Urban forms : the death and life of the urban block / Philippe Panerai, Jean Castex & Jean-Charles Depaule ; English edition and additional material by Ivor Samuels ; translated by Olga Vitale Samuels.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Panerai, Philippe.

Contributor:

Castex, Jean.

Depaule, Jean-Charles.

Samuels, Ivor.

Standardized Title:

Formes urbaines. English

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

City planning--Europe--History--19th century.

City planning.

City planning--Europe--History--20th century.

History.

Europe.

Physical Description:

xi, 222 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford [England] ; Boston : Architectural Press, 2004.

Summary:

Urban Forms: The Death and Life of the Urban Block is concerned with the fundamental grammar of our cities which is the key to successful urban environments. This popular and influential work, translated here into English for the first time, argues that modern urbanism has upset the morphology of cities, abolished their streets and isolated their buildings. In tracing the stages of this transformation, this book presents the view that the urban tissue, the intermediate scale between the architecture of buildings and the diagrammatic layouts of town planning, is the essential framework for everyday life. Only by investigating the urban tissue will it be possible to understand the complex relationships between plot and built form, between streets and buildings and between these forms and design practices. The chosen trail of the first French edition - Paris, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt -- is one of continuously evolving modernity. It outlines a history, which, in one century (1860-1960), completely changed the aspect of our towns and cities and transformed our way of life. The shock has been such that we are still looking for answers, still attempting to find urban forms that can accommodate present day ways of life and at the same time maintain the qualities of the traditional town. This English edition brings the story forward to the present day in Britain and the United States where it considers the impact of the New Urbanism which has sought to reestablish former relationships within the urban tissue. In a sense, this postscript closes the circle that the French book opened.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Haussmannien Paris: 1853-82 1

Chapter 2 London: The Garden Cities, 1905-25 30

Chapter 3 The Extension of Amsterdam: 1913-34 56

Chapter 4 The New Frankfurt and Ernst May: 1925-30 90

Chapter 5 Le Corbusier and the Cite Radieuse 114

Chapter 6 The Metamorphosis of the Block and the Practice of Space 124

Chapter 7 The Development and Diffusion of Architectural Models 134

Chapter 8 Building the City: 1975-95 158

Chapter 9 An Anglo-American Postscript 168.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 202-203) and index.

ISBN:

0750656077

OCLC:

53398111

Online:

Publisher description