mented by John Turner, in Turner, J., Mangin, W., “Dwelling resources
the most radical solutions in the field of shelter is represented by the in South America”, in Architectural Design 33, 1963, 361. His objectives
underground towns and villages in the Chinese loess belt. (…) The in the study of vernacular architectures were the same as Rudofsky’s.
dwellings are clean and free of vermin, warm in winter and cool in However, their approach was different: instead of the succession of
summer”. Rudofsky, B., Architecture Without Architects, 25. The images of Architecture Without Architects, Turner presented technical
image is representative of Rudofsky’s approach to primitive cultures, documentation to quantify the achievements of these works
and his search for timeless lessons about architecture and urbanism
the structures of primitive thought, equating them with

Western scientific thought (Levi-Strauss 1961, 1966) . This
Contradictory Genealogies: Village/City subject was present in several architectural and urban studies
including, among others, the following examples. The
In the 1950s, various attitudes began to appear that were investigations of Aldo van Eyck on primitive cultures, with
critical of the modernist city.7 Urbanism according to the whom he had come into contact on several travels,9 were
principles of the Athens Charter improved living conditions fundamental in defining his architectural ideas10 and could
for the working class but also produced generic and abstract be seen in projects such as The Municipal Orphanage,
cities with vast monofunctional areas. Challenging this Amsterdam (1955–1957, built 1958–1960).11 The exhibition
conception, several proposals reconsidered the best place to and catalog Architecture without architects, by Bernard
develop community life, in which the inhabitants of a place Rudofsky, presented ‘non-pedigreed architectures’ from
could restore their capacity for decision-making, as opposed around the world through photographs and brief explanatory
to the rigidity of modern orthodox planning. texts, evaluating their adaptation to the environment, their
On the one hand, studies of non-Western cultural tradi- constructive knowledge, and their concern about living
tions, which had earlier been rejected for being considered problems (Rudofski 1964). British architect John Turner
underdeveloped, became important. The fascination with studied processes of self-construction in villages and
primitivism in architecture was not a new phenomenon,8 but squatter settlements in Peru, from which he developed his
it was not until then that diversity and cultural pluralism
were accepted. The work of the French anthropologist 9
See Strauven, F. 1998. Travels 1947–52. In Aldo van Eyck. The Shape
Claude Levi-Strauss made an essential contribution to this
of Relativity. Amsterdam: Architectura & Natura Press, 143–149.
new sensitivity. In his book The Savage Mind, he recognized 10
Ideas expressed for example in his speech at the CIAM congress held
in Otterloo in September 1959, see Strauven, F. 1998. CIAM 11,
Otterlo, 1959. In Aldo van Eyck. The Shape of Relativity. Amsterdam:
Architectura & Natura Press, 346–354.
7
Among others, noteworthy is the creation of Team 10 at CIAM 9, held 11
“Not one but three traditions were involved here: the Classical
in Aix-en-Provence in July, 1953. tradition which he characterized as ‘immutability and rest’, the modern
8
The vernacular played an important role in defining modern architec- tradition which he described as ‘change and movement,’ and the
ture in the 1920s and 1930s, and its influence can be traced back to the tradition of spontaneous building, namely, the ‘vernacular of the
very origins of the modernity. See Collins, P. 1965. Changing Ideals in heart’.” Strauven, F. 1998. Aldo van Eyck. The Shape of Relativity.
Modern Architecture, 1750–1950. London: Faber & Faber. Amsterdam: Architectura & Natura Press, 290.
Fig. 8.6 Constant Nieuwenhuys, New Babylon, 1959–1974. This utopian city consists of a network of interior spaces on different levels. Its
inhabitants, the Neobabylonians, are nomads who move freely through it, changing its configuration in a playful way, continuously generating
ephemeral ambiances according to their desires
theories on user participation in the design process and the main ideologue, defined it as “the concrete construction of
construction of dwellings, reflected in texts as Housing by momentary ambiances of life and their transformation into a
People and Freedom to Build (Turner and Fitcher 1972; superior passional quality”.15 The city was the perfect spot
Turner 1976). for this and led to the Situationists developing their own
While the aforementioned works sought out the values maps on which ‘unities of ambiance’ were identified.16 In
that had been lost in modern urbanism in the ‘back to basics’ addition to their actions in the existing city, worthy of
of primitive cultures, others sought out the virtues of the mention is New Babylon, the utopian city designed by
city. In her book The Death and Life of Great American Constant Nieuwenhuys between 1959 and 1974.17
Cities (1961), Jane Jacobs made a defense of urban com-
plexity and diversity, surpassing the diagnosis made by the
Contradictory Genealogies: Low Tech/High
Modern Movement. Although Jacobs did not propose
Tech
alternative solutions by looking back to the past, the text set
out to show the intricate nature of the interaction between
This period also produced a redefinition for the role of
urban form and social life, its dynamism and diversity.12
technology. Machines, industrialization, and technology had
These same issues were presented in a much more radical
been among the main issues of modernity and basis for the
way in the theories espoused by the Situationist International
new architecture, either as a metaphor and formal argument
(Situationist International Archives 2016).13 This organiza-
or as the means of new design methods.18 In those years,
tion, formed by artists and revolutionary thinkers, was cre-
ated in 1957 and brought together different avant-garde
groups of postwar Europe such as the International Move- 15
Debord, G. 1957. Report on the Construction of Situations and on the
ment for an Imaginist Bauhaus or the Letterist Interna- International Situationist Tendency’s Conditions of Organization and
tional.14 The Situationists sought the dissolution of Action.
16
The best known are two Paris maps made by Guy Debord in 1956 and
boundaries between art and life, and for this purpose, they
1957, respectively: Guide psychogéographique de Paris and The Naked
proposed the ‘construction of situations’. Guy Debord, their City.
17
For further information about the project, see Sadler (Sadler 1998,
105–155); or the comprehensive catalog of the exhibition held between
12
Tomás, C., and J. Luque. 2004. Jane Jacobs. The death and life of October 2015 and February 2016 at the Museo Reina Sofía: AA VV.
great American cities. In Constructores de la ciudad contemporánea. 2015. Constant. New Babylon. Madrid/The Hague: Museo Nacional
Aproximación disciplinar a través de los textos, ed. J. Luque, 502. Centro de Arte Reina Sofía/Gemeentemuseum Den Haag.
18
Madrid: Dossat. See the role played by technology in the narrative of the creation of
13
An extensive bibliography is available online in the site Situationist the Modern Movement in Giedion, S. 1948. Mechanization Takes
International online. Command. New York: Oxford University Press; Banham, R. 1960.
14
This group would have had a great influence in the 1960s, as it was a Theory and Design in the First Machine Age. London: Architectural
direct antecedent to the political and social movements of 1968. Press.
84 R. Bambó
Fig. 8.7 Christopher Alexander, Example of pattern, an extract from his book A Pattern Language, 1977 (“Pattern 78. House for one person”,
389–391). Each pattern has a similar structure: an archetypal image representing the spatial idea, a reasoning that sets out and solves the problem,
and a conclusion, graphically explained by a diagram
Fig. 8.8 Cedric Price, Steel Housing, 1966. Diagram showing the adaptation of the dwelling depending on the family model and the day cycle.
Maximum variation of possible use is provided by the fragmentation of services and miniaturization and mobilization of equipment
technology allowed the emergence of new housing proposals Other proposals sought the same goals through different
that involved user participation. This involvement could methods and exploited the potential of industry. John N.
occur during the design process, the construction process, or Habraken developed the “Theory of Supports” for the mass
later in their occupation, through the modification of the construction of collective housing. He proposed the division
layout of the dwelling. Some proposals were based on the of the production system into two phases, differing between
use of traditional techniques, while others relied on new structural elements (supports) and fill (separable units). Thus,
developments permitted by industry. the identification and separation of these two stages and user
The Austrian architect and mathematician Christopher enrollment in the process as an active agent would accom-
Alexander belonged to the first group. He founded the modate their specific requirements or particular spatial and
Center for Environmental Structure (CES) in Berkeley in finishing needs (Habraken 1972). Cedric Price’s original,
1967, from where he developed his theoretical activity about radical, and iconoclastic approach to architecture has been
architecture and urbanism.19 Alexander proposed a new rediscovered in recent years and is now considered fully
method for the construction of living and comprehensive valid.21 His thought processes can be understood from a set of
environments that possessed what he called “quality without transversal issues that can be traced throughout his entire
a name” (Alexander et al. 1977, 37–38). For this purpose, he production: action, time, expiry, uncertainty, and especially in
used patterns, defined as atoms forming the environment and regard to this text, user participation. The Steel Housing
spatial language. These patterns were related by a set of rules project (1966) is representative of this (Price 2003, 48–50). As
that anyone could follow, so anyone could change their Price puts it, “the house is no longer acceptable as a pre-set
environment. Building solutions came from vernacular ordering mechanism for family life” (Price 2003, 48), and he
architectures, also facilitating self-construction. This same instead proposed a flexible structure capable of adopting
purpose could be found in the work of Walter Segal, who different configurations according to family and temporal
developed a system of self-built housing based on traditional circumstances and showing it in the radical scheme of a
timber-frame methods,20 or Lucien Kroll, who included 24-h cycle performance.
participation by future users in the design and building Many of the projects presented in this chapter were
process in works such as the Medical Faculty Housing, at the prototypes or unbuilt theoretical designs. Both of the case
University of Louvain, Belgium (1970–1976) or the Vignes studies included were built and incorporated users in the
Blanches housing development in Cergy-Pontoise (1978– design process in different ways.
1983) (Ellin 2000).
19
This theory is mainly set out in a series of three books (Alexander
21
1975; Alexander et al. 1977; Alexander 1979). He has also carried out See Mathews, S. 2007. From Agit-Prop to Free Space: The
several projects reflecting these theories. Among others, Experimental Architecture of Cedric Price. London: Black Dog Publishing;
housing for PREVI competition (Lima, 1969), Linz Cafe (Vienna, García-Germán, J. 2012. Estrategias operativas en arquitectura.
1980), and the New Eishin University (Tokyo, 1985). Técnicas de Proyecto de Price a Koolhaas. Buenos Aires: Nobuko;
20
McKean, J. 1976. The Segal System. Architectural Design: 288–296. or Jansen, J. 2014. Cedric Price insert. Archis 42.
86 R. Bambó
Case Studies Erskine opened an office, The Architect’s Shop, in the

district during the design and construction process where
Byker Wall, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, United queries and suggestions from neighbors were received
Kingdom (1969–1982) regarding various aspects of the project. This way of
working dilated the process over time, causing tension with
Newcastle in the 1960s was undergoing a process of trans- the administration developing the project (Fernández Per
formation from industrial city to administrative center. One et al. 2013, 386–387).
of the planned municipal actions was the rebuilding of The project consists of a long, curving, colorful block
Byker, an area of mineworkers’ homes. The dwellings were acting as a wall, protecting a large area occupied by
in terrible conditions and lacking in minimum standards of low-level housing from traffic and north winds. The two
hygiene; however, there was a strong sense of community. types of buildings are rich in intermediate spaces: by treating
The slogan of the intervention was ‘Byker for Byker people’, the gallery as a street-in-the-air in the first case and with
showing how much of the population was in favor of the small gardens, squares, and areas of relationship in the latter,
plan and wanted to continue living in the same place (Fer- assuring the vibrancy of the neighborhood. The architectural
nández Per et al. 2013, 385). The commission was given to design, combining permanent elements along with others
the Anglo-Swedish architect Ralph Erskine (1914–2005), that were modifiable over time, has led to the tenants con-
who had already had experience working on other residential tinuing to customize their dwellings.
complexes with similar features.
Villaggio Matteotti, Terni, Italy (1969–1975) Different types of housing were proposed to the tenants so
that they could choose the most suitable kind for their needs.
Like the previous example, this project involved the After several meetings, 45 different types were made for the
restructuring of a working-class neighborhood, in this case 250 dwellings that were finally built (De Carlo 2013, 108).
housing for steel industry workers, given that this company The change in the development company management
was the developer, with the encouragement of labor unions. caused many of the initial project ideas to be distorted;
Its creator, Giancarlo de Carlo (1919–2005), shared Ersk- however, the flexibility of the approach allowed the occu-
ine’s emphasis on user participation, but with a different pants greater intervention.
approach. Instead of the latter’s empiricism, De Carlo pro- The design adopts a complex layout: a group of parallel
posed a systematic process that incorporated user feedback linear blocks including housing and facilities connected
into three specific stages: the definition of the problem, the through elevated platforms, segregating pedestrian paths and
development of the solution, and the evaluation of the results motor traffic. As in the previous case, one of the main fea-
(De Carlo 2013, 103–109). Matteotti’s procedure allowed tures of the project is the wide variety of public and
the timing of the project and its execution to be con- semi-public open spaces woven into these linear blocks at
trolled in a more effective way than in the case of the Byker different levels, allowing their appropriation by the
project. community.
88 R. Bambó
Alexander, C., S. Ishikawa, M. Silverstein, M. Jacobson, I. Alexander, C. 1975. The Oregon Experiment. New York: Oxford
Fiksdahl-King, and S. Angel. 1977. A pattern language: Towns, University Press.
buildings, construction. New York: Oxford University Press. Alexander, C.1979. The Timeless Way of Building. New York: Oxford
Banham, R., P. Barker, P.G. Hall, and C. Price. 1969. Non-plan: An University Press.
experiment in freedom. New Society 20: 435–443. García-Huidobro, F., D. Torres Torriti, and N. Tugas. 2008. Time
Boudon, P. 1972. Lived-in architecture. Le Corbusier’s Pessac builds! The Experimental Housing Project (PREVI), Lima: genesis
revisited [Pessac de Le Corbusier, 1969]. London: Lund and outcome. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili.
Humphries. Koolhaas, R. 1978. Delirious New York. New York: Oxford University
De Carlo, G. 2013. L’architettura della partecipazione. Macerata— Press.
Milan: Quodlibret abitare. Lefebvre, H. 1991. The Production of Space [La production de
Ellin, N. 2000. Participatory Architecture on the Parisian Periphery: l’espace, 1974]. Oxford: Blackwell.
Lucien Kroll’s Vignes Blanches. Journal of Architectural Educa- Le Corbusier, and P. Jeanneret. 1937. Oeuvre complète 1910–1929
tion 53: 178–183. doi:10.1162/104648800564572. [Pessac 1925], pp. 78–86. Zürich: Grisberger & Cie.
Fernández Per, A., J. Mozas, and Á.S. Ollero. 2013. 10 Stories of Levi-Strauss, C. 1961. A World on the Wane [Tristes tropiques, 1955].
Collective Housing. Graphical analysis of inspiring masterpieces: a New York: Criterion.
+t research group. Vitoria—Gasteiz: a+t architecture publishers. Levi-Strauss, C. 1966. The Savage Mind [La pensée sauvage, 1962].
Habraken, N.J. 1972. Supports, an alternative to mass housing [De Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
dragers en de mensen, 1961]. London: Architectural Press. Mathews, S. 2007. From Agit-Prop to Free Space: The Architecture of
Harvey, D. 2008. The Right to the City. New Left Review 53: 23–40. Cedric Price. London: Black Dog Publishing.
Hughes, J., and S. Sadler (eds.). 2000. Non-plan. Essays on Freedom Mumford, L. 1968. The Urban Prospect. New York: Harcourt, Brace &
Participation and Change in Modern Architecture and Urbanism. World.
New York: Routledge—Architectural Press. Sadler, S. 1998. The Situationist City. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press.
Jacobs, J. 1961. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New Turner, J., and R. Fitcher. 1972. Freedom to Build: Dweller Control of
York: Random House. the Housing Process. New York: The Macmillan Company.
Lefebvre, H. 1996. Writings on Cities. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Price, C. 2003. Cedric Price: The Square Book. London: Wiley—
Academy.
Rudofski, B. 1964. Architecture Without Architects: An Introduction to
Non-pedigreed Architecture. New York: Museum of Modern Art.
Situationist International online. 2015. http://www.cddc.vt.edu/
sionline/index.html. Accessed February 4.
Turner, J.F. 1976. Housing by people: Towards autonomy in building
environments. London: Marion Boyars.
Wright, F.L. 1958. The Living City. New York: Horizon Press.
Part II
Other Urbanisms and Urban Projects
“Quase todos os casos de transformação urbanística considerados de êxito e que foram importantes nas duas últimas
décadas, foram adoptados e desenvolvidos à margem, ou mesmo contra, das previsões dos planos em vigência. Nuns
casos, para o bem, noutros, para o mal.”
(Almost all the main successful urban transformations adopted and implemented in the last two decades disregarded or even
opposed the master plans in place, and although the outcome was often good, this was not always the case.)
Nuno Portas, “De una ciudad a otra: perspectivas periféricas”, en A. Martín Ramos (ed.), Lo urbano en 20 autores
contemporáneos, Barcelona: Edicions UPC, 2004, 223.
Other Urbanisms
9
Abstract
The expression ‘Other Urbanisms’ is an attempt to bring attention to the main urban visions
coexisting since the end of the Second World War through to the 1980s. These include
approaches most linked to internal debates next to the CIAMs and others developed in
parallel to functionalist urbanism, such as Townscape, the new urban design subdiscipline
and those that support the idea of the city as a cultural creation sensitive to the values of
history, focused on urban forms.

Keywords
Townscape Urban design Jane Jacobs Ungers Rossi Moneo Siza Krier
Lynch CIAM 8
The complexity of situations endured by European cities contributed to the dissemination of the functionalist urban
since the Second World War and the variety of urbanistic tenets, whereas at the same time an ‘internal’ review of the
discourses and strategies demand that we avoid generalisa- modernist proposals was taking place which questioned the
tions when attempting to value the meaning of reconstruction rigidity of the principles set forth in that document. Indeed,
and renewal both in the ‘urbanisms’ developed during the the basis of modernist urbanism expressed through the for-
years of generalised urban growth (from the 1950s to the mula ‘light, air, openness, standardisation and zoning’ star-
1970s) and in the attitudes that were reactivated after the ted to be criticised in the 1950s, particularly in Europe. In
1980s. Indeed, we are able to identify the coexistence of this sense, after CIAM 8 (organised under the title “The
approaches and visions so different that what for some means Heart of the City” in 1951) and particularly CIAM 9 (The
a crisis in the principles of modernist urbanism, for others it is Charter of Habitat, 1953), there was a fundamental turning
about a number of ‘humanised’ versions of those principles. point with attention now focusing on more conventional
In fact, renewal and updating of ‘qualitative’ urbanism that urban layouts, and particularly more ‘humanised’ after the
took place after the 1980s is based on those traditions true to failures of functionalist urbanism, with the proposal of
the architectural dimension—defined in different contexts at substituting the principles of the Athens Charter for a new
the start of the twentieth century by Civic Art and the City “hierarchy of human associations” (Mumford 2000, 200).
Beautiful movement—as well as on the different approaches To a certain extent, the ‘culturalist’ visions were associated
to urban art during the period between the wars. with renewed interest in the symbolic significance of tradi-
Architectural and urban planning historiography has tional urban elements, particularly historical centres, and, in
explained in detail how publication of the versions of the short, the history of the city. These visions gained weight even
Athens Charter by Sert (1942) and Le Corbusier (1943) in other contexts where they had not been given enough
attention, such as the urban theories of the 1950s and 1960s in
the Soviet Bloc. Nevertheless, more radical production-
oriented visions than in Western urbanism were soon
University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain imposed. In the post-war context under Stalin, despite
e-mail: [email protected] attempts to establish differences between the Soviet vision and
C. Díez Medina the capitalist urban development of the West, these principles

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_9
campaign launched in 1947 by the British magazine Archi-

tectural Review in which the architect Gordon Cullen and
the architectural critic Ian Nairn played decisive roles
(Orillard 2014). Beyond those theoretical approaches, the
exhibition held on London’s South Bank (1951) for the
Festival of Britain could be considered a representative
sample of the renewed visions of architectural and landscape
urbanism.1 The humanist perspective that Townscape pro-
vided compared to of the Modern Movement was, to a
certain extent, recovered by Jacqueline Tyrwhitt and others,
acquiring a more important role in the new residential estates
of the 1950s. More recently, the significance of that
‘movement’ has been deeply revised, with the rediscovery of
some key personalities, such as the British urbanist Thomas
Sharp, whose plans and texts had a certain degree of influ-
ence during the post-war period. The concept of Townscape
permitted those architects and urban planners to provide “a
modern focus on urban forms that was different from the
dominating paradigms both that of garden cities and Cor-
busierian views” (Pendlebury 2009). The publication of The
Concise Townscape by Cullen in 1961 contributed to con-
solidating that line which would nevertheless take some time
in being recognised in international urbanistic culture.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the newly appointed
Fig. 9.1 Cover page of the congress publication The Heart of the City, Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Josep Lluís
CIAM 8, 1951 Sert, promoted Urban Design, updating the traditional views
of Civic Design in the important Urban Design Conference
in 1956. In the words of Sert, the new subdiscipline of Urban
combined ideas from modernist urbanism of the thirties with Design is understood as “that part of urbanism that deals with
the influences that the Stalin era had left behind in Eastern the physical form of the city”, with the aim of finding a
Bloc countries, and perhaps too with the revisionist ideas on common basis for the joint work between the architect, the
the importance of the cultural aspects of cities. Proposals landscape architect and the city planner.2 It was also during
appeared for a more radical attitude to social and economic the same period when Kevin Lynch (with his cooperators
aspects, which permitted centralised planning. But at the same Gyorgy Kepes and Donald Appleyard) started his research on
time, they articulated a growing concern for historical centres, the perception of cities and visual urbanism. It is not neces-
corresponding to the reconstruction strategies that attempted sary to mention the relevance that his seminal work The
to recover the values of certain ‘urbanity’, despite the con- Image of the City (1960) had on the development of other
tradictions with ‘real urbanism’ that was applied in the approaches to urbanism that were much more focused on the
monolithic suburbs of socialist cities (Gutnov et al. 1970). quality of urban landscapes than was the generic, abstract
From other perspectives, removed from the internal approach of modern functionalist urbanism.3
debates or those in support of CIAM, the analysis on other Among other critical visions on the ‘dehumanisation’
trends and visions that took place parallel to functionalist of modern urbanism is that of Jane Jacobs, the activist
urbanism are also relevant (Hebbert and Sonne 2006). who opposed ‘urban renewal’ and whose The Death and
Among them, those of the modernist Townscape, the new Life of Great American Cities became one of the few best
subdiscipline of Urban Design and other critical visions on sellers on urbanism in the twentieth century (Jacobs 1961
‘dehumanisation’ of modernist urbanism—with emphasis on and reprinted continuously, particularly after the 1980s).4
sociological, psychological and anthropological aspects—
particularly stand out.
Along parallel lines, concern for the weak urbanity of 1
(Monclús 2009).
functionalist urbanism is the basis of the so-called Town-
2
“(…) that part of city planning which deals with the physical form of
scape which, in fairly simplistic terms, has often been seen the city” (Krieger 2006).
3
Lynch, The Image of the City (1960). But these theories were developed
as a merely picturesque reaction to modernist urbanism. Its twenty years after, in his monumental work Good City Form (Lynch 1981).
approaches are actually more complex and go beyond the 4
See also Contemporary Perspectives on Jane Jacobs (Schubert 2015).
9 Other Urbanisms 93
Fig. 9.2 Cover page of Architectural Review, 1951, by G. Cullen and D.D. Mills depicting the Festival of Britain for the London South Bank
Her criticism was largely directed at modernist urbanism,

particularly the strict zoning and the functional and
typological uniformity. Consequently, one of the central
themes is diversity: social and economic diversity among
inhabitants; diversity in the shape and size of buildings;
diversity in the types of activities in delimited areas, etc.,
all of which is to guarantee diversity among the resident
population. Jacobs was also a radical defender of the
street and mixed buildings, suitable for different social
groups and several age groups, contrary to the principles
of functionalist urbanism. Another fundamental critical
contribution is by Christopher Alexander, who, in his
famous paper of 1965 “A City is not a Tree”, opposed the
tree-like structure of cities planned according to the
modernist principles to the complex grid-like structures of
traditional cities.
In view of the advance of the new modern paradigms that
reacted to cities of the industrial era with proposals of open
urbanism and low density (both in garden cities and in
functionalist models), all these trends that were critical of
modernity, representing different traditions based on the
value of ‘urbanity’ coexisted with other new visions of
modernity that emerged in different historical and urban
contexts. It was during that cultural moment when one of the
most intense lines of reflection appeared that opened up
architectural and landscaping culture in the 1960s marked by Fig. 9.3 Pages from the book by Gordon Cullen The Concise
a renewed attention to the place and the ‘city as architecture’. Townscape, published in 1961
Fig. 9.4 Jane Jacobs, in the campaign to save West Village in New York, showing documents at a press conference held at the Lions Head
Restaurant (Hudson St. con Charles St.), 1961
Fig. 9.5 Visual diagrams published in the book by Kevin Lynch The Fig. 9.6 Christopher Alexander, tree and grid diagrams, 1965
image of the City, 1960, and by Kevin Lynch and Donald Appleyard,
The View from the Road, 1964
Fig. 9.7 Aldo Rossi, cover page of the first issue of L’architettura della città, 1966
Fig. 9.8 Manuel de Solà Morales and Rafael Moneo, proposal submitted for the ideas contest for urban renewal of the historical city centre of
Zaragoza in 1969
The idea of the city as a cultural creation sensitive to the architectural types. Some urban projects at the end of the
values of history was developed in those years at the same 1960s and in the early 1970s, carried out in conjunction with
time in different countries, being particularly evident in Italy Manuel Solà Morales, show special concern for the existing
with the renewed conceptions of urban morphology and city. In essence, although from different approaches, visions
building typology at the School of Venice, led by Saverio by some architects interested in the historical dimension of
Muratori (Studi per un’operante storia urbana di Venezia, urban components began to gain ground. In other words,
1959). The publication in 1966 of Aldo Rossi’s L’architet- those approaches in which Moneo and Solà Morales
tura della città was fundamental. In it, Rossi offers a sci- emphasised the physical and material content of urbanity, as
entific vision of the city, not far removed from the ideology reflected in their work together on projects such as the Actur
of the structuralists in vogue during in those years. Concepts of Lacua in Vitoria (1976–1980) and the Special Plan of
such as ‘place’, ‘type’, ‘monument’, ‘urban form’, at the end Aranjuez (1979–1981).5 The text published by Solà Morales
of the 1970s became commonplace terms of reference due to in 2008 in the book A Matter of things reflects this interest in
the influence of his book (Moneo 2004a). This concern for understanding the city as a specific material fact.
understanding the city is also recognised in the teaching of All these traditions and movements are based on recov-
some architects, such as Oswald Mathias Ungers and Colin ering culturalist views, with attention to urban forms and
Rowe, who, from opposing positions regarding urban forms new urban projects, in particular the discourse on the ‘re-
and history, converted Cornell University in a centre of construction of the European city’ that came about in the
lively discussion and debate in the early 1970s. The respect 1980s, where the visions of Italian and French morphology
for historical cities is patent in a text by Rowe and Fred and the central European tradition encountered each other.
Koetter published in 1978 under the title of “Collage City” The concept of ‘critical reconstruction’ therefore refers to a
which was highly influential in those years, with architects careful reconstruction of the city, defending renewal instead
such as James Stirling, whose work would become narrative
from that moment on, conceived with references to the
ancient city, collage and landscape (Moneo 2004b). In the 5
See also the proposal submitted for the ideas contest for urban renewal
same year, the paper “On Typology” by Rafael Moneo gave of the historical city centre of Zaragoza in 1969 (Díez Medina 2013;
a lucid, operative look into history through the concept of Martinez Litago 2013).
Fig. 9.9 Manuel de Solà Morales and Rafael Moneo, proposal submitted for the restricted contest for Lakua (Sectors 7, 8 and 10), Vitoria, 1976
Fig. 9.10 Manuel de Solà Morales and Rafael Moneo, L’Illa Diagonal, Barcelona, 1987–1993
Fig. 9.11 Duany & Platter-Zyberk Architects, urban code for Seaside, 1982
of demolition (Fischer 2014). In this context, the urban Although critics against the use of nostalgia of traditional
culture that emerged in the 1980s dealt particularly with the forms have been continuously vocal, their discourse has
regeneration and reclassification of public areas, as demon- dominated the roots of architectural urbanism with attempts
strated at the Berlin International Exhibition (IBA 1984–87). at integrating other visions of suburban development that are
Their slogan “Reconstruction of the European City” showed more sensible and sustainable. Indeed, the projects devel-
absolute respect for historical urban fabric, recovery of oped to date (Seaside, Celebration, Laguna West) have only
streets and the morphology of the closed block. The extended the repertoire of available suburban models.6 In
Latin-European cities adopted this type of architectural short, as will be seen in the coming chapters, there was a
and morphological urbanism, thus sharing the new cyclic movement of recovering visions and urban forms that
paradigm. That was also the case of Barcelona throughout had never completely disappeared, since they were linked to
the 1980s, culminating with the 1992 Olympic Games and cultural and urban traditions in different countries. This
renewal of the seafront (Ward 2002; Monclús 2003) (see recovery was driven by the review of the functionalist
Chap. 11). principles of Modern Movement, humanising them and
Among the most outstanding ‘recoveries’ in North reconciling them with more flexible attitudes aware of urban
America was the New Urbanism which emerged in the early spaces. The return to the street and the closed block is one
1980s in the USA, linked to the Kriers visions in Europe. way to understand the expression of this new paradigm.7
This movement well exemplifies the ‘recovery’ of urbanistic
traditions at the start of the twentieth century before the
automobile and the suburban explosion in North American
cities. Indeed, to the beginning of Traditional Neighbour-
hood Design (TND) and Transit-Oriented Development 6
“While these important projects advanced new models of neighbor-
(TOD) there were only a few important steps taken since hood development, they have largely been confined to expanding the
options available to suburbanites rather than fostering the diversity and
Frederick Law Olmsted, the Regional Planning Association
sustainability of the compact metropolis” (Silver 2006, 179–196).
of America (RPAA) and earlier successful examples. 7
(Panerai et al. 1986).
Fig. 9.12 Duany & Platter-Zyberk Architects, project for Seaside, 1982
While it can also be said that the most renewing visions a fact that dates back to projects similar to the visions of the
started with an internal review, from the very heart of the City Beautiful movement. This attitude would extend until it
Modern Movement, with the critical visions of the second overlapped with the recovery of urban projects of the 1980s,
generation of modernist urbanists, those of Team X and other where the ‘updated’ search for, or recovery of, said urban
architects and urbanists sceptical of the dogma of CIAM and forms had the goal of recovering lost urbanity (Sonne 2014).
the Athens Charter.8 On the other hand, the continuity in The projects shown as follows, the IBA of Berlin and the
using more or less conventional or ‘dense’ urban forms, as Quinta de Malagueira, are good examples of some of the
some authors such as Wolfgang Sonne prefer to call them, is attitudes described in the preceding paragraphs.
8
(Portas 2004).
Case Studies of social housing, a group of 1200 homes was planned on

27 ha. The project was carried out just after the programme
Quinta de Malagueira, Évora, Portugal was suspended. The development is arranged in a somewhat
(1973–1977) organic layout. The urban forms used to combine the interest
in traditional typology with the innovative layout of the
The new residential complex of Quinta de Malagueira, roadway system and residential clusters. To deal with the
developed according to a project by Álvaro Siza in Évora, is problem of the spaces between blocks in modern estates, a
an exceptional example of the experimentation that paved the sequence of interstitial spaces was designed here with a
way towards new urban forms as a reaction against modern system of streets, plazas and parks.
functionalist urbanism. It is an emblematic operation of the Moreover, the option of open, growing structures goes
conceptual changes in the project for mass social housing. hand-in-hand with participative processes, in which the users
Within the framework of the Portuguese revolution of control the future transformations of the houses. In this
1974 and the SAAL programme (Serviço de Apoio Ambu- sense, the designed houses are also in line with the concept
latorio Local) launched by Nuno Portas as Secretary of State of evolving housing, which can grow according to the needs
in the first democratic government to promote the building of the inhabitants, reaching up to 6 bedrooms. The close
relationship between the architecture and urbanism marked
the project right from the start, and the sensitivity towards
the processes of change and permanence of the site: “The
houses and objects without value become living presences,
breaking up the new settlements” (Siza 1994).
Berlin International Exhibition (IBA) (1984–87) urbanism of functionalism, where blocks and roads were
predominant, there was a return to traditional models, with
In the traditionof the Internationale Bauausstellungen (IBA), the ‘new closed block’ or perimeter block, absolute respect
the divided Berlin of the 1980s was the venue of an exhi- for the historical sector and assertion of the corridor street.
bition of the ‘reconstruction’ culture of European cities. The initial slogan of the Berlin IBA of 1984–87 was “Let
A critical, metaphoric reconstruction, not only of Berlin, still us save the city in ruins. The historical centre as a place to
marked by the destructive effects of the war, but also live”. The two main objectives were of a local nature: to
designed as a model for other European cities. redevelop the abandoned areas between the Landwehrkanal
Thirty years after the Interbau (Berlin IBA of 1957), the and the Berlin wall, and finish urban renewal of the Kreuzberg
new IBA, under the direction of J. P. Kleihues, responded to district, since the process had come up against growing
very different, or even opposing criterion: rediscovery of the resistance until it had been halted altogether. Employing the
existing consolidated city, the city as a living space, the value new principles expressed in the idea of a behutsame Stad-
of the traditional spaces in the city, the social housing forms, terneuerung (careful reconstruction of the city) led to a sub-
etc., were all central themes at the exhibition. Unlike the open stantial change in the way of tackling urban redevelopment.
Fischer, K.F. 2014. Berlin’s International Building Exhibitions 1957 Alexander, C. 1965. A City is not a Tree. Architectural Forum 122:
and 1984/87. In Exhibitions and the development of Modern 58–61.
Planning Culture, ed. R. Freestone, and M. Amati, 261–276. Appleyard, D., K. Lynch, and J.R. Myer. 1964. The view from the road.
Farnham: Ashgate. Cambridge, Massachusetts: M.I.T. Press for the Joint Center for
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S. Sadovskij. 1970. The Ideal Communist City. New York: George Broadbent, G. 1990. Emerging Concepts in Urban Space Design. New
Braziller. York: Van Nostrand.
Hebbert, M., and W. Sonne. 2006. History Builds the Town: On the Cullen, G. 1961. The Concise Townscape. New York: Architectural
Uses of History in Twentieth-century City Planning. In Culture, Press.
Urbanism and Planning, ed. J. Monclús, and M. Guardia, 3–20. Díez Medina, C. 2013. Conversación con R. Moneo/Conversation with
Hampshire: Ashgate. R. Moneo. ZARCH: Journal of interdisciplinary studies in Archi-
Jacobs, J. 1961. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New tecture and Urbanism 1: 344–361.
York: Random House. Ellin, N. 1999. Postmodern Urbanism. New York: Princeton Archi-
Krieger, A. 2006. Where and How Does Urban Design Happen. tectural Press.
Harvard Design Magazine 24: 64–71. Ellis, C. 2002. The New Urbanism: Critiques and Rebuttals. Journal of
Lynch, K. 1960. The Image of the City. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press. Urban Design 7: 261–291. doi:10.1080/1357480022000039330.
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Press. 2008]. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers.
Monclús, J. 2003. The Barcelona model: and an original formula? From van Geisten, C., and E. Pfotenhauer. 2007. Parting from the Doctrine of
‘reconstruction’ to strategic urban projects (1979–2004). Planning Modernist Urban Development: IBA Berlin 1984/87. In Metropole:
Perspectives 18: 399–421. doi:10.1080/0266543032000117514. Reflexionen/ Metropolis: reflections: IBA Hamburg, 220–229.
Moneo, R. 2004a. Aldo Rossi. In Inquietud teórica y estrategia Berlin: Jovis Verlag.
proyectual en la obra de ocho arquitectos contemporáneos, 101– Martinez Litago, E. 2013. El concurso de ideas de 1969 para la
144. Barcelona: Actar. remodelación urbanística del centro antiguo de Zaragoza. ZARCH:
Moneo, R. 2004b. James Stirling. In Inquietud teórica y estrategia Journal of interdisciplinary studies in Architecture and Urbanism 1:
proyectual en la obra de ocho arquitectos contemporáneos, 7–50. 362–373.
Barcelona: Actar. Monclús, J. 2009. International exhibitions and urbanism: The
Mumford, E. 2000. The CIAM Discourse on Urbanism, 1928–1960. Zaragoza Expo 2008 Project. Farnham: Ashgate.
Cambridge: M.I.T. Press. Moneo, R. 1978. On Typology. Oppositions 13: 22–45.
Orillard, C. 2014. The Transnational Building of Urban Design: Montaner, J.M. 1993. Después del movimiento moderno. Barcelona:
Interplay Between Genres of Discourse in the Anglophone World. Gustavo Gili.
Planning Perspectives 29: 209–229. doi:10.1080/02665433.2013. Montaner, J.M. 2015. La arquitectura de la vivienda colectiva. Madrid:
878879. Reverté.
Pendlebury, J., ed. 2009. Thomas Sharp and the modern townscape. Muratori, S. 1959. Studi per un’operante storia urbana di Venezia.
Planning Perspectives 24. doi:10.1080/02665430802533035. Roma: Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato, Libreria dello Stato.
Schubert, D. (ed.). 2015. Contemporary Perspectives on Jane Jacobs: Panerai, P.R., J. Castex, and J.-C. Depaule. 1986. Formas urbanas. De
Reassessing the Impacts of an Urban Visionary. Farnham: Ashgate. la manzana al bloque [Formes urbaines, 1980]. Barcelona:
Silver, C. 2006. New Urbanism and Planning History: Back to the Gustavo Gili.
Future. In Culture, Urbanism and Planning, ed. J. Monclús, and M. von Petz, U. 2010. City Planning Exhibitions in Germany, 1910–2010.
Guardia, 179–194. Hampshire: Ashgate. Planning Perspectives 25: 375–382. doi:10.1080/02665433.2010.
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Jahrhunderts. Berlin: DOM publishers. Portas, N. 2004. De una ciudad a otra: Perspectivas periféricas. In Lo
Ward, S.V. 2002. Planning the Twentieth-Century City: The Advanced Urbano en 20 autores contemporáneos, ed. A. Martín, 221–229.
Capitalist World. New York: Willey. Barcelona: Ediciones UPC.
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Siza, A. 1994. Territorio de Malagueira. In Visiones Urbanas. Europa
1870–1993. La ciudad del artista. La ciudad del arquitecto, ed.
J. Dethier and A. Guiheux, 457. Barcelona: CCCB Electa.
Urban Projects and Megastructures: Modernist
Campuses 10
Basilio Tobías
Abstract
Quite a lot of the university proposals developed in the sixties had a strong urban
component, encompassed within the theoretical developments of the time, which was an
appropriate scope for university projects, with a variety of functions and a diagrammatic
condition arising from the overlapping linkage between their components and the demands
for growth. The reconsideration of the teaching structures implied a greater importance of
the departmental system. Within the European trend of promoting community values, the
university appeared as an ideal community, which should not only be places for teaching
but also places for relationships to develop promoting social exchanges. All this took place
in a more liberal general context in which concepts such as change, flexibility or
spontaneity were well present.

Keywords
University campuses Megastructures Mat-building CIAM 10 Team 10
The years following the Second World War saw a significant the four functions enshrined in the Athens Charter—dwell-
increase in the planning of new universities. Among the ing, work, leisure, circulation—other concepts such as
reasons for this increase were economic growth and the house, street, district, city, that constituted differentiated,
democratisation of advanced education, one of the hallmarks although overlaid, levels of human relationships. The raised
of the ‘welfare state’ established in Western Europe. This external street that was part of the Golden Lane design, in
process would reach its maturity in the 1960s (Muthesius which the social relationships of the streets of the East End
2000). of London would be recreated, and which could be articu-
In addition to favourable economic conditions, these lated to form clusters, was one of the decisive features of the
years also saw the convergence of different schools of Smithsons’ and other residential and urban projects, whose
thought—such as Existentialism and Structuralism— and creators saw the ‘street in the air’ as a symbol of
architectural theory. These circumstances marked a clear relationships.
break with the predominant principles of the Modern Team 10 was founded in the wake of CIAM 9 with a core
Movement as laid down by the Congrés Internationaux consisting of Jaap Bakema, Aldo van Eyck, Georges Can-
d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM) meetings after 1928, and dilis, Shadrach Woods and Alison and Peter Smithson, which
later included in the Athens Charter that was drawn up would organise the CIAM 10 meeting in Dubrovnik. CIAM
during CIAM 4 and published by Le Corbusier in 1943. 11, held in Otterlo in 1959, was the last of these events.
During CIAM 9, Alison and Peter Smithson presented the Afterwards, the more informal Team 10 meetings would take
“Urban Re-Identification Grid” , in which, in contrast with over from the CIAM meetings until 1977. The interests of the
new generation were expressed in the existential or phe-
nomenological nature of the concepts they dealt with, with an
understanding of the relationship between urban planning
B. Tobías (&)
and architecture that led to criteria such as mobility being
University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain present in many formulations. This is the case of two key

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_10
104 B. Tobías
Fig. 10.1 Mies van der Rohe. Master plan for the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology, 1939
texts by Shadrach Woods, “Stem” and “Web”, published in between symmetry and asymmetry in their placement. Over
1960 and 1962, respectively.1 The demands of the street were the Chicago grid, Mies drew up a 24 24 foot
transferred to buildings. As a result, in contrast to the (7.2 7.2 m) structural module for the different buildings.
undifferentiated Miesian space, the corridor made its The projects designed by Mies for the IIT campus culminated
appearance as a long interior street, not measured in length, with the construction of Crown Hall in 1956, completing what
but in time. Consequently, not only the city but also buildings could be considered the archetype of the neoplastic campus.
could be understood as a series of streets, squares and vol- In 1949, Alvar Aalto won the competition to design the
umes that would recreate the permanent and transmissible Otaniemi campus for the then Helsinki University of Tech-
structure of the city, from a structuralist point of view. nology, to be built on a peninsula near Tapiola. The main
In the domain of universities, consideration was given to building, which occupies the central area, is adapted to the
educational structures, with a consequent loss of the identity topography, and is designed as a series of blocks linked by
of faculties in favour of the department. In keeping with the corridors that create a series of courtyards which serve as
general trend in European countries of fostering community outdoor spaces. This stepped ensemble, articulated with the
values, the university appears as an ideal community in library, opens onto the landscape and, together with the
which importance is not only given to education spaces, but University of Jyväskylä campus, begun in 1951, represents
primarily to those where social exchanges could take place. one of the best examples of the influence of picturesque on
modernist architecture.
The Campuses of Modernity

1960s University Campuses
The architectural possibilities of university programmes,
combined with the prestige of the institutions, explain the In 1974, Alison Smithson published the article “How to
enthusiasm manifest by architects of the Modern Movement, Recognise and Read Mat-Building” in Architectural Design.
within the two-way relationship established between the The piece analysed a series of relatively coetaneous projects
American campus and the British college. Mies van der Rohe and buildings, and a number of historic buildings. Smithson
designed the master plan of the Illinois Institute of Technol- pointed out that “mainstream mat-building became visible,
ogy (IIT) campus in 1940 over eight blocks of Chicago’s however, with the completion of the FU. (Berlin Free
South Side. In it, the buildings produced a blend of open and University)” (Smithson 1974). The project for the Free
closed spaces through offsets and the relationships created University of Berlin by architects Georges Candilis, Alexis
Josic and Shadrach Woods, in collaboration with Manfred
Shiedhelm, won the design competition held in 1963, and
1
The first one in The Architectural Review no. 5, 1960, and the second the first stage was completed in 1973. The conceptual clarity
one in Le carré bleu n. 3, 1962 (Woods 1960; 1962). of the project was seen in both the scale model and diagrams
10 Urban Projects and Megastructures: Modernist Campuses 105
Fig. 10.2 Alvar Alto, main building at the campus of the University of Otaniemi, 1949
that explained its urban nature and the way that it sprawled Eckhard Schulze-Fielitz and Georges Candilis, Alexis Josic
over the Berlin suburb of Dahlem. The design was built and Shadrach Woods.
using an industrial construction process in which the French The University of Toulouse II project, designed in 1968
engineer Jean Prouvé played a part (Kiem 2008). by Candilis, Josic & Woods with many points in common
The mat-building concept can be extrapolated to different with the Free University of Berlin, demonstrates how prin-
universities designed in the 1960s. Among them are a number ciples of the Berlin project were adapted to a context and
of projects presented in competition for the Universities of situation as different as those of the new town of Toulouse-le
Bochum and Zurich, the projects for the University of Tou- Mirail designed by the same architects.
louse II Le Mirail, and for the University of Odense. Others, The Odense University, designed in 1967 by Knud
such as those for the University of East Anglia and later for Holscher & KHR, is a project of great coherence, both for its
the University of Calabria, could be seen as examples of what general plan and the arrangement of its parts. Its clean and
Reyner Banham defined as megastructures. Among the pro- sharp design allows it to be incorporated into its setting and
jects of that time, the Jussieu Campus of the University of to expand without losing the character of the original project.
Paris, near the Sorbonne, was a radical proposal. Its architect, The University of Calabria in Cosenza, designed by
Édouard Albert, laid out a regular grid of courtyards and Gregotti Associati in 1973, is a megastructure built over a
buildings over an open plan podium that would form a parvis. land of valleys and hills, with a central axis for traffic and
The project, which was partly built until 1972, is undergoing a pedestrians that connects the buildings of the different
thorough remodelling. department. Only partially built, it is, in a way, a prolon-
The campus of the University of East Anglia, one of the gation and completion of the previous period.
English universities developed at the time, is an interesting These campuses exemplify the differences established in
example owing to both the nature of its location and the the 1960s with regard to earlier approaches. The position
career of its architect, Denys Lasdun, which is translated into taken by architects such as the Smithsons and the members of
the project’s strength of form and design, and came about at Team 10 had a bearing on this change. Concepts such as the
an extremely interesting time for architecture and planning “cluster” or “street in the air”, which the Smithsons consoli-
in the UK. dated through competitions for Golden Lane in London and
The competition to design the University of Bochum in the Hauptstadt Berlin in 1957, or designs by Jaap Bakema
1962 was of interest not only because of the winning design starting with the Lijnbaan in Rotterdam, built in 1953,
by Helmut Hentrich and Hubert Petschnigg—which, despite influenced approaches to architecture and urban planning of
its rigidity, has taken root in its location—but because it was the time. The importance of the team formed in the mid-1950s
a prime example of the trends of the time, when architects by Candilis, Josic and Woods, lay both in its projects and the
such as Walter Gropius and Arne Jacobsen coincided with texts and concepts coined by Woods. There is no denying the
teams of the newer generation represented by Jaap Bakema, importance that the collaboration between Candilis and
106 B. Tobías
Fig. 10.3 Georges Candilis, Alexis Josic and Shadrach Woods, competition for the University of Bochum, 1962. Yellow dwellings and system of
public pedestrian spaces. Red collective spaces. Grid teaching spaces
Fig. 10.4 Georges Candilis, Alexis Josic and Shadrach Woods, University of Toulouse-le-Mirail, 1968. Ground floor
Fig. 10.5 Knud Holscher & KHR, University of Odense (Denmark). 1967. Ground floor and model.
108 B. Tobías
Fig. 10.6 Gregotti Associati. University of Calabria. Cosenza (Italy). 1973.

Woods and Le Corbusier had for the team, in the same way projects such as universities, which represent microcosms
that the discovery of the Mies van der Rohe projects at the IIT with a large variety of functions and a diagrammatic con-
had for the Smithsons (Tzonis and Lefaivre 1998). dition derived from their functional interrelationships and
In addition, new megastructural designs took shape in the growth requirements.
late 1950s, not only in Britain, which led to the design of In addition to disciplinary approaches, no less importance
some of the second- and third-generation new towns, but was given to political, sociological, philosophical and edu-
also in Japan, where together with proposals by the Meta- cational ideas, typical at the time in many Western countries.
bolists, Kenzo Tange presented his 1960 Plan for Tokyo. Some of these conditions would change in the following
Many of these proposals have a component of urban design, decade, as would approaches to urban planning, and greater
but in addition to the greater integration of architecture and value would be given to the integration of universities into
urbanism demanded at the time, this way of working found a cities in contrast to the autonomous campuses, as are most of
suitable field of application in the resolution of complex the examples given.
110 B. Tobías
Case Studies one housing classrooms, research laboratories, seminar

rooms and staff rooms; the north-facing one housing labo-
University of East Anglia, Norwich (UK), ratories and offices.
(1962/1963–1968) The residential blocks, which are one of the hallmarks of
the UEA, are made up of two strips, comprising clusters of
Lasdun’s project for the University of East Anglia responded six and four buildings, respectively. Each building is ter-
to the features of the site. Instead of a plan based on a raced and opens onto the landscape like bastions, with a
picturesque dispersal of the buildings throughout the park clear counterpoint established between the solidly horizontal
Lasdun unites them to follow the contours of the terrain, floors and communication cores.
freeing up the grounds thanks to a compact, urban solution
—in keeping with the brief that it should be “not a college,
not a campus, but an Italian hill town”. The spinal block
contains the elements of communication laid out over two
levels; the lower level for vehicular traffic following the
slope of the terrain, and the pedestrian walkway kept on the
same level as the block. The walkway is connected by
bridges to the main access points of the ‘Teaching Wall’,
whose four wings, laid out as a continuous and broken line,
house the teaching and research spaces. Towards the north,
four other square blocks are adjoined.
The Teaching Wall is laid out internally around a central
corridor, broken by vertical communication cores, which
give rise to two strips of different depths: the south-facing
Free University of Berlin, (1963/1963–1974) The systematic nature of the project was transferred to its
construction, for which Jean Prouvé designed three types of
The competition drawings convey the fact that, more than a fabrication: structural elements, external wall panels in
building, this is a permeable, easily expandable system weathered steel and internal partition elements.
inserted into its 13.6 ha site in Dahlem—a suburb of Manfred Schiedhelm completed the library project to the
free-standing homes—which can be crossed by pedestrians north of the first stage in 1984. Between 1997 and 2005,
both longitudinally and transversally. Norman Foster renovated the first stage, inserting a new
The plans for the university campus comprised an library and completely remodelling the interior space of the
orthogonal network of pedestrian streets: four main streets, northern strip.
running longitudinally, forming three strips—each 65.63 m
wide, corresponding to the distance that can be travelled in
1 min—containing nine faculties, crossed by secondary
streets. A three-dimensional grid was established, defined by
the intersection of the main pedestrian streets—where ramps
and stairs were to be located—and secondary ones, together
with interior spaces and landscaped courtyards.
The complex formed in this way—approximately 418 m
long by 220 m wide—presented a markedly horizontal and
isotropic character, with two storeys rising over the base-
ment level, with no established main entrances or frontages,
and had activity as one of its essential conditions. Only two
of the three strips were built, and only partially.
112 B. Tobías
Kiem, K. 2008. The Free University Berlin (1967–73). Campus design, A.VV. 1968. Universités. L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui 137. Paris.
Team X ideals and tectonic invention. Weimar: Verlag und Avermaete, T. 2005. Another modern. The post-war architecture and
Datenbank für Geisteswissenschaften. urbanism of Candilis-Josic-Woods. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers.
Muthesius, S. 2000. Post war University. The Utopianist Campus and Banham, R. 1976. Megaestructure. Urban futures of the recent past.
College. New Haven - London: Yale University Press. London: Thames and Hudson.
Smithson, A. 1974. How to Recognize and Read Mat-Building; Beret, C. 1999. Edouard Albert: Jalons. Paris: Centre Pompidou.
Mainstream Architecture as It Has Developed Towards the Curtis, W.J.R. 1994. Denys Lasdun. Architecture, City, Landscape.
Mat-Building. Architectural Design 9: 573–590. London: Phaidon Press.
Tzonis, A., and L. Lefaivre. 1998. Beyond Monuments, Beyond Dormer, P., and S. Muthesius. 2001. Concrete and open skies.
Zip-a-tone. Shadrach Wood’s Berlin Free University, a Humanist Architecture at the University or East Anglia 1962–2000. Unicorn
Architecture. Le carré bleu 4. Press.
Woods, S. 1960. Stem. The Architectural Review 5: 181. Feld, G., and P. Smithson. 1999. Free University Berlin: Candilis,
Woods, S. 1962. Web. Le carré bleu 3. Josic, Woods, Schiedhelm. London: Architectural Association.
Hoeger, K., and K. Christiaanse (eds.). 2007. Campus and the City:
Urban Design for the Knowledge Society. Zurich: Gta Verlag—
ETH Zurich.
Montaner, J.M. 2008. Sistemas arquitectónicos contemporáneos.
Barcelona: Gustavo Gili.
Schneyder, P., J. Le Chevalier, and B. Marrey. 1993. Campus
universitaire de Jussieu, naissance d’une grande bibliothèque.
Paris: Sens et Tonka.
Smithson, A., R. Such, J. Coll, C. Muro, R. Castellanos, D. Domingo,
J. Torres, et al. 2011. Mat-Building. DPA Documents de Projectes
d’Arquitectura 27–28. Barcelona: UPC.
New Paradigms and Strategic Urban Projects
11
Javier Monclús
Abstract
The crisis that modernist urban planning went through in the mid-seventies led to the
appearance of different new formulae both in Europe and other parts of the Western world.
Globalisation and the breakdown of the Eastern Bloc in the 1990s gave rise to a new
approach in the discipline which, despite its obvious internationalisation, remained linked
to important cultural traditions specific to each country. This chapter explains how after the
‘golden age of planning’ new cultural and environmental sensibilities emerged that gave
rise to a more complex urbanism that dealt with the changes experienced by cities, paving
the way for the rise of the strategic urban projects.

Keywords
New paradigms Urban planning Urban design Strategic urban projects Urban
cultures
The coexistence of different urban planning traditions and particularly European cities, which were no longer seen as
strategies during the growth of the 1950s and 1960s was “degraded forms of modern cities” but rather as “contem-
not incompatible, as seen in the previous chapter, with the porary cities” (Secchi 1999). In this sense, it is important to
validity of the paradigm of modernist urbanism at that time, understand how, at the end of the 1970s and as a result of
including a large number of disciplinary and cultural this crisis, once the ‘golden age of planning’ was over, urban
alternatives. That paradigm, however, entered a profound planning and cities underwent substantial changes, particu-
crisis after the 1970s, when the recession of 1973 put an larly in Europe. The modern functionalist urban planning
end to an economic cycle, as well as to a long period that was valid internationally gave way to a renewed
in which the principles of functionalist urban planning architectural, strategic urbanism in which urban projects
had been adopted even while their validity was being acquired the importance that general plans, based on zoning,
questioned. had during the boom of modernist urbanism in the years of
The crisis that modernist urban planning went through at great urban growth. Parallel to the economies of the infor-
that time led to the appearance of different formulae both in mation era, other cultural and environmental sensitivities
Europe and other parts of the Western world. Globalisation emerged, linked to different views on sustainability and the
and the breakdown of the Eastern Bloc in the 1990s gave quality of the urban environment. With all the contradictions
rise to a new approach in the discipline which, despite its stemming from the changes in the role that public and pri-
obvious internationalisation, remained linked to important vate agents played, the ‘new urban planning principles’ were
cultural traditions specific to each country. Some hypotheses imposed, corresponding to the ‘third age of modernity’ to
point to substantial changes in the cities themselves, promote new urban quality for a very differentiated society
(Ascher 2001).
The relationships between the different urban planning
formulae and the economic dynamics or real estate cycle is
J. Monclús (&)
another aspect that has played a relevant role in the changes

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_11
114 J. Monclús
Fig. 11.1 Cover page of Towards an Urban Renaissance, prepared by Fig. 11.2 Cover page of some publications reflecting recent paradigm
the Urban Task Force headed up by Richard Rogers, Spon, London, 1999 changes François Ascher, Metápolis, 1995
in the paradigm and ‘recoveries’ of urbanistic traditions.

