POSTMODERN URBANISM: FROM COLLAGE CITY TO MULTI-NATIONAL CITY THE DEVELOPMENT AND DIVERGENCE OF URBAN DESIGN

[DLF Circulation in circles (Martin 126)]

Jacob Dugopolski

703b: Contemporary Architectural Theory: Architecture from 1960 to present

Ariane Lourie Harrison / Marta Caldeira

Final Paper May 8, 2009 

Jacob Dugopolski 703b: Contemporary Architectural Theory: Architecture from 1960 to present Ariane Lourie Harrison / Marta Caldeira May 8, 2009

Postmodern Urbanism: From Collage City to Multi-National City Development and Divergence of Urban Design

Forefront in the education of urbanism lay the stunning utopian vistas of modernism. By their

shock value they awe, defining a new era of how the human interacts with the city. Drawing

directly from ideals shaped in architecture, the utopia is one of abstraction, efficiency, and scale.

The fallout from these visions is plural and still evolving, and has led to the multiple physical and

theoretical responses of postmodern urbanism. There are particular continuities and

disjunctions which have shaped the postmodern response from the defining early texts of Lynch,

Jacobs, Venturi, and Rowe/Koetter, to the resurgence of urban interest in recent years through

Koolhaas and Martin/Baxi. Assuming the premise of postmodernism as an extension of

modernism, I look to pull apart these lines of thought to see what of the modern movement

withstands, and what trajectories are changing the shape of postmodern urbanism and the new

discipline of Urban Design. Focusing on an early postmodern text, Collage City (1977) by Colin

Rowe and Fred Koetter, and a contemporary text, Multi-National City (2007) by Reinhold Martin

and Kadambari Baxi, I will analyze these shifts particularly through their representation,

inclusions/exclusions, and larger consequences.

Modernism’s Urban Utopia and its Legacy The standard projection of modernism’s utopia usually is one of a select set of ideas, typically

linked to the work of Le Corbusier and the Radiant City. Dramatically reshaping the urban realm

to one disconnected from history, city form is freed to address these issues of density,

circulation, and the integration of nature. The modernists considered the individual but only

through an outward homogenizing projection as a primarily rational and utopian aesthetic.

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The first image that comes to mind is Le Corbusier’s axonometric of “A Contemporary City for

Three Million People” (1922). Addressing both circulation and access to light and air, the ideal

was to create massive thoroughfares as main arteries and tall slender towers to free each

individual with a natural connection. Stamped evenly upon the land, these towers would be

mixed with lower housing blocks and the programs would remain distinct from one another. Le

Corbusier chooses an axonometric for this representation because it keeps the lines regular

while expressing the new distribution of space, giving the scene a sublime look from above.

The second image is of the Plan Voisin (1925), Le Corbusier’s overlay of the radiant city grid

onto the historical figure/ground mapping of Paris. Altering the well known Nolli map black and

white fabric, the inversion of the figure ground is created with towers interrupting the fine grain

of historical development. Similar to the first image, the plan demonstrates a rational clarity,

providing large areas of open space with the proposed towers in a park. Both produce a shock

effect because of their clarity and departure from the perceived city, especially when proposed

in the 1920’s.

[Le Corbusier’s “A Contemporary City for Three Million People” (1922), and Plan Voisin (1925)] There are many other lines of thought during this period from the effect of futurism to fascism,

but this is meant to be only a brief summary of images and concepts. These are both directly

and indirectly referenced in the shift to postmodern urbanism and more specifically in Collage

City and Multi-National City. My interest is in looking deeper at what is relevant in continuity, the

embedded constancies that the shock value hides.

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Development of Postmodern Urbanism “If modernism blew apart the relationship between history and the city, destroying the perception of architectural illusions that the nineteenth century put into place, then architecture of the 1970s and 1980s attempted to restore the public realm of the city, to reweave the shredded urban fabric, and to reconstruct a sense of collectivity and cooperation” (Boyer 4). As the failed implementations of modernism were realized, the pendulum swung back to a

historical re-evaluation. The exact point of this realization often referenced is the demolition of

the Pruit-Igoe housing (1971), but this was one of many developments of a shift in thinking

toward social responsiveness and cultural understanding. One major effect was the resurgence

and development of the human sciences, such as Anthropology, Sociology, and Urban Design.

Integrated in this movement, the new drivers became ecological, economic, and social/cultural.

Under the leadership of Jose Lluis Sert, Harvard GSD developed an Urban Design program

after its 1956 Urban Design Conferences.

