Situationist City-Simon Sadler

Jahnavi Bhatt

IntroductionTh b k i b t k f th ‘Sit ti i t I t ti l’ d thThe book is about works of the group ‘Situationist International’ and other members of the group. This book is like a collection of their collective as well as individual works.

Situationist International • This was a group of international political and artistic agitators with roots in

M i L tt i f d d i 1957Marxism, Lettrism; founded in 1957.• These group of people worked on the theory or practical activity of

constructing situations.

Guy Debord and situationists• Guy Debord was one of the founding members of the group. • Their main intention was to construct a situation where people from society

can participate, it visualizes the whole society as a play where every place is for performance. Th i k i l d b th hit t l d hit t l th d t• Their works include both architectural and non-architectural method to prove.

Contents1. The Naked City: Realities of design and space laid bare1. The Naked City: Realities of design and space laid bare

Nurturing the real life of the cityBeyond the rational cityFrom “plenty” to “excess”Carving out the spaces of culture and politicsUrbanism and powerDefending urban mix

f C2. Formulary for a New Urbanism: Rethinking the CityFrom the rational to the sublimeMaking sense of psycho geographyA passion for mapsA passion for mapsDrifting as a revolution of everyday lifeLanguage, time and the city

3 A New Babylon: the city redesigned3. A New Babylon: the city redesignedConstructing SituationsA “detourned” cityA technological baroqueg qUnitary urbanismConstant’s new BabylonThe structure of New BabylonNew Babylon’s utopian funDisorientation

Nurturing the “real life” of the city• Situationists felt that the Modern Technology and Capitalism does not allow

the sense of “real life” to people. They saw new fabricated cities as modern capitalism’s organization of life; the isolated inhabitants..with their lives greduced to pure repetitive spectacle.

E g Situationist Guy Debord criticized ParisE.g. Situationist Guy Debord criticized Paris. “from any standpoint other than that of police control, Haussmann’s Paris is a

city built by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

• In order to create a “better” way of living, situationists started making minor changes, like they negated the ‘pop art’ which was ideologically h t i d b i diffcharacterized by indifference.

• They tried to penetrate the everyday life of the majority (working class). • They found the solution in social structuring of the city. In Paris they

suggested distinct quarters based on class occupation or function.

The City Redesigned

Constructing Situations

• The situationists’ ultimate goal was to reconstruct the entire city. Their ambition remained of ‘constructing situations’ without clear idea of how g‘situations’ work to form an entire city. Notion of “constructing situations” treated it as a performance where all people are performers and not just spectacles.

Constant’s New BabylonThi t k d b i di id l hi h d t d th• This was a masterwork done by an individual, which accommodated the previous ideas of Situationist International.

• Idea behind this work was to present a revolutionary urbanism attacking the d i t i ti f lif d d t di i ldominant organization of life and understanding social space.

• It was realized as a imaginary environment and not as any town planning project.

Structure of New Babylon with built masses lifted on higher level to clean the ground for traffic and open spaces.

New Babylon sectors overlapped on the city of Amsterdam

• Constant’s New Babylon had qualities of infinite growth on all sides. People Constant s New Babylon had qualities of infinite growth on all sides. People had infinite building space which kept expanding according to needs. But that led the plan to become too decentralized.

ConclusionConclusionWorks of Situationists were mostly theories based on the assumption of an

ideal place, putting these things into an architecture was not accepted. This is why most of their projects remained theories.is why most of their projects remained theories.

Group refused the individualistic approach on any project or idea, and most of their ideas were generalized as Situationist International group’s works and never allowed the possibility of a single person’s visionnever allowed the possibility of a single person s vision.