Some authors, such as Anthony Sutcliffe, have managed to
relate oscillations and changes from some paradigms to
others with economic cycles and the construction ‘booms’:
it could be said that in times of growth “urbanism is
ambitious, innovative, passionate about execution”, whereas
in times of recession “urbanism is somewhat deceptive in
execution but induces a new generation of creative ide-
ologies and artists who pave the way for the new stage of
growth” (Sutcliffe 1981). Logically, this outlook should not
be understood as literal economic determinism but rather as
a way of relating cultural moments with economic cycles.
This type of hypothesis leads us to consider the interest in
cultural urbanism emerged in the past decades that
emphasise intervention, with a renewed attitude, both as a
fresh impulse for cultural tradition, as well as a reaction to
the accelerated urban growth in the 1960s and 1970s and
the inadequacy of the responses afforded by conventional
urban planning.
On the other hand, in order to understand the complex Fig. 11.3 Cover page of some publications reflecting recent paradigm
process of consolidation, crisis and the consequent refor- changes Bernardo Secchi, La città del ventesimo secolo, 2005
mulation of contemporary urban planning culture, we need
to consider the connections between the different national
traditions and their specificities, each of them with its own marked identity that has brought these traditions to fruition
strategies. The fact that concepts such as ‘Urbanisme’, since the beginning of the twentieth century in contempo-
‘Urbanistica’ or ‘Urbanismo’ used in the Latin-European rary urban planning (Monclús and Díez Medina 2017).
field have persistently maintained their meaning parallel to Paradoxically, some approaches made by those southern
Anglo-Saxon town planning is proof of the strength and European countries, where the discipline of Planning
11 New Paradigms and Strategic Urban Projects 115
Fig. 11.4 Images of the cover pages of some publications reflecting

recent paradigm changes Nuno Portas, O ser urbano, 2012
arrived later—therefore, labelled as ‘late comers’—, began

to be considered successful paradigms (Hebbert 2006).
Hence, in contrast to canonical Town Planning, Urbanism,
with its architectural roots that are reformulated as ‘urban
project’ since the 1980s, can be considered a reinterpreta-
tion of traditions that had persisted more strongly precisely
in those cultural contexts. Doubt as to whether urban
planning could be considered a ‘scientific’ discipline came
about with the varied results in different countries and
urban situations. It is typically agreed that drafting general
plans using zoning as a basic instrument permitted a
coherent response to the demands of cities in the industrial
era. Nevertheless, the experience of these urban renewal
episodes and the configuration of new ‘modernist’ resi-
dential sectors, have been questioned from different per-
spectives, causing substantial changes in recent decades.
Hence, the crisis of the zoning as a key instrument of Fig. 11.5 Madrid, Ensanche (city extension) of the nineteenth century
modernist urbanism was associated with the problems suf- and ‘new extensions’ from the end of the twentieth century in
fered by the residential suburbs in the years of ‘urban depictions at the same scale
developmentalism’. The discourse focussing on ‘what and
how much’ has also been questioned, i.e. in an under-
standing of urbanism as almost exclusively addressing uses do not only depend on real estate speculation but also on
and intensities of land use (Ezquiaga 2011). Although it the limitations of the discipline itself.
cannot be ignored that approaches have often served to Parallel to the repercussions and influences economic
legitimise a certain distribution of added value, it is obvious cycles have had on urban planning approaches (e.g. the
that the successes and failures in controlling urban growth emergence of an urban project culture after a period of rapid
116 J. Monclús
Fig. 11.6 Madrid, General Urban Development Plan, 1985
urban growth), the relative crisis of comprehensive general namely to ‘put cities on the map’. The novelty of these
plans has been losing ground since the early 1980s to strategic events is that they are used as catalysts for public and private
urban projects. As Nuno Portas points out, imposing strategic investments, becoming a valuable means for mobilising state
town planning often takes place “outside or against general and local bureaucracy. It was precisely that ability to attract
plans” (Portas 2004). Since the 1980s and 1990s, investments that gave rise to the reconsideration of projects
‘middle-scale’ plans or urban projects have acquired greater that had been drafted previously for cities as the venues for
importance as alternative tools to general plans and zoning1. these events. The 1992 Olympics in Barcelona marked a
Projects for international events, mainly Olympic Games new generation of strategic urban projects. Despite the dif-
and International Exhibitions, have had a renaissance since ferences between cities and urban situations, the emergence
the decades of the 1980s and 1990s, drawing on a tradition of this new strategic town planning is also associated with
that dates to the end of the nineteenth century. This new International Exhibitions, increasingly pragmatic and
strategic aim is in continuity with historical objectives, instrumental catalysts of urban transformation, as was the
case of Expo Seville in 1992, Lisbon in 1998,Zaragoza in
2008 or Milan in 2015 (Portas 1998). As for the design of
the Olympic Games or International Exhibition infrastruc-
ture, some matches can be found with the new architectural
1
“The third generation of urban projects doesn´t differ from the
previous ones either in its scale or in its functional composition … these and town planning paradigms, with clear protagonism of
projects are different, in our opinion, due primarily to the program and architectural and landscape urban development (Monclús
the new opportunities offered to the interventions; Also, by the 2014).
processes, or mechanisms, of organization of the realizations; Finally,
The foregoing considerations bring to light the risks
and subordinately, by the bi-univocal and non-hierarchical relationship
that the project tends to establish with the plan, that is, by the style of entailed in generic interpretations of town planning in recent
planning that characterizes the new project” (Portas 1998). decades. As seen, we should not only bear in mind the
Fig. 11.7 Zaragoza, twentieth-century-urban estates and ‘new city extensions’ in depictions at the same scale
Fig. 11.8 Urban project. Milan Expo 2015 area

118 J. Monclús
Fig. 11.9 Zaragoza, aerial photograph of the Ranillas meander which was the venue for the 2008 International Exhibition “Water and Sustainable
Development”
specificities of national and cultural traditions but also the urban projects and in urban cultures in the south of Europe
paradigms and technical cultures dominating each period (France, Italy or Spain). In this sense, the report commis-
and urban context. The changes in paradigm stemming from sioned by the Labour government to an Urban Task Force
the functionalist town planning crisis drafted in the Athens led by Richard Rogers, which was published in 1999 under
Charter have given rise to different versions of town plan- the title “Towards an Urban Renaissance”, is noteworthy.
ning more responsive to the layout of urban forms. Although Visions of the ‘urban project urbanism’ were celebrated,
it could be claimed that revisionist perspectives began with making reference to cities such as Barcelona (with a fore-
the critical proposals by the second generation of modern word by the former Mayor of the city). The report was a
town planners and ‘other urbanisms’ that coexisted with the diagnosis of British cities that proposed strategies for them
functionalist paradigm [see Chap. 9], it is true that the based on the principles of design quality, social welfare and
substantial rupture took place after the final decades of the environmental responsibility recommending two types of
twentieth century. The claim for the “lost art of urbanism” urban planning intervention: small operations on small urban
(Hall 2014) that came from different cultural fields did not, spaces, followed by strategic projects (Urban Task Force
however, entail a complete convergence of methods of 1999). The case studies, described as follows, illustrate these
urbanistic intervention. Proof of this is the contrast seen paradigm shifts we have cited. A progressive imposition of
between the neo-traditionalism of New Urbanism and other the new urban planning paradigms can be seen in the
historicist versions of the new architectural urbanism transformations undergone by the city of Paris in the last
movements compared to other more ‘modern’ variants in three decades, with simultaneous interest in major urban
Fig. 11.10 Turin, Piano Regolatore Generale, Variante 200 for integration of infrastructures, 2010
infrastructure operations and occasional urban projects at simultaneously reconverting its economic and social foun-
middle-scale. Hence, the launch of the ‘Grands Projets’ in dations. In that process of reconversion, different phases and
1982 using the pretext of the bicentennial of the French periods can be identified, although the continuity in some
Revolution celebrated in 1989 to mark a deadline for their strategies and methods or urban intervention is the subject of
execution (Woolf 1987). Although the precedent of the a heated debate between professionals and scholars. In fact,
Pompidou Centre is occasionally referred to when speaking in recent years, international dissemination of the so-called
of the relationships between the monumental public work Barcelona model (Calativa and Ferrer i Aixalá 2000) has led
and the city, the Parisian urbanistic tradition dates back at to positions somewhat more critical that question the exag-
least to the Haussmann interventions of the second half of gerated originality (Monclús 2003) or prominence of busi-
the nineteenth century. Slightly over a century later, we need ness views compared to those played by the public sector
to understand the ‘Grands Projets cycle’ not only as an through a series of integrating plans and projects. The gen-
operation of prestige, without belittling its importance in this eralised vision of urbanism in Olympic Barcelona between
sense, but also as a strategy to renew the urban structure of town planners and urbanism historians, supported on the
the city, in terms of social rebalance and reconquering of the international recognition of the quality of certain urban
most impoverished areas of the city. In another example, projects and the strategies driven by the public powers, led
Barcelona, from the 1980s to the present day, has undergone the episode to be considered as “one of the most powerful
radical transformations, evolving from an industrial city in international urbanistic models at the end of the 20th cen-
crisis to one with tourism and the new services economy, tury” (Ward 2002, 371).
120 J. Monclús
Case Studies and Finance, the Bastille Opera House, the National Library of
France and the Villette Park. At the same time, as also hap-
Plan Programme for the East, Paris (1982–2000) pened during the Haussmann episode, the creation of a new
system of green areas is noteworthy (150 parks, including the
The ‘Grands Projets cycle’ covered action of different nat- new Villette, Bercy, Citroën and Martin Luther King parks).
ures: the Grand Louvre, the Grande Arche, the D’Orsay But it was the great Plan programme for East Paris,
Museum, the Arab World Institute, the Ministry of Economy launched in 1983 with the major operation on the Paris Rive
Gauche sector that specifically dealt with regenerating a
large territory covering 130 hectares predominantly indus-
trial and rail yards. Some of these major projects (the Bastille
Opera House, Villette Park and the National Library of
France) are specifically associated with renovation of an
‘inner suburb’ characterised by obsolete industrial areas. The
studies and projects for the Exhibition and Olympic Games,
that never materialised, contributed decisively to the recov-
ery of those strategic areas for the city.
Several operations managed through the strategy of the
so-called Zones d’Amenagment Concerté (ZAC) enabled
effective implementation of residential renovation pro-
grammes and new activities, equipment and infrastructures,
paying special attention to public areas. The lack of definition
in the programming of many of those projects nevertheless
permitted adapting to new local needs, without renouncing
the structuring role of the major urban operations.
Strategic Urban Plans, Barcelona (1992–2010) neighbourhood movements, to the leadership of the first
democratic city halls and the influence of professionals on
Clearly, Barcelona made the most of the opportunity affor- the Barcelona council. Others relate visions of ‘urban
ded by the 1992 Olympic Games to renew its waterfront by reconstruction’ to the theorisation of the international town
opening up the city to the sea and integrating the seafront in planning culture. Other interpretations emphasise the dis-
the city, along the same lines as other European and continuity between the first pre-Olympic stage and the
American cities. The step from modest interventions at the subsequent stage, subordinating economic interests and the
start of the 1980s to other more ambitious work linked to the political interests of the ‘Barcelona brand’ with the prolif-
Olympics, both in terms of infrastructure, amenities and eration of spectacular, iconic architecture. Beyond these
public areas, accounted for a change in scale towards different opinions about the urban transformations in recent
strategic urban projects. decades, there can be no doubt that Barcelona has stood out
Some studies bring to light the continuity with the ini- for its ability to promote structural, deep rooted transfor-
tiatives that had taken place in the 1970s, begun by mation through urban projects of all different scales.
122 J. Monclús
Ascher, F. 2001. Les nouveaux principes de l’urbanisme: la fin des villes Campos Venuti, G., and F. Oliva (eds.). 1994. Cincuenta años de
n’est pas à l’ordre du jour. La Tour d’Aigues: Éditions de l’Aube. Urbanística en Italia, 1942–1992. Madrid: Universidad Carlos III
Calativa, N., and A. Ferrer i Aixalá. 2000. Behind Barcelona’s success de Madrid—B.O.E.
story: Citizens movements and planners’ power. Journal of Urban de Solá-Morales, M. 1987. La segunda historia del Proyecto Urbano.
History 26: 793–807. UR: urbanismo revista 5: 21–27.
Ezquiaga, J.M. 2011. El Proyecto Urbano: entre la Racionalidad French, H. 2002. Projets urbains en France/French urban strategies.
Limitada y la Utopía Fragmentaria. In Transformaciones urbanas Paris: Le Moniteur.
sostenibles, ed. J.M. Ezquiaga, and L. González, 76–97. Santander: Hall, P.G. 2014b. Cities of Tomorrow. An Intellectual History of Urban
Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo. Planning and Design in the Twentieth Century [1988], 4th ed.
Hall, P.G. 2014a. Good Cities, Better Lives: How Europe Discovered Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
the Lost Art of Urbanism. Oxford: Routledge. Koolhaas, R. 1995. What Ever Happened to Urbanism? In S, M, L, XL,
Hebbert, M. 2006. Town planning versus urbanismo. Planning 959–971. New York: The Monacelli Press.
Perspectives 21: 233–251. doi:10.1080/02665430600731153. Monclús, J. 2009. International Exhibitions and Urbanism: The
Monclús, J. 2003. The Barcelona model: And an original formula? From Zaragoza Expo 2008 Project. Farnham: Ashgate.
‘reconstruction’ to strategic urban projects (1979–2004). Planning Monclús, J. 2015. Exposiciones internacionales y paradigmas en diseño
Perspectives 18: 399–421. doi:10.1080/0266543032000117514. urbano. In Otra historia. Estudios sobre Arquitectura y Urbanismo
Monclús, J. 2014. International exhibitions and urban design en honor de Carlos Sambricio, ed. J. Calatrava, C. Díez Medina, S.
paradigms. In Exhibitions and the Developmentof Modern Planning Guerrero, and R. Sánchez Lampreave, 438–455. Madrid:
Culture, ed. R. Freestone and M. Amati. Farnham: Ashgate. Lampreave.
Monclús, J., and C. Díez Medina. 2017. Urbanisme, Urbanismo, Sainz Gutiérrez, V. 2006. El proyecto urbano en España: génesis y
Urbanistica. Latin European Urbanism: Italy and Spain. In Planning desarrollo de un urbanismo de los arquitectos. Sevilla: Universidad
History Handbook, ed. C. Hein. London: Routledge. de Sevilla - Junta de Andalucía.
Portas, N. 1998. The significance of urban design/L’emergenza del Solá-Morales, I. 1994. Hacer la ciudad, hacer la arquitectura (1945–
progetto urbano. Urbanística 110: 51–60. 1993). In Visiones Urbanas. La ciudad del artista, la ciudad del
Portas, N. 2004. De una ciudad a otra: perspectivas periféricas. In Lo arquitecto, ed. J. Dethier and A. Guiheux, 401–409. Barcelona:
Urbano en 20 autores contemporáneos, ed. A. Martín, 221–229. CCCB Electa.
Barcelona: Ediciones UPC.
Secchi, B. 1999. Città moderna, città contemporanea e loro futuri. In I
futuri della città. Conoscenze di sfondo e scenari, ed. G. Dematteis,
F. Indovina, A. Magnaghi, E. Piroddi, E. Scandurra, and B. Secchi.
Milan: Franco Angeli.
Sutcliffe, A. 1981. Why planning history? Built Environment 7: 64–67.
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of the Urban Task Force Chaired by Lord Rogers of Riverside.
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Opéra. Planning Perspectives 2: 53–69. doi:10.1080/
02665438708725631.
Urban Renewal and Urban Regeneration
12
Javier Monclús
Abstract
The following essay focuses on the study of several specific events that led to a paradigm
shift, and which even today continue to dominate the debate on urban renewal and
regeneration. It sheds a contemporary light on the classic debate in favour of and against
‘urban reform’ which has existed for more than one and a half centuries. Integrated urban
regeneration is now the emerging paradigm.

Keywords
Urban renewal Urban regeneration Historical centres Conservation Gentrification
The initial chapters of this section show how urban renewal two sectors in the centre of Paris. On the one hand, there was
strategies in the years following the Second World War the ‘Battle of Les Halles’ with opposing viewpoints on the
continued previous experiences of international urban plan- necessary modernisation of the central market and its envi-
ning culture. Theoretical and methodical reflections on urban ronment. In parallel, there was a commitment to preserving
renewal and regeneration can be better in light of the debate the historical centre of the Marais (Kain 1981). The first
that has been going on for over a century half in favour and battle ended with demolition of the market; the second, with
half against ‘urban reform’. It has given rise to two strategies the subsequent ‘gentrification’ of the district. As Anthony
that antagonise supporters of ‘modernising’ and renovating Sutcliffe points out, the results are contradictory: “Conser-
central areas against those who wish to preserve them at all vation and restoration could even become the most effective,
costs. In this discussion, certain episodes stand out as cheapest and fastest way to rebuild the city centre. We could
paradigmatic examples that defend opposing forms of urban therefore say that in the centre of Paris, conservation won”.
renovation and regeneration: the Parisian district of Marais The author refers to the ‘decline of Paris city centre’ and the
or London’s Covent Garden, as the antithesis of the histor- ‘defeat’ of modern urban planning. Instead, ‘ossification’ of
ical centre of Bologna. These attitudes have continued to the centre and the paradoxical forms of carrying out ‘re-
lead the debate when, after the 1970s, the resolve to act on construction’ have triumphed: on the one hand, conserving
historical centres extended towards the residential peripheral the Marais and on the other with the more limited action at
areas that were becoming abandoned and obsolete. Les Halles, where it was decided to demolish the mar-
Haussmann’s Paris, a widely disseminated model which ket although with the intention of renewing the district
many European and American cities have adopted since the (Sutcliffe 1970).
end of the nineteenth century, becomes once again a model In London, despite being a different historical and urban
for complex urban development strategies. In the 1960s, context, there was an important parallel episode in the debate
dilemmas similar to Haussmann’s Paris reappeared, although about urban renewal and regeneration: the ‘Battle of Covent
the intervention strategies were now more sophisticated. Garden’. London market underwent a process of obsoles-
Hence, two simultaneous battles were ongoing focused on cence parallel to that of Les Halles in Paris. At the end of the
sixties and early seventies, modernisation and urban renewal
strategies similar to those in Paris were proposed, ultimately
J. Monclús (&)
resolved with a proposal to move it to a more suitable site.
University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain The proposal consisted of carrying out work on a large area,

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_12
124 J. Monclús
Fig. 12.1 Paris, the ‘Battle of Les Halles’: demolition of the market, 1972
Fig. 12.2 Paris, the ‘Battle of Les Halles’: Urban void after demolition, 1973
affecting the residents and central activities. The opponents results were not so different from an urban planning per-
in the battle in this case were the residents and small shop spective, although in the case of Paris the historical market
owners, in parallel to conservationists who wanted to keep of Les Halles disappeared, whereas in London, Convent
the market as it was. As in the case of Paris, there was a Garden was renovated. But at both sites the local population
significant discontinuity in the discourses and strategies for was displaced, with the subsequent theme classification and
the historical centres compared to the pre-war attitudes. general gentrification of the districts.1
After the sixties, there was a notable effort by preserva-
tionists against radical intervention through urban renewal.
Nevertheless, we saw implementation of new versions of 1
“(…) the really significant point about Les Halles is that exactly the
urban renewal that brought displacement of the local popu- same process occurred to it as to Covent Garden: it was gentrified”
lation and existing activities with them. In the end, the (Hall 2014, 279).
12 Urban Renewal and Urban Regeneration 125
Fig. 12.3 London, the ‘Convent Garden Battle’: image before renovation, photograph by Penny Saunders
Fig. 12.4 London, the ‘Convent Garden Battle’: proposal for demolition and regeneration of the Covent Garden area
After the decade of the eighties, with the advancement of 1961 and 1967, over 83,000 jobs were lost. Hence the cre-
the neoliberal outlooks of Thatcher’s ‘conservative revolu- ation of the London Docklands Development Corporation in
tion’ (1979–1997), a strong boost was given to private 1981 was the catalyst for renewal of a large area covering
investment in the most depressed areas of British cities, 200 ha. The new City that was built on Canary Wharf led to
implementing a process of deregulation based on stimulating the creation of 40,000 jobs, although not precisely for the
competitiveness. The most notable episode during this per- local population. Such radical social changes also took place
iod was the renovation of the London Docklands area. We in other parts of London, particularly in central areas after
must bear in mind that since the end of the nineteenth cen- residents were forced to leave as a result of the increase in
tury, the high and middle classes had abandoned London’s housing prices (Brownill and O’Hara 2015).
East End, and therefore this area had become one that was Certain similarities between the urban renewal in North
exclusively inhabited by the working classes. With the American cities in the sixties can be seen. However, there
industrial crisis and the relocation of port activities between were more radical processes and greater exodus of the
126 J. Monclús
Fig. 12.5 London, the ‘Convent Garden Battle’: demonstration against the Covent Garden demolition projects, ca. 1980
Fig. 12.6 London, renewal of the Docklands, 1982 plan
population that led to the decentralisation of activities. In centres. The discourse and understanding of historical cen-
contrast, it is interesting to look at the experiences of other tres as exceptional sites to be conserved, not only physically,
cities, such as Baltimore, where from the sixties to the but also in terms of their complex sociocultural identity, had
eighties, substantial urban renewal took place parallel to a already been the recognised, particularly in Italian cities
rapid process of de-industrialisation. Authors such as David during the sixties. It is unavoidable not to refer to the
Harvey or Stephen Ward believe that the transformations Conservation Plan of the Historical Centre of Bologna
carried out over these decades can be described as “urban (1969–1971) and the renovation and subsidised housing
planning models”, but also as “an example of the most unfair development plans that took place in the seventies in that
urban degradation where brilliant mirages co-exist with mass historical centre (Cervellati and Scannavini 1973). The plan
misery not far removed from the renovated Inner Harbour” maintained the structural components of the urban fabric, but
(Harvey 2000; Ward 2006) [see Chap. 13]. also renovated the housing in the centre, reversing the
With all the variants stemming from the different cities exodus of the population. Other plans were subsequently
and historical contexts from the sixties onwards, some sig- elaborated with truly ambitious objectives for that time,
nificant progress can be seen in the regeneration of urban conserving the same uses, resident population and building
Fig. 12.7 London, renewal of Barking Central, 2007–2010
Fig. 12.8 Bologna, historical centre recovery plan of 1973. Intervention typologies and project
128 J. Monclús
Fig. 12.9 Barcelona, Raval plan, looking over the port in 2000
Fig. 12.10 Barcelona, Special Interior Reform Plan (PERI) of 1985

typology. The historical centre then became a representative for intervention through the use of the Index of Multiple
site, a social area, giving priority to the residents. The Deprivation (IMD) has also been a major step forward for
Bologna experience became a benchmark for the so-called urban renewal policies, which permits identifying the most
comprehensive urban renewal. deprived or vulnerable areas. These are studies that favour
The influence of the Bologna Plan was unquestionable in another type of work, such as Barking Central Regeneration
the development of strategies in other historical centres. In East London or Coin Street on the South Bank, worthy of
Spain, too, in Barcelona, Vitoria and many other cities this mention, although they are not so relevant within the context
subject was engaged from the end of the seventies, although of London explosive growth of recent years (Velázquez
the process was delayed until the end of Franco´s dictator- Valoria and Verdaguer Viana-Cárdenas 2011).
ship and gained intensity during the nineties. During those In addition to considering those exemplary episodes, it is
years, many cities started to work on their historical centres, also worth mentioning several international cases of urban
carrying out urban remodelling operations, with the reno- renewal that have taken place in recent decades, mostly in
vation of existing buildings. From the eighties onwards, European cities. The work carried out in Hafen City in
other forms of integrated action in historical centres took Hamburg is an example of large scale urban regeneration
place, such as the work carried out in Santiago de Com- and one of the most ambitious projects executed in Europe.
postela, much celebrated both in Spanish and international It entailed work on obsolete port land, covering a total of
urban planning culture. In the last two decades, renovation 150 ha. From the early nineties, Hamburg underwent a
has progressed towards integrated urban renewal where the process that is common to other river and sea ports, although
scope of intervention is no longer limited to historical cen- without the complete disappearance of port activity in those
tres, but also includes other decayed urban areas, such as the central areas, such as was the case of London or Rotterdam.
first suburbs from over 80–100 years old, or even the growth The docks were moved towards the west liberating central
of housing estates that were built during the industrial space that was reconverted for mixed use.
development of Spain (Castrillo Romón 2013). It is true that the ambiguity in defining this generic
Performing these processes whilst including the physical, concept entails certain risks of banalising the term and using
social and economic content has become the paradigm of it as a theoretical support for very different actions that can
integrated urban regeneration. Since the eighties, local eco- even be contradictory to each other (Moya González and
nomic development strategies have been a part of compre- Díez de Pablo 2012). As with other ‘wild card’ concepts
hensive policy, such as the Enterprise Zones in the USA or such as sustainability, compact city, etc., their indiscriminate
Great Britain, or the Zones Franches Urbaines (ZFU) in use and even abuse as political propaganda, entails the risk
France (Aparicio and Di Nanni 2011). Less known are the of disguising simple substitution operations and radical
programmes that were implemented after 1997 in the United renovation in certain urban areas. In any case, since the
Kingdom, under the labour government of Tony Blair, 1990s, this concept has been adopted in different disciplinary
which involved reorganisation of the public machinery and fields, leading to a number of studies and treaties that have
the decision to assign important resources from the ordinary been developed with notable systematisation in the interna-
budgets to renewal programmes. Identifying priority zones tional urban development culture.
130 J. Monclús
Case Studies process. The members were residents of the district, which
facilitates a first-hand understanding of local needs and
South Bank: Coin Street, London (1984–2000) opportunities.
Among the general goals for Coin Street, the following
Unlike the urban regeneration work with a neoliberal should be emphasised: developing the area in accordance
approach that has dominated London with the reconversion with the company standards; helping the cooperative Coin
of the Docklands or the major Kings Cross projects, among Street Secondary Housing to develop affordable housing;
others, in recent years other initiatives of a very different guaranteeing high-quality standards through the use of the
nature have been carried out that are enormously interesting best contemporary designers and artists; guaranteeing the
owing to the methods of management and layout of urban use of environmentally sustainable materials and practices.
areas. One of them is the comprehensive renewal of Coin As for the South Bank: to work jointly with other players to
Street on London’s South Bank. A company (Coin Street promote and improve the area, both as a place to live and
Community Builders), founded in 1984 with the aim of work, and to make it attractive to visitors. Achieving all
improving living, working and leisure conditions in the area, these objectives implies making substantial improvements to
worked as the driving force behind the urban renewal the management aimed at revitalising public areas.
Hafen City and IBA, Hamburg (2013–2000) homes and 40,000 jobs that were created in the service
industry sectors, shops, etc., with excellent amenities,
The master plan for this zone, approved in 2000, defines a account for an extremely vital urban component of the
precise strategy for the regeneration of the docks to convert architectural and landscape.
them into urban mixed use “districts” (housing, offices, Although it is conceived independently, the 2013 IBA
equipment, public areas) with a variety of urban typologies. can be understood as a more balanced, integrated counter-
Rather than the usual segregation of port areas, Hafen City is part, with its commitment to the definitive ‘leap across the
integrated with the urban centre, permitting extending the Elbe’ and regeneration of large sectors located to the south
historical centre of Hamburg. The Hafen City project takes of the river (27 km2). In this sense, it can be seen as a logical
advantage of extending the city centre and opening up the step in the city’s general strategy, designed already by Fritz
city to the Elbe River. As is the case in similar operations, Schumacher in the years between the wars.
Hafen City risks becoming a victim of its own success. The
result is an exclusive district, where it is hard to replicate the
urban conditions of a lively, accessible centre such as the
historical district of Speicherstadt. Nevertheless, the 6000
132 J. Monclús
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Regeneración urbana integral. Tres experiencias europeas inno- Perspectives 28: 595–613. doi:10.1080/02665433.2013.774539.
vadoras: Îlede Nantes, Coin Street y Barrio de la Mina. Madrid:
Sepes. Entidad Estatal de Suelo.
Ward, S.V. 2006. ‘Cities are fun!’: Inventing and spreading the
Baltimore model of cultural urbanism. In Culture, urbanism and
planning, ed. J. Monclús, and M. Guardia, 271–286. Farnham:
Ashgate.
Waterfronts and Riverfronts. Recovery
of Urban Waterfronts 13
Javier Monclús
Abstract
The following chapter deals with the transformation of waterfronts and riverfronts in cities,
one of the central events in recent urban processes, mainly those experienced in the 1980s
and 1990s. Unlike the processes of urban regeneration examined in the previous chapter,
the landscape dimension plays a major part in these processes and interventions.

Keywords
Waterfronts Riverfronts Seafronts Strategic urban projects Landscape urbanism
The transformation of waterfronts and riverfronts accounts London’s Docklands.2 There are numerous examples of this
for a central episode in recent urban processes, particularly vision of waterfronts as areas of opportunity in the obsolete
after the 1980s. The variety of situations typically found in dockland environments which undergo post-industrial rede-
these projects can lead to a certain degree of confusion in velopment process, with examples arising both in the US
terms objectives and results of these interventions. Confu- and later in Europe, with the ‘Baltimore Model’ (Baltimore
sion is due to the generalised trend to focus analyses on Inner Harbor Redevelopment) as one of the benchmarks
‘canonical waterfronts’, i.e. those that are only identified with greatest international repercussion (Ward 2006).
with declining or renovated port areas. Nevertheless, river- A perceptive analyst such as Jane Jacobs had already
fronts, i.e. ‘urban riverfronts’ that have also been the subject stated the need to consider these processes in a compre-
of recovery strategies of notable interest, have been less hensive manner in her 1950s study of the evolution of the
discussed in professional and academic literature. docklands of Boston and New York. In a passage from her
Waterfronts and riverfronts that are generally understood famous book The Death and Life of Great American Cities
as ‘canonical’ are identified in transformed port areas, not (1961), she reflects on the nature of urban edges from the
only in specialist literature, but also in other media, such as conceptualisation by Kevin Lynch on the image of cities:
the cinema. The film On the Waterfront (1954), set in the “Waterfronts, too, can be made to act much more like seams
docklands of New York and New Jersey, is a good example than they ordinarily do today. The usual form of rescue for a
of this.1 The film identifies the waterfront as a fairly decayed waterfront vacuum is to replace it with a park,
conflictive zone. Some years later it fell into disuse and which in turn becomes a border element—usually appal-
became the object of urban revitalisation. This also happens lingly underused, as might be expected—and this moves the
on riverfronts with port activity, such as the case of vacuum effect inland” (Jacobs 1961, 281). What is often the
case in recent waterfront redevelopments is that the activities
inherent to the new post-industrial economy are boosted,
1
such as office space, shops and leisure areas. But sometimes
The Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor—WCNYH—is an the new waterfronts become the backbone of open and green
agency at the New York and New Jersey Harbour, incorporated in
1953, one year before the film. Its initial mission was to fight against
blackmail in the world of dock workers.
J. Monclús (&) 2
The Spanish translation of ‘docklands’ as ‘muelles’ encompasses the
School of Engineering and Architecture (EINA), functional meaning of the term. The film On the Waterfront, however,
University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain was translated as La Ley del Silencio (The Law of Silence), compared
e-mail: [email protected] to the French version Sur les quais, a more literal translation.

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_13
134 J. Monclús
their deterioration, particularly in urban and suburban envi-

ronments. Those processes are not exclusive to port cities or
cities where industrialisation has had a direct impact on
rivers, but also affect many others, such as the cities on the
Mediterranean coast and the south of Europe.
In the caseof cities that have lost any kind of relationship
with their rivers, the risks of flooding partly explain why
rivers have been converted in single-function canals that try
to respond to the need to rapidly evacuate water.4 Other
factors responsible for this marginalisation of rivers from the
city are similar to those seen in port areas and docklands,
which are related to the processes described by Kevin Lynch
and Jane Jacobs, particularly those stemming from imple-
mentation of highway and railway infrastructures designed
opportunistically and pragmatically, without consideration
of urban waterfront and landscape concerns. Reactions to
these processes have provoked new sensibilities and envi-
ronmental awareness, but also an awareness of the oppor-
tunities associated with the new modalities or urban and
strategic planning being imposed in recent years. Hence,
implementation of urban development and integrated land-
scape strategies aimed at “opening up” cities to their rivers
and waterfronts.
As is often the case when analysing processes from a
historical perspective, it must be said that not all these
Fig. 13.1 Poster for the première of On the Waterfront by Elia Kazan, concerns are so novel, nor therefore can they be associated
1954 with the ‘image politics’ so many cities are immersed in,
particularly in a context of growing urban competition
associated with globalisation. Some ‘historical’ examples of
space systems, at urban and even territorial scale. These this would therefore be the urban enhancement strategies of
situations are more common on riverfronts where there has riverfronts in French cities, at least since the eighteenth
been no significant prior activity, where intervention is more century. From the banks of the Seine in Paris, to those of the
in terms of a landscape than economic and programmatic. Loire in Bordeaux or the Rhone in Lyon, the layout of docks
Consequently, on riverfronts the bodies of water and open and bridges has always been associated with exploiting
spaces acquire more importance, than the urban façades waterfront facades and the construction of bridges, ramps or
overlooking the river banks. walkways, which have become essential urban items for
“Opening up the city to the water”, whether sea or river many cities. Some observers outside the discipline such as
(or a lake or canal, etc.) is a commonly used slogan. The the writer Juan Benet, perceive the image created by river-
intention of breaking down barriers remaining from port fronts as one of the distinguishing marks of European cities:
activities in order to develop new urban fronts is inspired by “Perhaps the most pleasant, unanimously accepted image of
similar experiences in London, Rotterdam or Hamburg. a great European city is that view of bridges over a big river,
Nevertheless, landscape, ecological and ‘eco-urbanistic’ as if it were after them, clinging to the docks and quays
outlooks show increasing potential when dealing with whilst respecting the topography defined by towers, needles,
redeveloping cities with waterfronts, with or without aban- domes and façades” (Benet 1989). Since the Enlightenment
doned port facilities. This perspective is increasingly present and its neo-classical urban development, concern for façades
today as can be seen by the proliferation of experience facing waterfronts has always been present in improvement
exchange platforms focused on this kind of action.3 The and renovation projects, with a renewed impetus from the
problems and opportunities for intervention in regenerating City Beautiful movement at the start of the twentieth cen-
and redeveloping waterfronts and riverfronts are related to tury. An example such as the 1909 Chicago Plan (see
their specific image, and the particular solutions to remedy
3
See, for instance: Wasserstadt GmbH, Centre Cities on Water (www. 4
“(…) whereas the quality of them, the landscape value and the vitality
waterfront-net.orgwww.citiesonwater.com). of the ecosystems has deteriorated to critical levels” (Pellicer 2002).
13 Waterfronts and Riverfronts. Recovery of Urban Waterfronts 135
Fig. 13.2 Model of port/city relationships according to B. S. Hoyle, in European port cities in transition, 1992
Fig. 13.3 ‘Baltimore Model’. Riverfront, photo-plan and views of the new waterfront
136 J. Monclús
Fig. 13.4 Thames riverfront, London, photograph ca. 2014
Fig. 13.5 Left bank of the river Seine, Paris, 1991–2015

Fig. 13.6 Renovation of the riverside façade at “Place de la Bourse”, Bordeaux, 2009
Fig. 13.7 Renovation of the left bank of the river Garonne, Bordeaux, 2009
138 J. Monclús
Fig. 13.8 Renovation of the right bank of the river Garonne, Bordeaux, 2015
Chap. 1) confirms the importance of the commitment to a the cities on water international centre in Venice (Wasser-
renewed lakeside, responsible for creating a new urban stadt GmbH 2000). These principles can be summarised as
image. follows: (1) Secure the quality of water and the environment;
Since the end of the twentieth century, in spite of the (2) Waterfronts are an integral part of the existing city and
diversity of situations, the starting point in most cases contribute to its vitality; (3) The historical identity of
(particularly in southern European cities) was not only the waterfronts must be taken into account to promote the col-
existence of docks or port facilities converted in unused lective heritage; (4) Mixed use is a priority, offering a di-
enclaves, but also the deterioration of industrial infrastruc- versity of cultural, commercial and housing uses; (5) Public
ture which led to the abandonment of many waterfronts. In access is a prerequisite, high quality public spaces should be
recent years, the redevelopment of vocabulary concerning constructed to invite intensive use; (6) Planning in public
waterfronts has become consolidated, not only in generic private partnerships speeds the process; (7) Cities should
discourse by laymen, but also in action by local governments benefit from sustainable waterfront development not only in
and technical departments that take part in these processes. ecological and economical terms but also socially;
In that context, we can refer to some significant principles (8) Redevelopment of waterfronts is a challenge for more
and forms of intervention that have been widely accepted, than one generation and must be long-term; (9) Plans should
such as the 10 Principles for a Sustainable Development of be flexible, adapt to change and incorporate all relevant
Urban Waterfront Areas, established in the United Nations disciplines; (10) Re-development of waterfronts is a highly
World Conference “Urban 21” (2000) prepared by the complex task that involves professionals of many disciplines
company Wasserstadt GmbH in Berlin, in cooperation with taking advantage of international experiences.
Fig. 13.9 Javier Monclús, Enric Batlle, Joan Roig (coords.), Proyecto de riberas del Ebro, Zaragoza, 2001
Other visions more concerned with urban design and these cases, we can once again see the effectiveness of
landscaping, emphasise the opportunities to blend nature applying new urban and landscape projects, both on ‘classi-
with culture to create new urbanistic and landscape scenarios. cal’ waterfronts and riverfronts, and how they respond to the
An interesting approach also resorts to the list of 10 principles broadest views referred to here.
for successful redevelopment of waterfronts. Two of them are The holding of international events such as the Olympic
particularly relevant to the debate about riverfronts. On the Games or Exhibitions, apart from promoting the host cities,
one hand, the need to overcome the understanding of the has also contributed to foster action of this kind. These
natural limits between water and land is emphasised, con- events have been powerful catalysts that have permitted new
ceived as a ‘fine line’. On the other hand, waterfronts come to formulae of integration between urban development and
life when they have to be converted in places for people to landscape often difficult to put into practice because of
live, not only for visitors or tourists (Krieger 2003). When bureaucratic and technical obstacles that limit integrating
taking a look at cities that engage these models, we can see action. The case of Barcelona and its opening up to the sea
the creative and innovative nature of the different urban has been widely studied owing to the ambition and success
development and landscaping projects that are transforming of the plans and projects that were developed, encompassing
European cities (Portas 1998a, b). From the perspective of the the 1992 Olympic Games (discussed in Chap. 11) and the
conventional approach, integration of sea and river water- Forum 2004. The case of the 2012 Olympic Games in
fronts in cities that have grown with their backs to their London could be considered a prolongation and revision of
waterfront, represents another challenge both to employ some the strategy that began in the Docklands, now extended and
orthodox instruments, but also to measure their limitations, corrected in the urban redevelopment project of the new
such as strict zoning and eminently defensive regulations. sections of the Thames and the Lee Valley. Even in other
The most important achievements are associated with cities where international events had been planned and not
implementation of strategic and operational urban develop- held, the impact of their planning led to major strategic
ment, whereas the conventional urban approach has played a projects, as is the case of Paris, Lyon, Lisbon and many
secondary role, having been frequently revised or ignored. In others (Monclús 2009).
140 J. Monclús
Case Studies reconverted, with housing and infrastructure offering a

substantial improvement to the urban structure and façade
Renovation of the Tagus Riverfront, Lisbon of Lisbon over the Targus.
(1998)
Some of the most attractive views of the city/river binomial

have been described by the writer Fernando Pessoa: “I love
the Tagus because there is a great city on its banks”. The
relationship between Lisbon and its river and the work
carried out since the end of the eighteenth century are
reminiscent of some French cities. Until the Praça do
Comércio was created, after the devastating earthquake of
1755, the final, successful relationship there is today
between the water and the city was not consolidated. But
the decisive boost came about with the International Exhi-
bition 1998, conceived from the start as an instrument to
drive a strategic urban development operation. The plan
involved renovating and re-integrating an industrial port
area that had fallen into disuse and neglect, located to the
north of the historical city centre on the banks of the Tagus.
The company Parque Expo 98 was responsible for opera-
tions, which were carried out not only in the area strictly
dedicated to the event, around 60 ha, but also in the ‘in-
tervention zone’, covering an additional 330 ha. Along with
the amenities and pavilions in the first zone, reconverted for
tertiary use, an urban sector was planned for tertiary,
commercial and residential use (for 25,000 residents) on a
strip of land 5 km long and 800 m wide. The entire river-
bank, previously in a state of disrepair, was thus
Recovery of the Ebro Riverfront, Zaragoza (2008) Without underestimating the different proposals and ini-
tiatives that took place during the second half of the twentieth
The River Ebro has historically played an ambiguous role in century, the willingness to ‘open the city up to the river’ did
the urban growth of Zaragoza. For centuries, the city felt not gain significant force until the nineties. The Zaragoza
identified with its river, but it was also an obstacle that drove International Exhibition of 2008 and the Ebro riverfront
urban development to the south. Although occupation of the projects gave a decisive boost, although not definitive, to the
left bank by industries and infrastructure began in the integration of the river and the city. The urban and landscape
nineteenth century, it was not until the decade of the 1970s development concept in the Expo master plan, as an exten-
when the river was no longer considered an unbreachable sion of the Riverfront Plan, was drafted independently from
barrier, thanks to the construction of new bridges conceived the general plan, in line with a wide-scope development and
as a part of the city’s highway network. Nevertheless, at the environmental strategy that included the Metropolitan Water
time of this definitive leap to the right bank, the Ebro and its Park and a multi-purpose urban pole.
riverfronts were a rundown no man’s land, completely
remote from all urban development.
142 J. Monclús
Benet, J. 1989. Del tiempo y los puentes. El País, October 28. Alday, I. 2012. Catástrofe, infraestructura y economía. Reflexiones
Jacobs, J. 1961. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New construidas en torno al proyecto urbano. In Proyectos integrados de
York: Random House. arquitectura, paisaje y urbanismo, ed. J. Monclús and R. Sánchez
Krieger, A. 2003. The Unique Characteristics of Urban Waterfront Lampreave, 204–213. Zaragoza: Institución Fernando El Católico.
Development. In Remaking the Urban Waterfront. Washington, Bruttomesso, R. (ed.). 1993. Waterfronts y Riverfronts: A New Frontier
DC: ULI—The Urban Land Institute. for Cities On Water. Venice: International Centre Cities on Water.
Monclús, J. 2009. International Exhibitions and Urbanism: The Bruttomesso, R. 2001. Complexity on the Urban Waterfront. In
Zaragoza Expo 2008 Project. Farnham: Ashgate. Waterfronts in Post-industrial Cities, ed. R. Marshall, 39–49.
Pellicer, F. 2002. Ordenación paisajística de espacios fluviales en las London, New York: Spon.
ciudades mediterráneas. In Paisaje y ordenación del territorio, ed. de la Cal, P., and F. Pellicer (eds.). 2002. Ríos y ciudades. Aportaciones
F. Zoido, and C. Venegas, 283–295. Sevilla: Consejería O.P.T. para la recuperación de los ríos y riberas de Zaragoza (1996).
Portas, N., ed. 1998b. Cidades e frentes de água/Cities & Waterfronts. Zaragoza: Institución Fernando El Católico.
Lisboa: FAUP Publicações-Parque Expo. Meyer, H. 1999. City and Port.Transformations of Port Cities London,
Ward, S.V. 2006. ‘Cities are Fun!’: Inventing and Spreading the Baltimore Barcelona, New York, Rotterdam. Rotterdam: International Book.
Model of Cultural Urbanism. In Culture, Urbanism and Planning, ed. de Miguel González, R. 2014. Metamorfosis urbana en Zaragoza.
J. Monclús, and M. Guardia, 271–286. Farnham: Ashgate. Biblio 3W XIX.
Wasserstadt GmbH. 2000. Centre Cities on Water. In 10 Principles for Monclús, J. (ed.). 2008. El urbanismo de la Expo. Actar: El Plan de
a Sustainable Development of Urban Waterfront Areas. Berlin, Acompañamiento.
Venice. Monclús, J. 2015. Exposiciones internacionales y paradigmas en diseño
urbano. In Otra historia. Estudios sobre Arquitectura y Urbanismo
en honor de Carlos Sambricio, ed. J. Calatrava, C. Díez Medina, S.
Guerrero, and R. Sánchez Lampreave, 438–455. Madrid: Lampreave.
Monclús, J. 2016. Waterfronts y Riverfronts. Recuperación de frentes
de agua fluviales como proyectos urbanos estratégicos. El proyecto
de riberas del Ebro. planur-e #07.
Porfyriou, H., and M. Sepe. 2017. Waterfronts Revisited: European
Ports in a Historic and Global Perspective. London: Routledge.
Portas, N. 1998a. The Significance of Urban Design/L’emergenza del
progetto urbano. Urbanística 110: 51–60.
ULI—The Urban Land Institute. 2004. Remaking the Urban Water-
front. Washington, DC: ULI—The Urban Land Institute.
Housing Experimental Projects
in the Netherlands 14
Abstract
Urban design is the term that best encapsulates the sense of the comparison between these
projects. The new ordering of the Dutch metropolitan area stretching between the cities of
Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague is seen as an opportunity to create of several
residential plans that investigate the subject of urban design. From the experimentation of
the Borneo Sporenburg project and works by West 8 in Amsterdam and Chassé Terrain by
OMA in Breda from the early 1990s, to the more recent reconversion of brownfield areas
and newly created islands, such as IJburg and GWL Terrain, the quest for a new urbanity,
morphological experimentation and investigation of typological diversity reveal a wealth of
case studies of relevance to contemporary projects.

Keywords
Amsterdam Rotterdam Morphology Typology Masterplan Residential districts
Experimental projects
The experience of designing housing developments in ten-year time frame. The programme laid down a series of
northern Europe in the last twenty years has seen significant principles, which would influence Dutch urban planning,
advances, particularly in the Netherlands. An important such as the consolidation of the principles of the compact
tradition of work, consolidated through the stages of the city, mobility strongly linked to public transport and a large
Modern Movement with the urban projects of Hendrik Pet- variety of building types. These regulatory principles sug-
rus Berlage and the Amsterdam School and the refined gested by the VINEX programme were accompanied by a
experimentation in Rationalist neighbourhoods by J.J. contemporary theoretical reflection on density (refer to the
P. Oud, and successively put to the test by the critical stances publication by MVRDV), in the two extremes of high and
taken by Toen Van der Broek & Jaap Bakema, has been low density, on the urban hybrid and the debate on the nature
enriched by the research into design and the relationship of urbanity. Moreover, the programme reduced the presence
between dwelling and city in the 1990s and also by the of the state in property ownership, deregulated the property
figure of the landscape architect. market, and modified its structures, until then based on
The opportunity for the development of large-scale resi- large-scale public planning initiatives. The actions envisaged
dential areas, through the Vierde Nota Ruimtelijke Ordening by the programme, such as the urban restructuring of an
Extra (VINEX) programme, is certainly one of the driving entire complex metropolitan area, like the one that connects
aspects to take into account. The VINEX, supplement to the Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, as well as other
Fourth National Policy Document on Spatial Planning minor ones, have seen the comparison of different experi-
published in 1990, and the VINEX programme document of ences on very diverse urban models based on density, set-
1995 planned the construction of 650,000 homes in a tlement morphologies and typological structures.
The negation or, in other cases, strengthening of the
redesign of the urban fabric, for example, is one of the main
O. S. Pierini (&)
subjects, as is the role of the discipline of urban design and
Department of Architecture and Urban Studies,
Milan Polytechnic, Milan, Italy the role of professionals such as planners, architects and
e-mail: [email protected] landscape designers. There is also a dimension of collective
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_14
144 O. S. Pierini
Fig. 14.1 West 8. Borneo Sporenburg, Amsterdam, 1993–1996. View of the model
planning for these large sectors, which is reflected in the (Neutelings Riedijk architecten, Rem Koolhaas, Enric Mir-
fragmentation of many commissions, with the consequent alles, etc.) with different degrees of success and interest.
range of stylistic and linguistic solutions. While some of the However, the choice of large sculptural elements fell to
designs by OMA at the turn of the new millennium had great highly experienced architects, such as Hans Kollhoff with the
impact with international critics for their irreverent approa- Piraeus building. The Berlin architect created a large uniform
ches to tradition, and their strongly innovative features in block of dark brick, in which his detailed and complex
their placement and relationships of urban buildings, the architectural style is evident in many spaces and surfaces as
following years brought a consolidation of planning in the required in such an urban scale: a fragment of porch, a façade
Netherlands based on regular parcelling, particularly on layout that becomes public space at a certain elevation or an
newly created islands. opening onto the landscape are brought together by a mas-
This chapter follows the trail of the most recent trends in terful control of form, in which the individual details become
Dutch urban planning, singling out in a number of residen- parts of a harmonious whole, and the variations enrich the
tial case studies some of the more general themes that building dimensions that would otherwise be unmanageable
characterise the contemporary scene. with urbanism alone. Even the residential tower by Wiel
The case of Borneo Sporenburg (Amsterdam, 1993–1996) Arets and the large hollow building known as The Whale by
was a large-scale scheme to convert the docklands on the de Architekten Cie. have become design icons.
north-eastern outskirts of Amsterdam to housing. The mas- A very different case is that of the contemporary result of
terplan was entrusted to the landscape architecture firm West the design competition for Chassé Terrain, Breda 1994–
8. The subject of brownfield site conversion, dealt with in the 1996, which brought together in its working team such
same period in many European cities, was resolved in this diverse figures as Rem Koolhaas, Hans Kollhoff, Josep Lluís
case with a landscape design that was not only urban but Mateo and Christian de Portzamparc. Here, the relationships
which focused on the dialogue between two different scales between building and urban fabric are negated in favour of
of intervention. The choice of design then allowed for inte- an imaginary archipelago of different morphologies, which
gration on the same level of different housing types, begin- will stand as an emblematic case of contemporary frag-
ning a trend of working in typological diversity which would mentation and detachment from the urban character of the
become very successful in the following years. Many archi- traditional city. The plan, which revives the Le Corbusian
tects worked on the new type of low-rise housing, a sort of tradition of objects freely arranged on the ground, inspired
hybrid between the terraced housing and the courtyard house by the Acropolis or the Campo dei Miracoli in Pisa, contains
14 Housing Experimental Projects in the Netherlands 145
Fig. 14.2 OMA. Chassé Terrain, Breda, Urban development, 1994–2000. Aerial photograph
close to 800 dwellings, seen as complex pieces rather than studied and analysed elements of continuity in the tradition
isolated objects, according to the successive execution of the of the elongated block from the seventeenth century to the
plan by OMA, Xaveer de Geyter, Hans Kollhoff, Claus en present day. In this light, the earliest examples of modern
Kaan Architecten and others, completed in 2006. design—for example, the Spardammerstock quarter in
Among the achievements of the VINEX programme is Amsterdam, or Spangen, by Johannes Brinkman and J.J.
the case of Ypenburg and the design by Frits Palmboom & P. Oud in Rotterdam—are seen as an evolution and rein-
Van Den Bout: a design that focused on public and collec- terpretation of the historical system, and recent designs by de
tive spaces that put into practice the famous slogan “Low Architekten Cie. and KCAP on the artificial island continue
Rise—High Density” in a large area on the outskirts of The along this line. Once again, the list of renowned architects
Hague, in which MVRDV also intervened. At the time, working on this project is very long; however, attention can
VINEX was publishing interesting studies on urban density be drawn to the elegant solutions proposed by ANA
and on the construction of contemporary cities through the Architecten: their projects often choose to work on the
use of high-rise buildings.1 The same VINEX programme internal and external elements of the fragments of the blocks
also initiated the creation of new artificial islands that were that they have built on, according to a canonical interpreta-
mostly devoted to housing, for example, IJburg (Ibelings tion of the characteristics of closing off the exterior street
2000; Claus et al. 2001). In this case, the practice of de frontage and opening up the interior. This opening up on
Architekten Cie., among whose members the contribution by occasions becomes a dismantling of the building, as if to
Frits van Dongen stands out, took on the task of reinventing recapture the Loosian theme of the house that is broken up
the design of new urban layouts, greatly inspired by the into inward-facing steps, in juxtaposition with the building’s
revival of the urban block. This subject has proven to be of austere and silent bearing, as Loos had expressed so well in
great interest in Europe, and it would be useful to compare the house he designed for Tristan Tzara in Paris. Galleries
this case with the creation of the new ensanches (areas of for circulation, public loggias, exposed access stairways and
urban expansion) in Spain or the so-called îlot ouvert (open cantilevers are juxtaposed with the rigorous layout of iden-
block) in Paris. In the Dutch case, this investigation forms a tical windows in a repetitive pattern along the street frontage,
part of a strong tradition of working on block-style resi- bringing back public spaces to the different levels.
dential development: Susanne Komossa (2010) has long Also in IJburg, a different interpretation of the urban
block is to be found. Dick van Gameren’s design for a
block-style housing complex celebrates the theme of the
1
MVRDV 2005. Km3: Excursions on Capacity. Barcelona: Actar. compact city, seen as an audacious and controlled mixture of
146 O. S. Pierini
Fig. 14.3 Felix Claus. Ijburg Haveneiland and Rieteilanden, studies of possible urban block solutions for Ijburg
Fig. 14.4 Dick van Gameren. Ijburg, Amsterdam. Plan and section of the urban block
building types, drawing from the different styles of housing adjacent Landtong project by the Dutch firm of de
over time: the medieval street, the city apartment block and Architekten Cie. has a more programmatic character from
the detached house. This project forms an image of a dense the perspective of the composition of different building
and compact town, most likely the legacy of the Dutch types, where there is a didactic reading of different parts, in
experience of the urban ‘knots’ of the 1950s, and completely which urban typologies and scales are recognised and
suited to the parcelling into large blocks that had been positioned for dialogue with the different frontages of the
imposed on the entire development area and which articu- city. Each building type is shown explicitly: the terraced
lately and cleverly encapsulated this new vision of hous- housing look back to the scale of the old city, the linear
ing, even managing to include a large proportion of single- blocks are reminiscent of the dimensions of the bourgeois
family homes. city, and terraces were added to the higher buildings closing
With the new millennium, the city of Rotterdam is also off the large courtyards to the south. The north side responds
dealing with the restructuring and redesign of peripheral and in its dimensions to that of one of the extensive metropolitan
brownfield areas, although in a very different way, as seen in areas in Europe. In the same project, the housing types and,
the large area to the south of its port, Kop van Zuid. The above all, the different ideas of the city that these building
KCAP (Kees Christiaanse) practice designed the plan for types describe, are coherently and legibly decomposable.
Stadstuinen, another experiment in the Dutch urban block, We have tried to follow the thread of a story that
perhaps less explicit in its actions, but definitely of great describes the potential for experimentation with regard to the
interest owing to the ability to modify an apparently abstract planning of housing projects in the Netherlands at the start of
ideal and incorporate it into its context. There are at least two the new millennium, to outline a number of urban design
compositional processes that were tested with this block. practices to which different morphological choices corre-
The large urban block that contains a central public space is spond. They are often the same professionals’ names, or
broken up and redesigned with smaller blocks. These, in those of large urban planning and landscape design practices
turn, are broken up into buildings of different heights, scale that appear in the individual operations, and this allows us to
and solutions for the base, succeeding in the difficult oper- speak of a line of continuity that is challenged with regard to
ation of creating a dialogue between the apparent indiffer- a number of design-related points: identifying with the
ence of the buildings in the urban structure and the existing plots or working in juxtaposition, reviving the
exceptional setting of the canal. On the other hand, the urban block and its reinterpretation, investigation regarding
Fig. 14.5 Architekten Cie. Landtong, Kop van Zuid, Rotterdam, 1994–1999. General view
148 O. S. Pierini
Fig. 14.6 KCap (Kees Christiaanse). GWL Terrein, Amsterdam. Aerial view
Fig. 14.7 Architekten Cie. Landtong, Kop van Zuid, Rotterdam, 1994–1999. Plan and section of two units
Fig. 14.8 KCap (Kees Christiaanse). GWL Terrein, Amsterdam. Morphological studies
the linear building or block-style housing and their redevelop the GWL Terrein in Amsterdam, through the
hybridisation, the use of different scales to respond to the design project by KCAP (Kees Christiaanse) and landscape
requirements of landscape, the challenges of a terrain with- work by West 8, is totally coherent with this line of research.
out plot division and the identities of individual architectural In the conversion, KCAP works on the combination of dif-
objects, just to name a few. ferent types, on the one hand, which blends the plot with its
There is also a further exemplary aspect that should be context, and on the other, on their rearrangement in a unified
taken into account in this narrative: the extensive size of these action, summarising the design that runs from west to north
large-scale urban interventions and the presence of different to redefine an urban boundary that is necessary so as to be
players. The new role of the landscape architect, whose work able to recognise the new living spaces. In the protected part,
on the same subjects as that of the architects bring about great inside the intervention area, the extension of the existing
diversity in language and choice of typologies. This not only street network becomes an opportunity to place a series of
offers a wealth of interesting case studies of residential short buildings in fragmented and staggered lines, focused
typologies but it also offers a broader reflection on large-scale more on the design of the empty spaces than on the layout of
planning and its implementation through the interpretations, the buildings. A great deal of attention is given in the
reinterpretations and creations of singular architects. neighbourhood development to ecological aspects in the
It would be true to say that the Netherlands presents a section of the buildings, the solution for which takes into
wealth of exemplary solutions and that the intervention to account the base of the buildings.
150 O. S. Pierini
Case Studies Ijburg, Amsterdam (1993–2010)
Borneo Sporenburg, Amsterdam (1993–1996) This entire project (by Architekten Cie.: Felix Claus, Frits
van Dongen and Ton Schaap) covers an island, a unique
For the exemplary, nature in which new attention given to opportunity, which continues the Dutch tradition of
the landscape is represented: the role of landscape in the reclaiming land from the water. In this case, the pursuit of a
urban design, the participation of a large number of archi- new layout for the terrain is conducted with a clever balance
tects and the complexity of scales and languages, and how of collective spaces, infrastructure and block-style housing.
their designs are the result of their experimentation with The interpretation made of the residential side does not
housing, make this a unique case. Two scales are contrasted always adopt the classical urban block, instead offering a
in the design of West 8 office: on the one hand, the minute wide range of morphological solutions enriched by a useful
fabric of the terraced houses, typical of the Dutch tradition, mix of building styles to consolidate the quest for a new
and on the other, large buildings of monumental size and out urbanity.
of scale are nestled into this dense network that triangulates
with each other on the “new” peninsulas.
GWL Terrain, Amsterdam (1993–1998) Kop van Zuid, Rotterdam (1994–1999)
This is a redevelopment project (by KCap, with DKV In the redevelopment of the southern side of the port of Rot-
Architecten, Neutelings Riedijk architecten, Meyer & Van terdam (by KCap and Architekten Cie), on a central peninsula,
Schooten, Zeinstra van der Pol and West 8) for a brownfield two grand reflections are contrasted regarding the idea of the
site, which became a double opportunity for the city: the urban block on a large metropolitan scale, which is perhaps
design opened up eastward towards the traditional city, only found in the Netherlands in Rotterdam. The three
continuing on with the alignment of the street network, while immense urban blocks with central courtyards that make up
to the north-west, along the length of an infrastructure sys- Landtong, comprising very different buildings heavily orien-
tem, the area is closed off with a long linear building, which tated towards the south, are set against the network of frag-
forms a clear urban boundary and protection for the resi- mented urban blocks that make up the more discreet and
dential area, like the protection offered by the Byker Wall by articulated design of Stadstuinen. In this case, a double hier-
Ralph Erskine in Newcastle (see Chap. 8). The project pays archy of scales comes together in a large development, sub-
particular attention to ecological concerns and is an experi- divided into smaller blocks, some of which also feature
ence of a car-free neighbourhood. different heights. The complexity of the double network is
adapted to the different façade styles of the surrounding area.
152 O. S. Pierini
Claus, F., F. van Dongen, and T. Schaap. 2001. Ijburg Haveneiland Architecture in the Netherlands—YearBook 1996. 1997. Rotterdam:
and Rieteilanden. Rotterdam: 010 Publishers. NAi Publishers.
Ibelings, H. 2000. Artificial Landscape: Contemporary Architecture, DASH—Delft Architectural Studies on Housing. 2016. TU Delft.
Urbanism and Landscape Architecture in the Netherlands, ed. http://dash-journal.com/. Accessed October 19.
Netherlands Architecture Institute. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers. van Dongen, F. 2007. Le rappresentazioni della città. Tre trasfor-
Komossa, S. 2010. The Dutch Urban Block and the Public Realm. mazioni della città interna/The Representations of the City.
Models, Rules, Ideals. Nijmegen: Vantilt. 3 Inner-city Transformations. Lotus International 132: 41–64.
Ebner, P., E. Herrmann, R. Höllbacher, M. Kuntscher, and U. Wietzor-
rek. 2010. Typology +: Innovative Residential Architecture. Basel:
Birkauser.
Farina, M. 2012. Spazi e figure dell’abitare—Il progetto della
residenza contemporanea in Olanda. Macerata: Quodlibet.
Fernández Per, A., and J. Arpa. 2006. Density, New Collective
Housing. Vitoria-Gasteiz: A + T Architecture Publishers.
Fosso, M., and H. Meyer. 2004. Trasformazioni del paesaggio
urbanizzato. Clup: Progetti di città. Studio Palmboom & van den
Bout. Milan.
La ricerca contemporanea nell’abitazione/Contemporany Research into
Housing. 1997. Lotus International 94.
Leupen, B., and Mooij, H. 2011. Housing Design: A Manual.
Rotterdam: NAi Publishers.
Melotto, B., and O.S. Pierini. 2012. Housing Primer, le forme della
residenza nella città contemporanea. Santarcangelo di Romagna:
Maggioli editore.
MVRDV. 2005. Km3: Excursions on Capacity. Barcelona: Actar.
New Urban Housing I. 2011. Lotus International 147.
New Urban Housing II. 2011. Lotus International 148.
Wagenaar, C. 2011. Town Planning in the Netherlands Since 1800:
Responses to Enlightenment Ideas and Geopolitical Realities.
Rotterdam: NAi Publishers.
New Housing Projects in Latin European
Cities 15
Abstract
The reinterpretation of recent residential interventions in northern Italy, the Madrid
metropolitan area and the ZAC Masséna project in Paris highlights the specific quest that
has emerged in the new millennium: the return to the compact city, to experimentation with
the urban block and to revive the role of the street. With criticism of the open design of the
Modern Movement, complete, contemporary projects are able to rethink the concept of the
urban block through the morphological wealth that good twentieth-century architecture
managed to produce. Paris imposes a series of classical compositional themes to its open
block, such as the continuity of the podium, while Sanpolino in Italy achieves great urban
diversity with a wealth of typological offerings and density.

