No.337[Reply]
>This ones not for the anit-civ's
I'm a big fan of urbanism, the process of centralization seemingly expressed in nearly all human societies in varying degrees
Urbanism = centrality of centers (societal centers, productive centers, etc.), this is more or less what sociologist Henri Lefebvre puts forwards and its can be used to explain how as a human society develops its productive forces it develops cities, the most concentrated forms of urbanity
Ur - Sumerian society
Babylon - Babylonian society
Thebes - Egypt
to name a few
A simple way to view contemporary urbanisms, those rife with alienation, pollution, generally in-human spaces, is that it is a bastardization of urban potential, where rather than increasing common accessibility through agglomeration and centralization of centers of necessity (food/housing/education/etc.) it increases separation (think of highways bifurcating cities or redlining)
In creating a better society we must produce spaces which can facilitate and reinforce the relations and values of the society (in the same way capitalist urbanism reinforce and reproduce capitalist relations/values). With general ecological sentiments in mind we can assume that the sky-scraper filled cities (Singapore, Dubai, New York) will not have a place in this new societies places.
What forms/characteristics could future spaces take?
What could we take from the settlement forms of pre-industrial societies?
No.338
>>337Seems like the architecture is an unavoidable complication. Asphalt, concrete, and glass make cities hotter, and over the next ten years, the big megalopolises might be rendered uninhabitable as a result. So by necessity, any new urban center is going to have to rebuild or modify existing structures so they don't cook us alive.
Once we get that done (If we get that done), new centers of activity will sprout yup organically, I think.
No.340
>>338Definitely, its a real wicked problem, and that's not even to go into the energy cost embedded in existing structures. I think you'll be right about centers growing organically post-revolution. I'm really interested in the idea of architecture/urbanism being used as "Social Condensers" which can facilitate that growth