Exhibitions And The Development Of Modern Planning Culture

The evolution of city planning theory and practice in the first half of the twentieth century was captured and driven by a range of exhibitionary practices in a variety of settings globally, from international expos to local public halls. The agendas of the promoters varied, but exhibitions generally drew their social legitimacy from their status as ’appropriate educative agencies of citizenship’. Bringing together a range of international case studies, this volume explores the highly visual genre of public planning exhibitions worldwide. In doing so, it provides a unique lens on the development of modern urban planning and design from the late 19th century to the present day. Focussing mainly on the first half of the 20th century, it looks in particular at historic exhibitions which sought to transform urban society’s understanding of the possibilities of planning as a force for social betterment. The visuality of presentation, contemporary reactions, and outcomes for the planning profession and the community are explored to make for a unique, innovative and attractive approach to the history of planning ideas. The five major themes are the visual representation of ideas and ideologies; institutions and individuals involved; the broader context of display; and the impacts and implications for the development planning culture. With contributors including Karl Fischer, John Gold, Carola Hein, Peter Larkham, Javier Monclus, and Mark Tewdwr-Jones, the dominant intellectual paradigm further unifying the collection is planning history.

Windows Upon Planning History delves into a wide range of perspectives on urbanism from Europe, Australia and the USA to investigate the effects of changing perceptions and different ways of seeing cities and urban regions. Fischer, Altrock and a team of 13 distinguished authors examine how and why the ideologies and the processes of city making changed in modern and post-modern times. Illustrated with over 45 images, the themes addressed in the book range from the changing outlook on Berlin’s historic apartment districts and their demolition, salvation and gentrification to how planning was deployed to support dictatorship; from the shattering of myths like democracies totally departing from preceding dictatorships to the model of the post-war modern city and its fate towards the end of the twentieth century. The volume combines case studies of cities on three continents with reflections on the historiography and the state of planning history. With a foreword by Stephen V. Ward, this book will appeal to a wide readership interested in the histories of planning, architecture and cities.

2018 IPHS Special Book Prize Award Recipient The Routledge Handbook of Planning History offers a comprehensive interdisciplinary overview of planning history since its emergence in the late 19th century, investigating the history of the discipline, its core writings, key people, institutions, vehicles, education, and practice. Combining theoretical, methodological, historical, comparative, and global approaches to planning history, The Routledge Handbook of Planning History explores the state of the discipline, its achievements and shortcomings, and its future challenges. A foundation for the discipline and a springboard for scholarly research, The Routledge Handbook of Planning History explores planning history on an international scale in thirty-eight chapters, providing readers with unique opportunities for comparison. The diverse contributions open up new perspectives on the many ways in which contemporary events, changing research needs, and cutting-edge methodologies shape the writing of planning history. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.

The Festival of Britain is perhaps best known for its South Bank Exhibition promoting British science and art to the post-war world, but one of the most important elements was the Architecture Exhibition, based in Poplar in East London. This exhibition was used to demonstrate the principles of modern town planning that had been laid out by Abercrombie, in particular in his County of London Plan. The project was named after George Lansbury, the Labour MP, London County Council (LCC) member and Poplar councillor. It was an effective demonstration of planning ideas adopted since the 1930s by influential planners, taking the village as a model and retaining the terraced house as a housing option among medium rise flats. Small squares and open spaces were favoured, with paved pedestrian spaces, all at lower than pre-war densities. The guide is revealing of the broader thinking in English planning in the mid century. It provides an opportunity for looking at conflicts among advocates of different planning ideas in the period of reconstruction and the move by architects to regain control of LCC housing from the Valuer’s Department. It offers the model of integrated professional specialisms that was seen as central to Modernism’s mission. It is also an opportunity to describe in more detail the interaction of different professions, including, for example, a sociologist, employed by the LCC in the creation of a model for reconstruction.

Many British cities were devastated by bombing during the Second World War and faced stark economic dilemmas concerning reconstruction planning and implementation after 1945. How did politicians, civil servants and local authorities manage to produce the cities we live in today? Rebuilding Britain's Blitzed Cities examines the underlying processes and pressures, especially financial and bureaucratic, which shaped postwar urbanism in Britain. Catherine Flinn integrates architectural planning with in-depth economic and political analyses of Britain's blitzed cities for the first time. She examines early reconstruction arrangements, the postwar economic apparatus and the challenges of postwar physical planning across the country, while providing insightful case studies from the cities of Hull, Exeter and Liverpool. By addressing the ideology versus the reality of reconstruction in postwar Britain, Rebuilding Britain's Blitzed Cities highlights the importance of economic and political factors for understanding the British postwar built environment.

Throughout the twentieth century housing displays have proven to be a singular genre of architectural and design exhibitions. By crossing geographies and adopting multiple scales of observation – from domestic space to urban visions – this volume investigates a set of unexplored events devoted to housing and dwelling, organised by technical, professional, cultural or governmental institutions from the interwar years to the Cold War. The book offers a first critical assessment of twentieth-century housing exhibits and explores the role of exhibitions in the codification of notions of domesticity, social models, policies, and architectural and urban discourse. At the intersection of housing studies and the history of exhibitions, The Housing Project not only offers a novel angle on architectural history but also enriches scholarly perspectives in urban studies, cultural and media history, design, and consumption studies. This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content). Contributors: Tamara Bjažić Klarin, Gaia Caramellino, John Crosse, Stéphanie Dadour, Rika Devos, Fredie Floré, Johanna Hartmann, Erin McKellar, Laetitia Overney, José Parra-Martínez, Mathilde Simonsen Dahl, Eva Storgaard, Ludovica Vacirca

The relationship between culture and urbanism has been the focus of much discussion and debate in recent years. While globalisation tends towards a homogeneity, successful 'global cities' have a strong individual – and particularly cultural – identity. The economic value of the culture of cities lies not only in the arts taking place there but also in the city’s fabric, its architecture, and in its cultural heritage. This volume brings together a team of leading specialists to examine the policies of image and city marketing which have developed over the past 15 years and whether these are a continuity of earlier strategies. Featuring case studies which illustrate diverse perspectives on linking culture, urbanism and history, the book reviews heritage and planning culture, looking at the experience of urbanism in the 'Old Historic City'. The book also assesses the increasingly important issue of urban images and their influence on planning strategies.

Historically the urban festival served as an occasion for affirming shared convictions and identities in the life of the city. Whether religious or civic in nature, these events provided tangible expressions of social, cultural, political, and religious cohesion, often reaffirming a particular shared ethos within diverse urban landscapes. Architecture has long served as a key aspect of this process exhibiting continuity in the flux of these representations through the parading of elaborate ceremonial floats, the construction of temporary buildings, the ‘dressing’ of existing urban space, the alternative occupations of the everyday, and the construction of new buildings and spaces which then become a part of the background fabric of the city. This book examines how festivals can be used as a lens to examine the relationship between city and citizen and questions whether this is fixed through time, or has been transformed as a response to changes in the modern urban condition. Architecture, Festival and the City looks at the multilayered nature of a diverse selection of festivals and the way they incorporate both orderly (authoritative) and disorderly (subversive) components. The aim is to reveal how the civic nature of urban space is utilised through festival to represent ideas of belonging and identity. Recent political and social gatherings also raise questions about the relationship of these events to ‘ritual’ and whether traditional practices can serve as meaningful references in the twenty-first century.