Keywords
Madrid Barcelona Paris Block Density Urbanity Street Residential district
Urban block
A comprehensive view of recent success stories in European block-style building defined by streets, for a better design and
urban planning allows two contrasting attitudes to be dis- delimitation of public spaces.
tinguished that separate north and south. While the scene in The traditional urban block typically comprised different
the Netherlands can be seen as bold and experimental, one buildings, often of diverse types and built over time by
that engages new ideas about the city and morphological different developers. Contemporary design culture has
structures—examples being the bold actions made by Kool- actually taken a decisive leap in scale, covering the block
haas in Breda or Almere—the panorama in Southern Europe, with a single type of construction, often—but not always—
with the cases of France, Italy and Spain, is mostly tied to the with a large courtyard. The study of recent activity shows an
tradition of the urban block and integration into the urban articulated use of block-style buildings, urban fabric and
fabric of the city, its recovery and its interpretation. It is from solutions for the block, which has had to come to terms with
this perspective that we can reinterpret some of the significant the new urban image inherited from the Modern Movement
episodes of residential design in the Mediterranean countries, and which was actually born out of the negation and dis-
verifying the return to the compact city, revisiting it in the solution of the block (Panerai et al. 2004). The recent his-
eyes of those familiar with Modernism, who have mastered a toriography of modern architecture has often, rightly, tended
freer design of buildings, knowledgeable and critical heirs to to highlight the continuous nature of the historical experi-
all of the large-scale planned construction taking place after ence of the Modern Movement in the city, but the fact
the Second World War. Rethinking the design of the remains that the modern city has undermined some of its
nineteenth-century urban fabric, contemporary architecture traditional structures, for instance the role of the street façade
once again puts forward the type of urban block or or the idea of visual continuity of buildings.
It is common knowledge that one of the biggest problems
caused by large-scale, unrestricted building is that places are
O. S. Pierini (&)
Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, difficult to recognise. This is also the result of the abstraction
Milan Polytechnic, Milano, Italy and expansion of public space, which becomes diluted in so

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_15
154 O. S. Pierini
much open space, and where the collective recognition of role of the street, until it sought to negate it—we need only
place that all urban landscapes should have is lost. call to mind Le Corbusier’s morte de la rue (death of the
It is now possible to make a precise analysis, free from street). This is certainly not the place to list the many pro-
ideological significance, on the traditional, nineteenth- posals of modern architecture with regard to this subject.
century city and the modern city aimed at identifying a However, Giancarlo Consonni reminds us that in studies by
new line of design that will take into account the positive Cerdà, Berlage and Tony Garnier (Consonni 2009, 63),
and urban aspects of both. In recent years, often as a result of designs are to be found with a balance of invariables and
the disappearance of large industrial areas, there has been a variations. Berlage would expand the block and the
need for reflections regarding the fragmentation of zones, dimensions of the street, while Tony Garnier in his project
and on the concepts of grid, block, road network and plot for Une cité industrielle, such as that for the Les Etats-Unis
size, as well as their architectural definition and nature, and neighbourhood in Lyon, experimented with different
deeper insight into the ideas of street façade, interior space arrangements for the residential buildings in relation to the
and the courtyard, and often reconfirming the division street.
between interior and exterior, which the modern city had The residence is allowed to assume this double meaning
sought to dismantle. Thus, the block is reinterpreted because in its architectural nature: the façade facing the street
of its role in defining a street frontage that is mostly exposed, responds to the requirement for a representative street
leading it to regain its central significance—that of con- frontage, while the other façadecan easily fulfil the needs of
trasting the ‘interiorness’ of the interior space—in order to domestic life. This backside of the building, once considered
provide an architectural solution suited to the idea of pro- less important, now fully responds to the need for protection,
tection that domestic space should have. privacy and confidentiality that domestic life requires. From
The modern city had modified the canonical concepts of the architectural perspective, it also glorifies the work on
habitation with different experiences and variations for the what is ‘between things’, in other words, on spaces that are
Fig. 15.1 Mauro Galantino, Marco Frusca. Sanpolino development, Brescia, 2002–2008. General plan
15 New Housing Projects in Latin European Cities 155
contained, concealed and protected inside buildings: a new

enclosed spatiality, revived by relationships.
This clear, very middle-class division of space leads us to
a much discussed concept in recent years, urbanity, to the
point where we wonder whether today we can speak of a
precise nature of urbanity sought by a dwelling. While the
term urbanity is defined in dictionaries as courteous beha-
viour in normal relations with other people, the German
urban planner Sieverts explains that the concept of urbanity
was developed as “a particular quality of the enlightened,
bourgeois city and was coined to indicate a cultural and social
form of living and not the quality of a specific form of urban
design and special structure. (…) a tolerant, outward-looking
attitude of its inhabitants, to each other and to oursiders. (…) Fig. 15.2 Mauro Galantino, Marco Frusca. Sanpolino development,
Brescia, 2002–2008. Photograph of the working model
[Urbanity] acts as a kind of counter-concept to provincialness
by evoking an atmosphere of cosmopolitanism, openness to
the world and tolerance, intellectual agility and curiosity” This subject was already familiar to the erudite mod-
(Sieverts 2003). Perhaps a more precise description of its ernism of Italian Rationalism: the determined rotation per-
physical and architectural character is the definition given by pendicular to the street of the two buildings comprising Casa
Françoise Choay “urbanity is the reciprocal readjustment of a Rustici, designed by Terragni and built in Milan in 1933, is
type of urban texture and a form of conviviality”.1 We can imbued with the search for unity—compatibility, one would
deduce that the nineteenth-century compact city is only say today—which the horizontality of the balconies holds
associated with the concept of urbanity in the collective together and recomposes. The search for new spatiality also
imagination, although today we can also observe a return to characterises the designs by Luigi Moretti, not surprisingly
the manners of the spaces found in this kind of city. the editor of Spazio (Space) magazine, and more specifically
There are many ways of interpreting this idea of spatiality that of the building of Corso Italia, built in 1957 in Milan. Its
that revives the character of urbanity that is both upstanding architecture is marked by the expressive gesture of rejecting
and reserved. While it was the well-known debates on the the street by the upper part of the building, as opposed to the
rebuilding of Berlin following the fall of the wall—in which podium on which it rests, which instead maintains its
the Senate of the city had imposed the revival of the tradi- continuity.
tional urban block—which led to the first outlines for the- These now famous examples allow us to refine the way in
oretical treatises and introduced the issue to international which we observe more recent experiments in which the
journals in the late 1990s, it is, however, through the com- subject of the street, and all their variations, has become an
parisons made after recent Italian, French and Spanish opportunity to overcome the boundaries of construction, in
experiences on this subject that we are able to grasp the order to create new relationships between the inside and
wealth of solutions, legible through a morphological analysis outside. Lessons in this regard are offered by the designs by
of their specificities. French architect Philippe Gazeau, who often fragments
This return to the compact city is perceptible in buildings buildings on the street or uses transparency in the vertical
that are slightly set back from the boundary, the adjacency of distribution of buildings in order to connect the two inhab-
very different types of buildings, also in height, in pas- ited worlds. In Italy, the recent project for an entire urban
sageways and in openings in the rediscovered continu- block on the outskirts of Brescia adjacent to the open and
ous perimeter façade. It is the subject of designs for the repetitive design of the 1970s development by Leonardo
‘urban doorsteps’, i.e. every situation in which the boundary Benevolo creates contrast through combinations of building
of a block is revealed to be a fringe capable of hosting types and morphologies, some even evocative of Roman
important relationships, helping to achieve a range of insulae. In Mauro Galantino’s Sanpolino project, there is a
intermediate spaces that offer variations in urbanity from deliberate mixture of different types of mid-rise residential
public to private. buildings, terraced housing and low-rise dwellings, as well
as the search for a language to describe the doorstep/entrance
and to delineate the image of the urban street.
The subject of the urban block has been dealt with on a
1 particularly massive scale in the design of large housing
Choay, F. 1994. Le règne de l’urbain et la mort de la ville. In La Ville,
art et architecture en Europe 1870–1993, 26–35. Paris: Centre Georges developments, such as the new neighbourhoods that form
Pompidou. what are known as the ‘nuevos ensanches’ (new areas of
156 O. S. Pierini
Fig. 15.3 Mauro Galantino, Marco Frusca. Sanpolino development, Brescia, 2002–2008. View of an interior street
Fig. 15.4 Alberola and Martorell, 122 dwellings (EMVS) in the Carabanchel PAU, Madrid, 2001–2004. Plan, section and elevation
Fig. 15.5 Aranguren and Gallegos, 64 social dwellings in the Carabanchel PAU, Madrid, 2001–2003. Plan and photograph of the elevation
Fig. 15.6 Blanca Lleó and MVRDV, Edificio Celosía, 146 dwellings (EMVS) in the Sanchinarro PAU, Madrid, 2001–2008. Plans and views
from the outside and of the interior space
urban expansion) of the city of Madrid. The outcome are the López de Lucio pointed out, the redesign urban blocks sized
individual Programas de Actuación Urbanística (Urban to nineteenth-century scale is diluted in an uncontrolled
Action Programmes, PAU) built according to the public plan metropolitan space, in which the traditional ratio of density
with first-hand involvement by the municipal housing between street and building block is reversed (López de Lucio
authority, EMVS,2 in competitions and tendering processes. 2013). An aerial photograph of these neighbourhoods
The case of Madrid and the planned growth areas of the 1990s immediately takes us back to another time—the nineteenth
and those of recent creation offer at least two examples of century—when the great European metropolises began to
issues for debate: the large regulated urban block of Cara- design for their massive growth by means of abstract systems
banchel, and the imposing street network created in Sanchi- of regular street grids and urban blocks, alternated with public
narro. In the case of Madrid’s large-scale PAUs, as Ramón spaces. But in reality, a closer look at their architecture allows
us to grasp the ambiguity of the works inherited from more
2 recent research, which covers the last 100 years.
EMVS, Empresa Municipal de la Vivienda y Suelo de Madrid.
158 O. S. Pierini
Fig. 15.7 Burgos and Garrido. 13 dwellings (EMVS) in the Sanchinarro PAU, Madrid, 2004–2007. Photograph of the outside, plan and sections
Fig. 15.8 Christian de Portzamparc, Paris, ZAC Masséna, 1994–2008. Preliminary studies of the îlot ouvert
Fig. 15.9 Christian de Portzamparc, Paris, ZAC Masséna, 1994–2008. Sketch of a detail of the îlot ouvert
The two PAUs cited above, Carabanchel and Sanchi- disproportionate heights or with exaggerated perforations in
narro, are actually very different, owing both to the rules for the Celosia (lattice) building, and Ginés Garrido with a
action in the plan, and to the different solutions and inter- building whose different heights allow different morpholog-
pretations made by the architects for the individual zones. In ical variations that were not provided for in the plan.
the case of Carabanchel, it is the repetition of the urban In Paris, the design of the îlot ouvert or ‘open block’ by
block, with a network of very wide streets and huge squares. the architect and urbanist Christian de Portzamparc also
These diluted spaces have had a negative influence on the defends the decomposition of the block,3 including its
design of the public areas, bringing a monumentality that is development with taller buildings. Despite the attempt to
clearly inappropriate for the suburban landscape, and impose a minimum height for the four sides of the plot,
accentuate the awkwardness of this dispersion. However, it identified in the measurements of the two storeys of the
did allow architects to experiment with the plot interiors for podium, and useful for a unified perception from pedestrian
the new articulation of buildings, with effective results as level, the reduced dimensions of the land available for
seen in the projects by Mónica Alberola, Consuelo Mar- building, about 40 metres, lead to a somewhat fragmented
torell, o di Aranguren + Gallegos Arquitectos (2002–2004). overall result in the cityscape. However, the design choices
Sanchinarro also suffers from the problem of oversized made by individual architects give interesting results. The
streets, which expands the design unnecessarily, making the design by John Beckman is another, quite successful,
distances between the buildings almost impossible: the den- attempt to interpret this urban development regulation, albeit
sity of blocks is highly reduced by the scale of the urban
design, creating an effect of estrangement and inconvenience.
Criticism of this system was given by the architects them- 3
“Reflecting on the development of a type of block that allows an urban
selves that had to work with it, among them, MVRDV with structure to be created, while keeping the modular character of the
Blanca Lleó with the provocative design of a block with buildings.” Le Grand Paris.
160 O. S. Pierini
Fig. 15.10 John Beckman, Paris, ZAC Masséna, 2008. Residential urban block with kindergarten
one written by a cultured architect: continuity of the lower with the broadest range of different building types has been
floors and volumetric and typological fragmentation for the shown to be an excellent tool for this.
upper, residential levels. This design solution includes a The subject of the compact city and the matter of density
number of precise typological and architectural choices, have become the programme of large municipal authorities.
which allow the residents to gain glimpses and unexpected You only need to recall the French example of the recent
views from gardens and terraces on high levels; its compact Grand Paris Project, among whose basic principles for the
character, achieved through the use of pre-cast coloured design of housing are the instructions Foster diversity and
concrete panels, compensates for the overly fragmented proximity, Combine density with intensity, New building
effect imposed by the regulations. This design highlights the types and Build on roofs.4
research which is present in a great deal of contemporary
residential architecture and which we can consider to be an
4
innovation: attention to the third dimension. In fact, for The Grand Paris Project is the document that contains the plans for the
many years the city was determined planimetrically; its third reorganisation of the Paris Region, the accompanying law for which
was published on 5 June 2010. The themes for “Building a city over the
coordinate, the height of the buildings, was not a part of city” are few and expressed in a few pages of a manifesto, accompanied
design so much as it was dictated first by the limits of by the morphological designs drawn up by the big names who are
construction technology, and then successively regulated by working on the city. Jean Philippe Vassal and Anne Lacaton wrote:
building codes. Certainly the use of this compositional idea, “We have to build MORE, build bigger, build WITH, build BETTER
and more economically. We have to head towards the maximum instead
this bar which is gauged by the heights on urban frontages, of defining a minimum. Change should be encouraged instead of
can be read as an interpretation of the question of density at blocking everything. Things should be added rather than demolished.
the present time, in its different meanings, which one can Densify instead of disperse”. Roland Castro proposed a shift “from
choose to accept or to have imposed, to declare or to refuse, urban renewal to urban remodelling”, while Ateliers Christian de
Portzamparc revived the concepts of “îlots ouverts and neighbourhoods
to augment or to minimise; the freedom in new housing built in evolution”.
Fig. 15.11 Coll-Leclerc, residential building in Carrer de Londres, Barcelona, 2005–2006
Sieverts reminds us that there are three types of density: subject of experimental design, often combined with the
material density, visual–spatial density and social density more rigorous concept of the street.
(Sieverts 2003, 27). Limits and boundaries of the urban sys- As a reinterpretation of the varied role of the street, we
tem must therefore be explored from the perspective of this can observe the successful points of Cerdà’s plan, into which
third spatial density for the development of building heights. he inserted a constellation of small public spaces, obtained
Research into the contact with the ground, the breaking of from his particular form of manzana (urban block) and
the traditional street frontage, which is made to breathe and chaflán (chamfered corner), and his attempts for insertion on
to provide new urban views, and the fragmentation of a smaller scale with pasajes (laneways).
buildings and also their rotation towards the interior of the In Barcelona, the Coll-Leclerc design proposed a new way
block are a legacy of benefit to recent designs, implicitly of opening up the manzanas laid out by Cerdà, later fully
engaging the significance of the doorstep in urban design. In enclosed, with a path cut through the excessive depth—more
the Team 10 Primer (1968),5 one of the three chapters was than 20 m—of the block structures, which the dimensions of
given the title ‘Doorstep’, and Aldo van Eyck had chosen as the current city can now dismantle and open up as new access
the representative image of this concept a free-standing door routes, seen on the chaflán with the fragmentary nature that
opening onto the landscape. Since 1968, notable academics, Carlos Martí had evoked when speaking of the modern city.
such as Georges Teyssot, have studied in depth the role of We can also imagine what young Catalan architects had in
the doorstep in architectural design, and the term is now the mind in the 1980s, with experimentation by Josep Martorell,
Oriol Bohigas and David Mackay (MBM) in the housing
project in Mollet de Valles, in which the tradition of the
smaller scale of the London mews was brought to the interior
of the urban block, making a hybrid with a sense of urbanity
5
Smithson, A., ed. 1968. Team 10 Primer. London: Studio Vista. that Cerdà’s city plan had expressed so well.
162 O. S. Pierini
Case Studies Carabanchel PAU and Sanchinarro PAU, Madrid

(2000–2006)
ZAC Masséna, Îlot Ouvert, Paris (1994–2008)
To the south of the old district of Carabanchel, the plan called
After long architectural experimentation of this concept in for a regular layout, a large central square and the construc-
his own work, such as in the Hautes Formes neighbourhood tion of a neighbourhood through the extended repetition of a
built in the 1980s, Christian De Portzamparc proposed reg- new type of urban block, with very large dimensions, a
ulated parcelling for the ZAC Masséna, while delegating the macro-block with a pinwheel-shape, composed of a double
architectural choice for its full realisation to individual row of buildings on its four sides, the outer row with seven
architects. The proposed morphological norm imposed the storeys and the inner row with three storeys, in order to adapt
use of different heights in a volumetric composition of a its scale to the small park in the middle of the block. The
small plot, in a fragmented visual connection that completely broad dimensions and the many personal approaches by its
undermines the concept of interior and exterior of the block, different architects have allowed the construction of many
instead becoming a quasi-physical representation of density. interesting solutions, which have successfully varied the
repeated scheme of large, fragmented urban blocks. In con-
trast, the result of the aggressive infrastructural design of the
Sanchinarro PAU is less successful. Its buildings are isolated
and distant from each other. The rich architectural language
of the best works is not enough to offset the effect of
estrangement that the residents feel owing to the dispropor-
tionately large scale of the project.
Housing Block, Barcelona (2002–2004) Sanpolino, Brescia (2002–2008)
On the chaflán or chamfered corner of a typical block of The renowned architect, planner and urban historian
Barcelona’s Eixample district laid out in the plan developed Leonardo Benevolo had designed a large-scale social housing
by Cerdà, the young architects Coll–Leclerc worked on their project, known as San Polo, on the outskirts of Brescia in the
interpretation of a variation in the classic dimensions of a 1970s. The design consisted of high-rise towers, their sil-
residential building of excessive depth—about 22 m— houettes creating a modern skyline, which were contrasted by
divided into apartments with internal light wells. In the new a network of low-rise buildings with very small garden
design, this dimension is divided into two parallel buildings spaces on the same scale as the homes. In the early twentieth
that push out towards the corner, opening onto the city. century, the Secchi–Viganò architectural studio received a
Thanks to a portico that occupies the ground level of one commission for a new adjacent development, part of the
section, this new urban entrance connects the street façade design of which was given to Mauro Galantino, an architect
with the inside of the block, where there is a school and who had trained in France. The project combined the tradi-
gymnasium. Being on the interior of the block, they intro- tion of the old-style urban block with the knowledge and use
duce collective, modern amenities. of elements of a modern language and mixed building types.
The central blocks mostly develop the theme of the house and
garden and terraced houses, while the neighbourhood con-
solidates its urban image through the construction of a more
solid edge which is morphologically more varied.
164 O. S. Pierini
Consonni, G. 2009. L’internità dell’esterno. Scritti sull’abitare e il Fernández Per, A., J. Mozas, and J. Arpa. 2011. Density is Home.
costruire. Milano: Maggioli editore. Housing by A+T Research Group. Vitoria, Gasteiz: A+T Architec-
López de Lucio, R. 2013. Vivienda colectiva, espacio público y ciudad. ture Publishers.
Evolución y crisis en el diseño de tejidos residenciales 1860–2010. Fernández Per, A., J. Mozas, A.S. Ollero, and A. Deza. 2015. Why
Buenos Aires: Nobuko. Density? Debunking the Myth of the Cubic Watermelon. Vitoria,
Panerai, P., J. Castex, J.-C. Depaule, and I. Samuels. 2004. Urban Gasteiz: A+T Architecture Publishers.
Forms: The Death and Life of the Urban Block [Formes urbaines, Lleó, B., and C. Sambricio. 2006. Informe Habitar. Madrid: Empresa
1980]. Oxford: Architectural Press. Municipal de la Vivienda y Suelo de Madrid.
Sieverts, T. 2003. Cities Without Cities: An Interpretation of the López de Lucio, R., and A. Hernández-Aja. 1995. Los nuevos
Zwischenstadt [Zwischenstadt, 1998]. London: Spon Press. ensanches de Madrid, la morfología residencial de la periferia
reciente, 1985–1993. Madrid: Ayuntamiento de Madrid.
Lucan, J. 2012. Où va la ville aujourd’hui? Forme Urbaines et mixités.
Paris: Éditions de la Villette.
Montaner, J.M., and Z. Muxí. 2006. Habitar el presente: Vivienda en
España: sociedad, ciudad, tecnología y recursos. Madrid: Minis-
terio de Vivienda.
Mulazzani, M. 2009. Un’idea di città sociale: il nuovo quartiere
Sanpolino a Brescia. Casabella 774: 34–43.
Reale, L. 2008. Densità città residenza. Tecniche di densificazione e
strategie anti-sprawl. Roma: Gangemi.
Secchi, B. 2006. Prima lezione di Urbanistica. Bari: Laterza.
Villasante de la Puente, J. (ed.). 2005. EMVS Concursos de viviendas/
Housing Competitions: Madrid 2003–2005. Madrid: Empresa
Municipal de la Vivienda y Suelo de Madrid.
Citizen Participation. Urban Development
for and by the People 16
Pablo de la Cal
Abstract
The idea that ‘it is the people who make the city’ has been remarked on by many authors
such as Churchill, Jacobs, Alexander, Gehl, and others, who considered that human scale
and the conduciveness of a determined space to sociality should be the main ingredients of
urban design. This article reviews the design of urban space from its human dimension and
with active participation by citizens, discussing concepts as neighbourhood, processes for
participation and real involvement by residents, mechanisms of empowerment, selfish
attitudes so-called NIMBY, or marginalisation. And it goes a step further: the mobilisation
of an organised civil society, establishing its own networks for information,
decision-making and strategic alliances, and the activation of urban life are needed to
guarantee the survival and success of our cities.

Keywords
Citizen participation Participatory planning
Although it might seem obvious, we should remind our- growth of car ownership after the Second World War led to
selves that the ultimate purpose of a planner’s work is not the unprecedented expansion of urban areas, large-scale
the urban layout, building ordinances or urban infrastructure. infrastructure and new towns, designed from the perspective
It should not focus on overlaying the urban grid with abstract of regional planning and removed from the qualitative and
plans; rather, it should focus on understanding how our inclusive aspects of traditional cities, with significant disre-
designs directly affect the quality of life of the residents of a gard for the human scale in urban design.
certain area, and on how to make them the city’s true The reaction of many authors was no coincidence. Like
protagonists. Churchill, they were trying to refocus these approaches to
A large number of authors have stressed this message. urban planning. Among them were the activist Jane Jacobs
Among them is the urban planner Henry Churchill, who in (The Death and Life of Great American Cities, 1961), the
1945 announced his basic thesis: “It is the people who make sociologist from the Chicago School Louis Wirth (On Cities
the city” (Churchill 1962, Preface, 1). Despite the clarity of and Social Life, 1964), the critic Bernard Rudofsky (Streets
this statement, in the preface of the new edition of his book for People, 1969), and the architect Christopher Alexander
The City is the People, released in 1962, he condemned the (“A City is Not a Tree”, 1965). All of them were defending the
perversion of the urban planning methods and processes in complex nature of cities, while advocating living cities and
the United States and the way in which a number of initial, multifunctional spaces in which citizens could carry out their
well-intentioned democratically organised processes had activities in pleasant collective environments (see Chap. 9).
given way to a system of authoritarian control for the benefit It was already clear at the time that it was easier to build
of a few (Churchill 1962, Preface, 1). In effect, the rapid suburbs than it was to create urban life. Since then, these
and many other authors have attempted to incorporate the
human scale as the main ingredient of urban design. The
P. de la Cal (&)
Danish architect Jan Gehl is one of them, working since the
University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain late 1970s to point out the shortcomings of modern urban-
e-mail: [email protected] ism. His book Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_16
166 P. de la Cal
Fig. 16.1 Ablade Glover, Peoplescape, 1991. Oil over canvas painting. Donated to UNESCO by Ghana in 1991
Fig. 16.2 Rahba Kedima square, Marrakech. Photograph of 2012

16 Citizen Participation. Urban Development for and by the People 167
Fig. 16.3 Piazza del Campidoglio, Rome. Protest by farmers’ unions in 2015
(Gehl 1987) marked the start of a career for which he has oeuvre, appropriation, use value (and not exchange value)”
gained international renown for his many projects to make (The Right to the City in: Lefebvre 1966, Page 168 in Spanish
cities accessible to their citizens, and more pedestrian, more edition). Lefebvre coined the expression ‘the right to the city
cyclable, more comfortable and more secure. In the fore- as a basic right that involves motivating civil society to
word to his most recent book Cities for People, Richard recreate the city as part of a common and collective mission.
Rogers explained: “Well-designed neighbourhoods inspire In short, everybody has a right to an urban life.
the people who live in them, whilst poorly-designed cities In those years, active involvement in the field of partici-
brutalise their citizens” (Rogers 2010, IX). Thus, there is patory design was a challenge pursued by many other archi-
dual interaction between people and the urban planner: a tects and planners, with notable experiences, such as the
good design, conceived for people, contributes to achieve a intervention by Ralph Erskine in Byker Wall in Newcastle
living space. At the same time, a design created with peo- upon Tyne, England, and in other projects undertaken by
ple leads to a heartfelt, collective appropriation of the Team X. More recent, regional-scale experiences can also be
space, and a positive identification of users with their own mentioned, such as that of the redevelopment of the Ruhr
contributions. Valley, in northern Germany, and the participatory processes
Therefore, it is not a question exclusively related to aspects for the approval of municipal budgets, such as those taking
of urban design, but rather one that also has to do with the place in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in the 1990s. These also include
actual sociological nature of contemporary cities. The anal- innovative formulas for citizen mobilisation, such as the
ysis of the city that has been produced since the mid-twentieth indignados (‘outraged’) movement that set up camp in the
century from a more social and political perspective easily Puerta del Sol, the central square of Madrid, Spain, in 2011.
allows the identification of stratified, unconnected and iso- In parallel with these local processes, we are witnessing a
lated spaces, cities with physical barriers, socially unjust global economy that standardises and homogenises our
cities, unbalanced cities and cities of ghettos. The crisis of the surroundings, in which it seems that all decisions have
city denounced by the militant philosopher and sociologist already been adopted by remote control. The global
Henri Lefebvre in the late 1960s can only, in his opinion, be dimension of urbanism was already decried by Lefebvre and
resolved by the configuration of a truly urban society, so that others, such as Shadrach Woods, who in 1975 argued: “The
“…the city and his [urban man’s] own daily life in it become world is a city, and urbanism is everybody’s business”
168 P. de la Cal
Fig. 16.4 Henry S. Churchill, cover of The City is the People, 1962 Fig. 16.5 Shadrach Woods, cover of The Man in the Street, 1975
(Woods 1975, 224). In this ‘global city’ coined by Woods It is often easier to combine the interests of a certain
(1975, 214) and later by Sassen (1991), in Koolhaas’s neighbourhood for the classification of spaces or territorial
‘generic city’ (2014, 37–68), and in Castell’s ‘informational places that are defined by their centrality, not by their
city’ (1989), places, now standardised, uniform, amorphous boundaries. The thesis by the English anthropologist Ste-
spaces, are more flows than spaces, and there is no room in phan Feuchtwang introduced the concept of centering
them for decision-making by their inhabitants. (Feuchtwang 2004, 178), in which the main condition of a
But in the face of these dazzling speeches on the elusive place is its conduciveness to sociality.
nature of this planetary city, we urbanists must go back to The strengthening of these spaces of centrality, of
analysing the environments that govern people’s lives. In sociality, requires cohesive societies. Indeed, one of the
short, the neighbourhood continues to be the urban envi- challenges for socially sustainable neighbourhoods from the
ronment in which transformation and improvement are social perspective is, evidently, that of preventing inequality,
essential. John Friedmann believes that a good neighbour- and more clearly, of preventing marginalisation, which is
hood should be a combination of at least five characteris- understood as the hidden or open tendency in societies to
tics: vibrant and alive; centred on one or more places of consider as undesirable and to exclude those people who
gathering and encounter; a sense of collective identity; a lack certain skills or who deviate from the norms of the
physical environment conducive to sociality and civility; group. These are people who have no access to the oppor-
and, finally, cherished by those who partake in its daily life tunities that are available to socially integrated groups, and
(Friedmann 2011, 15). A good neighbourhood should also this causes them psychological and social problems.
have a project, a series of expectations and a set of goals, The acknowledgement of these situations, and their
which are identified collective needs. And it requires reaching the level of politics and decision-making, has led to
planning as a continuous process that is upheld year after the establishment of the term, empowerment, which defines
year by defending projects that can be successfully exe- the process of making basic opportunities available to mar-
cuted in order to bring about real improvement in the col- ginalised people, whether by means of direct assistance or
lective life. through non-marginalised people who share their access to
Fig. 16.6 Participatory process in the restoration of a village expropriated in the 1960s. Jánovas (Huesca, Spain), 2010
Fig. 16.7 Session for the presentation of student projects (Master in Architecture, University of Zaragoza) to the residents of the neighbourhood
San José. Zaragoza, 2016
170 P. de la Cal
Fig. 16.8 Session for the presentation of student projects (Master in Architecture, University of Zaragoza) to the residents of the neighbourhood
Oliver. Zaragoza, 2015
these opportunities (Friedmann 1992). Empowerment also population and general public should know, understand and
involves attacking any attempt to deny these opportunities to value the proposed design (Morales 2002, 41).
people, and encouraging and developing skills for self- At the same time, it is necessary to identify local players
sufficiency, with emphasis on eliminating the need for and verify whether they are really representative of society
charity. This is a difficult process to implement, but there are or, on the other hand, they are driven by their own interests.
a large number of initiatives for the self-management of It has been shown that participatory processes can some-
facilities or of empty buildings in our recession-struck cities, times encourage self-centred and short-sighted attitudes,
and for small-scale, important experiences in poverty-filled such as the so-called NIMBY2 attitude, increasingly com-
spaces, such as the one carried out by Boa Mistura in their mon in our cities, which sets certain groups in opposition to
global project Crossroads.1 others or against undesirable policies. In fact, a number of
The processes for participation and real involvement by authors have also pointed out the risks that these processes
residents in the construction and management of the city may lead to a disintegration of the public sphere or the
have functioned better in situations arising from a specific impossibility of significant public action.3
problem, one that has brought about social mobilisation, and These self-serving attitudes, typical of groups and classes
when these situations in turn have received support from who endeavour exclusively to maintain their privileged
specialists or politicians who have played a coordinating, status, contrast with the struggles of neighbourhoods, in
facilitating or supervisory role in the process. As the Mex- socially destructured contexts, and with important short-
ican architect Álvaro Morales explains, it is about each comings in facilities and transport. An interesting partici-
participant doing the work that they know best. The architect pative process has been implemented in Santiago, Chile,
or planner is the best-qualified professional to transform the with regard to design and management in the city by means
contributions from people into spatial terms. And this pro-
fessional has to perform another fundamental step, rarely
carried out, which is to give back: the participating
2
NIMBY: Not In My Back Yard.
3
In his interesting article “When people have a say… Reflections on the
Renaissance of Direct Democracy in Germany”, Frank Eckardt found
from the sociological analysis of the most recent citizen participation
1
Refer to Boa Mistura website: http://www.boamistura.com/luz_nas_ processes in Germany that greater participation does not necessarily lead
vielas.html. to establishing a more democratic base for urban planning (Eckardt 2011).
management processes, but without losing the meaning of

the democratic nature of urban planning.
Architects and urban planners should therefore revise
their role in this new scenario that Inés Sánchez de Madar-
iaga describes as ‘mobilising urbanism’, in which “the
architect is no longer fundamentally a technocrat at the
service of government, in order to become associated with
local organisations that mediate between the state, civil
Fig. 16.9 Logo of the Mi Parque Foundation, an initiative whose society and economic players, often in opposition to the
objective is to improve the green zones of ‘Chile urban’, and to create a
sense of community through recovery of green areas latter and also to the state” (Sánchez de Madariaga 2000).
As some authors, such as Manuel Castells, point out:
“Local governments should encourage the mobilisation of an
of the programme known as Appropriate Green Spaces organised civil society, establishing its own networks for
(EVA in Spanish), in which new types of green spaces are information, decision-making and strategic alliances, in
part of a strategy for preserving spaces for public use and order to emulate the mobility of organisations that uphold
reducing areas more prone to crime.4 power” (Castells 1989, 488). This is the only mechanism to
Our final challenge therefore transcends the two initial prevent the destruction of the city as a local entity and to
considerations (designing the urban space from its human reconstruct the meaning of local versus the non-spatial logic
dimension, and designing the city with active participation of organisation based on flows. In short, cities are peo-
from citizens), and takes them a step further. Cities should ple, and the activation of urban life as a basic ingredient
find their role in this global condition, strengthening the role of urbanism is essential to the survival and success of
of citizens and involving them in decision-making and our cities.
4
In addition to a strategy for reducing the cost of upkeep for gardens,
these aspects of the participatory design experience that have led to the
building of public squares that work well for their users, while
providing the identification and appropriation of the spaces for them
(Dascal 1994).
172 P. de la Cal
Case Studies landscape designer José Luis Ferrando and the so-called
“Committee of the Forty”, together with participation from
Garden of Memory, Zaragoza (1992) leading artists in the city, worked intensely to define all the
details of the final project, which was presented in 1991.
In the 1960s and 70s, the densely populated but poorly The main path through the garden winds its way along the
serviced housing developments built in the new areas of riparian vegetation of the open Ontonar irrigation ditch, the
growth bordering the centres of Spanish cities became first stretch of which was turned into a pond, in which a bather
consolidated. These became the focus of attention for attracts the attention of onlookers. After this, the waterway
municipal authorities in later decades. A leading role in this forks, bordering a series of terraced vegetable gardens beds,
transitional urban development process was played by the which can be seen from a raised walkway, serving as both a
protest movement organised by social organisations, such as vantage point and a colonnade for the central square. Since
the San José District Residents’ Association, recognised for 1992, the Garden of Memory has become an intensely used
some of their experiences in the participatory design of public space, and strongly embodies the spirit of a design
public space. The move to transform the empty, 15,400-m2 process which arose from and was made by and for the resi-
site of the former Pina textile factory into a green space dents themselves, overcoming the traditional, hierarchically
began in 1979. For years, architect Antonio Lorenzo, imposed decision-making practices.
Luz Nas Vielas, Vila Brasilândia, São Paulo, Brazil while climbing or descending the stairs. Away from these
(2012) ‘magic’ spots on the itinerary, the words become distorted and
are turned into an interesting burst of abstract splotches of
Vila Brasilândia is one of the many favelas or shantytowns colour covering the flat surfaces on the ground and buildings.
that blanket the hills of São Paulo. The narrow winding streets Art is an effective way of bringing awareness, but the key
that cut through it are known as becos where they run along does not lie in the technique, but in the process, in which an
flat land and vielas where they run up and down the slopes as appropriate design, adapted to the social idiosyncrasy of this
stairways. Five of these vielas, each stretching some 30 m, space, drew residents to the initiative, to clean, fill with
were used by the Madrid collective Boa Mistura for its work colour, and embellish their meeting places. Spontaneously,
Luz nas vielas (Light on the Stairways), part of Crossroads, a residents created an empathy uniting their homes, street and
global project that uses art as a tool to promote change in neighbourhood. Participation in the process and the feeling
communities suffering from dire poverty. Each viela is of community and empowerment contributed to the com-
painted with strong, bright colours to spelling out a positive munity’s social cohesion.
concept: Beleza’ (beauty), ‘Firmeza’ (strength), ‘Amor’ The images capture certain moments during the ‘Firmeza’
(love), ‘Doçura’ (kindness), ‘Orgulho’ (pride). Through use intervention. It shows the area prior to the intervention,
of the anamorphosis technique, the words could only be during public participation in the action, and the completed
perceived from a specific viewpoint and only in an instant work, seen from different viewpoints.
174 P. de la Cal
Castells, M. 1989. The informational city: Information technology, Costes, L. 2011. Del ‘derecho a la ciudad’ de Henri Lefebvre a la
economic restructuring, and the urban-regional process. Oxford: universalidad de la urbanización moderna/from Henri Lefebvre’s
Basil Blackwell. ‘Right to the City’ to the universality of modern urbanization.
Churchill, H.S. 1962. The City is the People [1945]. 2nd ed. New York: Urban NS02: 89–100.
Reynal & Hitchcock. Friedmann, J., and M. Douglas. 1998. Cities for Citizens. London:
Dascal, G. 1994. Los espacios verdes apropiados (EVAs). Una Willey.
propuesta para mejorar las condiciones de vida en zonas urbanas Gehl, J. 2010. Cities for People. Washington: Island Press.
desfavorecidas en Santiago, Chile. Revista de Geografía Norte Sánchez de Madariaga, I. 2000. Urbanismo y Participación. Urban 5:
Grande 21: 7–12. 147–148.
Eckardt, F. 2011. When people have a say… Reflections on the Sandercock, L. 1998. Towards cosmopolies. London: Willey.
renaissance of direct democracy in Germany. Urban 51: 67–80.
Feuchtwang, S. 2004. Making place: State projects, globalisation and
local responses in China. London: UCL Press.
Friedmann, J. 1992. Empowerment. The politics of alternative devel-
opment. Massachusetts: Willey.
Friedmann, J. 2011. Barrio por barrio: reclamando nuestras
ciudades/neighborhood by neighborhood: Reclaiming our cities.
Urban NS01: 13–19.
Gehl, J. 1987. Life between buildings: Using public space [Livet
mellem husene, 1971]. Washington, Covelo, London: Island Press.
Koolhaas, R. 2014. Acerca de la ciudad. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili.
Lefebvre, H. 1966. Writings on cities. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Morales, Á. 2002. La metáfora colectiva. Metodología participada en la
arquitectura y el urbanismo. Urban 7: 35–51.
Rogers, R. 2010. Foreword. In Cities for people, ix. Washington: Island
Press.
Sassen, S. 1991. The global city: New York, London, Tokio. Princeton:
Princeton University.
Woods, S. 1975. The man in the street: A polemic on urbanism.
Baltimore: Penguin Books.
Part III
New Strategies and Urban Planning
“L’urbanisme moderne s’assurait les moyens de réaliser ses projets par des règles simples, aussi impératives et
stables que possible : zonages, fonctions, densités, hauteurs, etc. Les règles étaient de nature exigencielle, c’est-à-dire
qu’elles fixaient en même temps les objectifs et les manières de les atteindre. (…) Le néo-urbanisme privilégie les
objectifs, les performances à réaliser, et laisse voire encourage les acteurs publics et privés à trouver les modalités de
réalisation de ces objectifs les plus efficientes pour la collectivité et pour l’ensemble des intervenants.”
(Modern urban planning ensured the means to perform projects based on simple, imperative and stable rules: zoning,
functions, densities, heights and so on. (…) New urbanism gives priority to targets and achievements and encourages public
and private stakeholders to find the most effective means of meeting these objectives for the community and everyone
involved.)
François Ascher, Les nouveaux principes de l’urbanisme, éditions de l’Aube, 2001, 81.
Urban Planning Models and Model Cities
17
Javier Monclús
Abstract
The starting point of the essay is the international debate inherent to the theory and history
of urban planning, that of ‘urban planning models’. The aim is not considering abstract
theoretical proposals but rather action models based on specific cases. The main hypothesis
is that the dissemination process and adopting urban models is hardly ever limited to literal
‘export’ or ‘import’. Other than the cases where models are ‘copied’ or imposed, it is
common for some of the most admired items to be selectively extracted. Two case studies
follow this essay: the ‘Curitiba model’, from the capital of the Brazilian state of Parana,
internationally considered to be the best planned city in Brazil, and a model for sustainable
urban development; and the ‘Freiburg model’, the German city that is considered an urban
model where all the challenges have been covered with a comprehensive approach.

Keywords
Urban planning models Model cities Best practices Diffusion of planning
Appropriation of planning
One of the recurring themes in the debate on international extensive analysis of urban planning models represented by
urban planning culture is that of ‘urban planning models’. Haussmann’s Paris, its ‘replicas’ after the middle of the
From a geographical and historical perspective, we usually nineteenth century (Lortie 1995), the plans and projects for
refer to ‘model cities’: North American, European, Latin London after World War II, Brasilia in the fifties, Berlin in
American, Islamic, Asian, etc. There are also ideal or Uto- the eighties or Barcelona at the end of the eighties and in the
pian city models in literature and in urban discourses, such nineties (Monclús and Guardia 2004).
as those by some of the great visionaries: the Garden City by It should be noted that urban planning models reflect a
Ebenezer Howard, Broadacre City by Frank Lloyd Wright or predominantly Eurocentric perspective, at least in most of the
Radiant City (Ville Radieuse) by Le Corbusier (Fishman specialist literature. From different fields and for some time
1977). But we are not so much interested here with models now, research has focused on what could be called ‘consol-
in the sense of theoretical and abstract proposals, but rather idated urbanistic traditions’, particularly in Europe, although
action models based on specific cases. To a certain extent, in the USA too, both as the locations of many modern urban
this is a debate inherent to the theory and history of urban episodes, as well as the source of its historiography. But there
planning. As Marshall Berman pointed out: “By the 1880s, are an increasing number of studies that deal with the phe-
the Haussmann pattern was generally acclaimed as the very nomena of ‘imports’ and ‘exports’ or urban models, without
model of modern urbanism. As such, it was soon stamped on neglecting their local significance. Beyond the analysis of
emerging and expanding cities in every corner of the world, colonial or post-colonial urban planning, it is interesting to
from Santiago to Saigon” (Berman 1982, 151–152). There is deal with the complex processes of transnational urban
development (King 1980; Sanyal 2005). In relation to those
studies, an emerging interest in the processes of globalisation
J. Monclús (&)
can be seen as well as the specificity of traditions and
School of Engineering and Architecture (EINA), University of
Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_17
178 J. Monclús
‘urbanistic cultures’ linked to certain national and geo-

graphical areas (Monclús and Díez Medina 2017).
In this sense, Latin American perspectives on the impact
of European urban models are particularly interesting.
Despite some conventional interpretations and the nuances
that recent historiography provides, the diagnosis by Roberto
Segre is clear: “Between the middle of the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, the European neoclassical model
accompanies growth of cities in the region: walkways and
boardwalks definitively break the uniform introversion of the
primitive grids. (…) “Havana, Mexico City, Río de Janeiro
and Buenos Aires assume the metropolitan images of
Haussmannian layouts, with participation by European
urban planners: Joseph Antoine Bouvard, J.N.L. Forestier,
Alfred Agache, Maurice Rotival. A fragment of Nice (the
French city and Mediterranean resort) in America. The
influence of Otto Wagner and Camilo Sitte appears on the
other side of the Andes: the Austrian Karl Brunner takes part
in urban designs in Santiago de Chile and Bogota” (Segre
and Vélez Catrain 2000, 12).
At any rate, research on the influence of urban models
stretches beyond strictly disciplinary outlooks, centred on
discourses and urban projects. Indeed, approaches from
Fig. 17.1 Paris model. Cover Paris s’ exporte exhibition catalogue, in ‘cultural urban history’ have been widely developed in Latin
Pavillon de l’Arsenal. Paris, 1995 America, in terms of the transfer of urban planning models
Fig. 17.2 Avenida de Mayo. A Haussmannian boulevard in Buenos Aires. Photograph ca. 1910
17 Urban Planning Models and Model Cities 179
Fig. 17.3 County of London Plan, 1943. A post-war ‘organisation type’ model
Fig. 17.4 Vancouver. A model city after the 1986 Expo

180 J. Monclús
Fig. 17.5 Vallingby model, Stockholm. The first ‘ABC Model’ prototype (Arbete-Bostad-Centrum or Work Dwelling Centre), a new suburban
nucleus in Stockholm, 1954–1972
and urban culture since the end of the nineteenth century “in in the early twentieth century; Moscow in the thirties and
the midst of an intellectual’s plea for a cultural alliance with forties; London, Rotterdam, Warsaw and Stockholm in the
the Old World” (Almandoz 2002a, b, 28). One century later, years following World War II; Copenhagen and Amsterdam
those reflections remain pertinent to other forms which the in the seventies, Barcelona in the eighties; in North America,
urban elite have appropriated (e.g. adopting North American New York, Chicago or Toronto in the fifties, Baltimore in
models of closed residential suburbs). But also to new the eighties, Portland and Vancouver from the nineties
models developed by local democratic governments, with onwards; and also other cities around the world such as
impact beyond Latin America, as is the case of the ‘Curitiba Singapore or Brasilia. It is worth mentioning that the dis-
Model’. In this sense, there is a different, more positive semination process and adoption of urban models is hardly
vision about transfers between nations and cultures, some- ever limited to a literal ‘export’ or ‘import’. Other than the
times quite remote from each other, that overcomes the cases where models are ‘copied’ or imposed, it is common
interpretations typical of colonialist or neo-colonialist for some of the most salient features to be removed: “(…)
attitudes. the model becomes a disassembled ‘kit of parts’. In an even
more abstracted sense, the model city may also become
simply a symbol deployed to reinforce a particular planning
Learning from Model Cities and Best Practices approach within policy debates” (Ward 2013, 297). Hence,
models are usually used to support specific strategies and
Many studies by the historians of architecture and urbanism projects based on successful experiences. This is the case of
focus on the identification of cities admired because of their the so-called ‘Barcelona model’, which is particularly
‘good urbanism’. Some authors, such as Stephen Ward, have interesting when one analyses the way in which it was
been concerned with explaining the reasons why these received and emulated in other Spanish, European and Latin
models arise, and their forms of development, dissemination American cities. Their impact on British urban planning at
or appropriation, and even the degree of creativity inherent the end of the nineties is significant. In 1999, RIBA, the
to them. Apart from the case of Paris, some of whose Royal Institute of British Architects, granted their award to
specific, emblematic components were copied in other cities, the city (for the first time, until then it had always been given
Ward refers to a fairly limited group: Frankfurt and Vienna to architects). Previously, in 1987, the city had been given
the Harvard award for its design, but now the RIBA Gold and aspects in which the analysed cities and countries stand
Medal (1999) was awarded to the politicians and architects out, but also because of the author’s critical viewpoint
for their ‘commitment to urban development’, including the concerning recent urban development in the British cities
‘combination of spectacular urban projects and small scale and the ways in which other European cities have redis-
improvements in plazas and streets’, celebrating both the covered the ‘forgotten art of urbanism’. Regardless of cer-
small-scale action in public spaces and the major, strategic tain exaggerations, Hall’s work is impeccable and
urban projects. Two types of urban development that are systematic, with an operational look at cities that have
associated with both stages of the city’s renovation and achieved high standards of quality in sound urban planning
which were acknowledged as the most original of said urban strategies. Indeed, the most innovative cases are analysed,
development ‘model’. On the one hand, the ability to starting with Germany, where the achievements concerning
regenerate central areas through small efforts at urban ren- the functioning of cities as economic engines are empha-
ovation, but also the large-scale action in the ‘strategic’ sised (paying special attention to certain strategies and
projects that characterised further interventions (Monclús projects in Hamburg/Hafen City, Berlin, Leipzig, Duisburg,
2003, 401–402). to name a few). He then moves on to consider Dutch
In recent years, several ‘model visions’ have coexisted projects, where he highlights some of the recent successful
with others that recognise an effective empirical method in residential developments. In French cities, he underlines the
the so-called best practices that permit crossing over commitment to the integration of the different public
reciprocal outlooks between the advanced western world transport systems associated with urban reclassification
and other less developed urban contexts that have arisen (Lille, Montpellier, Strasbourg). In Scandinavia, he cites the
within the context of globalisation processes. One of the progress in urban sustainability, paying special attention to
recent approaches by Peter Hall, centring on Europe, stands the ‘Hammarby Model’, a new district that was built
out because it aims at what is generally called the eclectic through an urban regeneration process near the centre of
and somewhat confusing list of ‘best practices’ Hall (2014) Stockholm (also in Copenhagen and Malmö). Finally, Hall
with solid, uniform criteria. The author selects some themes returns to Germany, to the city of Freiburg, which he
and countries to subsequently analyse in detail examples of considers to be ‘the city that did it all’, i.e. an urban model
‘good urban practices’. The interest in these visions is where all the challenges were met with a comprehensive
obvious, not only due to the careful selection of examples approach. He establishes ‘five challenges’ that British cities,
Fig. 17.6 Hammarby Sjostad, Stockholm, 1995–2015. An urban regeneration operation and an eco-district model. General concepts and strategy
182 J. Monclús
Fig. 17.7 Hammarby model, Sjostad, Stockholm, 2007. Urban morphology as the basis for the master plan
Fig. 17.8 Portland model, 2015. The ‘Green Loop’ as a linear park and transport corridor in the central urban area
and nearly all European cities in general, face. It is there- have creatively adapted ideas and strategies from other cities.
fore interesting to analyse the recent action in the city of Logically, the proximity and size factors are important, but
Freiburg, since it has rapidly become a model for urbanists the ways certain types of urbanism are developed is also
around the world. important. Urban marketing has quite a lot to do with all these
In any case, the lack of confidence in ‘scientific’ urban processes, as does the information and experience exchanged
planning is significant, which was still dominant a couple of in strictly disciplinary and professional fields, from meetings,
decades ago, and which has been relieved through the gradual conferences or publications to international cooperation by
dissemination by another kind of urbanism based on models teams of urban planners. In this sense, the repercussions of
and methods. This urbanism is no less ambitious, but it is some European and North American models on Latin
more committed to complex realities, that are difficult to American cities are somewhat striking, particularly the
reduce to exclusive fields inherent to specific disciplines with ‘Barcelona Model’ after the 1992 Olympic Games to the
excessively monopolising aims and incapable of substan- models of London’s Docklands or Battery Park in Manhat-
tially improving the quality of life of the cities. Nonetheless, tan. The Puerto Madero project in Buenos Aires is a good
it is necessary to ask if the cities that have become ‘models’ example of these three influences in a more or less direct
are the most innovative, or if they are models because they manner (Segre in Monclús and Guardia 2004, 254–270).
Fig. 17.9 London, master plan for the Olympic area, 2012
184 J. Monclús
Case Studies Over the years, the city’s population has doubled, and now
stands at approximately 2 million inhabitants. In spite of the
The Curitiba Model (1971–1991) challenges this process of rapid urban growth entails, appli-
cation of this type of strategy has permitted the implementation
The city of Curitiba, capital of the Brazilian state of Parana, is of innovative transport systems, as well as improvements in
internationally considered to be the best planned city in Bra- the conservation of local heritage including a system of parks
zil, and a model for sustainable urban development. Despite and open spaces associated with social and environmental
the differences with other models such as that of Freiburg, programmes. The role played by the team responsible for
here too the achievements in recent years are the result of a urban development in Curitiba, directed by Jaime Lerner, has
considerable urban planning tradition and continued appli- been essential. The design of the transport corridors is based on
cation (for more than forty years) of strategic, comprehensive the idea of concentric local bus lines connected via five spokes,
urban planning in accordance with strong political leadership thus achieving the equivalent of conventional metro lines, at a
and efficient administration. The strategy encompasses all lower cost (an eighth of the cost), in spite of certain inade-
aspects of advanced urban development, including innovative quacies. Moreover, the increase in pedestrian and cycle routes
social, economic and environmental programmes. has permitted progress to be made in a high-quality environ-
ment, particularly when comparing it to the standards in other
Brazilian and Latin American cities.
The Freiburg Model (1990–2000) underlying many aspects of urban life, from producing energy
to urban regulations. Not only does it support and promote an
The urban layout of the new district of Vauban starts off with a economic base modelled on the economy of knowledge of the
more sophisticated mesh than the conventional ones, designed twenty-first century, but it cannot be understood without the
around vehicular traffic. The neighbourhood (5000 inhabi- strength of the environmental movement supported on the
tants and 600 jobs on 42 ha) connects to the urban centre via naturalist tradition, on the anti-nuclear fight of the seventies
the tramway, giving priority to local pedestrian routes and and the growing weight of green policies at local levels. The
cycle paths. The exceptional quality of the built area and the continuity of political leadership, and above all technical
open spaces is achieved through a fairly rigid master plan that leadership, lasting over 25 years has meant strict regulations
defines maximum heights of 12.5 m, suitable for four storey for low-energy consumption have been promoted, and a
buildings. The careful layout of the green public areas and decisive effort to encourage the use of public transport and
sophisticated citizen participation associated with the com- pedestrian and cycle routes has been made. A strategic vision
munity architecture movement of the seventies does the rest. that is simple: keeping the city compact, trying to occupy the
But in this city of just over 200,000 inhabitants, this model lowest possible surface area outside the consolidated city, in
district is just one part of the urban development concepts that two model districts: Vauban and Rieselfeld.
186 J. Monclús
Almandoz, A. (ed.). 2002a. Planning Latin America’s capital cities, Almandoz, A. 2002b. Notas sobre historia cultural urbana. Una
1850–1950. London: Routledge. perspectiva latinoamericana. Perspectivas Urbanas/Urban perspec-
Berman, M. 1982. All that is solid melts into air: The experience of tives 1: 29–39.
modernity. London: Verso. Brazil, B. 2010. A planned city model: Curitiba, Brazil. The Bartlett
Fishman, R. 1977. Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century: Ebenezer development Planning Unit. May 25.
Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier. New York: Basic Hall, P.G. 2014a. Cities of Tomorrow. An intelectual history of urban
Books. planning and design in the twentieth century [1988], 4th ed.
Hall, P.G. 2014a. Good cities, better lives: How Europe discovered the Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
lost art of urbanism. Oxford: Routledge. Home, R. 2017. global systems foundations of the discipline: Colonial,
King, A.D. 1980. Exporting planning: The colonial and neo-colonial post-colonial and other power structures. In Planning history
experience. In Shaping on urban world, ed. G.E. Cherry, 203–226. handbook, ed. C. Hein. London: Routledge.
London: Mansell.
Lortie, A. 1995. Paris s’ exporte. Paris: Arsenal.
Monclús, J. 2003. The Barcelona model: and an original formula? From
‘reconstruction’ to strategic urban projects (1979–2004). Planning
Perspectives 18: 399–421. doi:10.1080/0266543032000117514.
history handbook, ed. C. Hein. London: Routledge.
Monclús, J., and M. Guardia, ed. 2004. Prologue/Prólogo. In The 11th
IPHS conference. Planning models and the culture of cities, 19–25,
27–33. Barcelona: UPC.
Sanyal, B. (ed.). 2005. Comparative planning cultures. New York:
Routledge.
Segre, R., and A. Vélez Catrain. 2000. ¿Por qué hablar de modelo
europeo de ciudad en América Latina? Revista de Occidente 230–
231. Madrid: 11–24.
Ward, S.V. 2013. Cities as planning models. Planning Perspectives 28:
295–313. doi:10.1080/02665433.2013.774572.
Urban Transport and Technological Urbanism
18
Javier Monclús
Abstract
The growing prominence of transport in the city and its impact in its transformation is the
subject of this essay. It highlights the key role played by transport in new urban strategies
through a series of texts, case studies and projects that draw consideration to topics of
debate in relation to pedestrianisation, mobility control, enhancing public transport and the
problems of densification and decentralisation, among others.

Keywords
Urban transport and growth Transport systems Mobility Networks Infrastructures
Technology
Public Transport and Urban Growth enormous amount of the literature, not only specialising in
architecture and urbanism, but also in studies by geogra-
Cities have always been supported by different infrastructure phers, sociologists and urban historians (Hall 2014,
networks in order to cope with their growth, and the role of Chap. 9). In general, railway companies shared a strategy of
transport in these networks has grown. It is a well-established locating their stations close to city centres, although in many
fact that the development of transport infrastructures since smaller cities, their role as promoters of urban growth was
the nineteenth century has played a decisive role in the also relevant, as happened in most Spanish cities (Monclús
shaping of contemporary cities (Tarr and Dupuy 1988). and Oyón 1996).
First of all, we should refer to the development of urban In addition to interurban or goods transport, the devel-
and suburban railways. Although these were different in opment of public urban transport had a considerable impact
each city, we are able to talk about the ‘age of the train’ in on decentralising the compact, pre-industrial city and
each city, highlighting the industrial cities and major capi- defining new extensions and suburbs. In North America and
tals. In the latter, construction of stations around the middle Europe, cities built prior to collective transport or ‘the
of the nineteenth century was associated with remodelling of Walking City’, imposed a limit on physical growth due to
urban centres to a greater or lesser extent. Consequently, not the difficulty of overcoming the distance between places of
only barriers were formed that would condition urban work and residence, which were at walking distance (around
growth for decades, but new stations also led to major ren- 2 miles, 3–4 km was the norm from the centre). With the
ovation and reconfiguration processes. Haussmann’s Paris appearance of buses, but particularly trams, the possibilities
cannot be explained without understanding the wish to or urban growth increased considerably (Daniels and Warnes
provide access to the new railway terminals. The impact of 1980, 45) . Referring to technological innovation is funda-
the railway network and stations in London gave rise to an mental, although the causal relationship with urban growth is
often oversimplified. All the same, it is possible to prove the
connection between land value change processes and the
J. Monclús (&)
layout of tram lines (first animal drawn and then electrical),
University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain and also the link with new urban forms.