Multiple texts evolved in the 1960’s and 1970’s, evaluating both means and methods. Kevin

Lynch’s The Image of the City (1960) was the first major text, using simple sketches to distill

urban qualities and effects, working through a rational and research based perspective harking

back to a historical understanding missing from modernism. From a more ground-up

perspective, Jane Jacob’s Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) was an early marker

in shifting from a Modernist scientific observer to one that is engulfed in the local ecologies most

critical to urban success. Fifteen years later, this mix of modernism and the counter-responses

evolved in a new set of theoretical analyses. Robert Venturi and Denise Scott-Brown’s Learning

from Las Vegas was published in 1977 exposing the landscape that had resulted from the

American car-centric culture. Where Lynch provided models in detail, Collage City written by

Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter in 1978 provided a larger theory or method of thinking about the

city. It is not one that is directly translatable and able to be deployed over a territory, but a

concept to pursue in the development of the urban realm.

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[Collage City (1978), Uffitzi and Marseilles-block contrast (Rowe 69)] Early Manifesto: Collage City “… the imagined condition is a type of solid-void dialectic which might allow for the joint existence of the overtly planned and the genuinely unplanned, of the set-piece and the accident, of the public and the private, of the state and the individual.” (Rowe 83).

Combining Colin Rowe’s historical expertise and Fred Koetter’s research on multi-scalar urban

elements, Collage City had a large influence in the development of postmodern urbanism.

Using clear side-by-side comparisons they illustrate the separation of functions inherent in

modernism which was a reversal of the solid and void relationship of the traditional city.

Framing their argument through this dual reading, they were able to set forth points toward

understanding the city as a multi-scalar collaged system. Continually inserted is a warning

toward the influences of modernism’s singular utopian vision, rather implementing miniature

utopias to localize effect and public connection (Rowe 11). Ultimately they look to prove the

importance of the collage, where the historical and modern work together to form a strong city.

The primary inclusion of Collage City is in developing the hypothetical “actor,” the urban resident

that engages with the city, they advocate for the medium scale to act on the large and small

scale and bind disparate urban actors and elements. Through this mixture the city becomes a

system of fragments. After presenting this historical and modern dialectic, they distill five basic

elements that are essential: memorable street, stabilizer, potentially indeterminable set piece,

splendid public terrace, and an ambiguous or multivalent building. In many ways they are

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looking to maintain “nostalgia producing instruments” realizing that collective memory is a

powerful characteristic (Shane 133). This understanding of memory was a major part lacking in

the homogeneity of the modernist utopia but was a key argument posed in Lynch and studied in

detail by Christine Boyer more recently. They advocate for the inclusion of actors with authority

rather than to give authority to the master plan to produce dynamic urban situations and

juxtapositions.

The primary exclusion is a call against the scientific and imperial data dictating response. In

the introduction they break down modernisms guise, “while without bias and embarrassment we

proceed to scrutinize the facts, then, as we accept them, we simultaneously allow these hard

empirical facts to dictate the solution” (Rowe 3). It is interesting to note a similar bias in their

presentation, that the reduction of history and modern side-by-side produces new exclusions

and reductive facts that feed a static projection in the sense that it is a kit of parts openly

applicable but not examined in detail.

“Collage City initiated a discourse on the logic of relationships between elements and fragments

in the postmodern city, even if it did not provide a satisfactory resolution of the question” (Shane

134). The weakness lies in the ambiguous relationship between parts and the fact that in

implementation Shane explains that “the promise of a multivocal, dialogic, interactive collage

tended to be trumped by the eclectic, symbolic choices of a single, Enlightenment authority”

(Shane 134). The model of independent fragments became standard practice in postmodern

urbanism, despite its faults, enabling designers to independently work on their portion with

minimal coordination. The result was that these became isolated enclaves that proliferated into

suburbia, sometimes with a historical overlay, and in the “Generic City” advocated by Rem

Koolhaas, became “utopian, modern, fragmentary aspects of its system, its ‘vest-pocket

utopias,’ but upsized to the scale of megastructures empowered by the state and by real-estate

interests” (Shane 138).

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[Multi-National City: Architectural Itineraries (2007),Multi-National City monuments (Martin 14)] Contemporary Shift: Multi-National City “Where these others have attempted to rescue the modern city at its apocalypse – with appeals to historical memory, to the commercial strip that delimits its borders, or to its repressed delirium – we record its quiet collapse without remorse” (Martin 9). The context of the world today is completely different than what emerged from the settling dust

of Pruit Igoe. In an increasingly connected and globalized world, architects work outside

political borders and corporations blur to indeterminate extents, producing feedback loops and

economic interdependence. Reinhold Martin and Kadambari Baxi explicitly address this fact in

Multi-National City: Architectural Itineraries, attempting to depart from past theories.

