Everyday Urbanism Research

Page 1

Ambiguous
City:
Accepting
the
Indeterminacy
of
Planning
 Justin
Konicek
 ARCH
311w

Regardless
of
the
amount
of
planning
put
forth
into
the
design
of
an
urban

setting,
there
always
exists
the
undeniable
presence
of
an
uncontrollable
element:
 the
people.

Despite
attempts
to
control
social
behavior
with
varying
extents
of
 planning,
it
is
becoming
more
widely
accepted
that
the
city’s
inhabitants
are
the
 cause
and
result
of
unpredictability.

It
is
with
informal
approaches
to
urbanism
that
 the
citizens
are
able
to
create
narratives
and,
therefore,
their
own
cities.

With
a
 disregard
for
utopian
ideals,
the
practice
of
Everyday
Urbanism
provides
this
 freedom.

 Anti­utopian
planning

During
the
fourth
meeting
of
the
Congrès
Internationaux
d'Architecture

Moderne
(CIAM)
in
1933,
architects
Le
Corbusier,
Sigfried
Gideon,
and
Cornelius
 van
Eesteren
proposed
the
theme
of
the
“Functional
City.”

By
applying
their
modern
 architecture
methods
to
the
planning
of
cities,
the
CIAM
attendees
hoped
to
create
a
 rational
approach
with
which
to
solve
the
problems
of
the
city.

With
the
successful
 execution
of
this
means
of
planning,
the
“Functional
City”
would
potentially
solve
 the
existing
social
problems
inherent
to
cities.

As
a
result,
urban
planning
would
 “transform
an
unwanted
present
by
means
of
an
imagined
future,”
(Holston,
38)
as
 defined
by
the
council.

However,
some
members
at
the
time
saw
this
utopian
 process
defining
and
solving
the
problems
as
inhumane.

The
CIAM’s
Functional
City
 model
suggests
that
solving
extant
problems
prevents
future
problems.

It
success
is


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