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_18
188 J. Monclús
Fig. 18.1 Urban densities and energy consumption of motor vehicles according to Peter Newman and Jeffrey Kenworthy, in Cities and
Automobile Dependence: an International Sourcebook, Gower Technical, Aldershot, 1989
The Revolution of the Automobile and Its Moreover, the impact of the automobile coincided with
Impact on the Transformation of Cities the increase in distance between place of residence and place
of work. To a certain extent, transformations in the urban
The ‘second transport revolution’, i.e. which associated structure were not so different to those that were caused by
with the arrival of the automobile, took place parallel to the the arrival of public transport. In both cases, the new modes
exponential growth of cities. First in the USA, where of transport entailed new forms of decentralisation with the
already in the 1930s millions of cars were driving the consequent reduction in densities, although cars provided
streets (over 20 million); and later, after the 1960s, in more flexibility, with the subsequent occupation of inter-
European cities (Dupuy 1995a, 17–41). In the case of mediate spaces between the spokes of tramways or suburban
Spanish cities, mass motorisation arrived somewhat later, in railways. With all this, the new forms of occupying suburban
the seventies. territory were no longer isotropic, since the layout of the
Several studies carried out from different perspectives highway infrastructures caused a form of spatial hierarchy.
about the effects of cars on society and cities, question the As for the decentralisation of industry, this went hand in
simplistic analysis that attributes direct impact of transport hand with a generalised use of trucks, which substituted in
technology on new urban forms. Hence, for some authors, part the railways.
the true ‘Ford revolution’ was that of prices, i.e. the one that The evidence, which at first seems clear, of the advantages
led to generalisation of automobiles among the middle provided by cars in terms of convenience and speed, began to
classes (Dupuy 1995b, 31–42), which indirectly contributed be questioned with the appearance of traffic congestion in city
to cities expanding in another way, changing from ‘street car centres. This, however, did not prevent a massive surge in the
suburbs’ (dependent on trams) to the new residential suburbs private vehicle fleet. Despite the oil crisis, the number of cars
(dependent on cars). in Spanish cities rose from 2 million in 1970 to 7 million in
18 Urban Transport and Technological Urbanism 189
thirty million today. As for the rate of motorisation, the

467 vehicles per 1000 inhabitants approach the Euro-
pean average (487), somewhat lower than in Germany
(539) and France (512), but higher than in the UK
(464) (2013 data).1 It is interesting to see how some countries
with higher income have lower rates, as is the case of Den-
mark, which could be explained by their clear commitment to
public transport and restraint on automobiles.
Urban Views and Mobility Strategies
The views and strategies concerning the design of mobility

in cities have changed over the century, from the fascination
this produced in the early stages of modern urbanism, to
gradual reconsideration over recent decades. The leading
role of transport infrastructures and mobility based on cars is
particularly associated with the technological dimension of
urbanism and contemporary urban projects. From the Athens
Charter and the proposals by Le Corbusier outlined in the 7V
(7 Ways) to the studies by traffic specialists that proliferated
in the sixties, different versions of the ‘car city’ are tested,
first in North American cities and later on in European cities.
In the international architectural and urbanistic culture at that
Fig. 18.2 Transport and urban form. Synthetic view of relationships time, there were many proposals which, when criticising
between transport systems and forms of urban growth, according to
C.D. Daniels and A. M. Warnes in Movement in Cities, 1980 modern tradition, advanced the introduction of more tech-
nological concepts: the visions of Team X (CIAM 1959),
those by the Archigram group or those by the Metabolists
relied on mega-structures, massive prefabrication, including
housing, in the same way that automobiles were produced.
These visions were probably not so far removed from more
recent discourses, based on the potential of infrastructures,
mobility or the power of decision by users.
Although it could even be included in the technological
and functionalist paradigm, the famous 1963 Buchanan
report accounted for a significant change of attitude, by
conducting a critical diagnosis on the advantages and risks
of adapting cities to automobiles, with the proposal of the
famous ‘environmental areas’ (Buchanan 1963). From then
on, some cities applied advanced urban strategies to their
centres. Complete or partial pedestrianisation made progress
in many European cities, led by German and Scandinavian
cities, with a definite commitment to restricting private traffic
and promoting public transport and bicycles.
In recent decades, attention has not focused so much on
transport infrastructures or vehicular transit flows, but has
Fig. 18.3 Le Corbusier, 7W system (7 Ways), 1945 been giving more importance to the analysis of constantly
growing mobility, which is associated with the processes or
1980. Subsequent economic recovery and the priority given suburban sprawl, and the appearance of new urban or
to private transport in all fields (with the dismantling of
almost the entire tram network operating in many cities)
finally led to the most optimistic forecasts being far exceeded, 1
http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Transport/Motor-
with over 12 million vehicles in the nineties and more than vehicles.
190 J. Monclús
Fig. 18.5 Buchanan report, Traffic in Towns, 1963. Proposal for

Oxford Street, London
called ‘Smart Growth’ or better still ‘Smart Urbanism’. Away

from tags, the principles of Smart Growth are based on an
efficient use of land favouring access to public transport and
new urban developments in areas that have already been
developed or in urban voids, including brownfield develop-
ments, pedestrian-friendly developments and mixed, compact
Fig. 18.4 Buchanan report, Traffic in Towns, 1963. Book cover and adaptive uses (see Chap. 29). All these principles usually
include a priority for the need of providing different transport
metropolitan situations (Monclús 1998). Many authors con-
options, a key aspect in any comprehensive urban strategy. It
sider cars to be synonymous with de-densification, and
is therefore commonplace to find strategies such as Transit
therefore the death of the city (the case of Los Angeles is
Oriented Development (TOD) (compact urbanisation based
usually quoted, a city associated with car mobility, as an
on public transport corridors), Bus Rapid Transit (BRT),
example of a ‘non-city’), although trams had already changed
Light rail, Heavy rail, Minibus.2
the forms of that urban agglomeration. Cars are not exclu-
In North America, the critics of these strategies complain
sively responsible for the obvious trend of de-concentration
of their elitist nature, claiming they are only reserved for
that can be seen in cities in the western world, although they do
certain suburban areas. On the other hand, applying these
promote it and contribute to the appearance of new forms that
principles to European cities maintains a long tradition of
are considered harmful (urban sprawl). The most relevant fact
connecting infrastructure to urban development. The strate-
is that not only residential areas are decentralised, but so are all
gies for smart cities have been applied for some time in
the facilities and other activities. In North American cities,
European cities, with the exceptional case of Copenhagen
most tertiary activities and offices have moved towards the
since pedestrianisation of central zones dates back to the
new outskirts and ‘Edge Cities’.
sixties, when other cities were redesigning their centres to
accommodate urban growth based on automobiles. In recent
years, those strategies have changed with the rise of the
Reactions and Recovery: Between bicycle as the dominant means of transport (nearly 40% of
the ‘Walking City’ and ‘Smart Urbanism’ movements). That is one of the aspects of a radical process
included in the regeneration and reconversion of city devel-
Is it possible to save historical centres through pedestriani-
opment, which is part of top level urbanistic tradition, as
sation and relative control of mobility and transport systems?
proven after successive updates of the well-known Finger
What are the options for acting in suburban areas and
Plan of 1948 developed as an alternative to the green belt
metropolitan peripheries by promoting public transport? A
strategy in new towns defined by Abercrombie for London.
significant part of recent experiments in European cities is
based on the key role of transport, accepting the relentless
trends towards still greater mobility. The illusion of a ‘return
to the compact city’ or that of different versions of New 2
See Center for Transit Oriented Development http://www.
Urbanism give way to outstanding examples of what has been reconnectingamerica.org/public/todCenter.
Fig. 18.6 TOD. Conceptual diagram according to Peter Calthorpe, in The Next American Metropolis: Ecology, Community, and the American
Dream, 1993
Fig. 18.7 TOD. Conceptual diagram in a station environment. Union City, 2009
192 J. Monclús
Fig. 18.8 TOD. Conceptual diagram in the surroundings of the Fig. 18.10 Light Metro, Strasbourg. A mobility and public area
Intermodal Station, Union City, 2009 reclassification model
areas. The project for Euralille, ongoing since the nineties,

represents a unique episode in this sense, developed around
the Train à Grande Vitesse (TGV) station, as one of the most
ambitious strategic European projects in recent decades.
Although the most well-known item is the intermodal,
high-speed train station connecting Paris with Brussels and
London, the project goes much further, including urban and
interurban transport, with a comprehensive urbanistic vision.
As in the case of Copenhagen, it would not be hard to
find connections with different projects carried out during
the ‘golden age’ of European urbanism, i.e. during the
post-war period, as is the case of the British or Scandinavian
new towns, always linked to transport infrastructures.
Although what is now called ‘smart urbanism’ is based on
Fig. 18.9 Cycle bridge over the harbour basin of Copenhagen, known
as Bicycle Snake (Cykelslangen in Danish) higher sophistication of technology and on the will to make
progress in integrating the different mobility systems, giving
priority to pedestrian routes and cycle lanes. This attitude,
Another type of urban operation, such as those associated consisting in improving efficiency based on optimising
with major transport nodes, can also be included in this kind existing systems, appears to be smarter than simply trusting
of strategy to boost new public transport systems in central the panacea of Smart Cities.
Fig. 18.11 Manuel de Solà-Morales, Plaza Lesseps. Disguised centrality, 2006

194 J. Monclús
Case Studies systems (which were later adopted firstly in French cities and
then in others), the area used for car parks has been reduced by
Copenhagen: Between a ‘Smart City’ 3% every year, highway junctions have been dismantled,
and a ‘Human Scale City’ public transport connections improved, etc., but above all, the
design of public spaces at pedestrian scale has been empha-
The commitment to a plan comprising a spoke system of sised. The objective by Gehl and his school is for all urban
tramways and local railways in Copenhagen, including green routes to be on foot, bicycle or on public transport, reserving
wedges, has permitted control of urban growth for over sixty the use of cars for interurban routes. The success of these
years, with the population having stabilised at around approaches resides in the system attention to small scale, not
500,000 inhabitants and a metropolitan area growing from 1 only streets, but also the spaces ‘between buildings’, fighting
million to 1.8 million in the same period. Unlike other against doors and fences in the city. The results in terms of
European cities that have gradually pedestrianised their cen- transport have been spectacular compared to other cities:
tres, adapting the flow of cars in car parks and ring roads, despite growth in the number of vehicles by 40% between
Copenhagen chose more radical strategies, following the 1995 and 2004, their use fell by 10% in the same period,
directives of urbanists led by Jan Gehl, who committed to the whereas the use of bicycles grew by 50%. Moreover, said
‘human scale’ and urban quality (Gehl 1987). The key to strategies are not limited to the historical centres, but they also
these strategies is the combination of measures with a com- extend to the new town of Orestad, a new linear city within the
prehensive outlook, subtler than in other cities. Indeed, apart city, with a length of 5 km and width of 600 m, showing how
from the nearly 500 km of cycle lanes and painstaking pri- major projects can be combined with micro-urbanism, one of
ority of this mode of transport, with free public renting the basic challenges of ‘new urbanism’.
Euralille: New Transport Infrastructures in Urban growing sectors of the post-industrial economy, led to spe-
Reconfiguration cialisation of different poles. Euralille (business and com-
mercial centre linked to the station) is the most emblematic
The starting point for the Euralille urban project is that of part of the project, but it is important not to forget the other
acting in an urban region, namely Lille Metropole, which projects of this poly-central metropolis: Eurosanté, Haute
after being the centre of the industrial revolution in France Borne, Eurotéléport, Tourcoing logistical platform, etc.
and maintaining sustained growth during the ‘trente glo- The Euralille international business centre was built
rieuses’ (1945–75) fell into a severe crisis due to the de- between 1990 and 1995 and is established as a mixed
industrialisation process. It is the biggest urban agglomera- transaction with public and private investment, with a total
tion in the north of France, consisting of the cities of Lille, built surface area of 300,000 m2 of offices and shops, in
Roubaix and Tourcoing, as well as the new city of Vil- addition to the urban park. The master plan was designed by
leneuve d’Asq, but which extends beyond the border with the Rem Koolhaas office, the author of the Conference Hall
Belgium to include some urban areas of the Flemish region. (Lille Grand Palais). The rest of the projects are by Claude
Public transport was the backbone of the metropolitan area Vasconi, Christian de Portzamparc (Torre Credit Lyonais)
until the sixties when proliferation of automobiles led to an and Jean Nouvel (centre Euralille). The arrangement of the
increasing suburban sprawl. area is in line with Koolhaas’s discourse, committing to the
The change in the industrial economic base to that of advantages and leading role of infrastructures in contem-
services was driven through different strategies, including the porary cities and emphasising metropolitan congestion and
development of a revolutionary interurban light metro system ‘hyper-density’. The different volumes that are established in
the so-called Véhicule Automatique Léger (VAL) connecting the programme refer to modern architectural concepts, heirs
Lille with Villeneuve d’Asq and its technology centre. of Le Corbusier and other architectural styles. The success of
Modernisation of the tramway system was also another the project has led to a second stage, namely Euralille 2
strategic commitment, developed parallel to this. The third (190,000 m2) comprising a new entrance to the urban centre
project based on transport was at another scale, consisting of with a façade onto the ring road between the Conference
locating the Train à Grande Vitesse (TGV) at a singular site, Hall and the St-Sauveur station, which further increases the
next to the centre of Lille. Reorienting the city towards protagonism of the different transport infrastructures.
196 J. Monclús
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Problems of Traffic in Urban Areas. London: Her Majesty’s Modern City. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Stationery Office. de Solá-Morales, M. 2006. Centralitat simulada, centralitat dissimulada:
Daniels, P.W., and A.M. Warnes. 1980. Movement in Cities: Spatial Plaça Lesseps, Plaça Europa. Quaderns 249: 54–59.
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Dupuy, G. 1995a. Les territoires de l’automobile. Paris: Anthropos- Armand Colin.
Economica. Glaser, M., M. van’t Hoff, H. Karssenberg, J. Laven, and J. van
Dupuy, G. 1995b. L’auto et la ville. Paris: Flammarion. Teeffelen (eds.). 2012. The City at Eye Level. Lessons for Street
Gehl, J. 1987. Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space [Livet Plinths. Delft: Eburon Academic Publishers.
mellem husene, 1971]. Washington, Covelo, London: Island Press. Hall, P.G. 2014b. Good Cities, Better Lives: How Europe Discovered
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España, mediados s. XIX—finales s. XX. Ciudad y Territorio, de ciutat i xarxes d’infraestructures. Barcelona: Ediciones UPC.
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debate en la cultura urbanística internacional/Urbanism and urban
regeneration. Seven topics in discussion in the international urban
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Barrio Oliver, Zaragoza/Urban regeneration (III). Proposals for
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December 4.
New Productive Uses Areas. Central Business
Districts (CBD), Business Parks, Technology 19
Parks and Corporate Cities
Abstract
This chapter analyses the evolution of the urban areas specifically dedicated to tertiary uses,
from the appearance of the Central Business Districts in the 1960s, related to the zoning
principles of the Modern Movement, to the business parks, derived from the adaptation of
garden cities to service activities. The emergence of the new information and communi-
cation technologies (ICTs) brought the specialization of these parks in places of science and
technology. Finally, the concept of corporate cities also dating back to the 1950s has
experienced a new boost in the last years. Recently, different companies are trying to
concentrate all their workers in a specific place containing all the facilities, with the result
being that the urban and architectural form usually expresses the essence and the spirit of
the company in many ways. The progressive development of the new Information and
Communications Technologies (ICTs), since the 1970s, also has affected the way tertiary
and R&D uses have been distributed in the city, increasing the different approaches of
creating and developing new productive areas. The aim of this chapter is to analyse and
describe the evolution of business districts and the different typologies of new productive
areas from the most significant examples.

Keywords

Central business district CBD Zoning Tertiary uses Business parks Technology
parks Corporate cities
The zoning principles of modernist urbanism and the syn- business districts and the different typologies of new pro-
ergies created by concentrating tertiary uses in a specific area ductive areas from the most significant examples.
contributed to the emergence of urban districts dedicated
exclusively to business and financial activities. These areas
have undergone a major change throughout the years, even Central Business Districts
more than residential areas. On the other hand, the pro-
gressive development of the new Information and Commu- Over the past century, the central areas of cities in the USA
nications Technologies (ICTs), since the 1970s, has also became, progressively, more specific zones of tertiary uses,
affected the way tertiary and R&D uses have been dis- while new residential areas were sprawled in the peripheral
tributed around the city, increasing the different approaches areas of the suburbia (Soja 1989). Central districts were, in
of creating and developing new productive areas. The aim of most cases, the traditional market places and business areas
this chapter is to analyse and describe the evolution of of cities. In this way, the concentration of financial and
commercial activities in these areas increased, beginning
with their denomination as central business districts (CBDs)
(Murphy 1972).
In Europe, the process of concentrating tertiary uses has
A. Fernández-Ges (&)
University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain grown steadily since the 1950s. It was a political tool used
e-mail: [email protected] for the urban regeneration of former industrial areas, for the

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_19
198 A. Fernández-Ges
Fig. 19.1 Evolution of urban form in the USA according to Soja, in Postmodern Geographies, 1998, p. 174
19 New Productive Uses Areas. Central Business Districts (CBD) … 199
Fig. 19.2 View of the city of London
Fig. 19.3 Model of the master plan of Canary Wharf in the Isle of Fig. 19.4 Kop van Zuid development, in the south bank of Nieuwe
Dogs, London, 1986 Maas River, Rotterdam, 2016
creation of new business districts in peripheral areas and for the 1990s onwards, and is still growing today, having cur-
urban renovation of degraded historical city centres (Hall rently become the biggest European CBD, with expansion
2014). La Defense, in Paris, was an example of the creation planned through 2020.
of a CBD from scratch. The strategic location at the end of London has two different cases. The city, the historical
the axis of Champs-Elysees justified a large public invest- financial and productive centre, has undergone major urban
ment creating a new business district in a degraded area. The renovation since the 1960s. The population moved to
first master plan was designed in 1955 by Mailly, Camelot peripheral areas and several buildings were replaced by new
and Zehrfuss, and the first building in the district, the CNIT, modern office and hotel buildings in a gradual transforma-
was built in 1958 (Hein 2004). The district underwent tion that still continues in what is today one of the main
several periods of crisis but developed considerably from financial centres of the world. The district has undergone a
Others CBDs have been built in recent years in Europe

and especially in Asia. Some of them are exclusive pro-
ductive zones, such as Zuidas, in Amsterdam, or Pudong, in
Shanghai. But the last generation of CBDs, in most cases,
have been mixed use, seeking to create areas with more
urban life. Examples of these new productive areas are Kop
van Zuid, in Rotterdam, Puerto Madero in Buenos Aires or
Songdo, near Incheon, planned as a nodal international hub,
near the airport and conceived as a mixed use international
CBD (Arbes and Bethea 2014).
Business Parks
Business parks are the result, together with the English tra-
Fig. 19.5 Model of Edinburgh Business Park. Richard Meier’s Master dition of garden cities and University campuses, of the
plan, 1991–1993 evolution of industrial areas and their adaptation to tertiary
uses. During the 1960s, a generation of parks appeared more
gradual process of depopulation, having around eight thou- focused on attending to the design of buildings, landscape
sand inhabitants and around 350,000 workers daily. In the and traffic segregation. Some of them grew near or related to
same period, the port industries of the Docklands began to existing garden cities, like Letchworth Park, near London,
fall into decline (see Chap. 13). The industrial heritage was but most of them were designed as new productive areas in
replaced by a second CBD in the former East Docks of the countryside (Phillips 1993).
Canary Wharf. The first master plan was designed by SOM Location was one of the most important factors for the
in 1981, but the implementation of the area had major dif- definition of business parks, looking for areas with specific
ficulties and began to take-off in the mid-nineties, aided by features: near a highway or, better, in the connection with
the lack of available land in the city. The project began with two major highways; near a large metropolitan area,
government funding but was developed by private investors preferably near a big mall and public transport connection
that privatized the public space. Although it is an exclusive with the city centre. If the business park had an international
business district, the creation of a mall has fostered the projection, a location near an airport was an essential feature
residential activity of the nearby neighbourhoods. (Phillips 1993).
During the 1970s, other cities planned new business dis- Business parks were designed from the beginning with
tricts in areas of expansion. For example, AZCA in Madrid, low-rise buildings with a special focus on the landscape
located in the prolongation of the Paseo de la Castellana.1 design of green areas, often featuring lakes, sports and lei-
The plan was designed by Perpiñá between 1957 and 1964. sure facilities. Large parking areas were also required around
Other cities like Frankfurt fostered the traditional productive the park. The main innovation of the new model is the
area of the city centre while transforming the area of creating of a low density work place to substitute the pol-
Bankenviertel in one of the leading financial districts in luted city centre similar to the marketing experience of
Europe. Berlin created a new CBD in the area of Potsdamer garden cities. Some of them have become quite large, such
Platz, as one of the strategic projects of reconstruction of the as Stockley Park, covering 160 ha, near Heathrow airport.
city after the fall of the Wall. The site was already previously Most business parks do not stand out for their urban
a place of dense commercial activity and cultural vitality. design. One exception is the Edinburgh Business Park, on
55 ha, designed by Richard Meier (master plan 1991–93),
characterized by two rows of buildings carefully combined
with green spaces and a central lake. The park has maintained
1
the general layout but not the Meier detailed design.
AZCA is the acronym of Compensation Mixed Association of the A
Block (Asociación Mixta de Compensación de la Manzana A), which
planning, and also its nomenclature come from the general master plan
for Madrid leaded by Pedro Bidagor in 1946. From its conception, Science and Technology Parks
AZCA complex was not integrated in the urban grid, but located in a
more peripheral area. The master plan envisaged the construction of a
Technology and science parks derive from the specialization
big office block with pedestrian circulation at ground level and vehicular
traffic underground. Also, an interchange for external commuters was of business parks for high technology and R&D companies to
planned, which is actually the Nuevos Ministerios Station. provide high qualification jobs that bring economic growth to
Fig. 19.6 Evolution of CBDs and productive areas in the city according to Dezert, B., Metton, A., Steinberg, J., La périurbanisation en France, 1991
Fig. 19.7 Technical Centre of General Motors in Warren, Michigan, Fig. 19.9 Ciudad BBVA, Madrid, 2009–2013–2015. Project by
1947–56. Project by Eero Saarinen Herzog and de Meuron
the region. The role of governments was essential for the

creation of new technology parks. The strategies were varied,
offering productive and attractive spaces, providing tax
incentives and sometimes adapting the offer to the needs of
each specific company. Greater flexibility assured more pos-
sibilities of success. While most of the science parks were
promoted with public funding, their primary objective was to
attract private companies to create synergies and economic
activity (Castells and Esping-Andersen 1999).
Silicon Valley is the paradigm of the technology parks.
The Valley extends in a vast area from Palo Alto to San Jose,
to the south from San Francisco, California, concentrating
high technology companies, highly qualified workers and
unparalleled R&D economic growth. By the end of the
Fig. 19.8 Distrito Telefónica, Madrid, 2004–2008. Project by Rafael 1980s, there were 330,000 high technology workers
de La-Hoz Castanys including 6000 doctors in engineering and science (Saxenian
1994). The desire to repeat the success of the Valley has Corporate Cities
spread across the world.
The area had no prior industrial base or previous entrepre- Some industries created corporate parks for their head-
neurial tradition. The technological activity started in the 1950s quarters. These were business parks conceived as the
with the science park created around the University of Stan- productive space for a specific company. Following the
ford. The growth of innovative enterprises in microelectronics tradition of garden cities and the landscape environment,
continued in the 1960s, on the base of spin-offs from the they were primarily developed in England and USA. One
first-generation companies. In this period, the support of the US of the best examples of corporate cities is the Technical
Defence Department providing investment for research pro- Centre of General Motors, in Warren, Michigan, designed
grams was crucial. The consolidation of the Valley came in the by Eero Saarinen, 1947–56, near Detroit, on an area of
following decades with the development of semiconductors, 128 ha. Five functions were developed in different build-
microprocessors and personal computers with a new round of ings: research, process development, engineering, styling
innovative divisions (Castells and Hall 1994). All these and service. Other examples of corporate cities were the
activities attracted several venture capital companies to invest Connecticut General Insurance Co. in Bloomfield, by SOM
in new projects and start-ups, in a synergic activity that con- 1954–57 or the IBM offices in Stuttgart, by Egon Eier-
tinues today. And this brought as a consequence an economic mann, 1967–72.
and population growth into the area (Glaeser et al. 1995). This concept has been developed in Europe in recent years
The successful experience of Silicon Valley is the proof of with a new typology: current corporate cities are conceived as
the fundamental relationship between science and economic containers of multiple activities. These places provide
development, in a process that emphasizes the role of uni- full-service environments for employees in order to monop-
versities and research centres as protagonists for this kind of olize their activities, such as nurseries, shopping, retail and
progress (Hoeger and Christiaanse 2007). Many cities and sports facilities, striving for greater efficiency, security and
regions throughout the world have tried to create new Silicon solace for the workers. We can find some examples of these
Valleys, without success. The implementation of research corporate cities near the north and west highways of Madrid,
institutions and business parks is not enough to attract private such as Telefónica City, Santander City and BBVA City or in
companies because the success of Silicon Valley was not the USA, with the new Apple Campus 2 in Cupertino,
only due to the concentration of high technology but also the designed by Foster and Partners. The urban form of these new
synergic network created between researchers and productive corporate cities usually expresses the philosophy and objec-
sectors (Castells and Hall 1994). tives of the companies.
Case Studies completed in 1958. The plan underwent modifications in

1964, but maintained the previous design principles: a cen-
La Defense, Paris (1958–) tral linear axis of public space, in continuity with the main
axis of Paris, a high-density concentration of office towers
La Defense was a degraded peripheral area of the city in the on both sides of the central space and a strict traffic sepa-
1950s. Planned from scratch, it is now the biggest Euro- ration between pedestrians, and the vast network of high-
pean CBD, with an area of approximately 1400 ha, housing ways surrounding the area, clearly influenced by the
more than 1500 companies, and around three 3 million principles of the Modern Movement. The public light rail
square metres for offices and retail activities. The site was network arrived in 1970. The area underwent some periods
favoured because of its strategic location in the city: at the of the crisis until the end of the 1980s when construction of
end of the main urban axis that connects the Louvre to the Grand Arche of Johann Otto von Spreckelsen in 1989, to
Champs-Elysees and Pont Neuilly. become the district’s landmark.
The first master plan was designed in 1955, commis- La Defense is continually expanding and there are plans
sioned by the public company EPAD. The authors were the for growth through to 2020. Due to tertiary specialization,
architects Robert Camelot, Jean de Mailly and Bernard the bustling daily activities contrast with the lack of urban
Zehrfuss, who also designed the first building of the district: life and activity outside working hours, becoming almost
The Centre for New Industries and Technologies, CNIT, entirely empty after hours.
Tsukuba Science City, Ibaraki, Japan (1963–) science were recognized as the driving force of economic
development.
Tsukuba emerged, as well as other science cities built from The science park was conceived as a university campus,
scratch since the 1960s, as a consequence of Silicon Valley’s surrounded by the services of a city, including housing and
success, trying to generate synergies of innovation by con- public facilities. The city covers a total area of 28,559 ha, of
centrating scientific activities in a specific area. In those which one-tenth is known as the District of Investigation and
years, Tsukuba was an economically depressed region Education. Development of the city took longer than plan-
located 50 kilometres from Tokyo and 40 kilometres from ned, particularly in comparison to private companies. To
Narita international airport. These conditions allowed the boost the technology park the Expo of 1985 was held in
Japanese Government, operating as developer, to solve dif- Tsukuba which, due to major media attention and the
ferent problems simultaneously: to increase the economic improvement of infrastructures, began to attract private
activity of the region, decentralize the Japanese capital that investors. Since then, the number of companies and inhab-
was rapidly growing, to create a new technological univer- itants has been constantly growing. Today, the University of
sity near the existing ones and to respond to pressure by the Tsukuba has a faculty of 2700 lecturers and more than
Science and Technology Agency about the need to boost the 16,000 students, whereas the city now has a population of
weak scientific and research capacities in comparison with 220,000 inhabitants, of whom 15,000 have a doctorate
Europe and the USA, in a period when technology and degree.
Grupo Santander City, Madrid (2002–2004) on a total area of 250 ha, to become one of the largest
corporate cities in Europe.
Santander Bank decided to bring together their 23 office The headquarters comprise nine office buildings with four
buildings which were widely dispersed around the city of floors in a linear arrangement and several service buildings
Madrid to create a corporate city on the outskirts of the at the end of both wings. A central circular building is for
metropolitan area. The new headquarters are located in senior executives and the board of directors, expressing the
Boadilla del Monte, to the north-western part of the city. It is hierarchical organization of the company. The office build-
well connected to Madrid, positioned between several ings are connected by courtyards and squares, facing a large
highways, such as the M40, M50 and M511, that surround 18-hole golf course.
the metropolis. The complex is conceived as a city, providing all the ser-
The urban and architectural design was decided in an vices for the employees, such as sports facilities, a training
international competition won by Kevin Roche and John centre, a nursery, shopping, restaurants, hairdresser and enough
Dinkeloo. The area was built in record time, between 2002 retail space to avoid workers having to leave the corporate city
and 2004, to ultimately accommodate nearly 7000 workers during the day, making work and personal life compatible.
Arbes, R., and C. Bethea. 2014. Songdo, South Korea: City of the AA.VV. 1967. Paris dans 20 ans. Paris Match 951.
Future? The Atlantic, September 27. Joss, S., R. Cowley, and D. Tomozeiu. 2013. Towards the ‘Ubiquitous
Castells, M., and G. Esping-Andersen. 1999. La transformación del Eco-city’: An Analysis of the Internationalisation of Eco-city Policy
trabajo. Madrid: La Factoría Cultural. and Practice. Urban Research & Practice 6: 54–74. doi:10.1080/
Castells, M., and P.G. Hall. 1994. Technopoles of the World: The 17535069.2012.762216.
Making of 21st Century Industrial Complexes. London, New York: Ko, Y., D.K. Schubert, and R.T. Hester. 2011. A Conflict of Greens:
Routledge. Green Development Versus Habitat Preservation—The Case of
Glaeser, E.L., J.A. Scheinkman, and A. Shleifer. 1995. Economic Incheon, South Korea. Environment: Science and Policy for
Growth in a Cross-Section of Cities. Journal of Monetary Sustainable Development 53: 3–17. doi:10.1080/00139157.2011.
Economics 36: 117–144. 570640.
Hall, P.G. 2014. Cities of Tomorrow. An Intelectual History of Urban Shwayri, S.T. 2013. A Model Korean Ubiquitous Eco-City? The
Planning and Design in the Twentieth Century [1988]. 4th ed. Politics of Making Songdo. Journal of Urban Technology 20:
Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. 39–55. doi:10.1080/10630732.2012.735409.
Hein, C. 2004. The Capital of Europe: Architecture and Urban
Planning for the European Union. Westport: Praeger Publishers.
Hoeger, K., and K. Christiaanse (eds.). 2007. Campus and the City:
Urban Design for the Knowledge Society. Zurich: Gta Verlag, ETH
Zurich.
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Geography. Chicago: Aldine, Atherton.
Phillips, A. 1993. The Best in Science, Office and Business Park
Design. London: Quarto Publishing.
Saxenian, A. 1994. Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in
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Press.
Soja, E. 1989. Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in
Critical Social Theory. London - New York: Verso.
Innovative Uses of ICT Technologies
in Recent Urban Developments 20
and Urban Planning
Abstract
This chapter analyses the influence of the new information and communication
technologies (ICTs) in the emergence of the knowledge economy as a new way of
productivity and economic growth for cities, and how the use of these new technologies is
driving innovative uses in urban planning. The application of these new tools is taking part
in two main directions. On the one hand, these technologies are being used in the
development of new digital participatory processes, whereas on the other, technological
devices produce a huge amount of data that can now be processed to achieve a new way to
understand urban ecosystems and to know how to operate to improve the urban planning of
cities, its energy efficiency and a more sustainable environment. Information and
communication technologies (ICTs) have transformed the way we live, work, communicate
and socialize with others. The aim of this chapter is to analyse the evolution and influence
of these technologies, highlighting how this revolution is changing the economy, the
society or the processes of production, as well as how the use of current technologies is
leading to new approaches and tools for urban development and urban planning.

Keywords

Age of information ICTs Knowledge economy Globalization City competitiveness
Participatory e-planning Digital participation Big data City modelling Science of
cities
leads us to talk of our time as the ‘age of information’

The Age of Information and Technology
(Castells 1996).
The new technological infrastructure has produced rapid
changes in the processes of production, management,
Knowledge Economy
information and even thinking. ICTs are not the immediate
cause of these changes in the social structures, but it is true
In this era, a new economy has appeared which Castells first
that they have favoured them. Without them, the global-
called ‘informational’ (Castells 1996). In the new economy,
ization of economy and communication would not exist.
increasing productivity and economic growth are no longer
Although most activities are not global, the strategic
based on the quantitative rise of traditional productive fac-
dominant activities are organized in global networks of
tors—capital, manpower or natural resources—but in the
decision and exchange (Borja and Castells 1997). This
application and generation of information. These elements
have become key factors in productivity and competitive-
ness. The result of applying this information to the man-
A. Fernández-Ges (&) agement and distribution of processes and products
University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain generates knowledge (Borja and Castells 1997). The

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_20
knowledge economy is based on the production of ideas and that strengthening knowledge entails promoting the creation
information. So, the driving force of economic growth is of new knowledge, to attract qualified workers and develop
now related to human capital and quality of life (Simon new growth clusters.
1998, pp. 223–243). In the search for better quality places, Van den Berg and Van Winden (2004) established the
highly skilled people will live in cities with better opportu- foundations for the founding and developing a city in the
nities in these aspects, and companies will follow them (van knowledge economy. Among the different aspects and
Den Berg 1987). Regarding the influence of these phe- essential needs, they listed the following:
nomena on cities, Michael Batty points out that larger cities
with a highly educated workforce represent the best places • To generate and transfer knowledge through educational
where progress can be made through their inventions and institutions and R&D activities
application (Batty 2013). • To possess a dominant economy in the services sector
• To dispose of an attractive environment and a public
space that contributes to create a great quality of life
Cities in the Knowledge Economy • To offer a high connectivity that allows relationships
with other urban knowledge centres
The globalization and spreading of new technologies could • To invest in urban diversity to foster growth in innova-
have led to a ‘delocalization’ of activities, the rise of tele- tive sectors
working and the reduced significance of physical location, as • To think at urban scale, in the sense that size matters for
some authors advocated (Mitchell 2000). However, knowl- attracting knowledge activities and, finally
edge activities have progressively tended to concentrate in big • To consider social equity since fewer inequality favours
metropolises, becoming the nodal points of economy (Sassen sustainable growth.
1991). But, while the advanced financial and productivity
systems tend to concentrate, established hierarchically, the ICTs, urban design, urban planning and, above all, the
lowest paid activities have followed a delocalization trend, in interrelationship between them has become one of the
a dual process. In this context, the capacity to attract human essential tools for the promotion of knowledge and the
capital and to promote the knowledge economy becomes generation of innovative places, as discussed below and in
crucial, leading to competitiveness among cities. This means the next chapter.
Fig. 20.1 The global cities in the world city hierarchy, according to John Friedmann in The World City Hierarchy, 1986
20 Innovative Uses of ICT Technologies in Recent … 209
Fig. 20.2 The age of information and network society. Mapping Facebook friendship around the world in 2010, according to Paul Butler
There are several examples of the way ICTs have been

Use of ICTs in New Urban Development used in recent years to compile public opinions about
and Urban Planning specific aspects of city planning. Lisa Horelli led a team at
Aalto University that explored two planning approaches in
The use of ICTs is having a major role in promoting Finland. One of them was Participatory e-planning (the use
knowledge and analysing, understanding and improving of ICTs in urban planning to foster citizen participation, also
cities. The application of these new tools in urban develop- including participation in the design and use of digital tools
ment and urban planning is assuming two main directions. and media content). The other one was named Time plan-
On the one hand, these technologies are being used to ning (planning focused on the time schedules and
enhance relationships between planners, administrators and spatial-temporal organization of people’s actions) (Horelli
citizens to favour the participatory processes in city planning 2013). Horelli herself had previously worked the opportu-
and design. This use is also related to an apparent willingness nities of Internet-assisted urban planning (Horelli and Kaaja
for social improvements and cohesion. On the other hand, 2002), and in conjunction with Sirku Wallin and Joanna
technological devices produce a huge amount of data that, Saad-Sulonen in the design of some specific software tools
with the adequate technological tools, provide more infor- for participatory urban planning that enhance communica-
mation and a better knowledge of the city. This represents an tion between planners and users in a specific planning case
important new way to understand urban ecosystems and how (Wallin et al. 2010). They assumed that the complexity of
to improve the urban planning of cities, with greater energy urban problems required active citizen commitment, as a
efficiency and a more sustainable environment. necessary complement to urban planning and sought col-
laboration among all stakeholders with the use of ICTs.
Several start-ups and technological companies have
New Participatory Processes focused on processes that allow and boost citizens’ partici-
pation. For example, SeeClickFix allows any citizen to
Urban practices are constantly making more use of ICTs to report and track non-emergency issues anywhere in the
involve citizens more in the design of cities, improving the world through their web page. The objective of these com-
participatory processes through new technological tools. panies and applications is to empower citizens and help
Both the social networks and the way citizens are involved community leaders and governments to take care of their
and can express their opinions have changed the way people neighbourhoods. Mark Elliot, of Collabforge, led the making
receive and process information. This new engagement can of Melbourne’s strategic planning, Future Melbourne, an
now be applied to urban planning. award-winning initiative as the “world’s first city plan that
Fig. 20.3 Example of neighbours’ engagement in the urban design process using ICTs tools combined with face-to-face methods in the
Roihuvuori neighbourhood, Helsinki, 2012
anyone could edit, including the city’s diverse selection of City, creating simulation and interactive platforms through
stakeholders and the general public”.1 urban systems software tools to produce city models that help
to obtain more efficient and sustainable urban planning.
According to CASA’s introduction, they generate “new
Big Data knowledge and insights for use in city planning, policy and
design, drawing on the latest geospatial methods and ideas in
There is a constantly increasing amount of data created by computer-based visualization and modelling”.2 The city is
technological devices such as computers, mobile phones, not seen as an urban space, but a complex system of flows and
GPS, sensors, software applications and social networks. networks and, as Batty points out, the creation of mathe-
This huge amount of mainly unstructured information can- matical modelling and virtual simulations could replace or
not be processed and analysed using traditional tools. This is supplement decision-making processes (Batty 2013).
what we call Big Data. The amount of data is exponentially The MIT Senseable City Lab is developing several
increasing and only a part of this information is being research projects involved in the representation of ICT gen-
analysed and harnessed. If we were able to use this data to erated data to obtain urban information. In Real Time Rome,
understand and gain knowledge about cities, we would be a project developed in 2006, they analyse the use of mobile
better able to achieve a more sustainable environment. devices during a pop concert in the city, performed in a
digital representation that allows predicting and organizing
road traffic. In the Self-aware City project, Andres Sevtsuk
City Modelling proposes creating a mobile platform which calculates avail-
able parking space in the city, leading to less parking surface
Many researchers are working on analysing Big Data to and less energy consumption and pollution (Sevtsuk 2006).
generate city models and optimize processes to create a more Similar research projects conducted by MIT Media Lab are
sustainable urban design. Some of the most well-known are Real Time Copenhagen, where GPS displays the dynamics of
Michael Batty, from the Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial people’s movement at night time events, in the city and Trash
Analysis (CASA), Gerhard Schmitt, Director of the Future Track, where they introduce sensors in waste and analyse the
Cities Laboratory of ETH Zurich in Singapore, and Carlo route of different types of waste through time. Through their
Ratti, Director of the MIT Senseable City Lab. Gerhard research, they make the invisible infrastructure of trash
Schmitt and Michael Batty explore the concept of Science removal visible, thus understanding the ‘removal-chain’ in
1 2
http://collabforge.com/our-team/. http://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/casa.
Fig. 20.4 Model of cell phone use in Rome during a Madonna concert, Project Real Time Rome, by Senseable City Lab, 2006
Fig. 20.5 Mapping in 3D of most tweeted buildings in London, 2013, by CASA
urban areas and making it possible to use this knowledge “not cities. Several institutions are creating ‘living labs’, urban
only to build more efficient and sustainable infrastructures offices that test innovative projects in some specific sites of the
but to promote behavioural change”.3 city and increase the technological skills of the citizens for
better engagement between the community and their city.
These living labs create networks to generate synergies and
Innovative Places: Living Labs joint projects, such as the European Network of Living Labs
and Technology Campuses (ENoLL). According to this network, a living lab entails a
multi-stakeholder participation, “including involvement by
As we have seen, a major part of the research about the technology providers, service providers, relevant institutional
application of ICTs in urban planning and the public realm is players and professional or residential end users”,4 aiming at
taking place in universities, but there is also growing interest ‘co-creation’ between all of them. In Asian countries, such as
in local administrations about the use of these tools to improve in India or Singapore, there has also been a significant amount
3 4
http://senseable.mit.edu/trashtrack/. http://www.openlivinglabs.eu/FAQ.
Fig. 20.6 Visualization of trash cycle of different objects travelling across USA until the end of the process. Project Trash Track by Senseable
City Lab in 2011
Fig. 20.7 Googleplex headquarters in Mountain View, California. Project by Clive Wilkinson Architects completed in 2005. Aerial view
of growth of living labs in recent years. In South Korea, the Clive Wilkinson Architects and completed in 2005 shows a
new urban development of Songdo has been conceived to close relationship between inner and outer space designing
work as a living lab, monitoring the activities of the inhabi- interior spaces to boost creativity. The new Facebook
tants through an agreement with Cisco Systems. headquarters, designed by Frank Gehry and finished in 2015
On the other hand, technological companies are playing a has one of the largest open floor plans in addition to small
major role in the application of ICTs in the built-up envi- places to allow the teams to work together and create the
ronment and the creation of innovative places. The creativity sensation of a place in process. The building’s large green
of these companies is also introduced in the urban and rooftop allows both better energy efficiency while serving as
architectural designs of their own offices. Leading Silicon a break out space for employees. Apple also has a new
Valley companies such as Google, Facebook or Apple have central office in Cupertino, called Apple Campus 2,
developed their headquarters with innovative designs that designed by Foster and Partners, which expresses the
reflect the changes of the network society and new ways of absence of hierarchies in its design, with the prevalence of
working. Examples such as the Googleplex, designed by green areas for a more sustainable environment.
Fig. 20.8 Googleplex headquarter in Mountain View, California. Project by Clive Wilkinson Architects completed in 2005. Image of the inside
Fig. 20.9 New Facebook headquarters in Silicon Valley, California. Project by Frank Gehry, completed in 2015. Aerial view including the large
green rooftop
Case Studies residential space. The central area is dominated by office

spaces and a central park of 40 ha. The residential plots and
Sondgo International Business Disgtrict, Incheon, a big mall are located in peripheral areas. The district is forty
South Korea (2009–) percent green spaces, including a golf course, and several
public facilities. There are also two international University
Songdo could be the paradigm of a new international busi- campuses. The district claims to be sustainable, with an
ness district (IBD). In the year 2000, the Korean government automated waste system without any garbage element in the
created a business area near the international airport of streets (Arbes and Bethea 2014). Green spaces are designed
Incheon, 64 km from Seoul, on 600 ha claimed from the sea. to reduce water consumption, and most buildings have solar
To develop the area, they created a public–private partner- panels and green roofs. The city is connected to the nearby
ship. The master plan was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox airport by a long bridge and to Incheon and Seoul by public
in 2003, the district was officially opened in 2009, and is transport. The inner city is designed to promote pedestrian
planned to be completed around 2018. In 2014, there were circulation and provides a system of cycle paths.
around 70,000 inhabitants and it is expected to have 300,000 Songdo has signed a partnership with Cisco Systems to
when finished. monitor the city with different sensors, to install a telepres-
Songdo is planned to be a 24/7 work district. It provides ence system in every house, control traffic systems and to
almost 10 million square metres of office, retail and improve the sustainability of the city.
Apple Campus 2, Cupertino, Santa Clara, quarters, free of hierarchies where teamwork and the
California (2013–) exchange of ideas and knowledge reign.
The difference between the current and the new situation
The new project, designed by Foster and Partners, expresses is clearly seen in the schemes of green areas, where the
a totally different approach to the traditional business and company plans landscape treatment so the employees can
technological parks as well as other corporate cities. The work in more direct contact with nature and light. The
current situation of the site, covering 71 ha, shows a project provides traffic separation, locating the parking lots
patchwork of buildings distributed irregularly, surrounded and service buildings in the peripheral areas, and two
by a diversity of small open spaces and many parking areas, basement floors below the ring building. Only emergency
with a lack of any notable public space. and maintenance vehicles are allowed within the open area,
The urban design principles define the philosophy of the and a broad network of pedestrian and bicycle ways are
company, planning a big ring-shaped building, four floors in planned, with workers being encouraged to use public
height at the centre of the site, that leaves almost 80% of the transport. The campus has a deep commitment to sustain-
total surface dedicated to open and green spaces. The perfect ability, responsible water use with appropriate vegetation
isometric geometrical form reflects a new concept of head- and renewable energy sources.
Arbes, R., and C. Bethea. 2014. City of the Future? The Atlantic. INSEAD. 2016. The Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2017. ed.
September 27. South Korea: Songdo. B. Lanvin and P. Evans. Fontainebleau, France.
Batty, M. 2013. The New Science of Cities. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press. Schmitt, G. 1999. Information Architecture: Basis and Future of
Borja, J., and M. Castells. 1997. Local and Global: The Management of CADD. Basel, Boston, Berlin: Birkhäuser.
Cities in the Information Age. London: Earthscan Publications.
Castells, M. 1996. The Information Age: Economy, Society and
Culture. Volume I: The Rise of the Network Society. Oxford,
Malden: Blackwell Publishing.
Horelli, L. (ed.). 2013. New Approaches to Urban Planning. Insights
from Participatory Communities. Espoo: Aalto University.
Horelli, L., and M. Kaaja. 2002. Opportunities and Constraints of
‘Internet-Assisted Urban Planning’ with Young People. Journal of
Environmental Psychology 22: 191–200. doi:10.1006/jevp.2001.
0246.
Mitchell, W.J. 2000. E-topia: ‘Urban life, Jim–But Not as We Know it’.
Cambridge: M.I.T. Press.
Sassen, S. 1991. The Global City: New York, London, Tokio. Princeton:
Sevtsuk, A. 2006. The Self-aware City. Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.
Simon, C.J. 1998. Human Capital and Metropolitan Employment
Growth. Journal of Urban Economics 43: 223–243. doi:10.1006/
juec.1997.2048.
van Den Berg, L. 1987. Urban Systems in a Dynamic Society.
Aldershot, Hampshire: Gower Publishing Company Ltd.
van Den Berg, L., and W. van Winden. 2004. Cities in the Knowledge
Economy: New Governance Challenges. Rotterdam: European
Institute for Comparative Urban Research.
Wallin, S., L. Horelli, and J. Saad-Sulonen (eds.). 2010. Digital Tools
in Participatory Planning. Espoo: Aalto University.
The Rise of Mixed-Use Urban Developments
and Digital Districts 21
Abstract
This chapter analyses the evolution of residential districts and how the knowledge economy
and the new information and communication technologies have influenced the rise of new
mixed-use urban developments, as a better way to achieve a more vivid, sustainable and
cohesive environment. During the eighties, there were two main urban movements: the
revival of the urban grid as a role model for the regeneration of cities in Europe and the
New Urbanism as a reaction to urban sprawl in USA. The growth of the environmental
concern in the nineties derived in the emergence of ecodistricts, designed with principles of
sustainability. Finally, in recent years, digital districts have been developed, areas that
combine the principles of the mixed-uses, the promotion of knowledge society and concern
about the design of public realm; places conceived to live in, work in and enjoy throughout
the day.

Keywords

Mixed-use urban development Digital districts Living lab ICT technologies
Knowledge economy Globalization City competitiveness Urban marketing
The failures of exclusively residential or business districts have provided a role model for the regeneration of city centres and
contributed to the emergence, in recent years, of urban districts former industrial areas. Barcelona is a paradigmatic case:
that mix uses as a way to better quality of life in new urban Cerdà’s Eixample (city extension) of 1867 was used as the
areas. In this chapter, we analyse the evolution of mixed-use base for urban renewal of the waterfront and the former rail-
developments focusing on a new concept of urban districts: way areas of the city, particularly in the degraded area that was
new areas specialized in integration and implementation of transformed into a residential district for the Olympic Village
residential uses with the knowledge economy and ICT activ- of the 1992 Olympic Games. This concept was also featured
ities. We call them ‘digital districts’. The aim of this chapter is in the urban manifesto of the IBA in Berlin in 1987 and over
to define digital districts, to identify their distinctive elements the following decades in other European cities (see Chap. 11).
and typologies as well as the key factors for their success. In the USA, one of the reactions to urban sprawl in the
same period was the New Urbanism, a movement led by
Calthorpe, Duany and Plater-Zyberk in Florida. The model
Evolution of Residential Districts is a variation of the traditional garden city with a higher
density, street and architecture design at a human scale a,
In the 1980s, Europeans reconsidered the nineteenth-century traffic segregation with pedestrian priority and the creation of
urban grid as the model for new urban developments, as a a city civic centre with public facilities. It uses the traditional
means to combat the urban sprawl at city peripheries. This concepts of urban design: plaza, boulevard, etc. on a
pedestrian scale, considering the city with a clear centre and
an edge (Fishman 2005). The concept had more influence in
A. Fernández-Ges (&)
School of Engineering and Architecture (EINA), the theoretical field, with limited implementation in practice.

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_21
Fig. 21.1 Solar City Linz-Pichling, Linz (Austria), Project by Roland Rainer, 1995–2004. Aerial view
Fig. 21.2 Ecociudad Valdespartera, Zaragoza, Urban Planning Department of Zaragoza City Council, 1999. Project almost implemented in the
year 2008. Aerial view
Seaside, Florida, built in 1981, provides the clearest para- 1997). These features are brilliantly portrayed in The Tru-
digm where the urban concept coexists with historicist man Show film.1
architectural solutions. Most critics regard these projects as a
residential theme park that treats the city as a dream, the
result of our postmodern society (Sorkin 1992; Amendola 1
The film was directed by Peter Weir in 1998.
21 The Rise of Mixed-Use Urban Developments and Digital Districts 219
Fig. 21.3 Kronsberg, a new ecodistrict associated to the Hannover 2000 World Expo
Fig. 21.4 Ecodistrict Bo01 in Malmö, Project by Klas Tham, 2001. Aerial view
The increasing concern about sustainability during the application of passive energy techniques, the centralization of
1990s had a major influence on urban planning. New urban energy sources: electricity, water, heating and the treatment of
projects were designed with bioclimatic criteria to foster waste, among others. One of the first ecodistricts designed
energy efficiency, leading to the creation of ‘ecodistricts’. with these principles was Solar City in Linz-Pichling, Austria
Among the most important bioclimatic principles are the (Roland Rainer, 1995–2004). Other examples are Kronsberg,
attention to appropriate building orientation for better solar in Hannover (Amaboldi, Cavadini, Hager, 1994–2000),
exposure, the consideration of existing topography, the Valdespartera, in Zaragoza (Town Planning Department,
Fig. 21.5 Edge city Tyson’s corner, Virginia, Nevada, 2010. Aerial view
1999–2008), and more recently, Bo01, in Malmö (Klas kind of space with more vital areas than a mere Science
Tham, 2001), Hammarby Sjostad, in Stockholm (Jan Park or Central Business District (CBD) (see Chap. 19).
Inge-Hagström, 2003) and Masdar, in Abu Dhabi (Foster and To attract talented employees and their companies, it is
Partners, 2007). necessary to create an attractive environment that provides
a variety of activities, such as retail, leisure, housing and a
detailed public realm (Florida 2008). This attraction is
Mixed-Use Developments in the USA: Edge more likely found in major economic hubs but is not so
Cities easy to achieve in cities outside the reach of the global
networks and without a developed knowledge economy.
The influence of zoning during the Modern Movement zoning Some policies help to attract knowledge growth to a city
principles influenced American urban planning for decades. that is not a nodal point of economy. One of them is the
Most of the new urban projects maintained retained zoning digital district.
concepts with clearly separated uses. We can find an example
of this situation in the Edge Cities, a concept described by Joel
Garreau in 1991. Developed mainly in the USA since the What Is a Digital District?
1990s, an Edge City consists essentially of a concentrated
cluster of business and retail program, surrounded by low A digital disctrict is an urban area focused on the develop-
density residential areas (Garreau 1988). They operate as huge ment of the knowledge society. It is not a technology park
suburban hubs between freeway junctions. Therefore, although but is designed as a city: a place to live, to work and to learn
located far from metropolitan areas, they remain well con- 24/7. They are places or creativity (Landry 1998) or “hubs
nected. Some early examples are Tyson’s Corners in Virginia, of innovation” (Da Cunha and Selada 2009). There are two
near Washington D.C, and Clayton, near Saint Louis, Missouri, typologies of digital districts, those in former industrial
both of which have grown exponentially since the 1960s. areas and those conceived as an urban renewal of central
areas with significant production activity.
Digital districts rise from the confluence of different
The Rise of Mixed-Use Urban Developments concepts and situations: the rapid spread of new information
and communication technologies (ICT) (see Chap. 20); the
In many cases, traditional business districts lack any development of the knowledge economy; the society of
after-hours urban activity. The new productive areas, led flows (Castells and Hall 1994) and the globalization asso-
by the rise of the knowledge economy, demand a new ciated with these phenomena (Sassen 1991). Following the
example of the residential and business districts, they try to districts are Arabianranta in Helsinki (Tukiainen 2003); 22@
avoid the excessive zoning of earlier urban models to create in Barcelona (AA.VV. 2000); Orestad in Copenhagen; Seoul
more complex neighbourhoods with a higher quality public Digital Media City; Media City UK in Salford Quays,
realm. They are the implementation in a particular area of the Manchester; Digital Mile in Zaragoza (AA.VV. 2006);
smart city concept, understood as a city “in which ICT is Masdar City, in Abu Dhabi and Ciudad Creativa Digital, in
merged with traditional infrastructures, coordinated and Guadalajara, Mexico.
integrated using new digital technologies” (Batty et al.
2012).
Primary among the objectives of digital districts are the Main Elements of a Digital District
desire to enhance innovative applications of ICT’s to achieve
new efficiencies, to increase social cohesion, to avoid social The main element of a digital district is the public realm.
and economic degradation and to make an innovative and Green areas ought to be well designed and centrally loca-
sustainable city (Fernández-Ges 2009). Digital districts are ted, but must also provide an intense use of public space.
emerging all over the world, but mainly in Asia and Europe. Art, interactivity and instant information should character-
Some examples of urban projects conceived as digital ize the digital public space. High density of uses and
Fig. 21.6 Sketch of One North Master Plan in Singapur, Zaha Hadid Architects, 2001
Fig. 21.7 Milla digital, Zaragoza, 2007. Infography defining the mixture of uses
Fig. 21.8 Media city UK en Salford Quays, Manchester, UK, 2011. Aerial view
activities is more relevant than size, in proportion with the avoiding any kind of zoning. The inclusion of research and
city itself. cultural institutions is an important factor, and even more so
The guiding principle is the diversity of uses, combining the connection between knowledge, innovation and business.
tertiary with residential, retail and public facilities. The grain The district should provide an ICT infrastructure for total
of these uses, as the concept defined by Kevin Lynch (1981), connectivity. It must be highly connected to the rest of the
should be as fine as possible, mixing every activity and city and to the world. A cutting-edge telecommunications
Fig. 21.9 Visualization of Ciudad Creativa Digital of Guadalajara, México, in the city centre and Morelos Park, 2012
network is vital to provide connectivity, to attract talent and been working for a decade so we can find some key factors
economic activity. These networks should be oriented in turn that lead a digital district to success.
to better processes of public participation by the community Political involvement, through a strong commitment by
and to a better understanding of how the city works. local and regional authorities, is fundamental. Public insti-
Sustainability is another requisite. The infrastructure tutions are the only players capable of providing the support
design must give priority to energy efficiency and respon- of cultural, educational and research facilities, such as uni-
sible management of natural resources for the achievement versity and R&D centres, converting the site into an attrac-
of a sustainable district. This also applies to an efficient and tive, creative environment. In this regard, a public–private
green public transport network. The district should also be partnership is also needed between government, real estate
well connected physically with the rest of the city. developers, educational and research institutions and com-
There are other elements that may help the evolution and mitted ICT companies to develop the district.
development of a digital district. The existence of an industrial The aspiration to generate a focused urbanity through
tradition increases the sense of the place as productive. And the knowledge-based economies and producing urban com-
creation of a motor is convenient to activate the momentum for plexity, through the high density of program, must be
the district. This motor could be related to an ICT company, a accompanied by a great quality of public space, as a catalyst
social or cultural institution, or both, located next to a public social cohesion, public commitment and participation. Cul-
space with special significance (Fernández-Ges 2009). tural landmark facilities help to enrich the life of citizens and
attract technological companies and knowledge-based
economy workers (Fernández-Ges 2009).
Key Factors for a Successful Digital District The interaction of all these elements creates synergies and
networks of knowledge between workers and citizens, ulti-
Digital districts are very recent. Many of them are emerging mately forming a ‘living lab’ that boosts the development of
or have just begun to be built. So, it is difficult to evaluate the social and human capital to put the city at a global level
these new urban areas. Nevertheless, some of them have (see Chap. 20).
Case studies The district is conceived and functions as a living lab,

with a cutting-edge telecom network, where the ICT com-
Arabianranta, Helsinki (2001–) panies test their innovations with the local inhabitants. There
are several academic institutions and artistic venues, con-
Located five kilometres north from the city centre of Hel- tributing to the cultural character of the site manifest through
sinki, on an area of 85 ha, Arabianranta is one of the first artistic collaborations in housing development.
European digital districts. There was a former ceramic Arabianranta’s urban design has three linear strips: the
industry on the site that has been reconverted into cultural first strip is near the shoreline of the sea and consists of
and educational facilities, preserving the heritage of the site. collective housing on a slight slope with generous land-
The first master plan from 1992 was promoted by the public scaping; the central strip is occupied by the former
company Arts and Design City Helsinki, Ltd., with 64% industries and public facilities; in the third strip, there are
publicly owned land. The first workers and inhabitants mainly single-family houses. It is characterized by being a
arrived in 2001, quickly growing to 13,000 students, 10,000 mainly residential district, so there is a lack of retail or
residents and 8000 workers in 2010. In the year 2006, there leisure facilities and less density than a typical vibrant
were 300 companies located in the district, two-thirds of urban area.
which were knowledge-based companies and incubators.
22@, Barcelona (2005–) Masdar City, Abu Dhabi (2007–)
The district is located in the former textile industrial zone of Masdar belongs to a new generation of urban developments
the city. The area is a large part of Cerdà´s Eixample (city that combines the characteristics of an advanced ecodistrict
extension) of Barcelona, including 119 blocks of the urban with the concepts and technology of a digital district. It is
grid with an area of nearly 200 ha. A modification of the located in a strategic position, just west of the International
master plan of the city in 1999 increased the buildable sur- Airport in the direction of city centre, and south of other
face to accommodate knowledge activities, called @ activ- large urban developments in Abu Dhabi such as Yas Marina
ities, and more housing. The area should be developed by or Saadiyat Island.
special plans of at least one block, and could include more, Unlike Yas Marina, designed as a luxury resort that
but without broader impact on the whole district. includes different theme parks and a big mall in addition to
The first workers and inhabitants arrived in the year 2005. the marina and Formula 1 circuit, and Saadiyat Island,
By 2008, there were 25,000 students, 32,000 workers, and conceived as a place of luxury residential suburban areas,
1100 companies in the district. A quarter of the companies golf courses and main cultural landmarks, among others a
were related to ICT and around another quarter to companies new Louvre and Guggenheim museums, Masdar focuses on
such as Energy, ICT, Design, TecMed and Media. The area energy efficiency, science and technology.
is expected to have a total of 150,000 workers and 8600 new The master plan was designed by Foster and Partners in
homes. 2007 and the construction of the district began one year later.
The district is contributing to the renewal of an important It covers a total surface of around 600 Ha, and the design
area of the Eastern part of the Barcelona Eixample and the blends concepts of traditional Islamic urban design and
recovery of technological activity in the city, taking advan- architecture, in a compact city of narrow streets. The treat-
tage of its central location in the existing urban grid. The ment of shadows, ventilation and the fragmented layout
project includes the comprehensive renovation of the area, helps to adapt to the severe climate. The Masdar Institute of
with an urban, economic and social program, with many Science and Technology, just built, is the landmark facility,
social and educational projects related to ICT learning. The surrounded by other mixed-use. It is a zero waste and
diversity of plans for each block helps to create a mix of emissions district with a cutting-edge automated transport
housing typologies and social cohesion but also suffers from system that has been designed to link the district to the city
a too heterogeneous design, and a lack of a network of centre. The economic crisis has slowed down its imple-
public facilities. mentation, and it is now due to be completed by 2025.
AA.VV. 2000. Modificació del PGM per la renovació de les àrees Barceló, M., and A. Oliva. 2002. La ciudad digital. Beta Editorial:
industrials del Poblenou. Districte d’activitats 22@ BCN. Pacto Industrial de la Región Metropolitana de Barcelona.
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Zaragoza: MIT School of Architecture and Planning: City Design Form. London: E & FN Spon Press.
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Media Laboratory. scindibles. In Innovación para el empoderamiento de la ciudadanía
Amendola, G. 1997. La cittá postmoderna: Magie e puaure della a través de las TIC, 95–99. Bubok Publishing.
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Batty, M., K.W. Axhausen, F. Giannotti, A. Pozdnoukhov, A. Bazzani, Madrid: Fundación Metrópoli.
M. Wachowicz, G. Ouzounis, and Y. Portugali. 2012. Smart Cities
of the Future. The European Physical Journal Special Topics 214:
481–518. doi:10.1140/epjst/e2012-01703-3.
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Making of 21st Century Industrial Complexes. London-New York:
Routledge.
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The Case of Innovation Hubs. International Journal of Innovation
and Regional Development 1: 371–386. doi:10.1504/IJIRD.2009.
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Fernández-Ges, A. 2009. Are Digital Districts An Answer To The
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Urban Resilience: Towards a Global
Sustainability 22
Pablo de la Cal and Miriam García
Abstract
This chapter analyses the concept of resilience and its influence on the renewal of
disciplines such as urban planning and design. The concept and its ecological framework
deal with the ability of a system to absorb and learn from the disorder it is subject to,
managing to progress without undergoing substantial changes in its structure. The
contemporary literature on regional and community planning and management relates
resilience to other aspects such as flexibility, adaptability, self-management and durability.
Everything seems to indicate that it will play an important role in the future of cities,
especially when facing the uncertain perturbations related to climate change,
de-industrialisation, unemployment, poverty or terrorism. Among other strategies resilient
approaches seek to restore the loss of functionality of natural systems and cultural heritage
in the regions.

Keywords
Resilience Resilient cities Ecology Ecological resilience Resilient world
The concept of resilience emerged in the early twenty-first systems alike, and understood as the ability of a system to
century, as a renewed way of dealing with urban planning absorb and learn from the disorder it is subject to,
and design. It stems from a global context where human managing to progress without undergoing substantial
beings are no longer passive accessories, but are seen as changes in its structure (Holling 1973). Not by chance does
protagonists. Effectively, the concept of resilience is linked the term ‘resilience’ originate from Latin resilio, which
to the awareness that we are living in a geological era means to bounce back.
marked by the action of man on the planet: the Anthro- To a certain extent, resilience is presented as the oppo-
pocene. Nevertheless, at the start of the 1970s, in Resilience site of the concept of vulnerability. Working from the
and Stability of Ecological Systems (1973), the Canadian perspective of resilience means reducing, and even elimi-
ecologist Crawford Holling advanced the idea of ‘ecologi- nating the vulnerability of certain areas and communities. It
cal resilience’, applied to natural systems and social therefore has a physical, social, economic and environ-
mental scope.
In their recent publication on this subject, Brian Walker
and David Salt afford a useful definition of the concept
P. de la Cal (&) ‘resilient world’. To apply it to planning and management of
Urbanism at the School of Engineering and Architecture,
M. García

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_22
228 P. de la Cal and M. García
Fig. 22.1 Adaptive resilient cycle, according to Beatrice Benne in Adaptive Cycles Over CAS Adaptive Process, 2012
Fig. 22.2 View of the ‘multiple stable statuses’ concept. The external conditions influence the resilience of multi-stable ecosystems, affecting
their balance curves to conditions of disorder. Graph published in Scheffer, M., Carpenter, S., Foley, J., Folke, C., Walker, B., et al., Catastrophic
shifts in ecosystems. Nature, 413 (2001): 591–596
22 Urban Resilience: Towards a Global Sustainability 229
space at all scales they advise bearing nine aspects in mind challenges as opportunities to transform our environments
(Walker and Salt 2006, 146): and cities. This has become particularly evident in wealthier,
more densely populated areas, where the impact of natural
• Diversity: A resilient world should promote and sustain phenomena has had greater consequences. Hurricane Katrina
diversity in all forms (biological, landscape, social and caused material damage in New Orleans (USA) in 2005
economic). amounting to more than 80 billion dollars is just one
• Ecological Variability: A resilient world should embrace example, among others such as the floods caused by major
and work with ecological variability (rather than rivers such as the Mississippi in the USA or the Danube in
attempting to control and reduce it). Europe.
• Modularity: A resilient world should consist of modular In this context, we should not forget that the concept of
components. The modular concept refers to the ability to resilience differs from mitigation in that it focuses on cre-
formalise wider structures or systems based on modules ative adaptation, in regenerating a new culture and new
or structured that are connected but not superimposed. processes inherent to the communities and regions through
Each of these modules must be flexible and capable of progressive adaptation. It is not so much about avoiding, but
adapting to external conditions, without the disorder evolving. In other words, a new way of thinking is required,
dragging away the ecosystem as a whole. which Brian Walker and David Salt called ‘resilience
• Acknowledging Slow Variables: A resilient world should thinking’.1 This connects ecological and social systems in a
have a policy focus on ‘slow’, controlling variable more complex, adaptive way. Certain transformations arise
associated with thresholds. In general, these conditions or this way, leading to new circumstances, which in turn pro-
ecological processes are useful to stabilise changes. An vide new benefits. As the same authors describe, it would be
example of this would be the frequency of hurricanes. something like thinking in the farm/farmer/business/region
• Memory: A resilient world should be aware of the par- system as an adaptive system that is constantly changing and
ticularities of its history and act accordingly. For exam- adapting to a world in constant flux. This ability to evolve, to
ple, learning quickly that the loss of coastal wetlands absorb changes, without transforming the essential is what
favours flooding can help us to think about new maintains identity.
strategies. In recent years, the concept of urban or regional re-
• Social Capital: A resilient world should promote trust, silience frequently appears in international bibliographies,
well-developed social networks and citizen involvement and everything seems to indicate that it will play an
in leadership, since resilience is strongly connected to important role in the future (Spirn 2012; Pickett et al.
society’s ability to respond and adapt. 2013). Organisations such as Resilience Alliance, Com-
• Innovation: A resilient world should place an emphasis munity and Regional Resilience Institute, Network on
on learning, experimentation, locally developed rules and Building Resilient Regions are just some examples of
embracing change. associations that promote and study this concept in a global
• Overlap in Governance: A resilient world should have context. Their interest does not lie strictly in the application
institutions that have ‘overlap’ in their governance of the concept to the study of its environmental connota-
structures and a mix of public and private property with tions, but also in the study of the forces that drive urban
shared access rights. ecosystems and which determine their success, contending
• Ecosystem Services: A resilient world should quantify all with factors such as de-industrialisation, unemployment,
the ecosystem services as it develops proposals and poverty or terrorism.
assessments. This need is evident in the coastal planning In view of these problems, particularly if they arise
strategies based on reclassification of wetlands, connection drastically and suddenly, leading to an unexpected crisis
and extent of waterfronts, particularly if the projects have situation, resilience represents the capability of the urban
included leisure use in them. These interventions do not managers to deal with this decline, to adapt to the new sit-
only entail defence against the effects of climate change, uation and to redefine new development. ‘Resilient cities’
but also an improvement in the functionality and ecolog- therefore are superior to others where, in similar circum-
ical diversity, as well as the aesthetics and quality of life. stances, the managers have been unable to adapt to new
More specifically, the contemporary literature on regional

and community planning and management relates resilience
to other aspects such as flexibility, adaptability, self-
1
“A resilient socio-ecological system is a ‘desirable’ state (such as a
productive agricultural or industrial region), has greater capacity to
management and durability. Increasingly frequent natural
continue providing us with the goods and services that support our
phenomena such as hurricanes or flooding have brought to quality of life while being subjected to a variety of shocks” (Walker and
light the need to be ready to adapt and foresee these new Salt 2006, 32).
Fig. 22.3 Calendar of the effects of climate change in the world’s cities published in The Independent, 2013. Climate change will be noticed in
tropical cities in 2038 and in other latitudes by 2053
Fig. 22.4 River Liuyang in Changsha (China). Project author: SWA Group, 2013. Commission: Changsha FuRong Urban Construction
Investment Company. Cross section and perspective view of the new river park
Fig. 22.5 River Liuyang in Changsha (China). Project author: SWA Group, 2013. Commission: Changsha FuRong Urban Construction
Investment Company. Existing conditions and intervention proposal along the river banks. The ‘defence moat’ as a design argument for a river park
conditions that could be used to drive renewed urban rivers and canals, exhausted from over one hundred and
models. forty years of industrial exploitation, required new per-
Obviously, cities that have anticipated this sort of situa- spectives and new rules to rebuild this urban system. The
tions in their management will confront these risks more answer lay in redesigning the industrial containers, reusing
successfully. And so, will do others that have incorporated the transport facilities and introducing new cultural and
ecological infrastructures able to understand ecology as a artistic programs.
technical method to ensure that living forms have their own As a result of this experience in the Ruhr Valley,
life and are able to contribute to keeping habitable envi- internationally there has been a greater commitment to
ronments in good conditions. interventions engaged with specific ecological criteria.
In this sense, the work of over 120 interventions carried There are many examples of recovery of polluted rivers
out between 1989 and 1999 within the framework of the where certain strategies have driven projects adapted to new
International Architecture and Construction Exhibition conditions. The linear park designed by Dlandstudio in the
(IBA) in Emscher Park were pragmatic pioneering examples Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn (New York) (Drake and Kim
for other international activity.2 In this major territorial 2009, 23–28) reinterprets the natural history of the Gowa-
recycling project, the environmental conditions of the urban nus basin as a marshland, proposing a filtering system,
areas, their industrial and mining environments, and the which not only has a cleaning effect based on phytodepu-
ration techniques, but also reproduces the laminar effect of
the former wetlands in this region and their role of pro-
tecting against floods (see case study at the end of this
2 chapter).
See http://en.landschaftspark.de/the-park/evolution/iba.
Fig. 22.6 Cycle lane in Bogota, Colombia. Next to Sao Paolo, Fig. 22.7 Michel Desvigne, proposal for urban development of
Bogota has the largest network of exclusive cycle lanes in any Latin Biesbosch, Holland, where the rivers Rhine and Meuse merge.
American city, implemented at the end of the nineties, and now Rotterdam Biennial, 2005. Aerial photograph
covering over 350 km. Bogota is also known for its intensive use of
public transport, which has drastically reduced the number of cars,
traffic and pollution. Transmilenio, the massive transport system in
The recent action on the Liuyang riverfront in Changsha,
Bogota and Soacha, is a system of rapid transit buses (BRT) in a
closed type corridor system, branch-fed, with a raised platform and China, covering a length of 10 km, has been celebrated
capsule stops where the fare is paid before boarding. Since it was built throughout the professionals (American Society of Land-
in 1998 carbon emissions have been reduced by over 1.7 million scape Architects (ASLA) 2016). The proposal for the
tonnes (only between 2006 and 2009)
riverbanks to mix city and park through a green tapestry
transforms a strictly defensive moat from the river into a
wider riverside park. This strip now provides overflow
In other contexts, resilient approaches try to restore the lagoons and extends a system of green fingers towards the
lost function of natural systems or regional cultural heritage. inner city, interspersed with built-up developments. As a
China offers well-known examples where after periods of result, the city and its residents are reunited with their cul-
exponential growth, local governments changed their attitude tural heritage, based on alliance between the river and the
to the environment. In the case of Quan’an, the combination city with measures of protection familiar to the local
of pollution and the channelling of the Luan and Sanlihe population.
rivers have caused environmental deterioration, increasing At a territorial scale, considering riverbeds from the
the risk of flooding, leading to the appearance of numerous perspective of resilience as urban infrastructure and new
severely degraded areas and seriously affecting life in the ways of inhabiting territory, is gaining an increasingly
city. Local authorities decided to convert the Sanlihe River leading role. The joint work by urban planners, geographers,
into a resilient green river, by substituting the channels that landscape architects, etc., is indispensable to this new
dumped effluent in the river, with a passive, natural system outlook.
leading to an ecological recovery (Turenscape webpage In this sense, the contributions of the French landscaper
2016) (see case study at the end of this chapter). Michel Desvigne are particularly noteworthy. He has
Fig. 22.8 Michel Desvigne, proposal for urban development of Fig. 22.9 Michel Desvigne, proposal for urban development of
Biesbosch, Holland, where the rivers Rhine and Meuse merge. Biesbosch, Holland, where the rivers Rhine and Meuse merge.
Rotterdam Biennial, 2005. Scenario without existing dikes Rotterdam Biennial, 2005. Site of the new residential growth zones
worked on several large-scale projects, which he calls ‘great ‘inverting terms’, he puts forward a new system of land
landscapes’. His proposal for Biesbosch Stad in Rotterdam occupation for the residential expansion of the city. The
in 2005 has been widely published.3 Located at the meeting footprints left behind by the original river beds are now
of the Rhine and Meuse rivers, it is an area of agricultural occupied, designing ‘river bed districts’ that are built over
land exposed to periodic flooding, with a large number of the dikes instead of under them.
dikes that permit cultivating the surrounding areas. The These examples, like many others executed in recent
proposal modifies the dike system, allowing water to flood years, show how resilient thinking responds to the global
into the small river beds again. In this flood-prone area, challenges of urban ecology, (climate change, flooding, air,
Desvigne tries to give space to water and re-naturalise the land and water pollution, production resources, etc.). In
delta, but at the same time seeks a mechanism for the urban short, an unwavering approach in our cities and territories to
growth of Rotterdam in the future. In an exercise of guarantee global sustainability.
3
Proposal submitted to the International Biennale Rotterdam, 2005.
Authors: Michel Desvigne, Bas Smets, Sophie Mourthé and Enrico
Ferrari (Basdevant 2008).
Case Studies The combination caused by pollution and the channelling

of the Sanlihe and Luan rivers brought environmental
Qian’an Sanlihe, Qian’an city ecological corridor, deterioration of the area, increased flood risk and severely
China (2007–2010) degraded areas affecting the quality of life in the city. It was
then that the local council decided to regenerate the Sanlihe
This project in the city of Qian’an, located at the foot of River and convert it in a green, resilient infrastructure,
Mount Yanshan, on the banks of the Luan River, was exe- replacing drains for passive, natural filtration methods,
cuted between 2007 and 2010. The project, covering an area improving ecological quality. At the same time, the river was
of 135 ha, was developed by the Turenscape team. It is an recovered as a leisure area with footpaths and cycle paths.
internationally recognised project that has won several The landscape work carried out on the River Sanlihe has
awards, including the World Architecture Festival, Land- reduced the ecological and social vulnerability of the city,
scape Category Winner, 2011 and the ASLA Honor Award, thus enhancing its resilience. By creating these ecological
2013. and sensory benefits, the projects have catalysed sustainable
development in the entire region.
‘Sponge Park’ in Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn, New strips that work in different situations (heavy rain, medium
York (2008–2015) storm, etc.) help to eliminate the contamination from the
water and the soil, thus improving water quality and
The Gowanus Canal (Kings County, Brooklyn), approxi- increasing animal biodiversity.
mately 3 km long and 30 km wide, was built in the middle Dlandstudio acknowledges the natural history of the
of the nineteenth century for barges and, by the end of the Gowanus basin as marshland and applies resilient thinking
twentieth century, had reached alarming levels of pollution, to reproduce the ‘sponge effect’ and the natural cleaning
both in the water itself and the surrounding land. strategy of wetlands in natural areas, using them effectively
Sponge Park, designed by the Dlandstudio landscaping against flooding. At the same time the plan proposes an
team, owes its name to the filtering system based on phy- urban weaving strategy, connecting adjacent public and
todepuration which features the interaction between selected private land to the water, involving many agents in con-
plants, soil and the organic and inorganic compounds in the struction to design a new type of public space. The project
contaminated land. The overall action of the vegetation and has won numerous awards, including the 2011 AIA (Honor
the underground cisterns, located in three differentiated Award, Regional and Urban Design, 2011).
American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). 2016. https:// Hough, M. 1995. Cities and Natural Process: A Basis for Sustainabil-
www.asla.org/. Accessed September 29. ity. London: Routledge.
Basdevant, M. (ed.). 2008. Intermediate Natures: The Landscapes of Méndez, R. 2012. Ciudades y metáforas: sobre el concepto de
Michel Desvigne. Basel, Boston, Berlin: Birkhäuser Verlag AG. resiliencia urbana. Ciudad y Territorio, Estudios Territoriales,
Drake, S.C., and Y.K. Kim. 2009. Sponge Park, New York City: A vol. XLIV, 215–232.
flexible stormwater management project in Brooklyn to clean up a Mostafavi, M., and G. Doherty (eds.). 2010. Ecological Urbanism.
waterway and improve public access. Topos—The International Cambridge: Harvard University Graduate School of Design—Lars
Review of Landscape Architecture and Urban Design 68: 23–28. Müller Publishers.
Holling, C.S. 1973. Resilience and stability of ecological systems.
Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 4: 1–23. doi:10.1146/
annurev.es.04.110173.000245.
Pickett, S.T.A., M.L. Cadenasso, and B. McGrath (eds.). 2013.
Resilience in Ecology and Urban Design: Linking Theory and
Practice for Sustainable Cities, vol. 3. Future City. Dordrecht:
Springer. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-5341-9.
Spirn, A.W. 2012. Ecological urbanism: A framework for the design of
resilient cities. In Resilience in Ecology and Urban Design, ed.
S. Pickett, M. Cadenasso, and B. McGrath. Dordrecht: Springer
Netherlands.
Turenscape Webpage. 2016. http://www.turenscape.com/. Accessed
October 3.
Walker, B., and D. Salt. 2006. Resilience Thinking: Sustaining
Ecosystems and People in a Changing World. Washington, DC:
Island Press.
Mapping Urbanism, Urban Mapping
23
Raimundo Bambó and Miriam García
Abstract
This text mainly centres on how cartography becomes a research, analysis and creative
prospection tool to develop cities. The text also deals with the evolution of urbanism and
the relationship of cities with nature through its opening to other fields of interest such as
ecology and landscape through improved mapping techniques. In this context, mapping
urbanism has evolved from drawing the morphology of cities to mapping the metabolic
relations among the different elements and agents that build the city. From this cultural
position, mapping urbanism has become an interdisciplinary tool that recognises the
combination of conditions and agents (human and non-human) that intervenes in them. The
selected works feature a series of open maps that reveal aspects, sites and urban
relationships that are unexpected and unexplored thus helping the discipline to evolve.

Keywords
Urban cartography Mapping Landscape urbanism Urban metabolism Resilient
cities
In the field of design, a map is more than a tool to represent Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari identified this issue when
reality; it is a way of answering questions that arise during comparing the idea of a ‘map’ with that of ‘tracing’: “What
the design process and are even an inherent part of the distinguishes the map from the tracing is that it is entirely
process.1 This text focuses primarily on how to think of the oriented toward an experimentation in contact with the real.
city through its cartography or mapping but also deals with The map does not reproduce an unconscious closed in upon
the evolution of urbanism and the relationship of cities with itself; it constructs the unconscious. (…) The map is open
nature. Maps reflect the way societies recognise their envi- and connectable in all of its dimensions; it is detachable,
ronment. The things that are valued, and sometimes even reversible, and susceptible to constant modification”
those that are sensed, are drawn and annotated. That is how (Deleuze and Guattari 2004, 13).
cartography becomes a research, analytic and creative tool. We could, therefore, say that cartography is something
that is constantly evolving, as is the discipline itself. In this
sense, it is perhaps important to emphasise how the opening
1
“To map is in one way or another to take the measure of a world, and of urbanism to other fields such as ecology and landscape
more than merely take it, to figure the measure so taken in such a way has also updated urban mapping techniques.
that it may be communicated between people, places or times” From the cities of the modernist urbanism, conceived as
(Cosgrove 1999, 2).
machines and infrastructure, to the growing contemporary
R. Bambó (&) recognition of cities as landscapes, i.e. as active, dynamic
Urbanism at the School of Engineering and Architecture (EINA), and operational systems, there is an interesting path that can
also be followed through cartography. From this outlook,
when we talk about cities, we are actually addressing the
M. García
uncertainties of socio-ecological systems in the framework
University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain of complex adaptive systems (CAS). In this context, map-
e-mail: [email protected] ping urbanism has evolved from drawing the morphology of

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_23
238 R. Bambó and M. García
Fig. 23.1 Roma interrotta competition, 1978. Urban Collage depicting the proposal by Colin Rowe
cities to mapping the metabolic relations among the different issues centred the architectural debate (Larrumbe 2014),
elements and agents that build the city. As such, mapping opposing the complexity the urban project with the poverty
urbanism has become an interdisciplinary tool that allows of the master plan. Colin Rowe, another of the participants at
society to draw up a new resilient framework from which it the exhibition, had played a key role in the revival of
can tackle the challenges of our century.2 figure/ground techniques for the representation of cities.
The use of mapping processes as operative tools, not only These techniques would be used by other architects such as
for communication but also for urban analysis and design, is Louis Arretche, Michel Mart, Bernard Vitry and Maurice
not recent. In this respect, the case of Pianta Grande di Minosts in the conservation plan of the Parisian district of Le
Roma (1736–48) by Giambattista Nolli is paradigmatic. Far Marais in 1965; Joseph-Paul Kleihues in his project for the
from being limited to drawing the form of the city— Berlin IBA in 1987; or more recently, the British collective
although that itself would have been an advancement com- URBED, using this kind of map as a tool for communication
pared to the usual way of depicting Rome, from a bird’s eye and citizen participation when preparing different urban
view or in perspective—Nolli’s plan suggested a number of proposals (Hebbert 2016).
interesting questions relating to architecture and its context, Beginning with an analysis of the recent evolution of urban
including the definition of public spaces or the variety and mapping, this chapter focuses on contemporary scientific
complexity of its uninhabited landscape (Tice et al. 2016). paradigms that defend cities as nature, as complex,
The Pianta Grande was symptomatically revisited in 1978 self-organised systems. In this way, mapping today centres its
for the Roma Interrotta exhibition, where twelve architects, efforts on conceptualisation and interpretation, beyond purely
including Aldo Rossi, Venturi & Rauch and Michael Graves, formal issues. It pursues recognition of the combination of
among others, designed different proposals for the city based conditions and agents (human and non-human) that intervene
on Nolli’s plan (Graves 1979, 3–4), at a time when these in cities. A city is not only recognised by its ground plan but
also needs complementary, innovative diagrams and nota-
tions to identify items, processes and relationships that are in
2
“(…) the function of mapping is less to mirror reality than to engender
the re-shaping of the worlds in which people live” (Corner 1999, 213).
constant evolution. That is precisely why mapping
23 Mapping Urbanism, Urban Mapping 239
Fig. 23.2 Mapping techniques by Ian McHarg
emphasises the creative and time-developmental agency of the complex site conditions and potentials and the way they
ecology in the formation of urban life as opposed to envis- are inter-related. It develops a “space-time ecology that treats
aging an ideal equilibrium between nature and city. all forces and agents working in the urban field and con-
The evolution of the idea of landscape as a metaphor to siders them as continuous networks of inter-relationships”
rejuvenate urban conditions has been developed in recent (Corner 2006, 30). This type of map works at all scales,
years by maps that show the dynamic quality and the rele- tending bridges between landscape architecture, urban
vance of infrastructural conditions. These also include planning and regional and landscape planning.
social, ecological and performative issues of cities, in order It is clear when researching urban theories and the map-
to develop holistic, contextualised responses which often ping techniques to communicate them that they are products
lead to ongoing planning processes. This model relies of continuity. For example, Ian McHarg’s mapping analysis
heavily on diagrams of phasing, animal and human habitats, techniques are clearly built upon Patrick Geddes’ methods in
planting systems and water systems, attempting to explain for regional planning from several years earlier.
Fig. 23.3 Fresh Kills Park: Life Scape. Staten Island. Draft of plan model, by Field Operations, 2006
Nevertheless, over the past twenty years, there has been a paradigm. Systems that were previously easy to classify and
fundamental paradigm shift within ecological thought. organise are now seen as complex, with undefined boundaries.
Ecosystems, once perceived as being closed and determin- Succession is seen from a probabilistic point of view, rather
istic, attempting to achieve balance and stability, are now than as something predictable: disturbance is understood as
regarded as highly dynamic, open, self-organising, unpre- something inherent to the nature of systems, and humans are
dictable and constantly changing, as an answer and adapta- now considered a part of the system. In this context, mapping
tion to disturbances from urban to regional and global scale. has evolved to include all of this complexity, including the
This has changed the traditional equilibrium paradigm, processes and temporary succession, the status of surface
characterised by the belief that in their natural state ecological areas, the management and operational methods and the col-
systems are looking for balance, and that disturbances are lective imagination. Nowadays, we could say that many of the
caused by forces that are external to the systems. And of implications related to adaptive, ecological thinking for
course, failing to understand that humans are part of the planning design and management of cities and regions are also
system. The influence of the equilibrium paradigm gained based on the ability to map it. In this context, the sixth edition
popularity with the rise of environmentalism in the sixties of the International Architecture Biennial Rotterdam, held on
and can be seen in Ian McHarg’s book Design with Nature 29th of May and 24th August 2014, curated by the Dutch
(1969). Nevertheless, this paradigm began to shift in the architect Dirk Sijmons under the theme Urban by Nature, is
eighties owing to the influence of many factors, including one of the most challenging works regarding mapping
ideas regarding the theory of evolution and natural selection urbanisms (Brugmans and Strien 2014). IABR–2014—Urban
of species. By the seventies, biology and genetics were by Nature—brought attention to the fact that it is only possible
completely incorporated into ecological thinking. to resolve the world’s environmental problems if we resolve
The population approach yielded a statistical and prob- the problems of the city. Considering the city as our ecological
lematic perspective for understanding complex phenomena, environment, analysing its structure and metabolism, under-
whereas ecology increasingly began to recognise the role of standing and using the processes of its material flows, we will
randomness and uncertainty in the world. While equilibrium be able to make the city more resilient, and then be able to
determined the former paradigm, the dynamic, changing nat- contribute to a more sustainable future. To shed light on this
ure of communities and systems characterise the new metabolic function, IABR-2014 focussed on some vital flows:
Fig. 23.4 Kevin Lynch, collective map—or collective image, in the words of its author—of Boston, made from oral interviews with some of its
inhabitants, 1960
energy, fresh water, biomass and food; waste, sand and sedi- These maps can be paired to those of other disciplines,
ment; information and transport of goods and people. These tangential with architecture and urbanism to a greater or lesser
flows affect the daily life of the population, and the functioning extent, aiming to reveal phenomenological and performative
of the urban socio-ecological system as a whole, each of them aspects of the city. Among others, different works by the
being indispensable for the functioning and well-being of the Situationist International in the fifties (Paquot 2010, 51–55;
city. During the exhibition, the study led by FABRIC, a team Wood 2010, 185–200); the Free-Flux tours (1976) or group
consisting of James Corner’s studio Field Operations and walks through forgotten places in Manhattan, organised by
TNO, mapped the results of the study of sustainable urban George Marciunas and the Fluxus group; the municipal
development in Rotterdam, based on metabolism. Nonethe- compositions by John Cage, generated from random graphics
less, all these conditions refer to places, and that is precisely on plans of different cities; or different Land Art interventions
why their mapping is important, since, from the design of the confined to the urban area, such as the work by Robert
landscape and the city, space and time qualities are affected, Smithson A tour of the Passaic monuments, New Jersey
altering not only their visible appearance but also the (1967). Transcending time, activating space and recognising
increasingly important environmental aspect. Cities as land- the ability of new technologies as a meeting point for different
scapes, the landscape as an environment and mapping as a tool communities, distant from each other, is another of the chal-
to read and write new relationships. lenges cities face, and hence, their mapping. The hidden
In addition to these contributions, it is important to potential behind the development of different applications
mention other research that uses mapping techniques based (apps) to connect cultural fabric or activism means that map-
on sensitivity, perception and identity. Kevin Lynch, who ping must be recognised as an open-ended tool and a collective
proposed an urban analysis method in The Image of the City means of communication. The work by Urban Gallery carried
(1960) based on mapping collective perceptions of its out by Raoul Bunschoten and CHORA, belong to this sce-
inhabitants, or Jane Jacobs in The Death and Life of Great nario, as described in one of the following case studies. All of
American Cities (1961), who saw cities as ecosystems that them feature a series of open maps that reveal aspects, sites and
had their own logic and that could be altered through their urban relationships that are unexpected, unexplored and even
use and activation, are two of the most representative repressed, highlighting, as observed by Paul Éluard that there
examples (see Chap. 9). are other cities, and they are in this one.
Fig. 23.5 Guide Psychogeographique de Paris: Discours sur les passions de l’amour, Guy Debord and Asger Jorn, 1956
Fig. 23.6 Plan-score of the composition by John Cage 49 waltzes for the 5 Boroughs, as published in the Rolling Stone magazine in October 1977
Fig. 23.7 Urban Metabolism. 2014 International Architecture Biennale of Rotterdam

Case Studies reveals that they are structured on different levels: Topon-
omy, Basin, Flow and Incorporation, linked to a part of the
Bucharest Plan, Romania (1996) city. The intermittent matching between layers and scales is
carried out through metaphoric stepping-stones that enable
CHORA is a small group of architects headed up by Raoul small implementations to occur and cause changes across all
Bunschoten, who has been linked to the Architectural scales and on other layers. Both of them, the model and the
Association of London. They use the term ‘Chora’ to refer to game, must cope with the precedent and future urban con-
the thresholds between local and global conditions. As ditions of the ‘first skin’ (the physical crust where we live)
James Corner says, Bunschoten is interested in the perfor- and the ‘second skin’ (the different changing conditions and
mative possibilities afforded by cartography to develop or to flows wrapping said skin). “The increasing complexity of the
catalyse future scenarios (Corner 1999, 240–244). second skin calls for the definition of a new practice—and
In the 1996 Bucharest Plan, Bunschoten uses the Black with it a new tool box—for the construction and management
Sea river system as a dynamic model, assuming that the of cities”. In this context, when a part of the city is designated
underlying geomorphology of the earth is related to the as a ‘meta space’ it then becomes an ‘Urban Gallery’, a public
organisational structure of the cultural relations on the sur- fluid space that evolves over time and enables different forms,
face (Bunschoten et al. 2001). A schematic look at the places uses and mechanisms for participation.
Sustainable Development of Rotterdam (2014) development of space. To achieve it, the study and cartog-
raphy were developed at both regional and local levels. This
The city consists not only of elements but also of relation- project is an example of research through design method-
ships and flows between them. Of course, human flows, but ology, where mapping systems, their relationships and flows
also flows of goods, water, heat, energy and information that are the starting point, not only of the design but also of the
are processed, assimilated and valued, which can be con- planning and management of complex urban landscapes.
sidered to be goods or waste, as applicable. This innovative Thinking about urbanism has always entailed thinking in
way of looking at and mapping cities was carried out in 2014 terms of inner worlds, where urban problems were dealt with
by FABRIC, James Corner Field Operations and TNO at the by closing them in. Nevertheless, in today’s era, known as
Atelier Rotterdam Project, not only taking the city into the Anthropocene, the human environment encompasses the
account, but also the entire region, in a search for a series of entire urban landscape, and it is there where urban problems
instruments to achieve the resilient city of the future must be resolved. Cities and their environments are inter-
(Gemeente Rotterdam et al. 2014). connected by flows, and the metaphor of their metabolic
The project uses innovative mapping techniques to functioning makes them more legible. Only by understand-
analyse the different flows through Rotterdam. At the same ing cities in their contexts and learning to use their structures
time, the research focussed on the influence of those flows and metabolisms will it be possible to achieve a more resi-
on the quality of life, and on how they affect the lient future city.
Brugmans, G., and J. Strien (eds.). 2014. IABR 2014 - Urban by Corner, J. 2003. Landscape urbanism. In Landscape Urbanism: A
Nature. Rotterdam: IABR. Manual for the Machinic Landscape, ed. M. Mostafavi, and C.
Bunschoten, R., H. Binet, and T.H. Chora. 2001. Urban Flotsam: Najle, 58–63. London: Architectural Association.
Stirring the City. Rotterdam: 010 Publishers. Corner, J., and A.S. MacLean. 1996. Taking measures across the
Corner, J. 1999. The Agency of Mapping: Speculation, Critique and American Landscape. New Haven - London: Yale University Press.
Invention. In Mappings, ed. D. Cosgrove, 214–252. London: Deleuze, G., and F. Guattari. 2004. A thousand plateaus: capitalism
Reakton Books. and schizophrenia [Mille Plateaux, 1976]. London–New York:
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D. Cosgrove, 1–23. London: Reaktion Books. York: Princeton Architectural Press.
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Waldheim, C. 2006. The Landscape Urbanism Reader. New York:
Princeton Architectural Press.
Urban Voids and ‘in-between’ Landscapes
24
Abstract
The debate on suburban sprawl, dispersed or disseminated cities, etc., is intensifying now in
European cities, at least half a century after it started in North America. Contemporary
cities have created a multitude of situations in which empty spaces are predominant over
filled spaces, compared to what used to be the case of traditional, compact cities. This does
not only happen in the ‘new suburbs’ but also in relatively central or peri-central areas. This
text addresses the issue of vacant urban lots that have appeared in recent decades on the
outskirts of cities because of unprecedented expansion, and it explains the basis for the
space syntax method as a basic tool for quantifying ‘spatial accessibility’.

Keywords

Urban voids Interstitial spaces Underused spaces Vacant lots Residual landscapes
In-between landscapes Middle landscapes Terrain vague
Empty, therefore, as absence, but also with promise, as an

Urban Voids, Inheritance and Opportunity encounter, as a possible space, expectation (…). There is a
for Contemporary Cities second meaning that superimposes ‘vague’ from French, as
vacant. This is from the term vague, from Latin vagus, vague
No man’s land, vacant lots, residual spaces, in-between
also in English, in the sense of indeterminate, imprecise,
landscapes, middle landscapes… terrain vague. The interest
blurred, uncertain (…) are obsolete places where only certain
in understanding and analysing contemporary urban phe-
residual values appear to be maintained despite complete
nomena led Ignasi Solà Morales to reflect on this term,
disaffection from activity in the city. They are, in short,
which he defined as follows:
external, strange places, that are off the circuits of productive
“An area without clear borders, generally unused, difficult
structures. From an economic point of view, industrial areas,
to recognise…”. Like this the author refers to this expression
railway stations, ports, unsafe residential areas, contami-
and its Latin roots: “… vague derived from vacuus, vacant,
nated sites, have become areas where it could be the said the
vacuum in English, i.e. empty, unoccupied; but also, free,
city is no longer found there” (Solà-Morales 1995,
available, unengaged… The relationship between the
181–193).
absence of use, activity, the sense of freedom, of expecta-
The definition by Solà Morales suggests that the creation
tions is fundamental to understanding the evocative potential
of these sites is coherent with the essence of the contem-
that terrain vague has assumed in cities in recent years.
porary metropolis: complex, in permanent evolution, frag-
mentary and ongoing. A subproduct of this contemporary
J. Monclús (&) C. Díez Medina urbanisation in recent decades is the proliferation of urban
School of Engineering and Architecture (EINA), voids. The phenomenon is partly associated with processes
University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain of deindustrialisation that many European and North
American cities have undergone since the last decades of the
C. Díez Medina twentieth century. But it is important to understand that these

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_24
residual or in-between areas are also produced as a result of In-between Landscapes: The Debate on Voids
major urban decentralisation processes that are taking place Created by New Urban Forms
in so many cities, particularly in metropolitan regions.
Decentralisation of production or tertiary activities, and The debate about suburban sprawl, dispersed or dissemi-
residential areas, has led to land and facilities becoming nated cities, etc., is intensifying now in Europe, at least half
abandoned, thus creating empty or unused spaces. Other a century after it began in North America. This phenomenon
unused areas have arisen parallel to the construction of can be explained by the time lag between the processes in
railway lines. Moreover, the urban approach itself, through each continent. European cities did not reach similar levels
zoning mechanisms, creates different areas between urban of motorisation as their pre-WWII North American coun-
sections, ‘vacant’ or ‘reserves’ with low usage rates. terparts until the 1960. In the case of southern European
The immediate question is how a contemporary city can cities, this was even later. And this phenomenon went hand
make sense of these spaces, initially considered as urban in hand with residential suburbanisation, the construction of
voids, banal areas, wasteland, residual landscapes or slag shopping malls and the implementation of industrial and
landscapes. The enormous artistic potential of these areas tertiary activity in the new suburban areas (Monclús 1998).
has been explored by film directors, photographers, sculptors Studies on North American cities have allowed us to
and performance artists, who have found in them the understand the different components of the suburbia phe-
opportunity to delve into visual urban anthropology. Nev- nomenon and the so-called in-between landscapes. The new
ertheless, the responsibility of architecture and urbanism is artefacts that construct the landscapes of cities and their
more committed, with consequences that are not easily suburban areas, either in the form of housing, shopping
reversed. In view of one of the great opportunities in cities centres, work places, infrastructures or motorways, are
today, the challenge consists of finding a suitable response to implemented in the territory creating voids or in-between
the specifics of each site, in the wide range of possibilities landscapes of varying characteristics (Rowe 1991).
from the violence of radical intervention to the conservation Some authors, such as Thomas Sieverts, start off with an
of memory frozen in time. analysis of German cities in order to explore the specific
Fig. 24.1 Wasteland in Berlin, in an area near the Wall. Frame from Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire), directed by Wim Wenders
in 1987
24 Urban Voids and ‘in-Between’ Landscapes 249
Fig. 24.2 Empty space of the Les Halles market in Paris. Frame from Touche pas la femme blanche, directed by Marco Ferreri in 1974
Fig. 24.3 Terrain Vague. Mies van der Rohe, project for Alexanderplatz, Berlin, 1929
Fig. 24.4 Banal areas, wasteland. Intersection in Houston, junction of Fig. 24.5 Shopping malls and car parks. Typical shopping mall in
the interstates 610/1′. Houston, Texas Yorktown, Illinois, USA
decentralisation processes in Europe, which, as is true in North determinant factor. Like other ‘organisms’, cities produce
America, give rise to new urban and metropolitan landscapes. waste that needs to be managed and reused. New terms, such as
He has coined the term ‘Zwischenstadt’, a word whose ‘drosscape’ coined by Alan Berger, refer to the potential of
ambiguity is coherent with the imprecision of the concept he is residual urban areas. In the adapted use of these ‘waste land-
attempting to define: “This Zwischenstadt, which is neither scapes’, Berger sees one of the great challenges that today’s
city nor landscape, but which has characteristics of both nei- urbanism faces, giving architects and urbanists the chance to
ther has a suitable name nor is it concrete.” (Sieverts 2003, 3).1 creatively design space and urban landscapes (Berger 2006).
Sieverts’s neologism, which tries to explain the new realities However, there are also renewed versions associated with the
associated with the logic of urbanisation and suburbanisation, metabolism and the city seen as an ecosystem, with the aim of
is added to many others that have recently appeared: metro- integrating those outlooks in architecture, urbanism and ecol-
polis, exopolis, edge city, post-suburbia, post-metropolis, ogy landscape (Mostafavi and Doherty 2010).
rurbanisation, peri-urbanisation, city sprawl, dispersed city,
metapolis, hypercity… Sieverts avoids aligning with those
who condemn the ‘cancerous’ growth of cities or those who Representation of Empty Spaces
uncritically hail the ‘fractal wealth’ and the ‘anarchic
dynamics’ of Zwischenstadt (Sieverts 2003, 49). His reflec- Contemporary cities have created a multitude of situations in
tion on the subject entails a major effort to make it intelligible, which empty spaces are predominant over filled spaces,
confronting disintegrated cities with the social and cultural compared to what used to be the case of traditional, compact
problems burdening them, and those are part of their essence. cities (C. Rowe and Koetter 1978) . This does not only happen
His contribution to the debate, both analytical and purposeful, in the ‘new suburbs’ but also in relatively central areas. The
affords new interpretations and perspectives for projects. choice of the most suitable mapping and cartography systems
Some of the most novel aspects of the recent debate stem to represent a specific reality is fundamental when exploring
from the increased awareness of the environment and land- the complexity of cities and responding to the questions they
scape. On the one hand, these new attitudes have served to put forward. Maps are much more than a representational
channel criticism of the waste resulting from the exponential tool; they help us to think and plan cities (see Chap. 23). In
increase in the consumption of suburban, natural or agricultural order to understand the current ‘emptying’ processes of city
land, with the subsequent abandonment or underuse of urban centres, and particularly the new suburbs, simple represen-
areas. In this sense, becoming aware of this rapidly growing tations of ‘empty’ and ‘full’ can be very expressive. The
situation, for some practically irreversible, has also been a well-known system of ‘figure/ground’, so important since
Baroque times, and which Colin Rowe converted into a key
technique in the 1960 to represent the understanding of urban
1
It is significant the difference between the translations of the term space, permits a more immediate reading of the empty spaces
Zwischenstadt (literally ‘city in-between’): ‘Cities without cities’ in the created by contemporary cities than traditional cartography or
English edition, ‘paisajes intermedios’ in the Spanish edition, whereas
representations by the Italian morpho-typology architecture.
in the text in both editions the expression ‘intermediate cities’ is used.
Sieverts means the concept in the sense of ‘urban periphery’ or In 1970, Kleihues prepared an atlas on the morphological
‘urbanised countryside’ (Sieverts 2003, 88). history of the Charlottenburg and Kreuzberg districts of
Fig. 24.6 Offices and car park (18,000 parking places on 140 ha). Fig. 24.7 Suburbia and in-between landscapes. West Coast 1, South
National Security Agency (NSA), Maryland, USA Africa, 2015. Photograph by Matthew Niederhauser & John Fitzgerald
Berlin, using ‘figure/ground’ representation to show the loss task to bring up the real world rather than to let it be for-
of urban fabric. And when he was commissioned to take gotten. I think film wasn’t really invented for that, but instead,
charge of the Internationale Bauausstellung (IBA) in Berlin in to point out the real world” (Wenders 1988, 70). He also
1984 to commemorate the 750th anniversary of the city, the refers to the magic of empty plots in Berlin. “I think the most
comprehensive map showing all the interventions was also extraordinary thing about Berlin is that it still contains these
made using this technique. Some recent representations of the little wild areas (…) Potsdamer Platz used to be fantastic.
city, such as the Schwarzpläne, continue to use the still valid Now they’ve laid out green areas—everywhere—they’ve
figure/ground technique. ‘prettied it up’, it’s nothing, there isn’t anything there any-
Despite the visual effectiveness and immediateness of the more. Before, it was a kind of ‘wilderness’. I don’t believe
figure/ground system, graphic simplification by definition anyone will ever be able to make any city council understand
omits other aspects intrinsic to urban history referring to issues that from an urbanistic point of view, the most attractive parts
as important as property, power, social status, uses, traffic or of the city are precisely those areas where nobody has ever
culture.3 In fact, the figure/ground technique appears to reach done anything. I believe a city, by definition, wants to have
its limits when attempting to depict contemporary cities. something done in those areas. That is the tragedy” (Wenders
“However, this method of imposing and interpreting structure 1988, 70). Wenders, like so many other directors and pho-
while representing the figure-background seems to reach its tographers, recognises the value of those places, due not only
limits when dealing with the modern semi-urban reality. (…) to their availability as strategic territory for transformation. In
The new city can no longer be interpreted with the resources of view of the excessively pragmatic outlooks, which more
the existing city or architecture, but we must start again often than not end up filling in these voids, the vision of the
effectively from zero, with the subconscious…”.4 It is there cinema and photography help to preserve the memory of
where photography and cinema give us richer, more complex those sites in the collective imagination.
views. The case of cinema directors such as Wim Wenders is
paradigmatic. In an interview by Hans Kollhoff, Wenders
stated he was aware of that commitment: “Film as the The Value of Voids: Challenges and Debates
absolute art form of the XX century has the more important on the New Forms of Urbanity
The future of cities, particularly, but not exclusively, in

2
In the previous decade, Rowe had co-founded with Robert Slutzky the Europe, depends on considering the multiple variables that
group Texas Rangers at Texas University. Their interest was to research must be appropriately analysed with the view to defining
the exterior space and how this could be represented ‘digged’ or
‘carved’ in the solid mass of the façades.
urban strategies and decision-making. Along these lines,
3
“Figure-ground imagery is parsimonious. Its simplification of the city to managing urban spaces is one of the major challenges that
a pattern of solids and voids omits all the variables of interest to social today’s urbanism faces. Instead of simply understanding
science—ownership, power, status, human agency, gender, exchange, them as a problem, we have to assess the opportunities they
mobilities. Also missing are aesthetics, visual culture, skyline domi-
offer in order to improve the structure of our urban land-
nance, likewise biosphere and ecosystem variables.” (Hebbert 2016).
4
Neumeyer, “Im Zauberland der Peripherie: Das Verschwinden der scape. The possibilities afforded by innovative techniques of
Stadt in der Landschaft”, quoted in Sieverts (2003, 88–89). representation, such as advanced cartographic recognition,
Fig. 24.8 Zwischenstadt. Area under development at Gelsenkirchen-Bismark, Ruhr area, Germany, 2011
permit systematising the options for dealing with metamorphosis of cities.6 Clearly, most major urban trans-
urban voids. formation is taking place both in those ‘inner’ voids and in
One of the major resources for regenerating contemporary the new ‘suburbs’, as these places afford excellent oppor-
cities consists of activating and recovering degraded, obso- tunities. And that, to quote Sieverts once again, requires a
lete areas that are spread throughout cities, from the con- serious rethinking of the type of urbanism capable of dealing
solidated urban fabric to the suburbs. More and more with these issues. Ignorance or failing to understand those
projects are intended to recover obsolete environments, processes by limiting efforts to ‘occupying’ urban voids can
including urban voids. Tenders of the scale of the one called simply be a way of neglecting the problem. It is imperative
in 2006 by the Van Alen Institute and the Association of to pay attention to these new realities if we want to minimise
Urban Parks in Philadelphia, with the objectives of working the environmental costs and control the suburban sprawl, in
on over 40,000 ‘vacant’ areas in the city, are proof of its addition to considering the possibility of new ways of
relevance. Participants were encouraged to send in proposals urbanity, beyond traditional forms.
to provide long-term solutions inspiring change and con-
tributing to restructuring and rethinking the landscape of the
entire city.
The pressure of the increasing ecological awareness,
along with the appearance of the new concept of cultural
urban landscape, can illustrate that the challenges are not
necessarily ‘filling’ all the urban voids, but acknowledging
that there are different situations that need to be valued and
clarified (Berruete 2015).
5
Whichever the case, as Manuel Castells rightly suggests, According to Castells, the spatial dimension of networks expresses
itself in the space of flows, unlike what is meant by space of places.
it is necessary to delve deeper to understand the sites and 6
“Outside, in the real world, the ‘art planner’ spreads Junkspace’s
their flows and identities (Castells 1996).5 Specialist litera- fundamental incoherence by assigning defunct mythologies to residual
ture provides some interesting reflections by authors who, surfaces and plotting three-dimensional works in leftover emptiness.
like Rem Koolhaas, pay attention to the evolution and Scouting for authenticity, his or her touch seals the fate of what was
real, taps it for incorporation in Junkspace” (Koolhaas 2002, 189).
Fig. 24.9 Plan and aerial views of the general layout of Zaragoza, representing the existing voids in outlying areas
Case Studies The Potsdamer Platz urban renovation projects in the

1920—as commented by Franz Hessel in Spazieren in Berlin
Potsdamer Platz, Berlin (1990–2000) (Walking in Berlin 1929)—such as Martin Wagner’s from
1929, aimed to reconcile the demands of urban traffic with
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the urban voids in the intention of creating modern public spaces through new
Berlin played a starring role in urban development, making forms of open composition. Conversely, the recent inter-
this an exceptional case. The city, paradoxically, became a vention in this area is conceived for an urban void that had
top-level urbanistic laboratory, and at the same time sub- lasted since the bombings as a desolate area without any use
stantially changing the outlook by the IBA of 1987 (see for nearly five decades. The competition in 1991 (encom-
Chap. 9). Berlin had actually been the test site for modern passing Potsdamer Platz and Leipziger Platz) is included in
urbanism in the early decades of the twentieth century, the strategy of reconstruction of the metropolis in the
particularly in some of the emblematic sites such as framework of globalisation and the growing significance of
Alexander Platz or Potsdamer Platz, although none of the the real estate sector, in line with the trends characterising
projects actually materialised. major ‘global cities’ such as London, Paris and New York.
Major private investors, such as Daimler-Benz or Sony,
bought the plots and built a new centre. The winning project,
by Heinz Hilmer and Christoph Sattler, served as the basis
for the Building Plan and likewise was the basis for a second
tender, the International Execution Tender, called by
Daimler-Benz AG in 1992.
Now Factory Creative Office Park, Jiading, establish connections between urban fragments between
Shanghai (2011–2014) existing infrastructures and centres. Some of the most
innovative projects are those carried out by URBANUS,
The rapid urbanisation processes in China in recent decades far with offices in Shenzhen and Beijing. In addition to the
surpass the speed of development of European and North projects developed in that pilot city and economic engine of
American cities, although perhaps not so far removed from the the Pearl River Region, Now Factory is a renovation project
dynamics associated with nineteenth century industrialisation on the outskirts of Jiading, an ancient city located to the
in the West. The quantity and speed of construction has also northeast of Shanghai. The project aims to give cultural
created a significant number of urban voids. Although the vitality to an area of textile industries where the over-
general image of Chinese cities could appear to be chaotic and density of the factories is converted into museums, mar-
‘generic’ (in the sense of Koolhaas), certain urban projects kets, central plaza and public areas. In addition to opening
indicate new forms of efficiency, vitality and renewed urbanity. up existing structures to achieve urban integration, four
‘Urban infill’ is a strategy that is being used more and large containers are added as the venue for different
more to activate wasteland or obsolete areas, and to activities.
Berger, A. 2006. Drosscape: wasting Land Urban America. New York: Ábalos, I. 2009. Naturaleza y artificio: el ideal pintoresco en la
Princeton Architectural Press. arquitectura y el paisajismo contemporáneos. Barcelona: Gustavo
Berruete, F. 2015. Vacíos urbanos en la ciudad de Zaragoza Gili.
(1975–2010). Oportunidades para la estructuración y continuidad Bélanger, P. 2010. Redefining infrastructure. In Ecological Urbanism,
urbana. Madrid: Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. ed. M. Mostafavi and G. Doherty, 332–349. Cambridge: Harvard
Castells, M. 1996. The Information Age: Economy, Society and University Graduate School of Design—Lars Müller Publishers.
Culture. Volume I: The Rise of the Network Society. Oxford— García Vázquez, C. 2000. Berlín Potsdamer Platz: Metrópoli y
Malden: Blackwell Publishing. arquitectura en transición. Barcelona: Arquia.
Hebbert, M. 2016. Figure-ground: History and Practice of a Planning Neumeyer, F. 1995. Im Zauberland der Peripherie: Das Verschwinden
Technique. Town Planning Review 87: 705–728. doi:10.3828/tpr. der Stadt in der Landschaft. In Die verstädterte Landschaft Ein
2016.44. Symposium, 31–44. München: Aries.
Koolhaas, R. 2002. Junkspace. Obsolescence. A special issue: Solà-Morales, I. de. 1996. Presente y futuros. La arquitectura en las
175–190. ciudades. In Presente y futuros. Arquitectura en las grandes
Monclús, J., ed. 1998. La ciudad dispersa. Barcelona: CCCB. ciudades, 10–23. Barcelona: Collegi Oficial d’Arquitectes de
Mostafavi, M., and G. Doherty, ed. 2010. Ecological Urbanism. Catalunya—Centre de Cultura Contemporània.
Cambridge: Harvard University Graduate School of Design—Lars Solà-Morales, M. de. 2006. Centralitat simulada, centralitat dissimu-
Müller Publishers. lada: Plaça Lesseps, Plaça Europa. Quaderns 249: 54–59.
Rowe, C., and F. Koetter. 1978. Collage City. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press. Trienal de Arquitectura de Lisboa. 2007. Vazios Urbanos. Lisboa:
Rowe, P.G. 1991. Making a Middle Landscape. Cambridge: M.I.T. Caleidoscopio.
Press.
Sieverts, T. 2003. Cities without cities: an interpretation of the
Zwischenstadt [Zwischenstadt, 1998]. London: Spon Press.
Solà-Morales, I. de. 1995. Terrain Vague. In Anyplace, ed. C. Davidson,
118–123. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press.
Wenders, W. 1988. La ciudad: conversación entre Wim Wenders y
Hans Kollhoff/The city a conversation between Wim Wenders and
Hans Kollhoff. Quaderns 177: 42–78.
Part IV
Landscape Urbanism
“The promise of landscape urbanism is the development of a space-time ecology that treats all forces and agents
working in the urban field and considers them as continuous networks of inter-relationships.”
James Corner, “Terra Fluxus”, in C. Waldheim (ed.), The Landscape Urbanism Reader, 30.
From Urban Planning to Landscape
Urbanism 25
Javier Monclús
Abstract
This chapter provides a general outline of the emergence of landscape urbanism from texts
and past and recent projects, and highlights how the convergence between the ecological
paradigm and landscape tradition in urban planning and architectural culture is behind what
is known as landscape urbanism, where discourses and comprehensive strategies converge,
and in which the landscape takes the role of the main organiser, ahead of architecture.

Keywords
Ecological landscape Landscape urbanism Ecological urbanism Landscape projects
In his landmark text The Culture of Cities (1938), Lewis urbanism and the field of landscaping. Corner himself
Mumford offered one of the most expressive, intense visions acknowledges the factors that are at the base of this renewed
about relationships between nature and cities: “The city is a attention to landscape in recent years.
fact in nature, like a cave, a run of mackerel or an ant-heap. “The reappearance of landscape in the larger cultural
But it is also a conscious work of art … With language itself, imagination is due, in part, to the remarkable rise of envi-
it remains man’s greatest work of art” (Mumford 1996, 5). It ronmentalism and global ecological awareness, to the
is interesting to compare and contrast that vision with the growth of tourism and the associated needs of regions to
one by James Corner, a contemporary landscape architect retain a sense of unique identity, and to the impacts upon
who played a leading role in the Landscape Urbanism rural areas by massive urban growth. But landscape also
movement: “Cities and infrastructure are just as ‘ecological’ affords a range of imaginative and metaphorical associations,
as forests and rivers” (Corner 2006, 29). especially for many contemporary architects and urbanists”
(Corner 2006, 23).
From Frederick Law Olmsted’s vision at the middle of the
Landscape Urbanism nineteenth century, to Patrick Geddes Regional Planning in
the first decades of the twentieth century, on to the ‘urbanistic
Thinking about infrastructures as ‘ecological’ elements, regionalism’ of the Regional Planning Association of
whether forests or rivers, could be an exaggeration and America (RPAA, with Mumford, Geddes’ disciple at the
perhaps a little provocation, particularly among urban ecol- head), or the visions of certain architects and urban planners
ogists. Is this a change in paradigm or a ‘re-appearance’ and attentive to landscape (Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Hil-
reinterpretation of Mumford and those others who focussed berseimer, etc.), to designs by Ian McHarg and the North
their urbanistic and landscaping proposals on harmonic American school of Ecological Landscape Planning after the
integration of cities and nature? Despite the trend to present sixties (McHarg 1969), it is not hard to recognise the advance
the Landscape Urbanism movement as an original approach, of the organic, environmental paradigm. Along parallel lines,
it can be linked to well-consolidated traditions in the field of from the field of architecture, we also find some convergence
with ‘critical regionalism’ by Kenneth Frampton, or even in
the Rem Koolhaas’s questioning of contemporary program-
J. Monclús (&)
matic architecture (Thompson 2012). When the North
University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain American regionalists started to jointly consider the urban
e-mail: [email protected] and landscape dimensions of cities more comprehensively,

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_25
260 J. Monclús
Fig. 25.1 Patrick Geddes, The valley section, 1915
both were already sufficiently established in some major formation and transformation of urban metabolism. In short,
North American cities (Luccarelli 1995). This was no less the hybrid nature of contemporary cities means a transversal,
true in other urban fields that had seen themselves trans- integrating outlook is required to understand them. And at the
formed in the second industrial era at the start of the twentieth same time, projects that pay more attention to processes
century. In recent times the key terms have changed: accel- rather than end scenarios, as has been the case in traditional
eration of urban growth and increasing environmental architecture, including landscape architecture.
awareness are calling for new integrated approaches that not Landscape Urbanism still has a little way to go until it
only tackle urbanistic and landscape aspects, but also city becomes a kind of sub-discipline, distinct from planning and
growth and transformation processes. These have led to urban projects and from landscaping and landscape archi-
complex urban realities that require renewal of forms, par- tecture, although the factors comprising the basis of the
ticularly as a result of the suburban sprawl processes and the process are fairly clear: on the one hand the rise of envi-
formation of ‘new suburbs’ and other factors behind the ronmentalism and awareness of global ecology; and also the
Fig. 25.2 Patrick Geddes, city/countryside integration diagrams, in Fig. 25.3 Kevin Lynch, diagrams and organic models: radial growth
Cities in Evolution, 1915 and green belts, in A Theory of Good City Form, 1981
25 From Urban Planning to Landscape Urbanism 261
specific phenomena of suburban sprawl, with the consequent

consumption of rural land and transformation of natural
reserves. Moreover, other processes related to the growth of
tourism and the proliferation of ‘genetically modified’
landscapes (Domingues 2013) are also determining factors.
Ecological Landscape Planning and Ecological

Urbanism
Although attitudes towards the landscape based on visual

criteria should not be belittled—some related to notions of
the picturesque or Townscape, present in the work of Gor-
don Cullen or Kevin Lynch—and nor the renewed interest in
Landscape Design, it is true that they have paid less attention
to the environmental aspects of the landscape (Gregotti Fig. 25.4 Ludwig Hilberseimer, The City in the Landscape, 1944
1966; Jellicoe and Jellicoe 1975; Ábalos 2009). At the same
time, it is important to acknowledge the existence of a
powerful landscape tradition that seeks a better relationship
between built object and nature, a culture that dates back to
the nineteenth century with Olmsted and Mumford, sub-
stantially renewed in McHarg’s work. McHarg’s approach is
fundamental in the emergence of Ecological Urbanism,
which is not so different from ‘ecological landscape plan-
ning’, set forth in his book Design with Nature (1969), an
essential work for the contemporary landscaping culture.
The point of departure here is different from the architectural
tradition, whereas its continuity with North American land-
scaping is clear. “The idea of ‘wilderness’, inherent to North
American culture, affords a different substrate for adhesion
to natural phenomenon, stronger and closer to a compre- Fig. 25.5 Ernst May and Leberecht Migge (landscape architect),
Römerstadt, Nidda Valley, Frankfurt am Main, 1929
hensive interpretation of the landscape” (de las Rivas 2013).
It is not by chance that it is the USA where the different
‘landscaping disciplines’ have been most developed, different disciplines to tackle complex urban situations, with
including landscape planning, landscape ecology, landscape growing emphasis on infrastructures. As will be seen in the
architecture, landscape design, landscape urbanism. following chapters, green and grey infrastructures tend to be
The convergence of ecology and the landscaping tradition integrated in new urban and landscape projects. Many of the
in urbanistic and architectural culture is the basis of landscape most outstanding recent urban projects, whether or not they
urbanism. Some authors, in fact, such as Charles Waldheim, are qualified as landscape urbanism, are related to integrating
insist that “landscape suplants architectural’s historical role as infrastructure landscapes or ‘roadscapes’ in new metropolitan
the basic building block of urban design” (Waldheim 2006, landscapes (a discourse present in Rem Koolhaas’s projects) ,
37). And while these may be slogans aimed at promoting less which is not far removed from certain visions and strategies
conventional points of view, the blurring together of these two put forward by Mumford in the middle of the 20th century, The
traditions is obvious. As James Corner states, among the Highway and the City (1968), where the author reflects on the
renewed directions seen in landscape architecture and urban- role played by highways.
ism, many are simply extensions or new formulae of central Since the end of the twentieth century, there has been a
subjects of these disciplines: place, geometry, relationships marked increase in new paradigms and approaches with a wide
between urbanisation and nature (Corner 1999, 22). In fact, inter-disciplinary field and landscaping. They are actually
what these more recent landscape urbanism visions confer, as combinations of existing disciplines and traditions: ecology,
the meeting point between ecology, engineering, design, environmental science, architecture, landscape studies, and
programming and other relevant strategies for integration, is ecological design. In any case, despite the convergence
greater concern for the quality of the new metropolitan land- between national traditions, there is a certain degree of con-
scapes. This entails a search for mutual benefit between the trast between Anglo-Saxon, Central European and Southern
262 J. Monclús
Fig. 25.6 Ian L. McHarg, The great valley, 1969
Fig. 25.7 Michel Corajoud and Renzo Piano, landscape project on the banks of the Rhône river and Cité Internationale. Lyon, 1991–2001
Fig. 25.8 Enric Batlle and Joan Roig, Trinitat traffic noce, Barcelona, 1990–93
Fig. 25.9 Elías Torres and José Antonio Martínez Lapeña, 2004 Forum site and surrounding area. Barcelona, 2004. Master plan
European urbanistic culture. In the former, the specific weight exploited, provide welcome new landscapes. These are
of a more deeply-rooted landscaping tradition can be seen, regeneration processes that go far beyond simple episodes of
whereas in the latter, the recent landscaping projects are more technical renewal. All of them reveal the potential for
closely associated with urban projects. Bearing in mind the working on desolate, industrially obsolete landscapes. From
complex processes of cultural and methodological natures strictly technical work, such as converting embankments to
that form the basis of different attempts at integrating urban- work of a more artistic nature, widely documented in Land
ism and ecology, these differences seem inevitable. Art, all of this contributes to re-qualifying and rebuilding
obsolete landscapes. As some authors point out, in the end
the most important thing is working on the void, where the
Remaking Landscapes with Landscape object disappears to become topography; and where the
Projects layout of the existing landscape is intensified to give way to
‘landscape infrastructures’ that comprise the support for new
Under the title Remaking Landscapes, the International transformations which aren’t easily determined with con-
Biennial of Landscape Architecture was held in 1999 ventional planning tools.
focusing on work with existing landscapes, developed land This type of integrating action is especially convincing in
or urban voids (brownfields) (AA.VV. 2000). In discus- some projects where deteriorated environments have been
sions, the processes involving the destruction of natural recovered. This is the case of the successful projects by
landscapes through mining/quarrying activities were shown Field Operations or other North American studios, whether
to lead to another type of environment, in visual, functional in strictly urban environments, such as the renewal of
and aesthetic aspects. Different types of quarries provoke obsolete railway infrastructure, namely the High Line in
processes of destruction and construction of specific land- New York, or at a territorial scale, Freshkills Landfill Park,
scapes. In some cases, the quarried landscapes are converted an abandoned dump, also in New York (Staten Island) .
in aesthetically pleasing elements, which, when suitably Freshkills had an extremely important local precedent,
264 J. Monclús
Fig. 25.10 Elías Torres and José Antonio Martínez Lapeña, 2004 Forum site and surrounding area. Barcelona, 2004. Aerial view
Fig. 25.11 Hamburg, IBA-IGA 2013. A paradigmatic series of intervention where urbanistic and landscape visions are integrated
Flushing Meadows Park, which was carried out from the have led to integrating visions. A new attitude towards
thirties to the sixties (with two international fairs in nature that both Landscape Urbanism or the ‘greener’ ver-
between). sions of Ecological Urbanism (Mostafavi and Doherty 2010,
Rather curiously, along with the abundance of professional 210) try to tackle at different scales, from open spaces ‘be-
and academic publications concerning examples in North tween buildings’ to infrastructures and territorial scale work,
America, which specifically appear linked to these new where many factors are taken into consideration. In short,
visions, there are many European projects of urban renewal, both Landscape and Ecological Urbanism try to overcome
or integrated infrastructures, that are not formally related to the classical dichotomy between city and nature through
those movements, yet serve as important references at dif- integrating strategies in which time processes play an
ferent scales. The most notable, spectacular example is essential role.
undoubtedly the reconversion project associated with the One of the challenges in renewing deteriorated areas
Internationale Bauausstellung IBA of Emscher Park (1989– entails successfully designing the landscaping to the appro-
99) (case study 1). It is interesting to point out the coexistence priate scale and territorial scope. Moreover, it is necessary to
and structuring of major projects and occasional work at this understand and manage sectoral as well as specific projects
point, such as the case of Landschafstpark Duisburg-Nord, in in a coordinated fashion. Macro or micro-urbanism,
Duisburg, which is part of an ambitious renewal project of remaking the landscape, regenerating suburban areas: it is all
abandoned industrial and mining land on an 80 km stretch of about discovering the regeneration possibilities of degraded
the Emscher river. Certain infrastructure integration or areas that could be recovered through the implementation of
renewal projects of deteriorated environments in Europe small projects with a global vision, associated with actions
could also be considered paradigmatic examples of Land- that serve catalysts for these urban and landscape improve-
scape Urbanism. Different Dutch landscape urbanism projects ment processes.
(Adriaan Geuze/West 8, Patrick Schumaker, Alex Wall, etc.) Indeed, the most important challenge of landscape
were already important references at the ‘foundational’ urbanism is the requisite convergence and integration in
Landscape Urbanism fair held at University of Illinois in urban planning. This is a process that can be approached in
Chicago, in 1997. The ring-roads of Barcelona, the Trinitat two, complementary ways: either by including the instru-
Park, designed at a major highway intersection, or the renewal ments in more flexible urbanism, more aware of landscape
of the Garraf landfill site, also in Barcelona, both projects by components, or, ensuring more standard landscaping, not so
the architects Batlle i Roig, are other successful examples dependent on singular, exceptional landscaping projects. The
widely acclaimed in international literature (case study 2). task is so broad and complex that both perspectives are
We could therefore say that at the dawn of the twentieth likely to be required to develop the necessary strategies in
first century, there is a coexistence and convergence of dif- these unavoidable processes of remaking old and new urban
ferent urbanistic and landscape discourses and strategies that and metropolitan landscapes.
266 J. Monclús
Case Studies Landscape Park, consisting of more than 200 smaller pro-
jects, all of them complementary to reconverting what was
IBA Emscher Park, Ruhr Region, Germany once an ‘open air sewer’ in a new restored landscape (with
(1989–1999) horizon in 2020). A hundred projects, encompassed in an
integrating Master Plan, with specific objectives and dead-
The IBA Emscher Park materialised in the industrial region lines, defined the urban and landscape renewal process.
of Emscher in Germany, in the heart of the Ruhr region, Abandoned industrial areas were reconverted in spaces for
characterized until the 1970s, by inhospitable, polluted coal new production or recreational activities, and tourism.
mining landscapes. The enormous scope of intervention Housing was also built, and other buildings were restored.
covers 17 towns, in an area 70 km long and 15 km wide, Half of the projects driven in this initiative were developed
where a multitude of urbanistic and landscaping themes were in Emscher Landscape Park.
engaged in an absolutely novel way. In the 90s the Emscher Park IBA was the paradigm of
It was in this context that a formidable landscape urban, landscape and environmental renewal. Although the
recovery operation took place, which was carried out project was implemented in the Ruhr region of Germany, it
through a number of projects which were also urban also had substantial implications for other urbanised terri-
renewal projects. The project was named Emscher tories in Europe.
Garraf Landfill Site, Barcelona (2001–) This project is greatly indebted to the landscape project by
the architects Enric Batlle and Joan Roig, along with Teresa
Along landscape and ecological urbanism lines, strategies Galí, an agricultural and landscape engineer, author of many
and projects have been carried out in Barcelona aimed at projects encompassed in so-called ‘landscape urbanism’.
recovering derelict areas that are now showing their true The Garraf project integrates different technical solutions
landscape potential. One of them is the former landfill site to for closing and sealing the landfill site, resolving the com-
the south of the city in Garraf (Vall d’en Joan), where a large plex technical problems related to this kind of action:
amount of the Barcelona’s residues and garbage were unstable terrain, a new leaching treatment plant, and also a
deposited. The poor location of a landfill site in a karstic bio-gas power plant. It is important to point out that the
zone caused contamination of the aquifers as well as several objective of the project was not full recovery of the landfill
ravines, which moved the authorities to act. The multi- site, i.e. returning it to its original status, which would have
disciplinary technical team that undertook this recovery been an impossible task. It was understood rather as a
work, combined environmental engineering, geology, land- restorative process, taking advantage of the singular, pow-
scape architecture and agronomy, to create this new place. erful environment of the nature park where it was located.
268 J. Monclús
AA.VV. 2000. Rehacer paisajes/Remaking landscapes. Catálogo de la Monclús, J. 2011. Paradigmas urbanísticos y proyectos integrados.
1a Bienal del paisaje 1999. Barcelona: Fundación Caja de Entre el urbanismo arquitectónico y el ecourbanismo paisajístico. In
Arquitectos. Proyectos integrados de arquitectura, paisaje y urbanismo, ed.
Ábalos, I. 2009. Naturaleza y artificio: el ideal pintoresco en la J. Monclús (dir.) and R. Sánchez Lampreave, 42–59. Zaragoza:
arquitectura y el paisajismo contemporáneos, ed. I. Ábalos. Institución Fernando El Católico.
Barcelona: Gustavo Gili. Monclús, J. 2012. Repensar Canfranc desde el urbanismo paisajístico y
Corner, J. (ed.). 1999. Recovering Landscape: Essays in Contemporary los paisajes culturales. In Repensar Canfranc. Taller de rehabil-
Landscape Architecture. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. itación urbana y paisaje 2012, ed. J. Monclús, B. López-Mesa, and
Corner, J. 2006. Terra Fluxus. In The Landscape Urbanism Reader, ed. P. de la Cal, 14–27. Zaragoza: Institución Fernando El Católico -
C. Waldheim, 21–33. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza.
de las Rivas, J.L. 2013. Hacia la ciudad paisaje. Regeneración de la Monclús, J. 2013. En la frontera: proyectos urbanos y urbanismo
forma urbana desde la naturaleza/Towards the landscape city. Urban paisajístico. In Sesiones internacionales de arquitectura y ciudad
regeneration from nature. Urban NS05: 79–93. 2012. Paisaje urbano y paisajismo contemporáneo, ed. C. Díez
Domingues, Á. 2013. Paisagens Transgénicas/Transgenic Landscapes. Medina and L.C. Pérez Moreno, 64–73. Prensas de la Universidad
ZARCH: Journal of interdisciplinary studies in Architecture and de Zaragoza.
Urbanism 1: 14–35. Monclús, J. 2014. El Proyecto LIFE + Teruel como estrategia de
Gregotti, V. 1966. Il territorio dell’architettura. Milan: Feltrinelli. regeneración urbana e integración paisajística/The Teruel LIFE+
Jellicoe, G., and S. Jellicoe. 1975. The landscape of man: Shaping the Project as an Urban Regeneration and Landscape Integration
Environment from Prehistory to the Present Day. London: Thames Strategy. In LIFE + TERUEL Recuperación del entorno de Las
and Hudson. Arcillas/TERUEL LIFE + Recovery of Las Arcillas environment,
Luccarelli, M. 1995. Lewis Mumford and the Ecological Region: The ed. J. Monclús (dir.), C. Díez, and R. Lampreave, 14–35. Urban
Politics of Planning. London—New York: Guilford Press. Workshops n.3. Teruel: Ayuntamiento de Teruel - Prensas de la
McHarg, I. 1969. Design with Nature. Garden City—New York: Universidad de Zaragoza.
Natural History Press. von Petz, U. 2006. ¿Resucita el ave fénix de sus cenizas? La
Mostafavi, M., and G. Doherty (eds.). 2010. Ecological Urbanism. Exposición Internacional de Construcción (Internationale
Cambridge: Harvard University Graduate School of Design—Lars Bauausstellug-IBA) del Parque del Emscher. Urban 11: 44–69.
Müller Publishers. Seltman, G., and A. Kolkau. 1994. La IBA de Emscher Park. Ciudad y
Mumford, L. 1996. The Culture of Cities (1938). New York: Harcourt, Territorio, Estudios Territoriales 100–101: 463–486.
Brace and Co. Shane, D.G. 2003. The Emergence of ‘Landscape Urbanism’. Reflec-
Thompson, I.H. 2012. Ten Tenets and Six Questions for Landscape tions on Stalking Detroit. Harvard Design Magazine 19.
Urbanism. Landscape Research 37: 7–26. doi:10.1080/01426397.
2011.632081.
Waldheim, C. 2006. The Landscape Urbanism Reader. New York:
Princeton Architectural Press.
From Park Systems and Green Belts to Green
Infrastructures 26
Javier Monclús
Abstract
This text introduces the genealogy of green belts and green infrastructure in urban planning
during the latter half of the twentieth century. It emphasizes the changes and continuities in
the shift from the original models to renewed conceptions of green systems, environmental
networks and green infrastructure, which are linked to more recent and sophisticated
systems.

Keywords
Park systems Green belts Green infrastructures
public parks in the second half of the nineteenth century and

Park Systems, Green Belts. Cross-Influences
well into the twentieth century, open urban spaces have
Between Europe and North America
continued to increase, playing an increasingly important role
in the structuring of cities. The movement based on the ‘park
‘Green Belts’ are surely one of the most successful and
system’ idea appeared in the USA in the middle of the
widespread concepts of international urban and landscaping
nineteenth century, led by Frederick Law Olmsted and
culture. The initial objective of the green belt was to control
Calvert Vaux. But this is not exclusive to North America,
suburban sprawl through strips or belts without buildings
and at the same time proposals were developed to introduce
(Amati 2008, 1). But they are also understood as ‘park
green areas in European cities, with Parisian boulevards and
systems’, developed, above all, in the North American cities.
parks, or London’s squares and parks (visited and admired
They offer an interesting example of cross-influences, of
by Olmsted). Nevertheless, it is true that park systems
exchanges between Europe and the USA. Hence, knowledge
emerged as a fundamental component of urbanism in North
of European cities, particularly Paris, had a considerable
American cities. The Chicago Park System began with
influence on the parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted
projects in 1871. The most well-known system, that of
in Boston (in the famous Emerald Necklace, for example)
Boston, started in 1881 and ended in the 1890s. Other cities
(see Chap. 30) and other North American cities. At the same
(such as Buffalo, New York, etc.) continued with this idea of
time, the ambition and sophistication of those systems rep-
connection between parks with parkways and boulevards as
resent a general standard for many initiatives implemented in
an urban structuring strategy.
European cities during the twentieth century.
With the advancement of the City Beautiful movement,
The formation process of these park and green belt sys-
and above all with the institutionalisation of Town Planning
tems dates back several centuries, particularly in European
in the early years of the twentieth century, the layout of
capitals. Since the eighteenth century, with Royal Parks and
parks and open spaces acquired a key role in urban zoning
parks for the aristocracy, then later with the proliferation of
and structuring proposals. Some works give an idea of their
importance in modern town planning, such as the work by
J. Monclús (&)

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_26
270 J. Monclús
Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier, Grandes Villes et Systèmes

de Parcs (1908), on the back of the major operations in
Paris. In Germany, work such as the fundamental Der
Städtebau (1890), by Josef Stübben, paid special attention to
green areas and parks, although its potential as a system was
not considered until the early twentieth century. In England,
the succession of public park projects represents the basis of
different theories based on nature in cities, with the designs
of Garden Cities by Ebenezer Howard, Tomorrow: a
Peaceful Path to Real Reform (1898) as a milestone leading
to new urbanistic and landscaping proposals (Hall 2014, 90–
148) (see Chap. 30). Among these proposals, aside from
Garden City, Howard’s decentralising idea was dominant,
during that period. In the same way that garden suburbs
cannot really be considered born from garden cities, neither
is there a single link between that idea and the green belts
that were proposed for English or German cities. But it is
true that the proposals to surround the central urban area
with other satellite centres, separated by green strips are
found in the basis of several schemes: not only the one by
Howard, but also that by Theodor Fritsch, presented in
Fig. 26.1 Bruno Möring, Richard Petersen, Rudolf Eberstadt, pro-
posal for urban growth through green belts, in Town Planning his book Die Stadt der Zukunft (The City of the
Conference, London, 1910
Fig. 26.2 Buenos Aires Park System. J.N. Forestier, Grandes villes et systèmes de parcs, 1924
26 From Park Systems and Green Belts to Green Infrastructures 271
Future, 1896). Indeed, in Berlin, the idea of the green belt

dates back to the work by Peter Joseph Lenné, with his plan
for parks and gardens of 1840 based on those in Paris. As
early as 1874, the idea of limiting the expansion of the city
by creating an ‘outer green belt’ was associated with the
right of inhabitants to enjoy access to open countryside
without travelling for more than half an hour from their
homes (Kühn and Gailing 2008, 188). But it was at the start
of the twentieth century when the green belt gained strength
with the tender for the Great Berlin Plan (1909). It is
interesting to see the two winning proposals. The one by
Hermann Jansen features a ‘belt of forest and prairie’ around
Berlin. The other by Eberstadt, Möhring and Petersen rejects
the concept of closed, concentric belts and proposes a radial
system of growth, following railway lines with green wedges
between them. The case of Berlin is significant because,
from the open area programmes by Martin Wagner in the
twenties, to the proposals for ‘organic urban landscape’ by
Hans Scharoun in the forties, throughout the twentieth
century these two models are either opposed or comple-
mented by radial and concentric urban growth, as happens in
a number of European cities.
In addition to the connections with the Garden City
movement, it is true that green belts emerged in force in the
middle of the twentieth century, at the same time as func-
tionalist urban planning, corresponding to the idea of strict
segregation of uses that forms part of the modern paradigm.
The fundamental reference was the Greater London Plan of
1944, when the green belt system was definitively imple-
mented. The renowned London Green Belt has its roots in
Fig. 26.3 Fritz Schumacher, outline of the Hamburg plan, 1920
the preservationist campaigns, including those mentioned by
Patrick Abercrombie in 1926: the local authorities, the
owners, farmers, inhabitants, countryside users, preserva- countries, there are interesting variations of the green belt
tionists of the ‘Commons’ (free spaces for public use) and idea, such as green ways or green wedges, i.e. linear green
countryside tracks, fauna and trees. Architects, engineers, areas that structure urban areas instead of perimeter rings
town planners, etc., also took part. It was in that plan that around them. The case of the U Green in Stuttgart is one of
Howardian ideas converged with the creation of the New the most significant examples of connection strategies and
Towns as updated alternatives to Garden Cities, with regu- enhancement of the park system, from the centre out towards
lation proposals for modern town planning, with strict zon- the metropolitan suburbs.
ing of green areas. The international popularity of green
belts is largely due to the success of their implementation in
the London Plan, becoming widely extended the world over, From Green Belts and Corridors to Green
to become a paradigmatic case as had been the case of Paris. Urban Infrastructures
Its influence lasted at least until the seventies, when the
principles of modern town planning entered a crisis (Ward The development of green belts in the UK is the result of a
2002, 172). continuing strategy with local authorities led by different
In the planning of many cities, green belts had been used groups and movements, such as the Campaign to Protect
to preserve open spaces for agriculture, woodland or nature Rural England (CPRE) which came about in the late fifties.
reserves nearby. These areas have also been used for more Nevertheless, although their popularity and success allowed
utilitarian purposes, such as quarries or incinerators, or other them to survive until the eighties, with town planning
not entirely legal uses. The strategy that was put forward in deregulation by Margaret Thatcher, they became questioned
the initial designs was clear: to refuse planning permission in for their rigidity and role in relation to metropolitan subur-
view of the strong pressure that was often present. In other ban housing. Hence, the demand for greater flexibility and
272 J. Monclús
Fig. 26.4 Patrick Abercrombie, Greater London Plan with the four rings or belts: inner urban ring, suburban ring, green belt ring, the outer
country ring, 1944
adaptation to the complex processes of recent growth and infrastructure was promoted, with the aim of ensuring
suburbanisation has increased. environmental, social and economic benefits. It also sought
It is interesting to see the changes and continuities from to strengthen the identity of each part of the metropolitan
the historical green belts to the renewed green systems, territory, improving their environmental and landscape
environmental networks or green infrastructures, based on conditions. In essence, many of the new names are nothing
the initial town planning strategy to contain urban sprawl on more than upgrades in line with new, more or less coherent,
a broad swath of agricultural land or countryside. In the case discourses or strategies aimed at promoting sustainable
of London, the changes in language do not hide the obvious growth to tackle the challenges of climate change and
continuity from Green Belts to the so-called London Green improve the quality of life.
Grid (Greater London Authority 2012). With this conceptual In any case, the green belt and conventional park system
renewal, the change from a grey infrastructure to a green models have been surpassed by other more sophisticated
Fig. 26.6 Green belt in Madrid plan general, 1946
sprawl, but became open area systems serving ecological

ends that had gained importance in regional planning.
Once again, we can see an intense exchange of ideas
between the USA and Europe in relation to the concept of
Green Infrastructures, a new term, although not a new idea.
Fig. 26.5 Nicolas Laruelle and Corinne Legenne, The three models: Its roots are actually found in the North American environ-
‘the finger plan’, ‘the polycentric metropolis’, ‘the mix’ mentalist movement that began over a century and a half ago.
But more specifically, two different outlooks were combined:
on the one hand the connection between parks and other
concepts based on green way connection strategies and green areas as a strategy for urban improvement; and on the
others means of conferring natural and landscape value other, preservation and connection of natural areas in benefit
which permit structuring and integrating rural or woodland of biodiversity and the wish to lessen the fragmentation of
areas with urban areas. These corridors are actually protected natural habitats (Benedict and McMahon 2002). In a some-
open spaces around urban areas of different natures and what similar way to the park systems movement, this concept
sizes, which aim to protect natural, rural areas from urban was widened to include other fronts, green or non-green, with
development, and also, in some cases, to avoid different the objective of improving the urban system.
cities from merging together. The importance and implementation in Europe of the
The radical differentiation strategy of urban use compared concept were led by D.G. Environment by the European
to rural use and natural land, comprising the main feature of Union (Narbona 2016). It is this concept of green infras-
the first green belt generation, gave way to more complex tructures that is now being fairly strongly imposed with the
outlooks in which concern for the environment was pre- decisive boost by the European Union (see Chap. 28). As in
dominant. Hence, the function of the ‘urban divider’ was the park systems, it aims to increase open, green networks.
replaced for the role of a key ecological component. This But, unlike them, there is strong emphasis here on the
way, green belts no longer only served to contain urban management of natural and semi-natural areas with complex
274 J. Monclús
Fig. 26.7 Giuseppe Campos Venuti, Federico Oliva (dirs.), Reggio Emilia ecological/urbanistic renewal project. Environmental system, 1991
functions in the urban ecosystem, also featuring ‘blue’ abused over decades of only relatively planned urban
spaces, by giving special importance to the water cycle, growth. In any case, it seems obvious that advancement in
including river systems and coasts. We consequently move green infrastructures would have been unthinkable without
on from the initial defensive strategies based on restrictive the previous experience, sometimes parallel, of the green
zoning, to other more strategic ones with the aim of pro- belts and park systems that played such an important role in
moting a change in the model towards a low-carbon, efficient North American and international urban development
economy, investing in the natural capital that has been throughout the twentieth century.
Fig. 26.8 Urban task force, proposal for a system of free spaces to link dwelling areas with green corridors, 1999
276 J. Monclús
Case Studies prevent future sprawling developments. Decentralisation that

would inevitably take place to reduce the densities in the
London Green Belt (1935/1944–2000) centres and to house new growth was resolved through the
New Towns satellites that were built outside the green belt,
The idea of a true green belt in London dates back to the with an average population of 50,000 people.
thirties when the Greater London Regional Planning Com- Critics of the London Green Belt questioned its ability to
mittee proposed the Metropolitan Green Belt around Lon- contain urban sprawl back in the sixties. Some studies
don.Its definitive implementation was made possible thanks showed how metropolitan growth continued beyond the
to the town planning legislation passed in the post-war green belt, with a type of ‘leapfrogging’ that permitted new
period, based on a combination of New Towns and Green suburban territory to be occupied. Rather curiously, one of
Belts (1947). Both the County of London Plan of 1943, and the strongest criticisms came from the Town and Country
the Greater London Plan of 1944 contained sections about Planning Association (TCPA), founded in the twentieth
the green belt and had a decisive influence on the approval of century with the objective of furthering proposals for a
the Town and Country Planning Act of 1947. From then on Garden City by Howardl. Its proposals of ‘breaking the belt’
this mechanism for providing open areas and containing were also included in the concerns about the difficulties of
suburban sprawl was imposed. The proposal by Abercrom- buying houses at reasonable prices, both inside London and
bie was particularly evident in the second plan, with the idea in the South-East in general, owing to the effect of the green
of a huge green belt surrounding the developed area to belt on housing prices.
Vitoria Green Belt (1990s–2000s) the General Town Planning Plan of 1986 because it pro-
posed extending the urban green infrastructures to the
The idea of a Green Belt arose in the 1990s with the aim of outskirts of the city. In this way, the objectives and
providing a comprehensive solution to the suburban problems strategies of the Green Belt emphasised aspects of the
of Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain) and the general state of decay in the environment and landscape, promoting the preservation of
area. The Vitoria Green Belt defines a system of parks, urban natural, suburban enclaves and the renewal of recoverable
walkways and sustainable natural systems for water man- outlying areas, creating a zone of natural continuity around
agement surrounding the city and connecting it to the coun- the city of 600 ha. The initial stage of the project con-
tryside. The recovered suburban wetlands serve to effectively sisted of establishing the principal components of the
retain and purify water. Unlike other green belt projects, Green Belt whilst recognising the unsuitability of fixing
fundamentally designed as strategies to contain urban growth, specific limits, since it dealt with an area subject to con-
this plan was based on a critical diagnosis of certain stant modification. It is worth emphasising the constant
destructive processes outside the city in an effort to restore revision of the initial goals, with the ‘closure’ and final
value to areas that were clearly residual and undervalued. layout of the Green Belt to resolve connectivity problems,
The idea of creating a system of outlying green areas both ecological and for public use, that still continues
found support in the planning framework established in today.
278 J. Monclús
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Urban Green Belts in the Twenty-first Century, ed. M. Amati, 1–18. Vitoria-Gasteiz. http://www.vitoria-gasteiz.org/we001/was/we001-
Hampshire: Ashgate. Action.do?idioma=es&accionWe001=ficha&accion=anilloVerde.
Benedict, M.A., and E.T. McMahon. 2002. Green Infrastructure: Smart Accessed Dec 10.
Conservation for the 21st Century. Renewable Resources Journal Fariña Tojo, J. 2012. Infraestructura verde urbana. Urbanismo,
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Landscape Projects: Scale and Place
27
Carlos Ávila
Abstract
The landscape project entails a necessary understanding of the space in which action is
taking place. It also requires the interiorisation of processes and structures that necessarily
fall outside the scope of the project but which have an unmistakeable influence over it.
Hence, it is of great importance to work constantly on the change of scale in order to
understand to what extent our intervention affects the system, and how this simultaneously
influences our space of action. However, this game of physical scale is not enough. The
concept of temporary scape should be incorporated as an aspect inherent to the actual
materiality of any land. Understanding that landscape is the result of processes taking place
over time is essential in order to approach any intervention project coherently.

Keywords
Scale Landscape Identity Complexity Limits
Working at project level, whether in architecture, town that has converted the site to what it is. The challenge
planning, or landscape, inevitably entails a deep reflection consists of revealing the key factors and using them to
about the site where the project is to be implemented. This benefit the project.
reflection will undoubtedly feature the key elements of the The negative consequences on design of considering the
surrounding area, successfully adapting the project to its site. site a blank piece of paper came to light in the 1960s with
In any case, it is essential to use project tools to understand the Structuralist architect Herman Hertzberger, who descri-
the site, with the idea of identifying those genius loci that are bed the creative process as something based on reinterpret-
frequently mentioned in texts and manuals, but which are ing what was already existing. In his own words, “Designing
difficult to define (García 2013). In the words of Rafael cannot be anything but continuing to build on something
Moneo: “The site is always expectant, waiting for the arrival hidden and obstructed so to speak. The thought of ever being
of the event that will allow it to play an active role in the able to proceed from a blank white sheet of paper and
course of history” (Moneo 1992). unavoidably covering it with unreal and sterile constructions
is absurd and also has negative consequences” (Hertzberger
in Weilacher 2009, 94).
Understanding the Site It seems reasonable for a project to begin with an analysis
of the different aspects of the site, in order to identify which
Designing a project conscious of the features of the site elements can contribute to its coherence. That is why this
requires humility and, above all, being prepared to relate to analysis must take into account the tangible factors (physi-
the environment and not impose oneself upon it. This atti- cal, biological, historical, etc.) and other more intangible
tude allows to decipher the details of an evolutionary process qualities, related to the legacy of its past and present
inhabitants. The intangibles, which on many occasions are
ignored, help to keep the identity of the place alive and
C. Ávila (&)

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_27
280 C. Ávila
Fig. 27.1 Alvar Aalto, Sunila Pulp Mill, Pyötinen Island, Kotka (Finlandia), 1935–37. The project integrates in the environment. The situation of
the buildings shows a special sensitivity for the topography
provide resources to enrich our work, linking the project model for designing projects in a more coherent, sustainable
specifically to its site.1 way. The work developed by Richard T.T. Forman adds to this
understanding of territorial complexity, using the idea of
patterns and connections leading to what would become a new
Undertaking Complexity discipline, the Ecology of Landscape. This discipline would
be capable of overcoming the traditional conflict between
Nevertheless, understanding a site goes far beyond discov- human intervention and natural spaces, between projects and
ering the genius loci. It entails knowing the role the project conserving nature, reinforcing the thesis developed by
will play in the territorial puzzle. The site is not a limited McHarg years earlier (Forman and Godron 1986).3
space, without connections to its surrounding area. There-
fore, the designer should be sensitive to the dynamics and
relationships established between the different components Reflecting on the Limits
where failure to respect these processes will cause distortion
to the system. Ultimately, this implies perceiving its The conflict arises when trying to analyse that complexity of
complexity. structures and dynamics, sticking to our project limits,
The working philosophy by Ian McHarg in his book because those patterns respond to working scales that usu-
Design with Nature (1969) is based on these principles, in ally exceed the scope of intervention. Aligning the mental
which he proves the difficulty and the challenges of working limits and the scope of reflection to fit within the limits of the
on a territory, and the need to take the dynamic processes into project brings negative consequences to its development.
account as a resource essential to the project itself.2 His Michel Corajoud, in his paper Les neuf conduites
diagnosis of the territory to determine its potential was a new nécessaires pour une propédeutique pour un apprentissage
du projet sur le paysage (Nine rules of a foundation course
1 for learning landscape design, 2000), establishes the need to
Fortunately, there are increasingly more professionals who carry out
their work following these intangible landscape footprints, permitting explore the limits and legitimately exceed them to avoid the
the identity of the site to be conserved through their action. In Spain,
among other contributions of interest, the work of Rosa Barba,
3
establishing the bases for this sensitive approach to landscape, stand out The footprint left in Spain by Richard T.T. Forman through his work
and were subsequently developed at a large scale in the Catalonia on the Emerald Network in the metropolitan area of Barcelona brought
Landscape Catalogues. deeper knowledge to the bases of his methodology by many
2
Publication of this book accounted for a true conceptual revolution in professionals in our country linked to territorial planning and urban
the way projects were tackled in a territory. and landscape planning.
27 Landscape Projects: Scale and Place 281
Fig. 27.2 Ian McHarg, diagrams of the analysis of Staten Island, in Design with Nature (1969), chapter “Processes understood as values”.
McHarg shows a working methodology that is capable of decoding the complexity of a territory, thus permitting working out the capacity it has to
host different uses of the space, in areas as diverse as the island located to the south of Manhattan
Fig. 27.3 ‘No Entry’, so ridiculous as to try to put gates to the countryside. Something similar to what restricting reflections on projects to the
administrative limits would be in a designer’s work
282 C. Ávila
Fig. 27.5 Park System of Washington, D.C. proposed by Plan

McMillan (1901). The plan is based on the Metropolitan Park System
of Greater Boston by Frederick Law Olmsted. His namesake son
(Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.) took an active part in elaborating this park
system for the capital of the USA
to their environment and which are capable of anchoring us

to the territory in a natural way.
Fig. 27.4 Henri Lefebvre, diagram of scales, in The Production of Michel Desvigne5 constantly reflects on this approach to
Space (1991), showing a system of interwoven levels between different projects, basing his work on experiences of green systems
scales
developed by Frederick Law Olmsted in the nineteenth
century in the USA, putting forward the notion of ‘Extended
Geography’ to show the opportunity of supporting our work
landscape becoming fragmented in multiple terrains of
with geographical elements and developing them with the
action, blind to each other (Corajoud 2000).4 It is that need
aim of establishing coherent relationships with the envi-
to understand the role the project plays in a context where
ronment and increasing the use of processes inherent to these
hierarchies and relationships on a much larger scale are
structures (Basdevant 2008).
already established that forces us to break away from the
administrative limits of the intervention to properly design a
project and execute it. By widening our point of view, it is
Scale
possible to understand certain items and their dynamics:
water, green areas, topography, etc.; thus, being able to
The advisability of surpassing, even if only mentally, the
develop all their potentials and avoiding the risks we run by
limits of intervention, brings a very different level of per-
ignoring them. Identifying and strengthening existing geo-
ception. Ultimately, it requires constantly comparing and
graphical structures in areas where action takes place will
allow us to find support from the existing systems that relate
5
A disciple of Corajoud, Michel Desvigne was awarded the National
4
Michel Corajoud was awarded the National Urbanism Prize in France Urbanism Prize in France in 2011. The most American of the French
in 2003 and has carried out his teaching career in conjunction with his landscapers, as Corajoud defines him, admires Olmsted’s work, who he
professional activity. He is very approachable for students, and in this admits has a visionary attitude by working on the most notable
text, he talks about the keys to properly address a landscape project. geographical items as the basis for creating urban green systems.
Fig. 27.6 Michel Desvigne, proposals for the right bank of the River Garonne, Bordeaux (2004). The proposal consists of a forest on a section
that gradually occupies the areas abandoned by former industry
284 C. Ávila
Fig. 27.7 Michel Desvigne, proposal for Lyon Confluence (2004). In view of the slowness of the processes necessary to set up this ambitious
urban renewal plan in this area, Michel Desvigne puts forward a landscaping strategy that is capable of starting a slow, gradual process of
occupation and transformation of the site
contrasting scales, between the smaller scale of the project therefore important to consider the time factor to determine
and the local territorial structure. the strategy that should regulate transformation of the project
Scale, in a project, should mean planning, hierarchy, over the years.
priority, search for opportunities, causes, etc. It is important Along these lines, in his evolving project models, James
to educate one’s mind to take on-board that constant change Corner, through ecological strategies, is able to conceive
of zoom, with the intention of identifying the key to certain dynamic, changing landscapes that are capable of producing
design criteria within the bigger picture, or sometimes dis- a diverse, stable structure over time.8 A good example of this
covering the opportunity to reflect on what is global from the type of intervention is Fresh Kills Park: a former dump
exact intervention on a specific site. Calibrating the way one covering around 900 ha, located on Staten Island, closed
sees, permits adjusting and readjusting the project, identi- after the debris of the Twin Towers were dumped there9. In
fying any inconsistencies or disorders, questioning each step addition to being a project resource that permits evolution
of the approach, to reach a balanced proposal that is adapted adapted to territorial pace, this model simplifies management
to the reality of the environment of the site. The analysis by of urbanistic processes (sometimes complex outside the
Henri Lefebvre in his book The Production of Space (1991) technical approaches and considerations), by being modu-
on the hierarchy of scales, based on his study of Japanese lated and easily adjustable to new circumstances imposed on
social space, is an excellent reference concerning the the political changes to the approach.
importance of different scales in a project. This analysis Urban landscape projects must, therefore, be conceived,
translates as a strategy which, to a certain extent suggest it is not as a fixed permanent image, but rather as a strategy
possible to work with several scales in a project, each, in capable of providing added value to a site, at all stages of
turn, being readjusted within its own scope (Lefebvre 1991, development, putting forward criteria in line with the new
155).6 This is an interesting, although somewhat perverse scenarios in a coherent manner and meeting the objectives
game if one does not manage to properly control it. As for which they were designed. On these lines, Michel
Michel Desvigne so wisely remarks “perceiving scale and Desvigne develops two major projects in the French cities
providing the right response at the right dimension is the key of Bordeaux and Lyon, implementing the concept that he
to success of a territorial renewal project” (Desvigne 2012, calls ‘natures intermédiaires’ (intermediate natures) that
10).7 permit catalysing urban transformation processes without
resorting to long-lasting processes or unfinished images of
spaces.10
Time Scales Tackling this kind of project coherently with successful
results is not an easy task. Nevertheless, correct analysis of
But a landscape town planning project cannot exclusively the place is undoubtedly essential, as is understanding its
contemplate the work at a physical scale but must also relationship with the territory, where it is located and the
include the concept of the time scale as an inherent aspect to complexity of the dynamics structuring it, including the
the project. The aforementioned complexity refers to the correct use of both physical and time scales. These are all
dynamics and processes that act on the model, and it is indispensable tools for any landscape project.
8
James Corner works with processes as an inherent part of his creative
activity, imagining short, medium and long-term scenarios.
9
“Field Operations’ winning Lifescape project is described on the
competition boards as a ‘reconstituted matrix of diverse life forms and
evolving strategies’. This matrix supports the integration of physical
6
Although the conceptual basis of Henri Lefebvre’s scheme does not design with geological, hydrological and biological processes at
exactly match the criteria expressed here, it does provide us with an multiple scales” (Pollack 2007, 107).
10
exercise of constant readjustment of scales according to the demands of Bordeaux Rive Droite and Lyon Confluence, along with Millenium
landscape projects. Park in London, are two of the most important projects, where Michel
7
For Michel Desvigne, finding the right scale is an obsession which is Desvigne develops his idea of time forms as a means to achieve urban
constant and obvious in his work. mutations.
286 C. Ávila
Case Studies access and mobility problems and for its technical, eco-
nomic, functional and social viability by the team directed
CS1 Madrid Río (2005–2011) by Mr Ginés Garrido”.
One of the keys to the success of the proposal was in the
In 2005, the Madrid City called for bids for ideas to renew large-scale analysis, the team performed based on a reflec-
the Manzanares river bank area, a zone that had deterio- tion of the river as an entity that had to be improved along
rated due to the strong urbanising pressure and the the entire river basin, in an effort to decipher the role the
insignificance of the river, where the presence of highway green system played in the city of Madrid. It is interesting to
infrastructures (M-30 Motorway) prevented any kind of see how the slogan Less Architecture, More Geography
connection with it. The text by the panel of judges defined appeared on the panels, which simply, yet clearly, sum-
the fundamental criteria describing the winning team’s marises the global, territorial vision that characterised the
proposal (Burgos & Garrido): “(…) for the appropriate project. Thus, in the author’s words, “cluster is not, there-
response to the requirements of the call for bids and par- fore, another city. It is a singular structure: an archipelago of
ticularly for its connection with the city; articulation of a interdependent, hierarchically structured pieces of joined
system of green areas and leisure land; for its landscape, parks/campuses, and at the same time a series of reconsti-
environmental and cultural proposal; for its answer to the tuted valleys”.
Paris-Saclay Cluster, Plateau de Saclay

(2010–2016)
The Plateau de Saclay, located to the southeast of Paris, is

planned to house an international research and development
centre, on a site traditionally fragmented by different ele-
ments that break up the continuity of the site. Michel
Desvigne seeks to give this new cluster a structure, based on
territorial criteria characterising the landscape of the area,
particularly the structure of small valleys in the ‘voids’ of the
agricultural area and on the wooded skirts to the sides of these
valleys. Based on his concept of ‘Extended Geography’, the
proposal offers a vast system of parks that will organise
mobility and stitch the urban system together, whilst at the
same time inserting this new piece in a wider territorial
reality. Furthermore, he has shown interest in management of
the hydrological system, since it traditionally supplied the
Versailles Park. Based on that historical model, Michel
Desvigne proposes creating large laminar lakes that will
permit feeding the water courses of the surrounding valleys.
288 C. Ávila
Basdevant, M. (ed.). 2008. Intermediate natures: The landscapes of AA.VV. 2002. Jardines insurgentes/Gardens in arms. Catálogo de la
Michel Desvigne. Basel, Boston, Berlin: Birkhäuser Verlag AG. II Bienal Europea del Paisaje. Barcelona: Fundación Caja de
Corajoud, M. 2000. Les neuf conduites nécessaires pour une Arquitectos.
propédeutique pour un apprentissage du projet sur le paysage. In Jellicoe, G., and S. Jellicoe. 1975. The landscape of man: Shaping the
Le Jardinier, l’Artiste et l’Ingénieur, ed. J.-L. Brisson. Paris: environment from prehistory to the present day. London: Thames
Editions de l’Imprimeur. and Hudson.
Desvigne, M. 2012. El paisaje como condición previa/The Landscape Masboungi, A., and D. Mangin. 2009. Agir sur les grands territoires.
as a prerequisite. Paisea 23: 8–17. Paris: Éditions du Moniteur.
Forman, R.T.T., and M. Godron. 1986. Landscape ecology. New York: Pollack, L. 2006. Constructed ground: Questions of scale. In The
Willey. landscape urbanism reader, ed. C. Waldheim, 125–139. New York:
García, M. 2013. Written at the place. The intangible valous of the Princeton Architectural Press.
landscape/Escrito en el lugar. Los valores intangibles del paisaje.
ZARCH. Journal of interdisciplinary studies in Architecture and
Urbanism 1: 36–47.
Lefebvre, H. 1991. The production of space [La production de
l’espace, 1974]. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
McHarg, I. 1969. Design with nature. Garden City, New York: Natural
History Press.
Moneo, R. 1992. The murmur of the site. Yufuin, Japan: In Anywhere
Conference.
Pollack, L. 2007. Matrix landscape: Construction of identity in the large
park. In Large Parks, ed. J. Czerniak, and G. Hargreaves, 86–119.
New York: Princeton Architectural Press.
Weilacher, U. 2009. Learning from Duisburg Nord. Topos—The
International Review of Landscape Architecture and Urban Design
69: 94–97.
New Urban Landscapes
28
Carlos Ávila
Abstract
The developmentalist processes of recent decades have brought our planet to a critical
situation from and environmental perspective. Large urban areas play a basic role in this,
given that they act as large-scale systems that devour resources and produce waste and
pollution. This is why the role of open spaces in cities should change radically by adding a
strong environmental component to its aesthetic and leisure functions that are able to
alleviate such effects. These new urban ecosystems should effectively incorporate the
planning and structuring of the city, integrated the existing cycles into the natural setting.
This will bring about an improvement in the environmental qualities of our cities and make
them more liveable places.

Keywords
Urban metabolism Green infrastructures Green city Third landscape Sustainability
Cities and Sustainability work,1 and if we continue with the current development
model, by 2050 we will need more than two planets Earth to
The concept of sustainability, somewhat discredited because supply our needs.
of the way the term has been abused in recent times, This situation is worsened by changes in the world’s
encompasses our need to develop socio-economic develop- population distribution model. According to a recent survey
ment policies whilst maintaining some indispensable con- by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA)
servation criteria regarding natural resources, so as to by the United Nations, under the title World Urbanization
guarantee survival of the planet for future generations. This Prospects, in 2014, 54% of the world’s population lived in
situation is far from being carried out efficiently since the cities, with an anticipated increase to 66% by 2050 (United
ecological limitations of the planet have been greatly
exceeded. At the moment, the global consumption of
resources is 56% higher than the planet can sustain,
according to the calculations by the Global Footprint Net-
1
Global Footprint Network is a non-profit organisation, established to
enable a sustainable future where all people have the opportunity to live
satisfying lives within the means of one planet. It aims to accelerate the
use of the Ecological Footprint—a resource accounting tool that
measures how much nature we have, how much we use and who uses
what. The Ecological Footprint is a data-driven metric that tells us how
close we are to the goal of sustainable living. Footprint accounts work
C. Ávila (&) like bank statements, documenting whether we are living within our
School of Engineering and Architecture, ecological budget or consuming nature’s resources faster than the
University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain planet can renew them. See: http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.
e-mail: [email protected] php/GFN/page/footprint_basics_overview/.

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_28
290 C. Ávila
Fig. 28.1 World ecological footprint, diagram of its evolution at current development parameters or applying the necessary measures to
contribute to sustainability of the plan
Nations et al. 2014).2 These data show the important role fastest. Integrated policies to improve the lives of both urban
that cities and towns play in the planet’s environmental and rural dwellers are needed” (United Nations et al. 2014, 1).
balance, and the need for new policies that permit these
urban structures to work as sustainable systems, avoiding the
current negative consequences for the global environment, Green Urban Areas
mainly in terms of consumption of resources (land, water,
energy, nutrients, raw materials…) and production of con- If we analyse the structure of today’s cities, the overall green
taminating waste (solids, liquids and gases). areas appear, in the collective imagination, as a paradigm of
The scenario projected in the next four decades begs for a nature within urban centres and can be compared to an ‘oasis
deep reflection on the model of cities we need to implement of nature’ in the city. Nevertheless, the potential of these
and how green systems must play a fundamental role in green areas has scarcely been developed, if we bear in mind
correct functioning of urban ecosystems, favouring greater the multi-purpose role they could assume and the possibili-
metropolitan biodiversity and ensuring a better balance in the ties if they were seen as an extensive green system. For this
natural cycles (biotic and abiotic) that take place in our cities. reason, management of these areas must go beyond creating
As indicated in the world urbanisation perspectives by the beautiful, pleasant spaces where the population can carry out
United Nations, in the 2014 revision: “As the world continues different recreational activities. Our focus should be on how
to urbanize, sustainable development challenges will be to exploit their potential as an environmental reinforcement
increasingly concentrated in cities, particularly in the lower- of the urban ecosystem.
middle-income countries where the pace of urbanization is In the words of Enric Batlle: “This new open space must
necessarily be complex, because it must include the tradi-
tional values of public usage and beauty, and at the same
2
The report shows the trends in urban growth processes at world level, time must be coherent with the laws of ecology and envi-
analysing the evolution of megacities and large cities compared to the rest ronmental problems” (Batlle 2011, 23). Consequently, the
of the cities on the five continents. On the back of this, it describes the design and distribution of these areas must be governed by
political implications that this situation generates, emphasising the fact that
city structuring parameters. It is important to take them both
city dwellers must be able to enjoy the positive aspects cities offer (access
to education, health care, public transport, housing, water, electricity…) into account in town planning, with a view to understanding
but in conditions of social equality and environmental sustainability. the importance of the green system as a frame configuring
28 New Urban Landscapes 291
Fig. 28.2 Jaume Terradas, Teresa Franquesa, Margarita Parés and Lydia Chaparro, Urban metabolism of Barcelona. A study that began in 1980
and showed the negative consequences of the city on its environment
Fig. 28.3 Per Bolund and Sven Hunhammar, environmental benefits of green zones. The table shows the positive environmental and social
repercussions
the urban layout, not only giving it shape, but also permit- different urban ecosystems in Stockholm, in order to illus-
ting its functioning in the social and environmental aspects. trate the ecological role they play in the city (streets with
Along these lines, at the end of the last century reflections trees, parks, urban woods, crop land, wetlands, lakes/sea and
on the environmental role played by green urban areas streams). Despite the advantages described in that study, the
intensified considerably. Certain parameters have served as authors themselves consider the following reflection to be
the basis for subsequent implementation of new models and important: “It should however be remembered that it is only
new functions of this kind of open areas. In their article the effects of these problems that are decreased, not the cause
“Ecosystem services in urban areas”, Per Bolund and Sven of the problem that is solved. It is necessary to work to both
Hunhammar highlight the aforementioned conflict that arises ends” (Bolund and Hunhammar 1999, 300).
with a mostly urban population, but one which requires Hence the need to go one step further, so that the green
natural resources to survive. The paper analyses seven systems can be articulated as effective, fundamental parts of
292 C. Ávila
Fig. 28.4 Carl Sterner, comparative analysis of interrelations that are established in some natural cycles, between the environment, traditional
cities and Green Cities. The author includes the cycle of economic transactions in these natural cycles
a city’s environmental machinery permitting better balance framework of a new city model that must adapt to the chal-
between the exchanges that are created in the urban meta- lenges of the twenty-first century: a model that is conditioned
bolism (Kennedy et al. 2007, 43–59) and reconstitution of by the exponential growth of the population (and its prefer-
water and nutrient cycles, whether gaseous (oxygen, carbon, ence for urban environments), the accelerated consumption of
nitrogen…) or sedimentary (calcium, sulphur, phospho- natural resources and creation of serious contamination
rous…). As Carl Sterner claims, “A Green City preserves the problems causing climate change. In this context, the concept
natural resources, as well as the processes that create and of Green Infrastructures is conceived that the European
maintain them. The second defining characteristic of a Green Commission defines as “a strategically planned network of
City is a cyclical or biomimetic metabolism that mimics the natural and semi-natural areas with other environmental fea-
cyclical flows of nutrients in a natural ecosystem, creating tures designed and managed to deliver a wide range of
outputs that can be reused in other biological systems” ecosystem services such as water purification, air quality,
(Sterner and Solla-Yates 2014). space for recreation and climate mitigation and adaptation.
This network of green (land) and blue (water) spaces can
improve environmental conditions and therefore citizens’
New Strategies: Green Infrastructures health and quality of life”.3
With respect to the aforementioned parameters, new projects

for open urban spaces are currently materialising. These areas 3
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/ecosystems/benefits/index_en.
use different strategies linking form-use-function, in the htm.
Fig. 28.5 Atelier Dreiseitl, Cloudburst Plan, 2012. Different strategies for sustainable drainage proposed in the master plan, applied to urban areas
in Copenhagen
Therefore, these green infrastructures can and must help

us rethink our cities, starting off with knowledge about their
metabolism and placing special emphasis on the funda-
mental items that allow these processes to be managed
(European Commission 2013). Some of them have already
been employed in traditional cities, and we are all aware of
the benefits green systems have on air quality, reducing the
levels of CO2 and suspended particles, whilst increasing the
levels of oxygen and environmental humidity.
Nevertheless, it is important to reinforce the role of green
infrastructures on the water cycle, creating areas capable of
retaining or absorbing the maximum amount of rainfall or
mitigating the effects of river or sea overflows and flooding,
and at the same time promoting the decontaminating role of
vegetation filters to avoid hazardous spillages into rivers and
seas. There are many examples of projects of this kind,
where open spaces have been designed to meet these criteria,
beyond local interventions, and in some cities, they have
been applied in their planning policies by designing struc-
tures capable of effectively responding to these challenges at Fig. 28.6 MMBB Arquitetos São Paolo, Watery Voids, 2008.
an urban scale, such as the Cloudburst Plan (Strøbaek and Green/Blue structure for managing rainwater in Sao Paulo
294 C. Ávila
Nielsen 2013) in Copenhagen (Denmark)4 or Watery Voids farming, which must be incorporated in the green
(de Mello Franco et al. 2008) in Sao Paulo (Brazil).5 metropolitan system. Like this, the well-known environ-
Likewise, the green infrastructures must avoid any loss of mental benefits add to the production of nearby raw materials,
land. Uncontrolled development or urbanising processes have balancing the necessary inputs to enhance urban metabolism
led to a high level of surfacing of natural land, producing a and to create new, evocative images in the city landscape.
damaging effect for cities (heavy run-off water, increase in the On the other hand, by reinforcing these new images of urban
temperature of urban centres, etc.), and a major loss of pro- landscape that were previously exclusive to green areas, it is
ductive land, with consequences that are more often than not interesting to analyse the potential of open spaces in cities that
undervalued. The analysis by Paolo Pileri6 is interested in his have no specific use. The concept of terrain vague [see
research on the side effects of these massive surfacing proce- Chap. 24] takes on a new dimension and presents a number of
dures in the Lombard region of Italy. In addition to largely previously scorned opportunities, which will reengage it in an
unknown data—with an estimate that around 30% of the pla- important way to urban metabolism. These potentials are
net’s biodiversity is found in the soil, and that 500 years are described by Gilles Clément in his manifesto “The Third
required to produce 2.5 cm of surface soil (it is precisely that Landscape”, where he claims that the Third Landscape consists
slow process of regeneration that has led to the expression of sites abandoned by man where there is biological diversity
‘sealed = lost’)—Pileri reports figure that incite deep reflection: that is not valued as wealth. In the author’s own words, “The
one hectare of soil can produce food to feed six people; it retains Third Landscape refers to a third status (and not to the Third
0.025 t of CO2 and is capable of treating 2–3000 m3 of water. World). Areas that cannot express either the power of or sub-
On that basis, the rate at which soil is lost in that Italian region mission to power”.8 And applies them in an emblematic project
(between 1999 and 2007) was around 15 ha per day. Simple called Île Derborence in Henri Matisse Park in Lille.9
maths shows us the consequences of surface sealing processes. Finally, we should not forget that cities are inhabited by
Therefore, green infrastructures must act as true reserves of people, and therefore the social role of the green infras-
land, capable of conserving its natural properties and pro- tructures is fundamental. And it is not only fundamental
moting activity. Within this scope, the experience in the when understanding them as spaces that favour enjoyment
URBAN SMS (Soil Management Strategy) is particularly of recreation, sustainable mobility or social relations, but
relevant7 as implemented in several European cities. “The also in their ability to generate processes of citizen partic-
general goal of soil management in areas under urbanization ipation and involvement permitting the inhabitants to
pressure is to secure the sustainable use of soil resources recognise these areas, appropriate them and develop com-
considering soil quantity and quality in order to maintain prehensive management in accordance with the models of
healthy environment conditions and sound ecosystems” (AA. life in each city. That is the challenge: new urban land-
VV. 2012). As mentioned previously this soil acts as a pro- scapes that lead to more sustainable, but above all, more
ductive substrate for agricultural, forestry and/or livestock habitable cities.
4
Designed by Atelier Dreiseiti, this plan sought to mitigate the effects of
flooding caused by heavy rainfall, adapting to the new environmental
conditions caused by climate change through the implementation of a
number of sustainable urban drainage systems. This will permit the
green-blue network in a city that had traditionally implemented pioneer
strategies in planning green systems (Finger Plan).
5
The Watery Voids proposal, by the Brazilian architects at MMBB
Arquitetos São Paolo, proposes creating a green system capable of
managing large volumes of water that needs to be drained away during
period of torrential rainfall. The project proposes a network of laminar
ponds and green routes that connect them, thus integrating those sites
on the outskirts with the urban fabric of Sao Paulo. The ‘Favelas’ are 8
“Tiers paysage renvoie à tiers—état (et non à Tiers—monde). Espace
deprived of any safe, accessible public spaces. The project deals with n’exprimant ni le pouvoir ni la soumission au pouvoir” (Clément 2004).
this need on the basis of the hydrographic formation of the site, This professional all-rounder, born in France (engineer, landscaper,
managing to lay out places to meet and for social interaction. entomologist, gardener, writer…), is the creator of concepts such as
6
Paolo Pileri is an associate professor of Urban, Territorial and Garden in Movement, Planetary Garden or the Third Landscape. He
Environmental Planning and Projects and Milan Polytechnic. His bases his work on observing natural processes and implements them in
research centres on the use and consumption of land and its environ- the projects he develops, at small and large scales.
9
mental consequences, caused by urban development, including ecolog- The author himself defines the project as a forest, deprived of
ical, agricultural and landscape matters in urban and territorial planning. supervision, without water or treatment, which he shows to gardeners
7
The project URBAN SMS is implemented through the and scientists—the only people authorised to visit it—the possibilities
CENTRAL EUROPE. It is a programme co-financed by the European of managing the same species on 7 ha around a vast grassland treated as
Regional Development Funds (ERDF). a meadow.
Fig. 28.7 Agnes Denes, Wheatfield—A Confrontation, Battery Park Landfill, downtown Manhattan, summer 1982. Two acres of wheat were
planted and harvested in this project
Fig. 28.8 Giles Clément, Île Derborence, Matisse, Euralille Park, 1996–2003. This inaccessible forest is planted on a natural prairie comprising
an artificial plateau 7 m high where a specific ecosystem develops outside all human control
296 C. Ávila
Case Studies competition, which was won by the team consisting of

James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofidio+Renfro.
High Line Park (sections 1 and 2), New York Afterwards, some of the municipal departments joined the
(2004–2011) initiative, creating a public/private structure which eventu-
ally launched the project (Gerdts 2009).
High Line Park emerged on the former railway infrastructure The landscaping of the project was entrusted to the hor-
created in 1934 around the Meatpacking District, to permit ticulturist Piet Oudolf, who carried out hybridisation work
better goods access to the Hudson river. It fell into decline between native and non-native plant species. This triggered a
and was eventually abandoned in the eighties. The power of process of plant evolution that recreated images recalling the
the project in images, as stunning as they are evocative, has abandoned rail tracks where nature is trying to recover its
overshadowed the process of its creation. After the nineties, space. It is precisely this combination of citizen appropria-
the new residents who occupied the districts around the park tion, recovery and recycling of obsolete infrastructures and
started to consider the conservation of the historical railway the creation of natural dynamics in the heart of a city like
line. Consequently, the association Friends of the High Line New York that makes this project a model of new urban
was created, which decided to call an international landscaping.
Berlin Urban Landscape Strategy (2030–2050) give its inhabitants new sensory experiences, without
revoking the benefits of major cities; Productive landscapes:
The city of Berlin, with 45% of its surface area in green new, pioneering initiatives in terms of agricultural and
zones and open spaces, is searching for a new model through livestock production with strong social involvement (such as
this strategy, to change the past benchmarks (green zones the Green Guerrillas movement in the United States) must be
that are aesthetically pleasing and environmentally func- carried out in an urban context.
tional), to give protagonism to citizen appropriation in dif-
ferent fields. The new social trends identified in the city are
the basis for the strategy baseline, comprising three major
concepts (Becker and von Borries 2010). Mobility: the use
of the car is gradually being replaced by multi-modal sys-
tems (combining walking with public transport and owned
or rented bicycles). Therefore, space used for cars must be
gradually replaced by public space; Do-it-yourself: there are
new ways of appropriation of public spaces for which
answers are required (community gardens, open-air cinemas,
urban bee-keeping, bars…); Urban–rural lifestyles: the wish
to introduce aspects and images of rural life in the city
(urban vegetable gardens, presence of animals, rural land-
scapes vs. urban parks…).
With these parameters, the strategy proposes working on
three major lines. Beautiful city: the roadway network is no
longer exclusively seen as a way for transport, but rather an
open space that must meet certain quality criteria allowing
for new uses; Urban nature: nature must invade the city to
298 C. Ávila
AA.VV. 2012. Soil in the City. URBAN Soil Management Strategy. AA.VV. 2011. Green Infrastructure: Design and Placemaking.
Stuttgart: City of Stuttgart—Department for Environmental Edinburgh: Scotish Goverment.
Protection. AA.VV. 2014. Strategie Stadtlandschaft Berlin: natürlich urban
Batlle, E. 2011. El jardín de la metrópoli. Del paisaje romántico al produktiv. Berlin: Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung und
espacio libre para una ciudad sostenible. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili. Umwelt.
Becker, C.W., and F. von Borries. 2010. Berlin Urban Landscape Czerniak, J., and G. Hargreaves (eds.). 2007. Large Parks. New York:
Strategy 2030–2050. Topos—The International Review of Land- Princeton Architectural Press.
scape Architecture and Urban Design 73: 42–47. European Commission. 2012. The Multifunctionality of Green Infras-
Bolund, P., and S. Hunhammar. 1999. Ecosystem services in urban tructure. Bristol.
areas. Ecological Economics 29: 293–301. doi:10.1016/S0921-8009 European Commission. 2013. Green Infrastructure (GI)—Enhancing
(99)00013-0. Europe’s Natural Capital.
Clément, G. 2004. Manifeste du tiers paysage. Paris: Sujet—objet.
European Commission. 2013a. Building a Green Infrastructure for
Europe. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
doi:10.2779/54125.
Gerdts, N. 2009. The High Line New York City. Topos—The
69: 16–23.
Kennedy, C., J. Cuddihy, and J. Engel-Yan. 2007. The Changing
Metabolism of Cities. Journal of Industrial Ecology 11: 43–59.
doi:10.1162/jie.2007.1107.
de Mello Franco, F., M. Moreira, and M. Braga. 2008. Vazios de
água/Watery voids. arq.urb revista eletrônica de Arquitectura e
Urbanismo 1: 119–140.
Sterner, C.S., and L. Solla-Yates. 2014. Toward the Green City:
Biodigesters as a catalyst for a new urban form. Carl S. Sterner
website. http://www.carlsterner.com/research/2010_toward_the_
green_city.shtml. Accessed September 13.
Strøbaek, N., and C.N. Nielsen. 2013. Managing Cloudbursts. An
opportunity to set new standards for city planning. Topos—The
84: 72–76.
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and
Population Division. 2014. World Urbanization Prospects: The
2014 Revision, Highlights (ST/ESA/SER.A/352). New York: United
Nations.
Greenfield/Brownfield: Two Sides
of the Same Coin 29
Pablo de la Cal
Abstract
Traditional urban planning considers greenfield and brownfield sites as two antagonistic
positions that produce opposing urban models. Recent regeneration urban strategies in
England are focused on brownfield sites that have been transformed or developed, and it
entails the danger of converting greenfields in untouchable spaces to be revered as nature
reserves, fetishes, with excessive protection. By contrast, the role of brownfield sites in the
context of Latin—Mediterranean countries has not been so relevant, due to different factors.
This chapter explores that simplification of greenfield vs. brownfield and presses for
considering all the growth and development possibilities of brownfield and greyfield sites,
using criteria to strengthen the consolidated structures, whilst at the same time,
reconsidering their integrating role in terms of green infrastructures and the importance
of associated factors such as biodiversity or urban resilience.

Keywords
Greenfield Brownfield Greyfield Backland developments New city extensions
The Garden City movement [see Chap. 2] found consider- These strategies were applied officially for the first time in
able support in England and the USA among certain pro- a major city in a complete planning document with the The
fessionals and groups that formalised theories of County of London Plan of 1943, developed by Patrick
decentralisation and sought to apply the brake to the ‘grow- Abercrombie and John Henry Forshaw, in which emphasis
ing stain’ of large conurbations, leading to early regional was placed on preserving the countryside. One year later,
planning.1 The New Towns Group was founded in England Abercrombie developed the Greater London Plan. Both
in 1918 with the objective of including these initiatives, plans included the idea of the Metropolitan Green Belt,
which had initially been driven by the private sector, in which had been proposed in 1935 around the city [see
national policies. And some years later, the well-known Chaps. 2, 6, 26]. In this way, the concerns of the protec-
Barlow Report pointed out the need for a regional policy, tionist associations bore fruit, as did the preliminary reports
regulating industrial activity and the transport system, and the that had applied pressure so that London’s growth would not
commitment to de-congesting those cities in which traffic cause the loss of landscape, cultural and production values of
congestion was seen as a threat to the economy and society. the English countryside.
The commitment to a decentralised urban system was
accompanied by a legal framework set down in the Town
and Country Planning Act of 1947, imposing restrictions on
urban growth in the large areas that separated the different
1
“If the garden city was English out of America, then the regional city planned satellite towns. With these instruments, the state
was undoubtedly American out of France via Scotland” (Hall 2014, prepared infrastructure and planning operations for new
151). cities, an unprecedented event in the history of town
P. de la Cal (&)

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_29
300 P. de la Cal
positive function. Open space cannot be an empty space:

‘Land is either used or it is lost’ (Whyte 1968). Whyte
defended that open space could restructure towns, but to do
so, it relies on an articulated system in which the most
important elements already exist: nature has drawn out a
regional layout of water currents and valleys that supply
magnificent natural links that reach the very heart of urban
areas (Whyte 1968).
The same approaches were drawn up by Lewis Mumford
in The City in the History (1961), who pointed out that the
town planner should not choose between green belts or green
verges, which in his opinion is a false alternative, but should
maintain the ‘green matrix’ by preventing uncontrolled
growth of urban fabric from razing that matrix and unbal-
ancing all ecological guidelines of the city and countryside
(Mumford 1961, 1045).
This need for a balanced tension between urban devel-
opments and green areas separating them has been repeat-
edly emphasised in the Anglo-Saxon tradition. In his recent
Fig. 29.1 Satellite Towns round London, by Charles Benjamin
Purdom (GCTPA, Garden Cities and Town Planning Association 1920) book Shaping London. The patterns and forms that make
the metropolis (2010), Terry Farrell points out that this
condition has allowed the British to believe that ‘making a
pact with the countryside, to bring the countryside into the
town, is a necessity of urban life’(Farrel 2010, 239).
planning.2 Indeed, the construction of the new towns in the However, suburban sprawl and the decline of urban centres
fifties went hand-in-hand with the creation of large areas has led to a commitment to more compact cities in the last
separating the central metropolitan cities from them. two decades in England, particularly in London, at least in
The construction of these new urban developments gen- the theory.3
erally took place on former agricultural land, hence the The architect Richard Rogers had already defined this
definition ‘greenfield’ sites. On the other hand, protecting the approach in a very pedagogic manner in his book Cities for a
established green buffers around the cities, these green belts Small Planet (1997). The British government took years to
were delimited to avoid the city growing onto them and give preference to more compact development within Lon-
eroding agricultural land, i.e. avoiding suburban develop- don, more specifically on ‘brownfields’ or land that had
ments on greenfields. Obviously, halting suburban devel- previously been used for abandoned industry, railways or
opment throughout the twentieth century was only partly port facilities. In essence, the book searches for a more
successful. The difficulty the administrations had to avoid balanced model, trying to renew precisely the most
construction on greenfields has been a recurring one, and run-down spaces and poor areas. Rogers advocates avoiding
despite the planning instruments, the green areas have been the antisocial model of partial growth based on develop-
subject to a continual process of erosion. This question has ments exclusively driven through economic interests, which
been analysed by many authors. Among them, William have proved to be inadequate for the city (Rogers 1997).
Whyte, who, in The Last Landscape (1968) stated that the The focus therefore became brownfield sites, i.e. terrain
preserved open areas had to be productive, seen and in the city that has been transformed or developed, and the
appreciated by the population, and basically had to have a potential for urban development of that land is identified to
improve the living standards in deteriorated areas, thus
2
From Stevenage, a new town designed in 1946, 45 km from London, a
3
programme for new towns was driven from which the creation of new Between 1965 and 1986 Greater London was jointly managed by the
towns became generalised in London (Harlow, Milton Keynes, etc.) Greater London Council (GLC) and 32 local town councils, along with
and was soon implemented in other much larger regions in Europe. In the historical City of London Corporation. The conservative govern-
Scandinavia, for example, the new towns developed around Stockholm ment dissolved the GLC in 1986, and at the end of the nineties, the
are noteworthy, linked to the development of the metro (Vallingby, Labour government established the Greater London Authority (GLA),
Farsta, Skärholmen), or around Helsinki, with the outstanding example with competences largely transferred by the central government
of TapiolaErvi, Aarne(Aarne Ervi, 1953) [see Chap. 6]. (Simmons 2000, 40–43).
29 Greenfield/Brownfield: Two Sides of the Same Coin 301
Fig. 29.2 Green Belts around London and other British towns
facilitating integration in the city.4 The proposal by the new measures for the housing demand that London required,
British government in 1998 was for 60% of new houses that establishing the minimum density in urban developments to
needed to be built in England, to be built on brownfield sites. be 30 homes/ha (Urban Task Force 1999; 2005).
To achieve these objectives and strengthen districts and The truth is that the objective established in 1998 had
urban centres, redirecting most of the growth towards been fulfilled, and even surpassed, just ten years later, with
brownfield sites, the government commissioned Richard approximately 80% of the housing built in England between
Rogers to direct an Urban Task Force, which in 1999 drafted 1998 and 2008 being built on brownfield sites. The ease of
an extensive final report under the title Towards an Urban meeting the objective was due to several factors, among
Renaissance.5 A second report was drafted in 2005 called them the reduced growth of greenfield sites owing to legal
Towards a Strong Urban Renaissance which analysed the restrictions, and the densification on brownfield develop-
implemented policies and their results. That report proposed ments, with the loss of open areas, and on many occasions, a
loss of urban quality inside the city.6
4
Brownfield has a more complex meaning in Britain and is included in
the technical term “Previously Developed Land” (PDL). In more recent
definitions, such as the one by the National Planning Policy Guidance 6
The article by Cecilia Wong and Andreas Schulze Bäing “Brownfield
in 2012 used in England and Wales, the terms “brownfield” and residential redevelopment in England. What happens to the most
“previously developed land” are interchangeable. For a more accurate deprived neighbourhoods?” analyses the brownfield developments in
definition, please see: http://planningguidance.communities.gov.uk/ London in detail during the 1988–2008 period, and rates the impact of
blog/policy/achieving-sustainable-development/annex-2-glossary/. these residential developments on the deprived areas in the city in
5
Many of the wordings are based on Cities for a small planet (Rogers accordance with the following qualifications: escalator, gentrifier,
1997). isolate, transit. (Wong and Schulze Bäing 2010, 5).
302 P. de la Cal
region’ (Hall 2006, 84), densifying it and blocking views,

making noisier environments where these developments are
built. In the last decade, the average density had increased in
all urban developments in London, being particularly sig-
nificant in areas that had previously been logistic, industrial
or commercial areas, changing from 46 to 71 homes/ha
(Wong and Schulze Bäing 2010, 12).
Clearly, it is not just a question of density. The key
resides in the urban project which in many cases has not only
to consider development on empty land, but also renewal of
the existing residential buildings. The modern housing
estates have also given rise to environments that require
renewal, because they have become obsolete for different
reasons, in some cases because of disconnection with the
centre and their condition as an isolated enclave, in other
cases because they have become social ghettoes. On other
occasions, the decline is due to the architectural conditions,
which are excessively monotonous, rigid and incapable of
adapting over time9 [see Chap. 7].
The question of urban recycling is not just limited to resi-
dential estates, but also applies to large vacant spaces. In the
USA, a new term has been coined, namely that of ‘greyfield’
referring to spaces that have been previously developed, such
as malls with large parking facilities, and that have left enor-
Fig. 29.3 Anglo-Saxon urban planning becomes more widespread in
many European countries in the fifties, which led to the implementation
mous unused and obsolete spaces. But unlike brownfields,
of Green belts and protection strips in many general plans. This is the these greyfields are usually found on suburban sites.10
case of the agricultural protection belt proposed for Zaragoza (Spain) in In the context of Latin—Mediterranean countries, the role
the General Plan of 1959 of brownfield sites in recent years has not been so relevant,
partly because industrialisation took place later than in
Anglo-Saxon countries. On the other hand, residential
In fact, this issue was put forward by Peter Hall in the developments on greenfield sites have much higher densities
2005 final report, where he warned that the neighbourhood
conditions where work of this kind took place could wor-
sen.7 Hall had developed his argument in two recent publi-
cations (Hall 2005; 2006), in which he was critical with the
‘backland developments’, i.e. those spaces that are suscep-
tible to housing new homes, but not always improving the
existing quality.8 More specifically, he warned that by 9
Montaner, J.M. 2015. El legado de la vivienda colectiva moderna/The
converting greenfields into untouchable spaces revered as legacy of modern collective housing. ZARCH: Journal of interdisci-
nature reserves, fetishes, with excessive protection, could plinary studies in Architecture and Urbanism 5: 24–39.
lead to notable impoverishment of living conditions in the
10
The term ‘greyfield’ or ‘grayfield’ was coined in 2001 at the Con-
gress for the New Urbanism, New York, June 2001: “Here is what
existing city, ‘with increasingly damaging consequences—
CNU calls a greyfield. It was a shopping centre. This shopping centre is
for the properly sustainable development of London and the no longer functional. It is closed down. It runs off a flea market right
reasonable housing aspirations of the very many in the now. And CNU has extraordinary models for greyfield rehabilitation—
for how you put whole villages back into these wonderful empty sites
because these sites are rich in infrastructure”. CNU IX Opening
Session: “From Neighbourhood to Region”, 7 June, 2001, 4. This term
refers to the “so-called dead malls, often characterised by the vast
empty asphalt parking lots that surround them.” At that moment, of the
7
“I am therefore concerned that the proposals on brownfield and 2000 American regional malls, it was estimated that nearly 20% were
densities, however well-intentioned, would—if implemented—deepen greyfield malls or in danger of becoming one. Just in the USA, there are
the well-documented housing crisis that faces us and our government” more than 200 obsolete shopping mall sites ready to be recovered. In
(Hall in Urban Task Force 2005, 19). these cases, the redevelopment costs are high, and in general, there are
8
It is about a definition by Llewelyn Davies (1997), that makes no social benefits from redeveloping them, in terms of improvements
reference to build in back yards (Hall 2006). on the existing neighbourhoods.
Fig. 29.4 Richard Rogers, urban structure of a dispersed town, in Fig. 29.5 Richard Rogers, urban structure of a compact city, in
Towards an Urban Renaissance, 1999 Towards an Urban Renaissance, 1999
than in London (with a maximum density of 20–25 so-called nuevos ensanches (new city extensions),12 that
homes/ha), with an average of 75 homes/ha.11 make up the fragmented regional landscape, isolated from
In Madrid, the role of the main ring-roads (such as the the main metropolitan infrastructures. Important develop-
M-40 and M-50 roads) has made it possible to develop ments have also been built on brownfield sites, associated
residential sites in the city’s outlying areas. Hence, the with transformation work driven by the administration (on
development plans designed residential extensions with railway, port, riverbank areas, etc.) and also inner renewal
more moderate densities (around 40–50 homes/ha) and more localised with lesser impact on the long-term ‘land
typologies more similar to nineteenth century town planning project’, such as renewal of the Poble Nou district in
(closed blocks, smaller than in the ensanches or city exten- Barcelona.
sions) with boulevards and urban plazas. These are the The commitment to sustainable construction in our cities
requires rethinking growth in each case. It is important to
consider all the growth and development possibilities of
brownfield and greyfield sites, using criteria to strengthen
11
the consolidated structure, whilst at the same time recon-
In Spain, the big estates of the sixties and seventies built on
sidering their integrating role in terms of green infrastructure
Greenfield sites were designed within the framework of the first Land
Law in 1956 (Law 12 May 1956 pursuant to Land and Town Planning), and the importance of associated factors such as biodiversity
giving rise to high-density housing estates, in terms of number of or urban resilience. Moreover, minimising growth on
buildings per hectare. The density of residential sector was limited in
Article 75 of the 1976 Land Law (Amended text of the Land and Town
Planning Law, approved by Royal Decree 1346/1976 of 9th April)
which established a maximum of 75 homes per hectare which,
exceptionally and justifiably, could be raised to 100 homes per hectare.
But it was the Planning Regulation for Development and Application of
12
the Land and Town Planning Regime of 1978 (approved by Royal The architects Ramón López de Lucio and Agustín Hernández-Aja
Decree 2159/1978, of 23rd June) that actually regulated the “land have studied these plans for Madrid in depth. The results of these were
reserves for areas in partial plans” taking the planned number of homes the ‘nuevos ensanches’ where the blocks with lower building impact,
in the development area as the reference. The different legislative and open interior spaces with low commercial use of the ground floors
document developed subsequently by the Regional Authorities gener- have led to residential developments with low social complexity and
ally adopted the determinations of Regulation’78 as the baseline (López almost zero urban activity, with this condition being emphasised further
de Lucio 2013, 212). due to the consolidation of habits related to malls.
304 P. de la Cal
Fig. 29.6 Diagrams of London published in Richard Rogers, Cities for a small planet, 1997. Left diagram of concentration of poverty (14 of the
20 poorest districts in England) in the inner ring. Right diagram of how urban renewal projects could contribute to improving the quality of life in
deprived areas
Fig. 29.7 London, land changed to residential use, in Wong and Schulze Bäing 2010
Fig. 29.8 London, average dwelling density per hectare by land types,
in Cecilia Wong and Andreas Schulze Bäing, ‘Brownfield residential
redevelopment in England. What happens to the most deprived
neighbourhoods?’, 2010, 12
Fig. 29.10 Madrid. South Metropolitan, in the Plan Regional de

Estrategia Territorial de Madrid (Regional Territorial Strategy Plan for
Madrid), 1995
As Whyte and Mumford put forward decades ago, the

challenge lies in articulating urban spaces and region.
A space’s suitability for development depends on their
role in the territorial make-up, considering a long-term
vision with respect to ecology, sustainability and re-
Fig. 29.9 Terry Farrel, Community Parklands, 2008 silience. Giuseppe Dematteis claims that the two ways of
western European suburbanisation—the Anglo-Saxon and
Latin-Mediterranean—have led to the formation of a ‘city
without a centre’, ‘diffused city’ and ‘reticular city’
greenfield sites works to preserve the areas that perform (Dematteis 1996, 32–33). And nevertheless, it is encourag-
ecological functions. Ultimately, we must avoid low densi- ing to see how, in some regions with efficient territorial
ties that are incapable of building urban fabric. government and clear strategies, the greenfield/brownfield
We often see approaches that feature greenfield and dialectic is not an issue and both elements are capable of
brownfield sites as two antagonistic models, opposing providing suitable articulation, and contributing to a remedy
positions held by planners and politicians. Nevertheless, we for the deteriorated urban areas (Heid 2004). They are also
can see how innovative work in territorial renewal exceeds capable of labelling themselves ‘sustainable cities’, as
the simplification of greenfield vs. brownfield, and engages Richard Rogers pointed out, i.e. a beautiful, creative, eco-
the specific conditions of each site, establishing detailed logical city that favours contact—both compact and
categories in order to better define operating plans.13 poly-centric, with diversity (Rogers 1997, 169).
13
Terry Farrell, in his 2008 proposal for renewal of the Thames estuary,
Parklands: One Vision—A Thousand Projects, establishes several
categories—‘blue landscape’, ‘green landscape’ (parklands, agricultural
land, green grid) and ‘brown landscape’, depicting urban areas and new
communities.
306 P. de la Cal
Case Studies the form of residential container functions. The Valde-

bernardo North PAU (Urban Development Plan)(José María
Valdebernardo Nord, Madrid (1989–2003) Ezquiaga, 1989–2003 with 5000 homes and a density of
62.5 homes/ha), is an excellent example of these urban
The expansion of the metropolitan region of Madrid in the expansion developments. The professor and town planner,
nineties underwent a spectacular phase of development. To a López de Lucio, acknowledges that, although they are
large extent expansion took place by developing agricultural obviously urban estates that have not managed to rebuild the
land, through plans designing estates renamed ‘nuevos density of urban life, animation or the vital warmth of the
ensanches’. They are developments located away from the historical expansions, they have to a certain degree solved
city’s historical centre, separated from the surrounding urban the problems afflicting the estates built on the fifties, sixties
fabric by major highways. The use of orthogonal highway and seventies. The real estate boom of 2000 gave way to a
grids to arrange them, with avenues or boulevards, and the subsequent generation of much larger urban developments
use of quadrangular residential blocks as a generalised (the Urban Development Plans of Vallecas, Sanchinarro or
composition, mainly comprising ‘super-blocks’, are evi- Carabanchel, for example), further away from the city cen-
dence of a return to town planning of alignment, determining tre, and with lower densities (between 20 and 34 homes/ha).
Regeneration of Lower Lea valley, London architects Witheford Watson Mann Architects and Jonathan
(2012–2026) Cook Landscape Architects. These two teams structured the
work in three areas: Walthamstow Wetlands, Central Lee-
With London named host of the 2012 Olympics, the River side and Forest to Green Belt. The drawings show the Lea
Lea corridor, to the east of London, was designated as the site River in 2026 capable of articulating spaces that had tra-
for the games. The opportunity of renewing some industrial ditionally industrial, and through these interventions, the
land in a socially and environmentally deteriorated area was area was transformed into an attractive, integrated part of
then given serious consideration. The action at the Olympic the metropolitan green grid. Emphasis on open spaces, on
site (according to the Master Plan by Alejandro Zaera in the network of paths, the water strategy (with run-off
2006) had a huge impact in the architectural field, but terri- retaining systems and flood prevention) revealed an ambi-
torial and landscape transformation in the valley as a whole tious renewal strategy, articulating open areas instead of
involved a more important, long-term project (through 2026). built-up areas and ‘hard’ pieces, typical in conventional
The approaches to the work were defined in the All town planning.
London Green Grid strategy. The landscape project at the
upper end of the river was commissioned to the landscape
308 P. de la Cal
Dematteis, G. 1996. Suburbanización y periurbanización. Ciudades Arias, P. 2003. Periferias y nueva ciudad. El problema del paisaje en
anglosajonas y ciudades latinas. In La ciudad dispersa: suburban- los procesos de dispersión urbana. Sevilla: Universidad de Sevilla.
ización y nuevas periferias, ed. J. Monclús, 17–33. Barcelona: EPA United States Environmental Protection Agency. 2002. Land &
CCCB. Community Revitalization : Brownfields: Program Summary &
Farrel, T. 2010. Shaping London. The patterns and forms that make the Success Stories. National Service Center for Environmental Publi-
metropolis. London: Willey. cations (NSCEP).
Hall, P.G. 2005. Aux Armes—Against Housing Disaster. Town and Greater London Authority. 2011. Green infrastructure and open
Country Planning 74: 288–290. environments: The All London Green Grid. Greater London
Hall, P.G. 2006. The Land Fetish: Densities and London Planning. In Authority: Supplementary planning guidance. London.
London: Bigger and Better?, ed. B. Kochan, 84–93. London: Vegara, A., and J.L. de las Rivas. 2004. Territorios Inteligentes.
London School of Economics. Madrid: Fundación Metrópoli.
Hall, P.G. 2014. Cities of Tomorrow. An intelectual history of urban
planning and design in the twentieth century [1988]. 4th ed.
Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Heid, J. 2004. Greenfield Development Without Sprawl: The Role of
Planned Communities. ULI—The Urban Land Institute: Washing-
ton D.C.
López de Lucio, R. 2013. Vivienda colectiva, espacio público y ciudad.
Evolución y crisis en el diseño de tejidos residenciales 1860–2010.
Buenos Aires: Nobuko.
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mations and its prospects. San Diego: Harcourt, Brace & World.
Purdom Charles Benjamin. 1920. Satellite towns round London.
GCTPA, Garden Cities and Town Planning Association.
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Ltd.
Simmons, M. 2000. El caso de Londres. Gobierno y sistemas de gestión
del planeamiento. Urban 5: 40–49.
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the Urban Task Force chaired by Lord Rogers of Riverside.
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independent report by members of the Urban Task Force chaired by
Lord Rogers of Riverside. Edited by J. Bennett. London: Urban
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redevelopment in England. What happens to the most deprived
neighbourhoods? York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
New Landscapes Perspectives for Planning
30
Miriam García
Abstract
This chapter explores the contemporary renewal of the concept of landscape and its
application to regional and town planning. Its utility has to do with the ability to analyse
and design territories, ecosystems, networks and infrastructures at all scales. At the same
time, landscape becomes both a medium and a management tool to restore deteriorated
territories and activate abandoned areas based on the idea of enhancing the ecological
potential of places. Ecology is used to generate the necessary processes to develop
strategies to achieve future sustainability over time by accommodating or even catalysing
change (natural or man-made). As a result, landscape perspective integrates synthetic nature
with an open, dynamic, adaptable and flexible decision-making system for complex spaces.

Keywords
Landscaping Ecological processes Resilience Sustainability
The new landscapes perspectives that have arisen in recent management tool to restore deteriorated territories and acti-
years are the result of reflection and committed attitude to vate abandoned areas. In short, to transform the environment
the times we live in, establishing the potential for a creative and convert it into a design project.
lifestyle, while aware of its limits. In the current era, known From the discipline of landscape architecture, design
as the Anthropocene, the planet’s resources are increasingly strategies are put forward based on the idea of enhancing the
limited, whereas the vulnerability of regions and cities has ecological potential of places. Some, such as James Corner,
increased. The economic crises, the effects of climate call this strategy ‘Lifescape’. He developed projects such as
change, migration, epidemics and wars have increased the Fresh Kills Park or in his joint proposal with Stan Allen and
risks to the planet. This risk is no longer related to political Nina-Marie Lister, for the Downsview Park in Toronto, in a
or economic power since it depends on unpredictable, global tender calling for bids in 1999. It consists of working with a
phenomena. This new perspective necessarily changes the landscape as a process based on a series of flexible, con-
way we approach work and calls for a complete overhaul of tinuing stages, a readable landscape, designed to promote
the practice of modern urbanism, in order to be in harmony diversification and succession over time (Corner 2005, 14–
with the Earth. 21). The aim is to build a diverse, resilient landscape on the
It was in this context that a renewal of the concept of basis of existing natural conditions. With these objectives, an
landscape and its application to regional and town planning ecological process of environmental restoration and renewal
took place. Its utility has to do with the opportunities it on a large scale is designed, not only recovering the healthy
reveals compared to current town planning, and the ability to biodiversity of ecosystems, but also enabling dynamic cul-
analyse and design territories, ecosystems, networks and tivation of other ecologies that include much wider scopes:
infrastructures at all scales. Its potential, furthermore, resides human programmes and activities; financing, management
in the possibilities it confers to become a medium, a and adaptive handling; environmental technology, renew-
able energy and education; or new forms of interaction
M. García (&)
between citizens, nature and technology over time (Field
University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain Operations and Planning 2006).

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_30
310 M. García
Ecology then becomes a key tool, in the matrix used to (reproduction, growth, behaviour) and ecology (energy,
generate these strategies, with a view to achieving sustain- information, material flows, succession and behaviour). It is
ability over time. This matrix consists of several coordinated not about imitating forms, or using local materials, so much
systems that encompass the habitat (landscape) and pro- as it is about adapting the form to processes. If we pay
grammes (areas or facilities) and transit (paths and roads). attention to the finer details of these items, to the form and
These systems, arranged in layers, organize the space, cre- structure of the environment, designers and planners will be
ating the landscape framework for the project. This under- able to accompany and integrate change and dynamism, to
lying framework is sufficiently flexible, coherent and establish relationships between apparently unrelated items
durable to accommodate change (natural or man-made) that and create new opportunities (Spirn 2012, 6).
may take place in the future. From this perspective, rather Back in the 1960s, Ian McHarg called for a ‘design with
than deleting the past or recreating a natural environment nature’, giving structure to a conceptual framework that
lost through time, growth is proposed that emerges from the authors such as Frederick Law Olmsted, Jens Jensen and
past and present towards an identity-based future. The result Aldo Leopold had advanced through their research and
will be integrating, synthetic nature, while being wild and projects. We could, therefore, consider that, since Olmsted,
cultivated, renewed and built. This must undoubtedly entail the landscape perspective has sought to integrate design
changes in the way we design and experiment with these with the ecology of places through planning processes,
recovered landscapes in territories and cities (Corner 2005, promoting a unity between nature and society. That is pre-
14–21). cisely the approach that Dirk Sijmons proposes for the sixth
Other authors, such as Anita Berrizbeitia and Linda edition of the Rotterdam Architectural Biennial: nature as a
Pollak, join this trend, claiming that project design strategies spatial intervention to contribute to developing more re-
must follow natural, dynamic processes, thus becoming silient cities and environments for a sustainable world
open, dynamic, adaptable and flexible decision-making (Sijmons 2014).
system for our complex contemporary cities and metropo- These theories have recently been renewed with eco-
lises (Berrizbeitia 2007, 175–198; Pollack 2007, 87–120). In logical town planning, promoting urbanism which, in
order to study these spaces, we must take the future reper- addition to paying special attention to ecological variables,
cussions of each process into account, as well as the his- features techniques and technology inherent to this subject
torical processes that have made and sustained them. The (Mostafavi and Doherty 2010). It is an approach that is more
latter is important since many spaces where intervention has metabolic than morphologic. There are many authors, too
taken place are vast, abandoned sites, former industrial many in fact to cite in this short text, who have highlighted
areas, wasteland and even dumps, and therefore, the cultural the potential of this perspective as a useful tool for planning
dimension and social perception also become an important space. From Ian McHarg to James Corner, Alan Berger or
part of the project. With this type of action in mind, today Chris Reed to name but a few. In fact, Reed, in a recent
we are faced with many spaces and urban parks of apparent paper under the title of “Projective ecologies”, emphasizes
stable development that are actually artificially maintained the relevance this change of paradigm has for planning,
ecological conditions. Ecosystems undergo transformation governed by a dynamic understanding of systems and their
and disturbance on a regular basis, both in short- and changes. This question is related to its adaptability, re-
long-term cycles; therefore, this landscape perspective pro- silience and flexibility (Reed and Lister 2014, 14–21).
vides an operational and programming dimension that In short, the introduction to landscape thinking in plan-
facilitates the emergence and evolution of self-managed ning and design has been present since the middle of the last
ecological systems, or resilient ecosystems. The latter is a century in many different fields and on different scales:
basic requirement for long-term sustainability(Corner 2005, landscape architecture, townscape, landscape planning,
14–21; Lister 2007, 35–58; Pollack 2007, 87–120). ecological town planning, ecological design, green archi-
“There is a common tendency to focus on natural features tecture, green infrastructure, green town planning, environ-
(e.g. rivers and trees) rather than the processes that shape mental art and many others. Theorists, scientists, researchers
and structure them (e.g. flow of air, water, and materials; and designers have been reinforcing this field of thought
plant reproduction and growth). Ignoring natural processes through science, art and humanities in a time that is char-
leads to harmful consequences, including the failure of acterized by the need to hybridise culture and nature. This
planners to accommodate dynamic change, their failure to chapter’s title “New Landscape Perspectives” has the aim of
make connections among seemingly unrelated issues and bringing attention to the proposals that converge in these
phenomena and to realize opportunities”(Spirn 2003, 204– approaches to form resilient thought, understood as a tool
205). As Anne Whiston Spirn claims in this text, the key is for creativity in multi-scale planning and design based on
thinking how human activities, their forms and structures ecological processes. The potential of landscape as a
interact with air processes (flows and transference), the earth resource, in the words of Charles Waldheim, as a machine,
(geology and soil), water (cycles and flows), life as defined by Mohsen Mostafavi, or as a field of operations,
30 New Landscapes Perspectives for Planning 311
Fig. 30.1 Global risks, in WEF Global Risks Report, 2015

312 M. García
Fig. 30.2 Pohenix, Arizona. Allan Berger, in Drosscape: Wasting Land 2007
Fig. 30.3 James Corner, Stan Allen and Nina-Marie Lister, Emergence through Adaptive Management. Downsview Park Competition, Toronto,
Canadá, 1999
Fig. 30.4 James Corner, Stan Allen and Nina-Marie Lister, Downsview Park Competition, Toronto, Canadá, 1999
Fig. 30.5 James Corner, Stan Allen and Nina-Marie Lister, Downsview Park Competition, Toronto, Canadá, 1999
according to James Corner, opens a new framework for Therefore, we could claim that if, during the twentieth
planning and design at all scales. century, cities and urban design were the focus of attention,
Using the scheme proposed by R. Weller in “Global now is the evolution of the landscape concept and its
Landscapes” (2013), the two cases presented here are only a re-emergence as a useful instrument for planning that has
sample of how this approach from landscape permits placed it at the centre in the twenty-first century. Designing
working at all scales, relating the design process with the from the perspective of landscape entails establishing the
instrumental processes provided by ecology, and thus necessary relationships between nature, place and society,
developing all its potential. through ecology, science and art.
314 M. García
Fig. 30.6 FABRIC and JCFO, Urban Metabolism for IABR Project Atelier Rotterdam, 2014. The FABRIC and JCFO design offices mapped the
inbound and outbound material flows to and from the city of Rotterdam and the Delta, analysing how those flows interacted on the territory and the
space, and exploring how they can have a positive impact on environmental management of the city both individually and as a system
Fig. 30.7 Richard Weller, diagram depicting the scope of landscape architecture today and its relationship with design and planning
throughscales, in Weller, R. “Global Landscapes”, 2013
Fig. 30.8 Parking lots at Los Angeles international airport
Fig. 30.9 Allan Berger, in Drosscape: Wasting Land in Urban America, 2007. Berger develops the idea of waste landscapes in American cities,
including ‘how’, ‘where’ and ‘why’ they were created and also ‘what’ and ‘when’ for any possible re-development of them
316 M. García
Case Studies Olmsted, aware of the limits and repercussions of growth

and intensive development of the city, promoted public
Emerald Necklace, Boston (1884–1910s) health, the use of passive transport and the reduction of
flooding along Muddy River through ecological recovery of
The park system designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1884 the landscape and leisure use. He restored Back Bay, a
for the city of Boston, known as the Emerald Necklace covers former swamp that had been used as a dump, as well as the
a length of over 12 km and 450 ha. It is a green infrastructure banks of the Muddy River, as an element to structure con-
that connects parks, lakes and river areas in a complex sys- nect the parks system, thus resolving the existing health
tem. The project, considered a pioneer in implementing green problem and recovering lost biodiversity. Moreover, the
infrastructures in the USA, emerged in 1875 with approval by project served to retain rainwater, mitigating flooding and at
the Boston Municipal Council through a Parks Law favour- the same time separated heavy traffic from pedestrian
ing access to nature by inhabitants in the city which at the walkways and renewed contact with nature.
time was undergoing strong development as a result of the
Industrial Revolution. This project continues today, through
the restoration of Muddy River.
Fresh Kills Park, New York (Project, 2001. properties of the soil through agriculture and recovering the
Development 2006–2036) wetlands. Once the soil has been improved, there will be a
process of establishing pioneer plant communities. Native
The project, developed by James Corner (Field Operations) species will be used for the most part, as well as a collection
for New York in 2001, consists of recovering the Fresh Kills of different species adapted to the prevailing conditions of the
dump, the largest in the world, as a public park, located to site, susceptible to improving the development conditions of
the west of Staten Island in the River Hudson estuary. the different habitats. The use of small-scale plantations
Because of its scale and complexity, the project develops provides a variety of species in each of the habitats, testing
the idea of Lifescape, as described previously. The strategy their adaptability to the conditions of the park. Thus, a
proposes a series of flexible, continuing stages, a landscape in diverse landscape is achieved, self-manageable and resilient,
process, designed to promote diversification and succession which recovers its ecological value, introducing a programme
over time. The project is subdivided into five parks, to be for public use, while purifying polluted water, reducing the
developed in three stages, each spanning a ten-year period. It need for park maintenance and acting as a buffer zone from
features establishing new habitats, based on improving the the storm waves, as could be seen during Hurricane Sandy.
318 M. García
Berrizbeitia, A. 2007. Re-placing Process. In Large Parks, ed. Berger, A. 2006. Drosscape: Wasting Land Urban America. Princeton
J. Czerniak and G. Hargreaves, 175–198. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.
Architectural Press. Corner, J. 1997. Ecology and Landscape as Agents of Creativity. In
Corner, J. 2005. Lifescape—Fresh Kills Park. Topos—The Interna- Ecological Design and Planning, ed. F. Steiner and G. Thompson,
tional Review of Landscape Architecture and Urban Design 51: 80–108.
14–21. Corner, J. (ed.). 1999. Recovering Landscape: Essays in Contemporary
Field Operations, and New York City Department of City Planning. Landscape Architecture. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.
2006. Fresh Kills Park: lifescape. Draft Master Plan. New York. Corner, J. 2001. Fresh Kills: Landfill to landscape. International
Lister, N.M. 2007. Sustainable parks: Ecological design o designer Competition.
ecology? In Large Parks, ed. J. Czerniak and G. Hargreaves, 35–58. Corner, J. 2006. Terra Fluxus. In The Landscape Urbanism Reader, ed.
New York: Princeton Architectural Press. C. Waldheim, 21–33. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.
Mostafavi, M., and G. Doherty (eds.). 2010. Ecological Urbanism. Rottle, N., and K. Yocom. 2011. Ecological Design. Lausanne: AVA
Cambridge: Harvard University Graduate School of Design-Lars Books.
Müller Publishers. Waldheim, C. 2006. The Landscape Urbanism Reader. New York:
Pollack, L. 2007. Matrix landscape: Construction of Identity in the Princeton Architectural Press.
Large Park. In Large Parks, ed. J. Czerniak and G. Hargreaves,
86–119. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.
Reed, C., and N.-M. Lister (eds.). 2014. Projective Ecologies. New
York: Actar, Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Sijmons, D. 2014. IABR-2014: Urban by nature.
Spirn, A.W. 2003. Urban Ecosystems, City Planning, and Environ-
mental Education: Literature, Precedents, Key Concepts, and
Prospects. In Understanding Urban Ecosystems: A New Frontier
for Science and Education, ed. A.R. Berkowitz, C.H. Nilon, and K.
S. Hollweg, 201–212. New York: Springer.
Spirn, A.W. 2012. Ecological Urbanism: A Framework for the Design
of Resilient Cities. In Resilience in Ecology and Urban Design, ed.
S. Pickett, M. Cadenasso, and B. McGrath. Dordrecht: Springer
Netherlands.
The Intangible Values of the Landscape
31
Miriam García
Abstract
The article explores the identity mark registered as personal and collective memory and
intangible heritage in the places from a cultural, perceptive, emotional and phenomeno-
logical perspective. These landscape values, which can be called intangible, reveal realities
of huge importance for culture and for urban planning. Among other techniques, the article
focuses on the cartography of values such as tranquillity or the aesthetic emotion, aimed at
understanding and designing places. These maps drawn from a deep knowledge of the
places are a powerful tool that can be used to claim contemporary landscape as a dynamic,
socio-ecological system. Mapping then becomes a process of understanding, evocation and
design in itself, through which projects can be integrated in the site.

Keywords
Landscape Intangible Mapping Perception Identity Site
Landscape plays an essential role in creating the feeling of a historical legacies, continuities, continuances, the overlapping
place; it establishes identity and a sense of belonging between strata of the remains of ancient landscapes”.1
man and his environment. This holistic conception is the one that From this point of view, it could be said that all places
inspired the definition coined at the European Landscape Con- have that identity mark registered ‘the traces of the place’, as
vention held in Florence 2000, where it is understood as “(…) an personal and collective memory, intangible heritage,
area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the although sometimes it is invisible. According to the Safe-
action and interaction of natural and/or human factors” (Council guard Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention, this is the
of Europe 2000). Because, as the geographer Joan Nogué points root of our cultural diversity, and at the same time a guar-
out, landscape is, “at the same time a physical reality and the antee of creativity. There is a reason why intangible cultural
representation that we make of it culturally; the external and heritage is defined in the second article of the Convention,
visible appearance of a certain portion of the land and the indi- where landscape is understood as “(…) the practices, rep-
vidual and social perception that it generates; a geographical resentations, expressions, knowledge, skills—as well as the
tangible and its intangible interpretation (…) but they are also instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated
therewith—that communities, groups and, in some cases,
individuals recognise as part of their cultural heritage”
(UNESCO 2003, Article 2). In other words, intangible cul-
tural heritage is the response by each society to an
1
“(…) a la vez, una realidad física y la representación que culturalmente
nos hacemos de ella; la fisonomía externa y visible de una determinada
porción de la superficie terrestre y la percepción individual y social que
genera; un tangible geográfico y su interpretación intangible (…) pero
M. García (&) además son las herencias históricas, las continuidades, las permanen-
University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain cias, los estratos superpuestos de restos de antiguos paisajes” (Nogué
e-mail: [email protected] 2007, 19–20).

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_31
320 M. García
Fig. 31.1 UNESCO, map of intangible cultural heritage, 2014
Fig. 31.2 James Corner, Pedological drift. Fairville, North Dakota, 1996. Corner’s ‘collage maps’ can be interpreted, instead of simply being
used as an illustrative tool. They feature a certain degree of indetermination, by drawing a space of possibilities that is found somewhere between
interpretation and reality
31 The Intangible Values of the Landscape 321
Fig. 31.3 Guy Debord, Life continues to be free and easy, 1959
Fig. 31.4 Illustration of the book Emotional Cartography, by Cristian Nold, 2009
322 M. García
Fig. 31.5 Project for Public Spaces (PPS). By assessing thousands of public spaces around the world, PPS has found that those that are
successful, generally, share the following four qualities: they are accessible; people are involved in activities there; the space is comfortable and has
a good image; and finally, they are sociable places. This has led to the diagram being a tool to assess the quality of public use
environment, one that is always dynamic is being constantly phenomenological values claim integration in the conception
created, providing identity and continuity. It is, therefore, and planning of landscape at every scale (García 2012).
necessary to pay attention to all landscape dimensions, These landscape values, which can be called intangible,
planning transformation and favouring future, collective are usually questioned since they are ephemeral (at least
scenarios and private, global and local ones. more than others, such as geomorphological and biophysical
It could be said that the concept of landscape has undergone aspects) and are tainted by a certain degree of subjectivity
a first stage aimed at its protection, separating the natural and since they are linked to perception and experience. But that
cultural aspects, and a second stage dedicated to understanding does not mean they do not exist. Their cartography reveals
territory as a system, primarily physical and secondarily as an important realities for culture and submerges us in the inti-
ecological system, in opposition to architecture and the city. macy and depth of human beings, our memories, wishes and
Nevertheless, today cultural, perceptive, emotional and emotions, in short, in our identity.
Some of those cartographies are centred on the relation- to acknowledge intangible landscape values, in the sense that
ship between landscape and well-being, placing emphasis on there was a will to claim an emotional experience from
factors such as context, its magnitude and the feeling of cities, both individually and collectively, through specific
affinity by the population. Since the last century, the psy- channels: an haphazard, somewhat vague movement, where
chologist Kart Lewin was one of the first to study environ- perception and play are united in an act of discovery of
mental psychology through the interaction between human places, in contrast to those that are institutionally established
conduct and the environment. Since then, many authors base (see Chaps. 8 and 23). For Guy Debord, the city can also be
their theories on environmental and cognitive psychology, the result of a psycho-geographical perception, the fruit of
arguing that two of the components of tranquillity are aes- empathy, illusion and passion. Today, these tactics have
thetic pleasure and a moderate feeling of fascination, and that been revisited to stimulate strategic interventions in public
both of them are essential in therapy and therefore for quality spaces, where the right to the city is being claimed. To do so,
of life (Fuller et al. 2008, 311–334). Along the same lines, we must first recognise the authentic nature of social life and
the work in the UK on Tranquillity Maps has been one of the the network of relations with the environment.
few examples since the early nineties that show proven At the regional level, maps depicting aesthetic values and
methodology, where emotional aspects of the environment, patterns from the French and English landscape atlases, or
such as tranquillity, have been put into practice in plans those from Catalonia landscape catalogues are a useful
related to the quality of the rural environment or the con- approach to the task of compiling these items that recreate
struction of infrastructures. that artistic imaginary, even though their value is not always
But undoubtedly, the feeling that is most difficult to map recognised. Nevertheless, comparisons with tangible values
is the aesthetic one. Therefore, if we analyse the maps that (physical, usage, etc.) open up new possibilities for plan-
try to depict this aesthetic emotion in detail, we can see that ning, recording the interrelations of areas with different
they are not purely descriptive maps, or in other words, the natures, connected to each other through emotional narra-
description of the aesthetic values of that landscape is not tives. The interest, therefore, resides in the process of elab-
thorough, but more synthetic, aimed primarily at under- oration and in the methodology used to describe them. One
standing and designing the place. This means that these example is the work by Cristian Nold focuses on the emo-
maps have some creative aspects, as suggested by James tional reaction by citizens towards places. Of particular
Corner in his article “The Agency of Mapping: Speculation. interest in his work, and other similar works, is the way they
Critique and Invention”. Hence, for example, in his book recognise a series of items and ‘situations’ that jointly reveal
Taking Measures Across the American Landscape (1996), the legibility of places.
Corner draws a series of maps/drawings, where by means of As an alternate to urban exploration techniques, cartog-
‘collage’, taken from art, he captures the expression of pla- raphy has become a strategic tool for designers and planners,
ces, featuring time, memory and processes, and selects, not only to identify and understand but more importantly to
deletes or emphasises their singularities, as per each case. transmit the values and the potential of places, working as a
They are maps that maintain a dialogue between scientific catalyst for creativity. Studying the landscape has therefore
knowledge and phenomenological knowledge, combining become a continuing dialogue between the tangible and the
‘intuition’ and ‘reason’. But we should not forget that these intangible, between permanent and ephemeral conditions,
are maps drawn from a deep knowledge of the ecological between appreciation and creativity. When the landscape is
and cultural conditions of the places, capable of showing the analysed, many methodological decisions are made that also
potential of each site. It is precisely that evocative power of involve an account of the values and possibilities of the
mapping that provides a potent tool to claim contemporary landscape. It is then, in contexts of complexity and uncer-
landscape as a dynamic, socio-ecological system. Mapping tainty, where participation becomes a new tool for ‘ra-
then becomes a process of understanding, evocation and tionality’ that legitimation and consistency of these
design in itself, through which projects can be integrated processes takes shape from citizen involvement, since it is
with the site. the citizens who are committed, or not, to the assigned
In this context, and within the framework of cities, the values. What is not known and what is not appreciated,
work by the Situationist movement of the 1960s can be said remains invisible. ‘Revealing’ thus becomes an exercise that
324 M. García
Fig. 31.6 Map of aesthetic values, items comprising the landscape catalogue of the regions in Girona. Drafted by Centre de Recerca i Projectes de
Paisatge at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Department of Geography at Girona University and Observatori del Paisatge
is claimed collectively, at the same time being creative, This method has been summarised in a diagram that serves
where the physical and phenomenological aspects comple- as a tool for reflection and analysis. The relevance of in-
ment each other, re-establishing the existing breach between tangible values can be appreciated that which is recreational
professionals and citizens. and that which is ‘performance’ through the social accep-
In this sense, the study by Project for Public Spaces tance parameter of those spaces, which widens and com-
(PPS) is particularly interesting. After assessing thousands pletes the quantitative values. This only confirms that the
of public spaces around the world, it has established a experience of space is inseparable from the events and
method to measure the success of those spaces according to ‘situations’ that take place in it, and ‘emotion’ is therefore a
their accessibility, usage, image and sociability conditions. part of planning.
Fig. 31.6 (continued)

326 M. García
Case Studies cartography depicting the tranquillity of landscape in 1991 in

a number of studies for the British Government’s Department
Tranquillity Maps, Countryside Commission of Transport, aimed at assessing the rural environment of a
(1995–2016) new highway infrastructure, namely the Hertfordshire–Bed-
fordshire corridor, to the north of London. After several
The main objective of these maps drawn up by the Coun- studies in other areas around the country, this methodology
tryside Commission is to define the concept of tranquillity was applied to all of England in 1995, and an estimate of how
applied to landscape through participative processes and to the English landscape had changed was established in relation
obtain graphic representation. To achieve this, these concepts to this feeling of tranquillity between 1960 and 1990. The
are translated into maps with scores assigned by the different interesting point about these projects is that the concept of
agents in the territory through a number of surveys. Simon tranquillity arises out of a process of publicly assigned values
Rendel (ASH Consulting 1991) was the first to design a (visual and sensory) rather than purely scientific knowledge.
Landscape Catalogues of Catalonia (2000s) values. In this context, the aesthetic values are related to the
capability of the landscape to give a feeling of beauty regarding
The landscape catalogues of Catalonia, coordinated by the the items comprising the landscape in terms of colours, di-
Landscape Observatory, are the main instrument for defining versity, form, proportion, scale, texture, unity or harmony. The
the landscape quality objectives in Catalonia. These objectives symbolic and cultural values, however, are more related to the
arise from the acknowledgement of a number of values and feeling of belonging by a certain community or social group
challenges identified in the landscape. In order to do so, all the with the landscape and with their environment.
landscape agents are considered. These landscape catalogues Of course, myths and legends, processions, festivities and
are not only an instrument for landscape policies, but they are other collective activities are part of this group of landscape
also used in many other fields such as education, health, nature values. In one way or another, each of them refers to tangible
conservation, tourism, among others. The catalogues identify components of the landscape, and together, they represent its
natural, historical, social, production, aesthetic and spiritual character (31.6).
328 M. García
Council of Europe. 2000. European Landscape Convention. Florence. Bell, S. 1999. Tranquillity Mapping as an Aid to Forest Planning.
Fuller, D., C. Haggett, and H. Dunsford. 2008. Paisatge, tranquillitat i Edinburgh: Forestry Commission.
salut. In Plecs de Paisatge. Reflexions 1. Paisatge i salut, ed. Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE). 1995. Tranquil places.
J. Nogué, L. Puigbert, and G. Bretcha, 311–334. Olot: Observa- Edinburgh: Countryside Commission.
toridel Paisatge de Catalunya, Barcelona, Generalitat de Catalunya, Corner, J. 1999. The agency of mapping: speculation, critique and
Departament de Salut. invention. In Mappings, ed. D. Cosgrove, 214–252. London:
García, M. 2012. Cartografías intangibles/Cartographies of the intan- Reakton Books.
gible values of the landscape. Paisea 23: 96–103. Corner, J., and A.S. MacLean. 1996. Taking measures across the
Nogué, J. 2007. Introducción. El paisaje como constructo social. In La American Landscape. New Haven—London: Yale University Press.
construcción social del paisaje, ed. J. Nogué. Madrid: Biblioteca CPRE North East Region. 2005. Mapping Tranquillity: Defining And
Nueva. Assessing a Valuable Resource. London: Campaign to Protect Rural
UNESCO. 2003. The Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible England (CPRE).
Cultural Heritage. Paris: UNESCO. EUROPARC-España. 2012. El patrimonio inmaterial: valores cultur-
ales y espirituales. Manual para su incorporación en las áreas
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García, M. 2013. Written at the place. The intangible valous of the
landscape/Escrito en el lugar. Los valores intangibles del paisaje.
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Generalitat de Catalunya. 2010. Catáleg de paisatge. Les Terres de
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Jellicoe, G., and S. Jellicoe. 1975. The Landscape of Man: Shaping the
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Ministerio de Medio Ambiente.
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Architecture. New York: Rizzoli.
Urban Agriculture—Towards a Continuous
Productive-Space System in the City 32
Pablo de la Cal
Abstract
Urban Agriculture is not a new term in the history of urbanism. Many experiences have
tried to include agriculture in the field of town planning, with very interesting initiatives in
the first decades of the twentieth century or by the proposals for ‘protection and
management of agricultural areas in metropolitan environments’ developed more recently.
Bringing the dimension of agriculture to consolidated urban areas has undergone
spectacular development over the last ten years, because it is accompanied by the growing
concern for urban sustainability and the subject of feeding cities. Moreover, for urban
planners, the strategies of ‘continuous productive urban landscapes’ (CPULs) that aim to
introduce coherent productive interconnected spaces inside cities as an essential component
or sustainable urban infrastructure, become a great innovation when designing open-space
systems.

Keywords
Urban agriculture Km 0 agriculture Ecological agriculture
Historically, cities have integrated agricultural activity in a source of inspiration in creating and designing towns ever
rather hybrid manner in courtyards, cloisters, areas around since. Leberecht Migge, in his pamphlet titled Jedermann
walls, etc. This symbiosis between residential and agricul- Selbstversorger. Eine Lösung der Siedlungsfrage durch
tural areas reflects a condition where ‘city’ and ‘countryside’ neuen Gartenbau (Everyman Self-sufficient. A solution to
share the same infrastructure. settlement issues through new gardens) put forward a model
In the nineteenth century, the intensive densification of for a society in 1918 in which families had access to their
historical centres and the new functional needs of industrial own vegetable gardens where they could grow their own
cities meant that more land was required for urban expan- food, and where the same plot of land could also be used to
sion, which gradually displaced agriculture to outer areas, reuse the waste the family produced.
creating a sharp contrast in the city/countryside relationship, In addition to his theories, such as Das Grüne Manifest
and understood since then as two opposing forces. The (The Green Manifesto 1919), which lobbied for socialising
practice of urban planning throughout the twentieth century urban greenery, Migge also developed more territorial
contributed to consolidating an antagonistic outlook between approaches in several cities (Frankfurt, Berlin, etc.). He also
these two concepts, in spite of the fact that there have been collaborated with many architects to include vegetable gar-
some examples of efforts to include agriculture in the field of dens in the urbanistic vocabulary of the Siedlungen (Britz in
town planning. In this sense, we should refer to experiences Berlin, Römerstadt in Frankfurt, among others). This special
in Germany in the first third of the twentieth century, where awareness of cultivated spaces was evident at the town
family allotments in towns were crucial for public health planning scale, with some very interesting examples, such as
during the two world wars. Those experiences have been a the plan for Magdeburg (Bruno Taut y Konrad Rühl 1923).
Although there were also some other isolated experiences
P. de la Cal (&)
School of Engineering and Architecture (EINA), afterwards, such as those by the landscaper Carl Sørensen in
University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain Denmark, who worked in the middle of the twentieth century

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_32
330 P. de la Cal
with the idea of urban vegetable gardens as an urban com- against the pressure from developers in those areas. As a
ponent at different scales, for the most part it is true that result, the experiences of ‘protection and management of
urbanism has assigned agricultural spaces a condition of agricultural areas in metropolitan environments’ were
‘void space’, without urban attributes or simply ‘non-urban’. developed. They have become gradually more important over
As shown in Chap. 26, formalising ‘green belts’ was the last few decades. The Parco Agricolo Sud Milano in
established in England and other European countries in order Milan, the Parque Agrícola del Baix Llobregat in Barcelona
to preserve the productive and aesthetic values of agricul- or the Orchard Territorial Protection Plan in Valencia are just
tural land, and to interrupt urban sprawl. some outstanding examples. Likewise, references to histori-
Once it became clear that simply protecting these agri- cal and cultural features of agricultural areas, including the
cultural areas was insufficient, the need for collective man- existing tracks and buildings, are more common in these
agement emerged, to promote and incentivise productivity projects and planning. Some interesting agricultural land-
scape recovery and renewal projects have been carried out,
such as the one by the landscapers Claire and Michel Cora-
joud between 1998 and 2001 in Montreuil (France), where
the landscape of peach orchards was recovered. Also in
France, Michel Desvigne’s team of landscapers made a very
suggestive proposal in 2005, based on a detailed study of
agricultural allotments in Issoudun (France) (see Chap. 27).
But the subject which has perhaps undergone the most
spectacular development over the last ten years is urban
agriculture, which brings agriculture to consolidated urban
areas, therefore breaking away from typical relationships
between cities and their outlying areas. The interest this
subject has awoken is accompanied by the growing concern
for urban sustainability and therefore the sustainability of the
Fig. 32.1 Allotments in Montreuil, France planet, and the subject of feeding cities. Within the framework
Fig. 32.2 The food system in cities, in Bohn & Viljoen Architects, 2002. Food has an impact on human beings that goes far beyond welfare and
enjoyment. This graph depicts the complexity from a space and sustainability perspective
32 Urban Agriculture—Towards a Continuous Productive-Space… 331
Fig. 32.3 Bruno Taut and Konrad Rühl, Plan of green spaces, Magdeburg, Germany, 1923
332 P. de la Cal
Fig. 32.4 Leberecht Migge, cover of Everyman Self-sufficient. A solu- Fig. 32.5 Leberecht Migge, The Fertile Landscape. Regional Plan for
tion to settlement issues through new gardens, 1918 Berlin, Germany, 1933
Fig. 32.6 Leberecht Migge, Regional Green Space Plan for Frankfurt, Germany, 1929
Fig. 32.8 Urban ‘organopónico’, Cienfuegos, Cuba, 2002
became the leader in urban agriculture with some interesting

composting practices and controlled use of waste water for
irrigation, since agricultural production had to re-adapt to the
shortage of pesticides, fertilisers and machinery (Bakker et al.
2000). During this process an urban movement arose in La
Habana where every small space, albeit a communal court-
yard, rooftop, wasteland or plazas were used to grow food,
feeding over 50% of the population.2
Fig. 32.7 Michel Desvigne, landscape proposal with agricultural lots
subdivision in Issoudun, France, 2005
Other Latin American cities have also found this system
useful to fight against poverty and enhance social cohesion.
In this sense, the urban allotments in Santiago de Chile and
of Agenda 21, reducing the ecological footprint1 of cities is an the Urban Agriculture Programme implemented in Rosario
important goal (see Chap. 28), since providing food for cities (Argentina) since 2002 are also interesting examples (Lat-
has a very significant effect on the ecological footprint of a tuca 2012). The latter has been internationally hailed for its
city. Urban agriculture also elicits renewed interest from two multiple approaches. Chemical-free vegetable farmers’
different points of view. One strictly concerning the food markets have been set up so that farming is introduced in the
industry, from the issue of food supply, to fighting against city as a showcase of the work carried out in the allotments
poverty and even to organic farming. And the other is the of the outlying districts. And the parks and vegetable gar-
question of integrating agriculture in town planning policies. dens, which have been designed in a participative manner,
These are often capable of developing the potential of agri- allow ‘market gardeners’ to become owners of the allot-
cultural areas in a system of green areas in cities and in the ments. Although in developed cities, in a context of eco-
subject of green infrastructures, as well as re-establishing the nomic crisis, urban farming can also be seen as a
lost continuity between countryside and city. complement to the population’s basic needs, there is, in
In fact, the potential of cities to produce food is very high, general, a growing concern for environmental sustainability,
as has been proven historically. Today, in developing cities, more in terms of a shortage of energy resources (Yokohari
but also in those undergoing crises, many residents find a et al. 2010). Obviously, economic aspects and dependence
clear system of subsistence in private areas in the cities. The also play a part in this decision. In fact, English sensitivity
impact and benefits of applying urban farming programmes for these subjects is largely due to their situation of pro-
in deprived cities and towns became evident with the West’s duction dependence.3
economic sanctions on Cuba at the end of the nineties, Implementation of urban agriculture has three main
blocking the import system. As a result of shortages, initially benefits: maintaining biodiversity, closed consumption
on a spontaneous basis and afterwards with support from the
government, people started growing their own food on vacant
2
land in the city: patios, residential gardens, etc. La Habana Around 2.2 million inhabitants. And in smaller Cuban towns, this
percentage reached between 80 and 100%. It is estimated that the island
has around 33,000 allotments dedicated to urban and suburban farming.
3
In 2000, the consultants Best Foot Forward, pioneers in ecological
1
“The sum of all land and water required to meet material consumption footprints, estimated that Londoners consumed 6.9 million tonnes of
and waste discharge of a defined population is that populations’ food, of which 81% came from outside Great Britain. See exhibition
ecological footprint of different on the earth” (Deelstra and Girardet leaflet London Yields: Urban Agriculture. 9 April–30 May 2009.
2000, 44). London.
334 P. de la Cal
Fig. 32.9 Urban organic farming areas in Rosario, Argentina
Fig. 32.10 Urban allotments in the Casetas district, Zaragoza, Spain

cycles and a reduction of the amount of energy necessary to The goal is to organise a network of open spaces, not only
produce and distribute food. Hence, Km 0 agriculture offers agricultural, but also for work and recreation, that connect
a means of offsetting the practices underlying the production the built-up structure of the city with outdoor spaces
of our daily food, including air transport (with the subse- (Viljoen 2005). The work by these architects in The Urban
quent production of greenhouse gases, atmospheric pollu- Farming Project Middlesbrough carried out in 2007
tion, increase in traffic, stress, etc.) as well as the will to allowed us to see the potential of agriculture understood as
solve contamination problems caused by the use of chemical a space network, and consolidated this English town as a
fertilisers, like proposals to recycle grey water from cities as ‘food-growing town’. This intention of creating intercon-
fertiliser in agricultural areas form a part of organic farming, nected spaces, at a large planning scale, has been suc-
something that goes far beyond a simple commercial label cessfully implemented in many towns, including a green
and leads to an increasingly necessary global approach. infrastructure policy in urban planning policies, as is the
All these approaches, related to the specific food sector, case of London with the project All London Green Grid
have produced an extensive bibliography, particularly since (see Chap. 26).7
1996 with the publication of Urban Agriculture: Food, Jobs According to Bohn and Viljoen, the design and planning
and Sustainable Cities (Smit et al. 2001).4 Apart from the of urban agriculture in our cities means we will have to
economic benefits for producers, urban agriculture also has re-learn past practices and develop new ones (Bohn and
wider social benefits, since it improves environmental Viljoen 2011a, b). If urban agriculture is extensively
awareness among citizens. This can be seen in London, embraced, its other functions and benefits, such as social
where almost all local councils promote Urban Agriculture cohesion or urban enhancement, will also require integration
within the framework of Agenda 21. There have been many and articulation. Sustaining a city entails a complex system,
exhibitions and work that show methods that can be used to and it is therefore both a challenge and an opportunity. The
produce food in an urban environment, whether at industrial most suitable way to resolve these dichotomies is joint
or domestic levels.5 planning of the urban food system with the rest of the urban
Analysis of urban agriculture spaces and their role in and territorial sustainability strategies. Indeed, urban agri-
the layout of cities has recently gained currency in devel- culture has become a mandatory item in urban planning, as
oped countries through some relevant work that seek to have other aspects such as energy saving and efficiency
integrate it in the open-space system (Fucci et al. 2008). initiatives, or policies to contain urban sprawl (Simón et al.
Katrin Bohn and André Viljoen coined the term ‘Contin- 2012). At a time when cities are once again looking inwards,
uous Productive Urban Landscape’ (CPUL), that aims to there is an opportunity to rediscover that lost historical
introduce productive, interconnected spaces inside cities, as coexistence between inhabited spaces and agricultural areas
an essential component or sustainable urban infrastructure.6 through planning and development of urban voids.
4
Urban Agriculture: Food Jobs and Sustainable Cities is based on a
number of studies carried out between 1991 and 1992 by Jac Smit, Joe
Nasr and Annu Ratta, financed by the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP). The results of these studies were published in this
book in 1996, by UNDP as a contribution to the UN Conference on
Human Settlements (Habitat II). The book was subsequently reprinted
in 2001.
5
Some other notable examples are the exhibitions: Bohn and Viljoen
7
(2011b), Lee-Smith (2009) and Nasr and Komisar (2014). The All London Green Grid considers creation of a green infrastruc-
6
In this CPUL concept, urban agriculture mainly refers to fruit and tures network in Greater London and brings to light the considerable
vegetable production, since these products produce a higher yield per sensitivity to ‘green’ and towards production landscape in the approach,
cultivated hectare. The effect of this type of action on cities has which has been documented in many recent papers. Consult: Draft
qualitative effects for citizen experiences and quantifiable effects in Supplementary Planning Guidance published by the Greater London
terms of reducing the negative impact of cities and towns. Authority in November 2011, for the public consultation process.
336 P. de la Cal
Case Studies where the ellipses were located. Inside the allotments, the
different owners had small buildings, sheds or greenhouses,
Nærum Allotment Gardens, Denmark (1948) surely with more freedom that Sørensen had expected, in view
of the intentions set forth in the project design. Even so, the
The Danish landscaper Carl Theodor Sørensen carried out a formal structure and general layout is consistent and permits
modest project in 1948 featuring 40 oval-shaped allotment perfect legibility of the complex. This intervention, which has
gardens, confined by thick hedges to the height of an average formally influenced subsequent projects, is fully valid today,
person. Covering an elliptical area (measuring 25 and 15 m on at a time when systematic construction of urban allotments is
the longest and shortest axes), the allotments were freely laid growing. The Sørensen allotment gardens in Nærum, culti-
out on a neutral plot of grass, conferring the complex a strong vated for more than 70 years, still provide clues as to how
entity. The elliptical areas had narrow separations, of just 2 m, innovative projects for urban allotments can be implemented
which was enough to avoid losing the dynamic route of the in public parks around cities, also creating productive spaces,
convex spaces, with a growing sensation of a gentle slope attractive urban areas with outstanding spatial conditions.
The Urban Farming Project, Middlesbrough, productive areas is complete. Katrin Bohn and André Viljoen
UK (2007) (Bohn&Viljoen Architects) coined this term in 2005 and
successfully developed it in 2007, within the framework of
CPUL (Continuous Productive Urban Landscape) is one of the exhibition UK Design Council’s Designs of the Time
the pioneering initiatives bringing urban agriculture into (DOTT07). The Middlesbrough project, which lasted two
town planning, considering that agricultural corridors are a years, actively involved the population, the Town Hall and
continued network of spaces linked by paths and cycleways, neighbourhood organisations in urban agriculture action
so that the interrelations between built-up areas and open, throughout the entire city, from small facilities to large,
industrialised agricultural production areas. Their plan
defines all the sites and existing connections between them,
clearly and attractively, in a green, edible Middlesbrough.
Consolidation of this initiative, and other similar ones in
successive years, has meant that Middlesbrough and Tod-
morden, among other towns in England, Berlin and Göttin-
gen in Germany, have been tagged ‘food-growing cities’. But
above all, their proposals have served to consolidate urban
agriculture as a strategic, infrastructural matter in the design
of our cities and towns, where there is increasing support for
agriculture in public and private urban areas.
338 P. de la Cal
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Utzon—Inspiration Vision Architecture (Denmark: (Fig. 9.1) https://goo.gl/4az6dL; (Fig. 9.2) https://goo.gl/
Edition Bløndal, 2008), 89; Fotografía de Jørgen 2mO1wT; (Fig. 9.3) https://goo.gl/lF6mKu; (Fig. 9.4)
Jespersen, 2007, extraído de https://goo.gl/G3Vn73; https://goo.gl/pLzfb2; (Fig. 9.5) New York World-
Sources of the Figures 341
Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection Coin Street y Barrio de la Mina. Madrid: Sepes. Entidad
https://goo.gl/RfJDKk; (Fig. 9.6) https://goo.gl/c8HWFe; Estatal de Suelo, 2011
(Fig. 9.7) https://goo.gl/FSZOzv; (Figs. 9.8 and 9.9)
Archivo Rafael Moneo; (Fig. 9.10) Fotografía Lluís 13. Waterfronts and Riverfronts. Recovery of Urban
Casals; (Fig. 9.11) The seaside research portal https://goo. Waterfronts
gl/YtpTHL; (Fig. 9.12) https://goo.gl/DOU7Bs; [CS1]
Castanheira, C., Porcu, C., As cidades de Álvaro Siza, (Fig. 13.1) https://goo.gl/Bj6eET; (Fig. 13.2) B.S. Hoyle, en
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goo.gl/GBvMhQ; (Fig. 13.4) https://goo.gl/DPLMtm;
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Campuses gl/CcmkvW; (Fig. 13.7) Google Maps; (Fig. 13.8) Maïa
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(Fig. 10.1) Phyllis Lambert, ed.. Mies van der Rohe in Javier Monclús; [CS1] Archivo Javier Monclús; [CS2]
America. Ostfildern-Ruit. Hatje Cantz Publishers, 2001; Archivo Javier Monclús / Expo empresarial
(Fig. 10.2) Karl Fleig, ed.. Alvar Aalto. Complete Works.
Zürich. Artemis, 1971; (Fig. 10.3) Tom Avermaete. 14. Housing Experimental Projects in the Netherlands
Another Modern. NAi Publishers, 2005; (Figs. 10.4 and
10.5) L’Architecture d’aujord’hui nº 137, 1968; (Fig. 14.1) Lotus International n° 94; (Fig. 14.2) Google
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(Fig. 10.8) Gabriella Borsano, ed. Il progetto per Schaap, IJburg, Haveneiland en Rieteilanden, Uitgeverij
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Gregotti. Electa, 1979; [CS1] https://goo.gl/KjHNTT; Primer; (Fig. 14.6) Lotus International n° 132; (Fig. 14.7)
[CS2] https://goo.gl/o21baK Simona Pierini; (Fig. 14.8) Lotus International n° 132;
(Figs. 14.9 and 14.10) Mozas, Javier, Fernández Per,
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New Collective Housing. a+t ediciones, Vitoria, 2006;
(Fig. 11.1) Urban Task Force dirigido por R. Rogers, [CS1–4] Google Maps
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N. Portas, O ser urbano, 2012; (Figs. 11.5 and 11.6) (Figs. 15.1–15.3) Casabella n. 774; (Fig. 15.4) Housing
R. López Lucio, Los nuevos ensanches de Madrid : Primer; (Fig. 15.5) Mozas, Javier, Fernández Per, Aurora
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1985-1993; (Fig. 11.7) AA.VV. Paisajes urbanos Collective Housing. a+t ediciones, Vitoria, 2006;
residenciales en Zaragoza, PUZ, 2013; (Figs. 11.8–11.10) (Fig. 15.6) Housing Primer; (Fig. 15.7) https://goo.gl/
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colectiva. New Collective Housing. a+t ediciones, Vito-
(Fig. 12.1) https://goo.gl/oIO8gS; (Fig. 12.2) https://goo. ria, 2006; (Fig. 15.11) Housing Primer; [CS1–3] Google
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https://goo.gl/Scbn5I; (Fig. 12.5) https://goo.gl/bCzU4E;
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R. Bolonia, política y metodología de la restauración de
centro históricos”, Barcelona: G. Gili, 1973; (Fig. 12.10) (Fig. 16.1) Fotografía de Pablo de la Cal al cuadro de
https://goo.gl/M6fmnQ; (Fig. 12.11) ARARQ https:// Glover en exposición pública en Francia; (Fig. 16.2)
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tamiento de Zaragoza; Fotografía del autor: Pablo de la 20. Innovative Uses of ICT Technologies in Recent
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https://goo.gl/BknlNZ; (Fig. 17.4) https://goo.gl/z7g7xD; (Fig. 20.4) En-topiahttps://goo.gl/KZNPaV; (Fig. 20.5)
(Fig. 17.5) https://goo.gl/KNF3cC; (Fig. 17.6) https:// Senseable City lab https://goo.gl/1u6E6u; (Fig. 20.6)
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Study https://goo.gl/bNTSoU; (Fig. 17.8) https://goo.gl/ Wikimedia Commons https://goo.gl/wZWZSH;
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https://goo.gl/rixG6z; (Fig. 18.6) https://goo.gl/qvmiGM; http://www.urbangreenbluegrids.com/measures/bioswales/;
(Fig. 18.7) https://goo.gl/g4J24G; (Fig. 18.8) https://goo. (Fig. 21.4) Ayuntamiento de Malmö; (Fig. 21.5) Ytoyoda
gl/HPZe9S; (Fig. 18.9) Rasmus Hjortshøj - COAST https://goo.gl/3Eh7KY; (Fig. 21.6) Zaha Hadid https://goo.
Studio https://goo.gl/PVyXqV; (Fig. 18.10) Bombardier gl/rZAdv9; (Fig. 21.7) Media City UK en Salford Quays,
https://goo.gl/T9HPL6; (Fig. 18.11) Quaderns d'Arqui- Manchester, Reino Unido, 2011. Vista aérea; (Fig. 21.8)
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(Fig. 19.1) Soja, Postmodern Geographies, 1998, p. 174; 22. Urban Resilience. Towards a Global Sustainability
(Fig. 19.2) Wikimedia Commons https://goo.gl/ZWfJMd;
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Fotografía del autor: Andrés Fernández-Ges; (Fig. 19.5) Carpenter, S., Foley, J., Folke, C., Walker, B., et al.,
Richard Meier https://goo.gl/FpHSou; (Fig. 19.6) Dezert, Catastrophic shifts in ecosystems. Nature, 413 (2001):
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Telefonica https://goo.gl/u7kiHf; (Fig. 19.9) BBVA Cámara de Comercio de Bogotá, Bogotá, agosto 2009,
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13; (Figs. 22.7–22.9) Basdevant, Martín (ed.). 2009. AQKFmB; https://goo.gl/zS3e82; [CS2] Estudio Batlle i
Natures intermédiaires. Les paysages de Michel Desvi- Roig https://goo.gl/8pJppf
gne. Basel, Boston, Berlin: Birkhäuser Verlag SG.; [CS1]
ASLA https://goo.gl/7TSRt3; [CS2] Mark Hogan; DLand 26. From Park Systems and Green Belts to Green
Studio https://goo.gl/kq2fFA Infrastructures
23. Mapping Urbanism, Urban Mapping (Fig. 26.1) Town Planning Conference (1910: London,
England); London: Royal Institute of British Architects,
(Fig. 23.1) https://goo.gl/bWeg7A; (Fig. 23.2) https://goo. 1911; (Fig. 26.2) Hermann Jansen, Greater Berlin Com-
gl/9vVL4f; (Fig. 23.3) https://goo.gl/g3Z9yy; (Fig. 23.4) petition 1910: forest and green belt of Greater Berlin with
https://goo.gl/79COqt; (Fig. 23.5) https://goo.gl/KnGua9; radial connections, 1908 (source, Architekturmuseum TU
(Fig. 23.6) https://goo.gl/6OgIkv; (Fig. 23.7) Wikimedia Berlin, Inv. No. 20541); (Fig. 26.3) AA.VV. Metropolis:
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https://goo.gl/wniWrs The JR James Archive https://www.flickr.com/photos/
jrjamesarchive/9567390477; (Fig. 26.5) Amati, M.,
24. Urban Voids and ‘in-between’ Landscapes “Green Belts: A Twentieth-century Planning Experi-
ment”, en M.Amati (ed.), Urban Green Belts in the
(Fig. 24.1) https://goo.gl/fquhK7; (Fig. 24.2) https://goo. Twenty-first Century, Ashgate, 2008; (Fig. 26.6) Archivo
gl/9wuMQM; (Fig. 24.3) Eikongraphia https://goo.gl/ Carlos Sambricio; (Fig. 26.7) Campos Venuti, 159;
0AaZ55; (Fig. 24.4) https://www.google.es/imgres? (Fig. 26.8) Urban Task Force, Towards an Urban
imgurl=https://ahbelab.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/tex Renaissance, 1999, 58; [CS1] https://goo.gl/SnhuzT;
as-highway-_drosscape.jpg%3Fw%3D922%26h%3D646 https://goo.gl/e8mjiQ; https://goo.gl/ML296j; [CS2]
&imgrefurl=https://ahbelab.com/2017/01/11/a-quomment Centro de Estudios Ambientales https://goo.gl/wHvgRd
ary-about-the-drosscape-manifesto/&h=646&w=922&tb
nid=LPFLOWli4hPtuM&tbnh=188&tbnw=268&usg=__ 27. Landscape Projects: Scale and Place
FO0Vg06j4GVoFO4F7HKFff4IiM8=&hl=es&docid=C-
mYxIxQCnsUBM; (Fig. 24.5) https://goo.gl/3og7oT; (Fig. 27.1) Aalto Obra completa; (Fig. 27.2) Ian Mcharg
(Fig. 24.6) AFP https://goo.gl/1XUECM; (Fig. 24.7) Arts https://goo.gl/JWa5QH; (Fig. 27.3) Photograph by Carlos
at Mit https://goo.gl/0SNTGN; (Fig. 24.8) https://goo.gl/ Ávila; (Fig. 27.4) https://goo.gl/tkNzrG; (Fig. 27.5) Dia-
J3C0S8; (Figs. 24.9–24.11) Archivo PUPC y Google gram adapted by Carlos Ávila from the scheme published
Maps; (Fig. 24.12); (Fig. 24.13) https://www.google.es/ in: Lefebvre, Henri.1991. The Production of Space.
maps/@41.6829509,-0.885178,2020m/data=!3m1!1e3? Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. Pag 155; (Fig. 27.6) M.
hl=es [CS1] Carlos Zeballos https://goo.gl/o4oJpf; Desvigne y Dalnoky’s https://goo.gl/LKefx7; (Fig. 27.7)
https://www.rsh-p.com/projects/potsdamer-platz/; [CS2] M Desvigne https://goo.gl/qedfB1; [CS1] Burgos y Gar-
URBANUS https://goo.gl/d9qnue; Bing maps rido: https://goo.gl/hJ3GR6; https://goo.gl/F6lV17;
https://goo.gl/WGq9xw; Burgos y Garrido: https://goo.gl/
25. From Urban Planning to Landscape Urbanism LTGxQ8; [CS2] XDGA https://goo.gl/HZX7jd; https://
goo.gl/ZX4pYe; https://goo.gl/Riq1oN; https://smart-
(Fig. 25.1) Cities in Evolution, 1915 https://goo.gl/ lighting.es/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/MadridRio_Ana
UgjIkQ; (Fig. 25.2) Cities in Evolution, 1915; MullerBurgosGarrido-y-PorrasLaCasta.png; Masboungi,
(Fig. 25.3) A Theory of Good City Form, 1981; Ariella (dir). 2011. Le paysage en préalable, Michel
(Fig. 25.4) Reprinted from Ludwig Hilberseimer, The Desvigne. Grand Prix de l’urbanisme 2011. Paris : Éditions
New City (Chicago: Paul Theobald, 1944) p. 55, ill. 33, du Moniteur; https://goo.gl/GA1gBx
Ludwig Hilberseimer Papers, Ryerson & Burnham
Library Archives, The Art Institute of Chicago; 28. New Urban Landscapes
(Fig. 25.5) AA.VV., Ernst May 1886-1970, Munich-New
York: Prestel Verlag, 2011; (Fig. 25.6) Ian McHarg., (Fig. 28.1) Global Footprint Network https://goo.gl/
1969; (Fig. 25.7) https://goo.gl/JYoJrF; (Fig. 25.8) PoeAPC; (Fig. 28.2) Terradas et al., 2011, Ecología
https://goo.gl/BaqZDm; (Figs. 25.9 and 25.10) https:// urbana, 59 https://goo.gl/kKynKd; (Fig. 28.3) Bolund,
goo.gl/9ILDor; (Fig. 25.11) IBA Hamburg https:// Per, Hunhammar, Sven. 1999. Ecosystem services in
goo.gl/UQDOvR; [CS1] Latz + Partner https://goo.gl/ urban areas. Ecological Economics 29. Amsterdam:
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gl/rl5BUr; (Fig. 28.5) Dreiseitl https://goo.gl/pKtPdl; Urban America. Princeton Architectural Press, 2006;
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gl/jo1ie6; (Fig. 28.8) Par Velvet—Travail personnel tions https://goo.gl/uP0qRB
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Friends of the High Line https://goo.gl/mQC3CC; https:// 31. The Intangible Values of the Landscape
goo.gl/AvV2Ii; https://goo.gl/TyCsoJ; [CS2] Kinga
Jánossy; Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung und (Fig. 31.1) UNESCO; (Fig. 31.2) Taking Measures across
Umwelt https://goo.gl/y2C1Ey the American Landscape (Corner and MacLean 1996,
53); (Fig. 31.3) https://goo.gl/v4YUAD; (Fig. 31.4)
29. Greenfield/Brownfield: Two Sides of the Same Coin Stockport Emotion Map, 2007 https://goo.gl/R6eBtv;
(Fig. 31.5) Centre de Recerca i Projectes de Paisatge de la
(Fig. 29.1) https://goo.gl/jrBYl1; (Fig. 29.2) Green belts: a UPC, Departament de Geografia de la UdG i Observatori
greener future, p. 19 https://goo.gl/Bl8HWB; (Fig. 29.3) del Paisatge; (Fig. 31.6) Project for Public Spaces https://
Urban Networks https://goo.gl/YoQhFX; (Fig. 29.4) goo.gl/p0nccZ; [CS1] CPRE https://goo.gl/eGaHou;
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(Fig. 29.5) Richard Rogers, Towards an Urban Renais-
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pequeño planeta, 1997, p. 115; (Fig. 29.7) Cecilia Wong y tive Spaces System in the City
Andreas Schulze Bäing, “Brownfield residential redevel-
opment in England. What happens to the most deprived (Fig. 32.1) https://goo.gl/ZA0mut; (Fig. 32.2) Bohn &
neighbourhoods?”, 2010, 9; (Fig. 29.8) Cecilia Wong y Viljoen Architects (2002), p. 4; (Fig. 32.3) Regina Prinz:
Andreas Schulze Bäing, “Brownfield residential redevel- “Der General Siedlungsplan für Magdeburg 1923 und
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Green: Life and Work of Landscape Architect Leberecht
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bJSxCT; (Fig. 32.7) Basdevant, Martín (ed.). 2009.
(Fig. 30.1) Global Risks 2015 https://goo.gl/tRsjny; Natures intermédiaires. Les paysages de Michel Desvigne.
(Fig. 30.2) Berger, A., Drosscape: Wasting Land Urban Basel, Boston, Berlin: Birkhäuser Verlag SG; (Fig. 32.8)
America. Princeton Architectural Press, 2006; (Figs. 30.3– Bohn & Viljoen Architects.; (Fig. 32.9) https://goo.gl/
30.5) J. Corner Field Operations https://goo.gl/IpM4yB; pM4re0; (Fig. 32.10) Fotografía del autor: Pablo de la Cal,
(Fig. 30.6) IABR https://goo.gl/Sxsmdn; (Fig. 30.7) 2014; [CS1] https://goo.gl/ehMyAA; https://goo.gl/
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Y9JfCO; (Fig. 30.8) https://newjerseyurbanism.word Designing for Urban Agriculture Web https://goo.gl/
press.com/2010/11/07/drosscape-wasting-land-in-urban- 5abyi1; https://goo.gl/Ohdfu7
Index
A B
Aalto, Alvar, 61, 62, 104, 209, 280, 341, 343 Backström & Reinius, 53, 59, 61, 62, 64
Abercrombie, Patrick, 19, 40, 58, 190, 271, 272, 276, 299 Bakema, Jaap, 63, 103, 105, 143
Abu Dhabi, xxii, 220, 221, 225 Baltimore, 126, 133, 135, 180
Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), 210, 211 Banham, Reyner, 80, 83, 105
Agache, Alfred, 178 Bankenviertel, 200
Agenda 21, 333, 335 Barcelona, xiii, xv, xviii, xix, 5, 9, 34, 37, 39, 48, 62, 76, 97, 98, 116,
Agriculture km 0, 329, 335 118, 119, 121, 128, 129, 139, 145, 161, 163, 177, 183, 217, 221,
Aichinger, Hermann, 27, 28 225, 262–265, 267, 280, 291, 303, 330
Alberola and Martorell, 156, 159 Barcelona International Exhibition 1929, 98
Albert, Édouard, 105 Barcelona Olympic Games, 98, 116, 119, 121, 139, 183, 217
Alexander, Christopher, 68, 84, 85, 94, 95, 165, 340 Barking central, 127, 129
Alexanderplatz, 249, 254 Barnett, Henrietta O, 16
Allen, Stan, 309, 312, 313 Barn raising, 80
Almere, 153 Batlle, Enric, 139, 262, 267, 290
Alvear, Jaime de, 48, 55 Battery park, 183, 295
Amaboldi, Michele, 219 Batty, Michael, 208, 210, 221
Amsterdam, 9, 11, 31, 38, 69, 74, 82, 143–146, 148–151, 180, 200, 343 BBVA City, Ciudad BBVA, 202
Amsterdam Extension Plan, 42 Beautification, 3
Amsterdam School, 31, 143 Beckman, John, 159, 160
Amsterdam South, 9, 11, 42 Bedford park, 16
ANA architects, 145 Benevolo, Leonardo, 33, 57, 62, 63, 155, 163, 340
Anthony, Sutcliffe, xvii, 35, 114, 123 Benne, Beatrice, 228, 342
Anthropocene, 227, 245, 309 Bennett, Edward H., 5
Apple Campus, 202, 212, 215 Berger, Alan, 250, 310, 312, 315, 344
Appleyard, Donald, 92, 95 Berlage, Hendrick Petrus, 9, 11, 42, 143, 154
Arabianranta, 221, 224 Berlin, 9, 29, 98, 99, 101, 105, 138, 144, 155, 177, 181, 200, 217, 238,
Araguren and Gallegos, 156 251, 254, 271, 297, 329, 337
Archigram, 80, 189 Berlin International Exhibition IBA 1984/87, Internationale
Architekten CIE, 144, 145, 147, 148, 150, 151 Bauausstellung (IBA) Berlín 1984/87, 101, 251
Area 24/7, 214, 220 Berlin Urban Landscape Strategy, 297
Arequipa, 82 Berman, Marshall, xviii, 68, 177
Arets, Wiel, 144 Berrizbeitia, Anita, 310
Arrese, José Luis, 49 Best practices, 181
Arretche, Louis, 238 Bicycle Snake Copenhagen, Cykelslangen Copenhagen, 192
Arts and crafts, 15, 19, 81 Biesbosch, 232, 233
Arts and Design City Helsinki, 224 Big data, 207, 210
Art Urbain, 5, 8 Bijlmermeer, 69, 74
Ascher, François, 113, 114, 341 Bloomfield, 202
Associazione per l’architettura organica, 50, 54 Bo01, 219, 220
Asturias, xiii, 48 Boa Mistura, 170, 173, 342
Atelier Dreiseitl, 293 Bochum, 105, 106
Athens charter, xviii, xxi, 37, 38, 40–42, 58, 59, 68, 71, 73, 82, 91, 99, Bogotá, 178, 232, 342
103, 118, 189 Bohn, Katrin, 335, 337, 344
AZCA, 200 Bologna, 123, 126, 127, 129

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9
346 Index
Bolund, Per, 291, 343 CHORA, 241, 244

Bongioannini, Biagio, 51, 52 Chorosevo-Mnevniki, 73
Bordeaux, 134, 137, 138, 283, 285 Churchill, Henry S., 165, 168
Borneo sporenburg, 144, 150 CIAM 8, 40, 91, 92
Boston, xviii, 133, 241, 269, 282, 316, 343 CIAM 9, 82, 91, 103
Boudon, Philippe, 79, 80, 340 CIAM 10, 41, 103
Bournville, 15 CIAM 11, 82, 103
Bouvard, Joseph Antoine, 178 Cienfuegos, 333
Brasilia, 43, 177, 180 Cité Internationale, 262
Breda, 144, 145, 153 Cities on water, 134, 138
Brescia, 154–156, 163 Citizen participation, 185, 209, 238, 294
Briey-en-Forêt, 63 City Beautiful, xviii, xxi, 3, 5, 20, 91, 99, 134, 269
Brinkman, Jan, 145 City competitiveness, 207, 217
Britz, 329 City extension, 5, 31, 34, 35, 47, 55, 217, 225, 303
Broadacre city, 81, 177 City sprawl, 250
Brownfields, 263, 300, 302 Ciudad BBVA, BBVA City, 201
Brunner, Karl, 178 Ciudad Creativa Digital of Guadalajara, 221, 223
Brussels, 192 Civic Art, 3, 5, 8, 91
Buchanan (report), 189, 190, 342 Civic design, 5, 92
Bucharest, 244 Clayton, 220
Bucharest plan, 244 Clément, Giles, 294, 295
Buenos Aires, 85, 178, 183, 200, 270 Cleveland, 5
Buffalo, 269 Clive Wilkinson Architects, 212
Bunschoten, Raoul, 241, 244 Cloudburst plan, 294, 295
Burgos & Garrido, 158, 286 Cluster, 19, 60, 64, 67, 100, 103, 105, 110, 208, 220, 286, 287
Burnham, Daniel H., 5, 10, 343 Clúster Paris-Saclay, 287
Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), 190, 232 Coin street, 129, 130
Business park, 200, 202 Collective housing, 85, 224, 302
Butler, Paul, 209 Coll-Leclerc, 161
Byker Wall, 86, 151, 167 Comisaria para la Ordenación Urbana de Madrid (COUM), 47
Community and Regional Resilience Institute, 229
Community Parklands, 305
C Connecticut General Insurance Co, 202
Cage, John, 241, 242 Conservation, xix, 123, 124, 126, 184, 238, 248, 289, 296, 327
Calero, 49 Consonni, Giancarlo, 154
Calthorpe, Peter, 191, 217 Contemporary city of 3 million inhabitants, 36
Cambellotti, Lucio, 51 Cooperation, 47, 52, 80, 138, 183
Camelot, Robert, 199, 203 Copcutt, Geoffry, 59
Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), 271, 344 Copenhagen, 180, 181, 190, 192, 194, 210, 221, 293, 294
Campos Venuti, Giuseppe, 274, 343 Corajoud, Claire and Michel, 330
Canary Wharf, 125, 199, 200 Corajoud, Michael, 262, 280, 282, 330
Candilis, Georges, 103–106 Corner, James, 238, 239, 241, 244, 245, 259, 261, 285, 296, 309, 310,
Carabanchel, 47, 49, 156, 157, 159, 162, 306 312, 313, 320
Carpenter, Steve, 228, 342 Corporate cities, 197, 202, 205, 215
Casa de las flores, 31 Corrales, José Antonio, 46
Casa Rustici, 155 Corso Italia, 155
Castells, Manuel, 171, 201, 202, 207, 220, 252 Cosenza, 105, 108
Cavadini, Nicoletta Ossanna, 219 Costa, Lucio, 43
Celebration, 51, 98 Coudroy de Lille, Lydia, 73
Central Business Districts (CBD), xxiii, 197, 199–201, 203, 220 Countryside commission, 326
Central city-garden city, 13, 15 County of London Plan, 19, 40, 58, 179, 271, 272, 276, 299
Cerdá, Idelfonso, 5, 34, 35, 37, 76, 154, 161, 163, 217, 225 Covent garden, 123–126
Chandigarh, 38 Critical reconstruction, 96
Changsha, 230–232 Crossroads, 20, 170, 173
Chaparro, Lydia, 291 Crown hall, 104
Charles Fourier’s Phalanstère, 81 Crystal palace, 5
Charlottenburg, 251 Cubillo, Luis, 48, 49
Chassé Terrain, 143–145 Cullen, Gordon, 68, 92–94, 261
Chicago, 3–67, 10, 11, 104, 134, 165, 180, 265, 269 Cumbernauld New Town, 59
Chicago Columbian Exposition, 6 Cupertino, 202, 212, 215
Chicago plan, 5, 10, 11 Curitiba, 177, 180, 184
Choay, Françoise, xviii, 33, 37, 155 Curitiba model, 177, 180, 184
Index 347
D Ehn, Karl, 28, 30

Díez Medina, Carmen, xvii, 24, 25, 29, 34, 37, 38, 40, 41, 71, 73, 114, Eiermann, Egon, 202
178 Elliot, Mark, 209
Daniels, C. D, 187, 189 El Lissitzky, 38
De Carlo, Giancarlo, 87 Emerald Necklace, 269, 280, 316
Decentralization, 187 Empowerment, 165, 168, 170, 173
De Geyter, Xaveer, 145 Emscher Park, 231, 256, 265
Dehumanisation, 92 Engels, 15
Deindustrialization, 195, 247 Ensanche (city extension), xviii, 5, 31, 34, 47, 115, 145, 155
De La-Hoz Arderius, Rafael, 48 Enterprise zones, 129
De La-Hoz Castanys, Rafael, 201 Entrevías poblado, 55
De la Sota, Alejandro, 46 Erskine, Ralph, 86, 87, 151, 167
De Sica, Vittorio, 50, 51, 53 Ervi, Aarne, 61, 62, 300
Dean, Alejandro, xiv, 57 Espacios verdes apropiados (EVAs), 171
Debord, Guy, 83, 242, 321, 323 États-Unis, neighborhood, 154
Deleuze, Gilles, 237 Ethiopia, 53
Dematteis, Giuseppe, 305 Euralille, 192, 195, 295
Denes, Agnes, 295 European Landscape Convention, 319
Density, 15, 16, 24, 25, 29, 59, 81, 94, 143, 145, 157, 159–161, 200, Évora, 100
203, 217, 220, 221, 224, 255, 302, 305, 306 Exopolis, 250
De Renzi, Mario, 51 Ezquiaga, José María, 115, 306
Der Städtebau, 9, 35, 270
Desvigne, Michael, 232, 233, 282, 283–285, 287, 330, 333
Digital districts, xxiii, 219, 220, 221, 223–225 F
Digital media city, 221 Fabbri, Gianni, 23, 24
Diller Scofidio + Renfro, 296 FABRIC, 241, 245, 314
Dinkeloo, John, 205 Facebook headquarters, 212
Dispersed city, 250 Fanfani Law, 51
Diversity, xvii, xxiii, 19, 28, 73, 75, 82, 94, 138, 144, 149, 160, 215, Fariello, Francesco, 51
222, 225, 235, 273, 290, 294, 305, 319, 327 Farrell, Terry, 300, 305
DKV Architecten, 151 Farsta, 62, 300
Dlandstudio, 231, 235 Fascism, 31, 50, 53
Dnipropetrovsk, xx, 72 Fernández-Ges, Andrés, xxiii, 221, 223
Docklands, 125, 126, 130, 133, 134, 139, 144, 183, 200 Ferrando, José Luis, 172
Downsview Park, 309, 312, 313 Feuchtwang, Stephan, 168
Drosscape, 250, 312, 315 Field operations, 240, 241, 245, 263, 296, 317
Duany & Plater-Zyberk (DPZ), 98, 99, 217 Fili-Izmajlovo, 73
Dubrovnik, 103 Finger plan, 190, 273, 294
Duisburg, 181, 265 Firminy, 63
Fisac, Miguel, 46–48
Fishman, Robert, 15, 177, 217
E Florence, 319
East Berlin, 68, 71 Florida, 217, 218, 220
Eberstadt, Rudolf, 270, 271 Flushing meadows, 265
Ebro riverbanks, 140 Foley, Jonathan A., 228
Ecocity Valdespartera, 218, 219 Folke, Carl, 228
École des beaux arts, 5 Ford, 188
École Français d’Urbanisme, 35 Forestier, Jean-Claude Nicolas, 270
Ecologic agriculture, 329 Forest town, xxi, 62
Ecological footprint, 290, 333 Forman, Richard T.T., 280
Ecological infrastructure, 231 Forshaw, John Henry, 58, 299
Ecological landscape, 259 Fórum 2004, 139
Ecological processes, 229, 310 Foster & Partners, 202, 212, 215, 220, 225
Ecological resilience, 227 Foster, Norman, 111, 212, 215, 220, 225
Ecological urbanism, 259, 261, 265, 267, 274 Frampton, Kenneth, 259
Ecology, xxiii, 191, 231, 233, 237, 239, 250, 260, 261, 280, 290, 305, Franco, 45, 47, 129, 294
310, 313 Frankfurt, 9, 21, 29, 180, 200, 261, 329
Economic cycle, 113–115 Frank, Josef, 23, 24
Economy of knowledge, knowledge economy, 185 Franquesa, Teresa, 291
Edge city, 220, 250 Fredensborg, 62, 65
Edge city Tyson´s corner, 220 Freedom, xxi, 50, 63, 80, 81, 160, 247, 336
Edificio Celosía, 157 Free University Berlin, 104, 105, 111
Edinburgh, 200 Freiburg, 177, 181, 183, 185
348 Index
Fresh Kills Park, 240, 285, 309, 317 Guadalajara, 221, 223
Friedmann, John, 168, 170, 208 Guattari, Félix, 237
Fritsch, Theodor, 270 Gürtel, 24
Frits Palmboom & Van Den Bout, 145 GWL Terrain, 151
Frusca Marco, 154–156
Fuencarral, 48, 50
Functionalist urbanism, xxi, xxii, xxiii, 33, 38, 40, 41, 42, 68, 73–75, H
91, 92, 94, 100 Habraken, John N., 85
Future Cities Laboratory, 210 Hafen City Hamburgo, 129, 131
Future Melbourne, 209 Hagström, Jan Inghe, 219, 220
Hall, Peter, xvii, xxiv, 3, 33, 181, 302
Hamburg, 129, 131, 134, 181, 264, 271
G Hammarby model, 181, 182
Galantino, Mauro, 154, 155, 156, 163 Hammarby Sjöstad, 181, 219, 220
Galí, Teresa, 267 Hampstead Garden Suburb, 16, 20, 21
Garden city, xviii, 13, 15, 16, 19, 21, 24, 42, 62, 177, 217, 270, 271, Hannover, 219
276, 299 Hanuschhof, 27
Garden city association, 15 Harlow new town, 58
Garden of memory, 172 Harvey, David, 81, 126
Garden suburb, xxi, 9, 13, 15, 19, 270 Haussmann, 3, 9, 119, 120, 123, 177, 187
Garnier, Tony, 154 Heavy-rail, 190
Garonne, 137, 138, 283 Hebbert, Michael, xvii, 35, 115, 238
Garraf (landfill site), 265, 267 Hegemann, Werner, 5
Garreau, Joel, 220 Helsingør, 65
Garrido, Ginés, 158, 159, 286 Helsinki, 62, 104, 210, 221, 224
Gazeau, Philippe, 155 Henselmann, Hermann, 68
Geddes, Patrick, 239, 259, 260 Hentrich & Petschnigg, 105
Gehl, Jan, 165, 167, 194 Hertzberger, Herman, 279
Gehry, Frank, 212, 213 Herzog & de Meuron, 201
Gelsenkirchen-Bismark, 252 Hessel, Franz, 254
Genius loci, 280 High line, 263, 296
Gentrification, 123, 124 High line park, 296
Gessner, Hubert, 28, 29 Hilberseimer, Ludwig, 38, 58, 259, 261
Geuze, Adriaan, 265 Historical centre, 24, 91, 92, 123, 124, 126, 131, 190, 194, 306, 329
Gibberd, Frederick, 58 Hoddesdon, 40
Giedion, Siegfried, 9 Hof, Höfe, 24, 25, 30
Globalisation, 113, 134, 177, 181, 254 Holling, Crawford Stanley, 227
Glover, Ablade, 166 Horelli, Lisa, 209
Golden lane, 103, 105 Housing estate, 40, 67, 68, 73, 75, 129, 302
Goldzamt, Edmund, 71 Houston, 250
Googleplex, 212, 213 Howard, Ebenezer, 13, 15, 19, 58, 62, 177, 270, 276
Gorio, Federico, 51–53 Hoyle, B. S, 135
Gowanus Canal, 231, 235 Hugh Wilson, 59
Grands ensembles, 67, 70 Hunhammar, Sven, 291
Grands projets, 119, 120 Hypercity, 250
Gravagnuolo, Benedetto, 33, 60, 62
Graves, Michael, 238
Great Berlin, 35, 271 I
Greater London Plan, 19, 40, 58, 271, 272, 276, 299 IABR Project Atelier Rotterdam, 314
Green belt, xxiii, 13, 58, 190, 260, 269, 271–273, 277, 300, 302, 307, IBA Berlin, 99, 101, 217, 254, 265
330 IBA Emscher Park, 231, 266
Green city, 292 IBA Hamburg, 131
Greenfield, xxiii, xxiv, 300–302, 305 IBA-IGA 2013, 264
Green infrastructure, xxiii, 271–274, 277, 292–294, 303, 310, 316, 333, IBM, 202
335 ICT technologies, xxiii, 207–212, 221, 225
Green urbanism, 271, 290, 291 Identity, xxiv, 58, 104, 114, 126, 138, 168, 229, 241, 259, 272, 310,
Green ways, 271 322
Green wedges, 194, 271 Île Derborence, 294, 295
Gregotti associati, 105, 108 Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), 104
Greyfield, 302, 303 Îlot ouvert, 145, 158, 159, 162
Gröndal, 59, 61, 64 INA-Casa, 51
Gropiusstadt, 75 In-between areas, 248
Gropius, Walter, 75, 105 In-between landscape, 247, 248
Gründerzeit, 25, 26 Incheon, 200, 214
16 Grundsätze des Städtebaus, 41 Index of Multiple Deprivation(IMD), 129
Index 349
Industrial city, 81, 86, 119 La Habana, 333

Infrastructures, 71, 120, 134, 187–189, 192, 195, 204, 211, 221, 248, Lakua, 97
255, 259, 261, 265, 273, 286, 293, 294, 296, 303, 316 La Martella, 51, 52
Inner Harbour, 126 Land Art, 241, 263
Instituto Nacional de la Vivienda (INV), 47, 49 Landfill, 263, 265, 267, 295
Intangible, xxiv, 279, 319, 322–324 Land Law(Land Act), 49
International Biennale Rotterdam, Rotterdam Architectural Biennial, Landscape architect, 92, 143, 144, 149, 232, 239, 259–261, 263, 267,
310 307, 309, 310, 314
International Exhibition, 98, 101, 116, 118, 140, 141 Landscape catalogue, 323, 324, 327
Internationalisation, 113 Landscape infrastructure, 263
Interstitial space, 100 Landscape projects, 139, 261–263, 267, 279, 285, 307
Inter-war, 23, 24, 26 Landscape urbanism, 92, 259–261, 265, 267
Issoudun, 330, 333 Landtong, 147, 148, 151
Laruelle, Nicolas, 273
Lasdun, Denys, 105, 110
J Late comers, 115
Jackson Park, 6 Lazio, 50, 54
Jacobsen, Arne, 62, 105 Le Corbusier, 36–40, 42, 43, 62, 63, 79, 80, 91, 103, 109, 154, 177,
Jacobs, Jane, 68, 83, 92, 133, 134, 165, 241 189, 195, 340, 342
Jánovas, 169 Lefebvre, Henri, 81, 167, 282, 285, 343
Jansen, Hermann, 35, 39, 271 Le Grand Paris, 159
Jaussely, Léon, 8, 37 Leipzig, 181, 254
Jaussely Plan (Barcelona), 9 Le Marais, 238
JCFO, 314 L’Enfant plan (Washington), 5
Jean-Baptiste André Godin’s Familistère, 81 Lenné, Peter Joseph, 271
Jeanneret, Pierre, 79, 80 Leopold, Aldo, 310
Jensen, Jens, 310 Les Halles, 123, 124, 249
Jonathan Cook Landscape Architects, 307 Letchworth, 15–17, 16, 19, 20
Jorn, Asger, 242 Letchworth Park, 200
Josic, Alexis, 104–106 Letterist International, 83
Jussieu Campus, 105 Levi-Strauss, Claude, 82
Jyväskylä, 104 Lewin, Kart, 323
Light-rail, 190, 203
Lijnbaan, 105
K Lille, 181, 195, 294
Karl-Marx-Hof, 24, 30 Limits, 10, 42, 139, 160, 161, 251, 277, 280–282, 309, 316
KCAP, 145, 147–149, 151 Linz, 218
Kenworthy, Jeffrey, 188, 342 Lisbon, 116, 139, 140
Kepes, Gyorgy, 92 Lister, Nina-Marie, 309, 310, 312
Khimki-Khovrino, 73 Living lab, 211, 223, 224
Kiev, 77 Lleó, Blanca, 157, 159
Kingo, 62, 65 London, 5, 16, 19, 40, 57, 58, 92, 103, 105, 114, 123–125, 129, 130,
Klampernborg, 62 133, 134, 136, 161, 177, 180, 187, 190, 192, 199, 200, 211, 244,
Klaus en Kaan Architecten, 145 254, 269, 271, 272, 276, 300–303, 305, 307, 326, 335
Klaus, Felix, 145, 146 London County Council, 58
Kleihues, Josef Paul, 101, 238, 251 London Green Belt, 271, 276
Knowledge economy, economy of knowledge, 207, 208, 217, 220 London Olympic Games, 139, 183
Knud Holscher & KHR, 105, 107 Loos, Adolf, 23, 145
Koetter, Fred, 96, 250 López de Lucio, Ramón, 68, 157, 306
Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), 214 Lorenzo, Antonio, 172
Kollhoff, Hans, 144, 145, 251 Los Ángeles, 190, 315
Koolhaas, Rem, 80, 144, 153, 168, 195, 252, 255, 259, 261 Luz Nas Vielas, 173
Kop van Zuid, 147, 148, 151, 199, 200 Lviv, 72
Kostof, Spiro, 19 Lynch, Kevin, 92, 95, 133, 134, 222, 241, 260, 261
Kotka, 280 Lyon, 134, 139, 154, 262, 285
Krakow, 73 Lyon Confluence, 284
Kreuzberg, 101, 251
Kroll, Lucien, 85
Kronsberg, 219 M
Madrid, 31, 45–49, 55, 157, 167, 173, 200–202, 205, 286, 303, 305,
306
L Madrid Plan, 273
La Defense, 199, 203 Madrid Río, 286
Ladri di biciclette, 51 Magdeburg plan, 329
Laguna, Julián, 49 Mailly, Jean de, 203
Laguna West, 98 Malmö, 181, 219, 220
350 Index
Manhattan, 183, 241, 281, 295 Moretti, Luigi, 155

Mapping, 209, 211, 237–241, 245, 250, 323 Möring, Bruno, 270
Marais, 123 Morphology, 54, 96, 98, 182, 237, 244
Marciunas, George, 241 Morris, William, 19, 81
Markelius, Sven, 60, 62 Moscow, 71, 73, 180
Märkisches Viertel, 70 Moser, Karl, 38
Marrakech, 166 Mostafavi, Mohsen, 250, 265, 310
Marseille, 38, 48, 62 Mountain View, 212, 213
Martella, La, 51, 52 Mumford Eric, 41, 91, 259, 305
Martí, Carlos, 161 Mumford, Lewis, 10, 81, 259, 300
Martínez Lapeña, José Antonio, 263, 264 Municipal Improvement Associations, 3
Martorell, Bohigas y Mackay (MBM), 161 Municipal Orphanage (Amsterdam), 82
Marx, Karl, 24, 26, 30 Muratori, Saverio, 51, 96
Maryland, 251 MVRDV, 143, 145, 157, 159
Masdar City, 221, 225
Mass housing, 9, 21, 26, 40, 67–69, 71, 73, 340
Mass housing estates, 40, 68, 73 N
Masterplan, 144 Nærum Allotment Gardens, 336
Mat-building, 104, 105 Nairn, Ian, 92
Mateo, Josep Lluís, 144 Nantes, 63
Matera, 52 Neighbourhood unit, 43, 58, 71
May, Ernst, 21, 29, 261, 343 Neorealism, xxi, 45, 49, 50, 52–54
McHarg, Ian L, 239, 240, 259, 262, 280, 281, 310, 343 Nervi, Pier Luigi, 51, 52
Media City UK, 221, 222, 342 Network on Building Resilient Regions, 229
Medical Faculty Housing, at the University of Louvain, 85 Neutelings Riedijk, 144, 151
Megastructures, 105, 341 New Babylon, 83
Meier, Richard, 200, 342 Newcastle, 86, 151, 167
Melbourne, 209 New Earswick, York, 19
Metabolism, 240, 241, 245, 250, 260, 291–294, 314 New Empiricism, 59, 60
Metapolis, 250 New extensions, 115, 187
Metropolis, 16, 29, 98, 157, 191, 195, 205, 208, 247, 250, 254, 273, New Jersey, 133, 241
300, 310 Newman, Peter, 188
Mexico City, 178 New Orleans, 229
Meyer & Van Schooten, 151, 251 New outskirts, 190
Microrayon, 71, 73, 77 New paradigms, xxi, 261
Middle landscapes, 247 New town, xxi, 19, 52, 58, 59, 61, 109, 165, 190, 194, 271, 276
Middlesbrough (Urban Farming Project), 335, 337 New Towns Group, 299
Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig, 104, 109, 249, 341 New Urbanism, 38, 98, 118, 194, 217
Mietskaserne, 25, 27 New York, xx, 3, 133, 180, 231, 254, 263, 269, 296, 317
Migge, Leberecht, 261, 329, 332, 344 Niemeyer, Óscar, 43
Milan, 50, 71, 72, 116, 143, 153, 155, 330 Nieuwenhuys, Constant, 83
Milan Expo, 117 Nogué, Joan, 319
Milla Digital, 222 Nold, Christian, 323
Milton Keynes, 59, 300 Nolli, Giambattista, 238
Mini-bus, 190 Norwich, 110
Ministry of Employment, 47 Nouvel, Jean, 195
Ministry of Governance, 47 Nowa Huta, 73
Minosts, Maurice, 238 Now Factory Creative Office Park, 255
Miralles, Enric, 144
Mitscherlich, Alexande, 68
MIT Senseable City, 210 O
Mixed use districts, 131 Obsolescence, 67, 68, 73, 77, 123
MMBB Arquitetos, 293, 294 Odense, 105, 107
Model cities, 177, 180, 342 Oerley, Robert, 27
Modern housing estates, 302 Oliva, Federico, 274
Modernist townscape, 92 Olmsted, Frederick Law, 98, 259, 261, 269, 282, 310, 316
Modernist urbanism, 33, 37, 38, 40, 42, 43, 91, 92, 94, 113, 115, 197, Olympic Games, 98, 116, 120, 139, 183, 217
237 OMA, 144, 145
Modern Movement, 46, 58, 59, 61, 83, 92, 98, 99, 103, 104, 143, 153, One North, 221
197, 203, 220 Ö̈rebro, 64
Modern urban planning, 35, 123 Orchard Territorial Protection Plan (Valencia), 330
Mollet del Vallés, 161 Orestad, 194, 221
Moneo, Rafael, 45, 55, 96, 97, 279, 341 Organización Sindical del Hogar OSH, 47
Montpellier, 181 Otaniemi, 104, 105
Montreuil, 330 Otterlo, 82, 103
Morales, Álvaro, 170 Oud, J.J.P., 143, 145
Index 351
Oudolf, Piet, 296 Prouvé, Jean, 105, 111

Outer ring, 58 Pruitt-Igoe, 68
Owen, Robert, 15, 81 Public Art, 3, 5
Pudong, 200
Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires, 183, 200
P Purdom, Charles Benjamin, 19, 300
Panelaky, 67
Parco Agricolo Sud Milan, 330
Paris, xviii, 3, 5, 9, 70, 81, 105, 118, 120, 123, 124, 134, 145, 159, 177, Q
180, 187, 199, 203, 254, 269, 271, 287 Qian’an, 234
Paris International Exhibition 1929, 5 Qian’an city ecological corridor, 234
Parker, Barry, 16, 17, 20 Qualitative urbanism, xxii, 91
Park Hill, 69 Quaroni, Ludovico, 50, 52–54
Park Movement, 3 Quartiers Modernes Frugès, 79
Park system, xxiii, 269, 271, 272, 274, 282, 316 Quarto Cagnino, 71, 72
Parque agrícola del Baix Llobregat, 330 Quinta de Malagueira, 99, 100
Participatory planning, 209
Participatory urbanism, 209
Pattern, 64, 65, 85, 145, 177, 280, 323 R
Perfectible housing, 79 Rabenhof, 27
Peri-urbanisation, 250 Radiant City, 177
Perpiñá, Antonio, 200 Rainer, Roland, 218, 219
Perugini, Giuseppe, 51 Ratti, Carlo, 210
Pessac, 79, 80 Red Vienna, xxi, 23, 24, 26, 28, 31
Petersen, Richard, 270, 271 Reed, Chris, 310
Philadelphia, 3, 7, 252 Reggio Emilia ecological/urbanistic renewal project., 274
Piano INA-Casa, 51 Regional Planning Association of America, 98, 259
Piano, Renzo, 262 Reimann, Brigitte, 68
Pierini, Orsina Simona, 143, 153 Rendel, Simon, 326
Pileri, Paolo, 294 Residual landscape, 248
Piraeus, 144 Resilience, 227–229, 234, 303, 305, 310
Pixmore, 17 Resilience Allience, 229
Place de la Bourse (Bordeaux), 134, 137 Resilient cities, 229, 310
Pla del Raval (Barcelona), xviii, xix, 128 Reumannhof, 28
Plan de Urgencia Social (Social Urgency Plan) (Madrid), 47, 49 Rhone, 134
Plan Maciá (Barcelona), 39 R.I.B.A., 9, 180
Planned settlement, 57, 58, 62 Rickards, Edwin Alfred, 34
Planning, xvii, xviii, xix, xx, xxi, xxii, xxiii, 5, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15, 16, 21, Ridolfi, Mario, 50–52, 54
35, 38, 50, 57, 60, 61, 82, 92, 105, 109, 114, 138, 139, 143, 144, Ringstrabe, 3, 24
168, 180, 184, 208, 209, 211, 220, 227, 229, 239, 240, 245, 259, Rio de Janeiro, 178
260, 263, 271, 273, 276, 293, 300, 306, 310, 322, 324, 329, 330, Riverfront, xxii, 133, 134, 139, 141
335 Riverside, 137, 232
Planning history, xvii, xviii, xx, 35 Robin Hood Gardens, 41
Plan programme for East Paris, 120 Roche, Kevin, 205
Plateau de Saclay, 287 Rogers, Richard, 114, 118, 167, 301, 305
Plater-Zyberk, Elizabeth, 217 Roig, Joan, 139, 262, 265, 267
Plattenbau, 67 Roihuvuori neighbourhood, 210
Poblados de absorción (absorption settlements), 47, 48 Roisecco, Giulio, 51
Poblados dirigidos (targeted settlements), 46, 47, 49, 55 Roma, 238
Poblados mínimos (minimum settlements), 47 Romany, José Luis, 46–50
Pollak, Linda, 310 Römerstadt, 21, 261, 329
Portas, Nuno, 99, 100, 115, 116, 139 Rosario, 333, 334
Portland, 180, 182 Rossi, Aldo, 68, 95, 96, 238
Porto Alegre, 167 Rotival, Maurice, 178
Port Sunlight, 15 Rotterdam, xix, 105, 129, 134, 143, 145, 147, 151, 180, 200, 232, 233,
Portzamparc, Christian de, 144, 158–160, 162, 195 240, 241, 245, 314
Post-metropolis, 250 Rotterdam Architectural Biennial, International Biennale Rotterdam,
Post-suburbia, 250 310
Post-war, 19, 40, 45, 46, 49, 50, 60, 62, 63, 91, 92, 179, 192, 276 Rowe, Colin, 96, 238, 250
Potsdamerplatz, 254 Royal Institute of British Architects, 34, 180
Preservation, 124, 271, 273, 277 Rudofsky, Bernard, 82, 165
Price, Cedric, 84, 85 Rühl, Konrad, 329
Project for Public Spaces, 322, 324 Rurbanisation, 250
Prost, Henri, 37 Rusanovska mikrorayon, 77
352 Index
S Sitte, Camillo, 5, 19, 178

Saad-Sulonen, Joanna, 209 Situationist, 81, 83, 241, 323
Saarinen, Eero, 201, 202 Situationist International, 81, 83, 241
Saarinen, Eliel, 62 Siza, Álvaro, 100
Sáenz de Oíza, Francisco Javier, 46, 47, 49, 55 Smart cities, 190, 192
Saigón, 177 Smart growth, 190
Saint Louis, 220 Smart urbanism, 190, 192
Salford Quays, 221, 222 Smithson, Alison, 103–105, 161, 241
Saltaire, 15 Smithson, Robert, 241
Salt, David, 227, 229 Social housing, 23, 45, 47–50, 58, 67, 79, 100, 101, 163
Samonà, Giuseppe, 51 Socialist urbanism, 71
Sanchinarro, 157–159, 162, 306 Social networks, 209, 210, 229
San Francisco, 5, 201 Soissons, Louis de, 18, 19
Sanpolino, 153–156, 163 Soja, Edward, 197
Santander City, 202, 205 Solà Morales, Ignasi, 247
Santiago de Chile, 178, 333 Solà Morales, Manuel, 96, 97, 247
Santiago de Compostela, 129 Solar City Linz-Pichling, 218
São Paulo, xiv, 173, 293, 294 Solholm, 62
Sarcelles, 70 Solnechny, 72
Sassen, Saskia, 168, 208, 220 SOM, 200, 202
Satellite city, satellite town, 19, 46, 58, 60–62, 270, 276, 299, 300 Sondgo International Business Disgtrict, 214
Scale, xvii, xxi, xxii, xxiii, 3, 5, 16, 23, 29, 38, 49, 53, 63, 64, 68, 71, Songdo, 200, 212, 214
73, 104, 115–117, 119, 121, 129, 134, 143, 144, 147, 149–153, Sonne, Wolfgang, 9, 92, 99
155, 157, 159, 161, 162, 163, 165, 167, 170, 181, 194, 195, 208, Sørensen, Carl Theodo, 329, 336
217, 229, 232, 233, 239, 240, 244, 263, 265, 279, 280–283, South Bank, 92, 93, 129, 130
285–287, 289, 293, 294, 309, 310, 313, 314, 317, 322, 327, 329, Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs, 24
330, 335 Spangen, 145
Schaap, Ton, 150 Spardammerstock, 145
Scharoun, Hans, 271 Sprawl, 58, 189, 195, 217, 248, 252, 260, 269, 273, 276, 300, 330, 335
Schiedhelm, Manfred, 111 Stadtbaukuns, 3, 5
Schmid, Heinrich, 27 Städtebau, xvii, xxi, 9, 33–35, 37, 41, 71, 270
Schmitt, Gerhard, 210 Stalin, Iósif, 41, 91, 92
School of Venice, 96 Stanford, 202
Schulze-Fielitz, Eckhard, 105 Staten Island, 240, 263, 281, 285, 317
Schumacher, Fritz, 131, 271 Steel Housing, 84, 85
Schumaker, Patrick, 265 Sterner, Carl, 292
Schwarzpläne, 251 Stirling, James, 96
Segal, Walter, 85 Stockholm, 60, 62, 180–182, 219, 220, 291, 300
Seaside, 98, 99, 218 Stockholm General Plan, 60, 62, 180–182, 219, 220, 291, 300
Secchi, Bernardo, 113, 114, 163 Stockley Park, 200
Second World War, xvii, xxi, xxii, 33, 57, 60, 63, 91, 103, 123, 153, Strasbourg, 181, 192
165 Strategic projects, xxii, 118, 139, 181, 200
Segre, Roberto, 178, 183 Streetcar suburbs, 188
Seine, 134, 136 Street in the air, 86, 103, 105
Seine riverbanks, 134, 136 Stübben, Josef, 35, 270
Self-aware City, 210 Stuttgart, 24, 202, 271
Senseable City Lab, 210–212 Sudoeste del Besós housing estate, 76
Sert, José Luis, 39, 40, 91, 92 Sunila Pulp Mill, 280
Seoul, 214, 221 Sustainability, xxiii, 98, 113, 129, 181, 214, 215, 217, 219, 223, 233,
7V (7 roads), 189 289, 290, 305, 310, 329, 330, 333, 335
Seville, 116 Sutcliffe, Anthony, xvii, 8, 9, 13, 33, 35, 114, 123
Seville Expo, 116 SWA Group, 230, 231
Shanghai, 200, 255
Sharp, Thomas, 92
Sheffield, 69 T
Shiedhelm, Manfred, 104 Tafuri, Manfredo, 23, 24, 26, 28, 29, 51, 53
Siedlerbewegung, 24 Tange, Kenzo, 109
Siedler, Wolf Jobs, 68 Tapiola, 61, 62, 104
Siedlung, 21 Tassotti, Dante, 51
Siedlung Römerstadt, 21 Taut, Bruno, 329, 331
Sierra, Manuel, 47–49, 55 Team X, 99, 167, 189
Sieverts, Thomas, 155, 161, 248, 250, 251 Technical Centre of General Motors, 201, 202
Sijmons, Dirk, 240, 310 Technological parks, 215
Silicon Valley, 201, 202, 204, 212, 213 Technology, xxi, 25, 41, 79, 80, 83, 85, 104, 160, 187, 188, 192, 195,
Singapur, 221 197, 200–202, 204, 207, 211, 220, 225, 309, 310
Site planning, 16 Telefónica City, 202
Index 353
Telefónica City, Distrito Telefónica, 201, 202 Unwin, Raymond, 8, 16, 17, 20
Terni, 51, 87 Urban agriculture, xxiv, 329, 330, 333, 335, 337
Terradas, Jaume, 291 Urban cartographies, 323
Terragni, Giuseppe, 155 Urban design, xiii, xv, xviii, xxiv, 57, 62, 91, 92, 109, 139, 143, 147,
Terrain vague, 247, 249, 294 150, 155, 159, 161, 165, 167, 178, 200, 208, 210, 215, 217, 224,
Terrorism, 227, 229 225, 235, 261, 313
Tertiary uses, 197, 200 Urban enhancement, 5, 134, 335
Teyssot, George, 161 Urban façade, 5, 10, 134
Thames riverfront, 136 Urban farming, 333, 335, 337
Tham, Klas, 219, 220 Urban Gallery, 241, 244
The Hague, 83, 143, 145 Urbanisation, 15, 35, 68, 190, 201, 247, 248, 250, 255, 261, 272, 290,
The Hague Plan, 9 305
The Heart of the City, 40, 91, 92 Urbanisme, xvii, xviii, xxi, 8, 9, 33–35, 37, 114
The Urban Farming Project Middlesbrough, 335, 337 Urbanismo, xvii, 5, 8, 19, 33–35, 37, 114
Third landscape, 289, 294 Urbanistica, xvii, xviii, xxi, 8, 29, 33, 34, 52, 114, 157
Tiburtino, 45, 50, 51, 54 Urbanity, 9, 41, 73, 92, 94, 96, 99, 143, 150, 155, 161, 223, 251, 252,
Tobías, Basilio, xxii, 103 255
Tokyo Plan, 85, 109, 204 Urban mapping, xxiii, 237, 238
Toronto, 180, 309, 312, 313 Urban marketing, 183
Torres, Elías, 62, 263, 264 Urban planning, xvii, xviii, xix, xxi, xxii, xxiii, 13, 33–35, 45, 49, 54,
Toulouse, 105, 106 58, 61, 67, 71, 91, 103, 105, 109, 113–115, 118, 123, 124, 126,
Town planning, xvii, xxi, 3, 5, 8–10, 11, 16, 19, 20, 21, 33–35, 74, 80, 129, 143, 144, 147, 153, 165, 170, 171, 177, 178, 180, 181,
114–116, 118, 121, 219, 269–272, 276, 277, 279, 285, 290, 300, 183, 184, 207–211, 218–220, 227, 239, 259, 265, 271,
303, 306, 307, 309, 310, 329, 333, 337 302, 329, 335
Townscape, xxii, 91, 92, 92, 94, 261, 310 Urban planning models, xxii, 126, 177, 178
Traditional Neighborhood Design (TND), 98 Urban reform, xviii, xxii, 3, 123
Tranquillity maps, 323, 326 Urban regeneration, xxii, 123, 129, 130, 133, 181, 197
Transit-Oriented Development (TOD), 98 Urban Re-Identification Grid, 41, 103
Transport and urban growth, 187 Urban renewal, xxii, 71, 92, 96, 101, 115, 123–126, 129, 130, 160, 217,
Transport infrastructure, 187, 189, 192, 195 220, 265, 266, 284, 304
Transport systems, 59, 181, 184, 187, 189, 190, 192 Urban riverfronts, 133
Trash Track, 210, 212 URBAN SMS, 294
Trinitat Park (Barcelona), 265 Urban Task Force, 114, 118, 275, 301, 302
Tsukuba, 204 URBANUS, 255
Tsukuba Expo, 204 Urban void, xxiii, 124, 190, 247, 248, 252, 254, 255, 263, 335
Tsukuba Science City, 204 URBED, 238
Tungkwan, 82 Utzon, Jørn, 62, 65
Turenscape, 232, 234
Turin, 119
Turner, John, 82, 83 V
Tuscolano, 51 Vacant lot, 247
22@, 221, 225 Vagnetti, Luigi, 51
Typology, 30, 48, 72, 73, 75, 96, 100, 102, 129, 143, 152, 202, 250 Valdebernardo Norte, 306
Tyrwhitt, Jacqueline, 92 Valdespartera, 218, 219
Tyson´s Corners, 220 Valencia, 330
Tzara, Tristan, 145 Valero, Luis, 49
Vällingby, 60, 62, 180
Vancouver, 179, 180
U Van den Berg, Leo, 208
U Green (Sttutgart), 271 Van der Broek & Bakema, 143
Unemployment, 28, 229 Van Dongen, Frits, 145, 150
UNESCO, 166, 319, 320 Van Eesteren, Cornelis, 38, 40, 42, 74
Ungers, Oswald Mathias, 23, 96 Van Eyck, Aldo, 82, 103, 161
Union City, 191, 192 Van Gameren, Dick, 145
Unité d’Habitation, 48, 62, 63 Van Winden, Willem, 208
United Nations, 51, 138, 289, 290, 335 Vasconi, Claude, 195
University campus, xxii, 103, 104, 111, 200, 204, 214 Vauban, 185
University of Bochum, 105, 106 Vaux, Calver, 269
University of Calabria, 105, 108 Vázquez Molezún, Ramón, 46
University of East Anglia, 105, 110 Venturi & Rauch, 238
University of Odense, 105, 107 Vertical town, xxi, 62, 63
University of Otaniemi, 105 Vertikalstadt, 38
University of Toulouse-le-Mirail, 106 Vienna, xxi, 3, 6, 7, 23, 26, 28, 30, 180
UNRRA, 51, 52 Viganò, Paola, 163
Unused areas, 248 Vignes Blanches, 85
354 Index
Viljoen, 330, 335, 337 West Berlin, 68, 70, 75

Villaggio Matteotti, 87 West Coast 1, 251
Ville Contemporaine, 38 Whiston Spirn, Anne, 310
Virginia, 220 White City, 5
Vitoria, 96, 97, 129, 277 Whyte, William, 300, 305
Vitoria Green Belt, 277 Wirth, Louis, 165
Vitry, Bernard, 238 Witheford Watson Mann Architects, 307
Vizcaya, 48 Wohnhof, Wohnhöfe, 24
Volkswohnpalast, 23, 24 Woods, Shadrach, 103–106, 167, 168
Von Spreckelsen, Johann Otto, 203 World’s Columbian Exposition (Chicago, 1903), 6
Vulnerability, 227, 234, 309 Wren, Christopher, 34
Wright, Frank Lloyd, 80, 81, 177, 259
W
Wagner, Martin, 29, 254, 271 Y
Wagner, Otto, 178 Yorktown, 250
Waldheim, Charles, 261, 310 Ypenburg, 145
Walker, Brian, 80, 81, 227, 229
Wall, Alex, 265
Wallin, Sirku, 209 Z
Ward, Stephe, xvii, 5, 33, 35, 98, 126, 180 ZAC Masséna, 153, 162
Warnes, A.M., 187 Zaha Hadid Architects, 221
Warsaw, 180 Zaragoza, 96, 116–118, 139, 141, 169, 218, 219, 221, 302, 334
Washington Mall, 5 Zaragoza Expo, 116
Wassenberg, Frank, 68 Zehrfuss, Bernard, 199, 203
Wasserstadt GmbH, 134, 138 Zeinstra van der Pol, 151
Waste landscapes, 250 Zevi, Bruno, 50–52
Waterfront, xxii, 121, 133, 134, 138, 139, 217, 229 Zofío, 48
Watery Voids, 293, 294 Zones Franches Urbaines (ZFU), 129
Weimar Republic, 21, 23, 24, 47 Zoning, xxiii, 9, 34, 37, 38, 41, 43, 67, 68, 73, 91, 94, 115, 139, 197,
Welfare state, xxii, 57, 60, 103 220–222, 248, 269, 271, 274
Weller, Richard, 313 Zuazo, Secundino, 31, 39
Welwyn, 18, 19 Zuidas, 200
Wenders, Wim, 248, 251 Zurich, 105, 210
West 8, 143, 144, 149, 150, 265 Zwischenstadt, xix, 250, 252A

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Carmen Díez Medina

Javier Monclús Editors

Translations: Trasluz SL (Foreword and Introduction); Caterina Fitzgerald (Chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, 24),

ISBN 978-3-319-59046-2 ISBN 978-3-319-59047-9 (eBook)

Cover: Barcelona, aerial view.

Printed on acid-free paper

1 City Beautiful and ‘Architectural Urbanism’ (1893–1940) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2 Garden Cities and Garden Suburbs (1898–1930) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

3 Social Democracy and Housing Policies (1919–1934). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

4 Modern Urban Planning and Modernist Urbanism (1930–1950) . . . . . . . . . 33

5 Urban Planning and Ideology: Spain and Italy (1945–1960) . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

6 Welfare Planning and New Towns (1945–1970s). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

7 Modernist Mass Housing in Europe: Comparative Perspectives

8 An Experiment in Freedom (1960–1975) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Part II Other Urbanisms and Urban Projects

10 Urban Projects and Megastructures: Modernist Campuses . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

11 New Paradigms and Strategic Urban Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

12 Urban Renewal and Urban Regeneration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

13 Waterfronts and Riverfronts. Recovery of Urban Waterfronts . . . . . . . . . . 133

14 Housing Experimental Projects in the Netherlands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

15 New Housing Projects in Latin European Cities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

16 Citizen Participation. Urban Development for and by the People . . . . . . . . 165

Part III New Strategies and Urban Planning

17 Urban Planning Models and Model Cities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

18 Urban Transport and Technological Urbanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

19 New Productive Uses Areas. Central Business Districts (CBD),

20 Innovative Uses of ICT Technologies in Recent Urban Developments

21 The Rise of Mixed-Use Urban Developments and Digital Districts . . . . . . . . 217

22 Urban Resilience: Towards a Global Sustainability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

23 Mapping Urbanism, Urban Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

24 Urban Voids and ‘in-between’ Landscapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Part IV Landscape Urbanism

25 From Urban Planning to Landscape Urbanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

26 From Park Systems and Green Belts to Green Infrastructures . . . . . . . . . . 269

27 Landscape Projects: Scale and Place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

28 New Urban Landscapes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

29 Greenfield/Brownfield: Two Sides of the Same Coin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

30 New Landscapes Perspectives for Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

31 The Intangible Values of the Landscape. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

32 Urban Agriculture—Towards a Continuous Productive-Space

Pablo de la Cal, Zaragoza, 1964 Degree in Architecture from Navarra University

Alejandro Dean, Valencia, 1974 Degree in Architecture from Navarra University

Andrés Fernández-Ges, Zaragoza, 1972 He completed his master’s in Architecture and

Madrid Rafael Moneo

Madrid–Zaragoza Carmen Díez Medina

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 3

Fig. 1.1 The city as a work of art: Paris as a model

References Further Readings

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 13

based on anarchist thinking. The second concept comes from

Garden Suburbs and Town Planning

The plan by Raymond Unwin and Barry Parker for Hamp-

cities, the ﬁrst part purely Sittesque,4 although that should

Welwyn Garden City, Prototype or Exception?

In the opening third of the twentieth century, despite the

References Further Readings

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 23

the period.4 Alternatively, occupying available plots in the

This is the meaning of the shortening ‘ZKK’, widely used in

References Further Readings

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 33

Fig. 4.3 Le Corbusier, contemporary city of 3 million inhabitants, 1922

Fig. 4.4 Le Corbusier, sketch of a contemporary city, 1922