The thesis of the book is clearly paralleled by its representation. The binding is divided in two,

presenting the homogeneous images first, then working through the linkages that are present,

presenting three pairings of the three cities analyzed. The firm’s work is integrated with each of

the pairings, offering the opportunity to analyze through research sensitive to each context. As

a result they don’t offer a distinct theoretical solution, but expose the linkages and the

development of the all-encompassing workplace. Focusing on these corporate complexes

exposes the new utopia where the cross-section of the city is compacted into the office park.

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The primary reshaped inclusion is that of program. The modernist separated realms still exist in

this contemporary reality, even more heightened in its compact application, fitting a miniature

city into an office complex. They describe this new lifestyle stating, “Its new forms of alienation

are met by the old anti-urban dream of recovering a lost home, but now in casual, domesticated

corporate campuses rather than in uptight suburban houses. And it reinvents modernity’s

masses as individualized, mass-customizable persons while in the process, effacing their

singularity” (Martin 9). The feelings that were once held now turn inside-out, “instead of

(modern) fatigue, (post-modern) stress; instead of (modern) shock, (postmodern) boredom”

(Martin 9). They also mention the concept of utopian realism, explaining that there is no such

thing as program; there is only what actually happens, a Collage City concept of freeing

program extents from their limited utopian shackle (Martin 13).

Excluded is an overarching utopia that the modernists strived for. It is not a reshaped domestic

setting, but extended workplace, to the point that it becomes domesticated. The universal

applicability originally envisioned is reshaped because each caters to a specific company which

becomes placeless in application. On the other hand, feedback between the designs of

corporate campuses has extended their homogeneity. In counter-response on a more detailed

level, they explain that in the multi-national city “despite its apparent uniformity, [it] harbors a

multitudinous crowd” (Martin 8).

The larger consequences of this text are still to be seen, but unlike Collage City, Martin and Baxi

pose their projections as a record and past work as the manifestation. It is a deeper reading of

the forces that influence ever building - historical, economic, social, aesthetic, and technological

instead of a call for action (Martin 7). They clarify that it is not only a deeper direct reading

needed, but one that is peripheral, to uncover the global feedback loops, economic

interdependence, and countless other emerging actors feed into the equation. These

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heterotopic strategies are enhanced by the new ultra-connected technologies, but similar to

Collage City produce a system of fragmentary enclaves.

The Postmodern Urban Position “Adrift in a sea of fragments and open horizons, our postmodern position is ambiguous. We cannot speculate or reflect on a more rational and equitable form for the city, for fear of erecting perspectival wholes and illusionary totalities that might exclude or homogenize what we believe must remain plural and multiperspectival” (Boyer 3). The storyline that these two analyses project is the plurality postmodern urbanism has absorbed,

one that becomes even more complex with time. In many ways this complexity was

unavoidable. The growth of democracy leaves a freedom to planning that it is inherently going

to form breaks and discontinuities. The swelling of corporation and private entities has also

reshaped our landscape in a similar way industry reorganized lifestyles in the late 19th century.

Most importantly what the postmodern urban position has reframed is a fuller understanding of

the experiential aspects beyond what the modernist utopia considered. It is not only about the

figure/ground, the field of social implications in planning out the paths of our daily lives is now a

part of the equation and means to achieving richer urban experiences. But this is important to

continue to address in our contemporary setting as in many ways our urban realm has fell

behind the development of new technologies and now produces different and unintegrated

effects.

Also clearly seen is a shift in thinking about the use of the ground. The open space has been

reconsidered so that the access to open air in height is not as important as the extent. This

mixing of open space also has a sprawling consequence that is now pervasive in the perimeters

of cities. The complexity of our urban spaces has increased but in many examples the urban

design can be boiled down to a single image or money shot. This was the impetus for Kevin

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Lynch’s argument for city design as a more suitable title, shaping the quality and character of

the entire public city (Shane 62).

This brings up a major issue that Multi-National City starts to expose; does the multiperspectival

city really become collaged? Is the complexity clashing instead of working together? In many

instances the layers do not overlap and the seams between private entities are dedicated to our

personal cars and the buffers they require. Thus the opposite of segregating types is now

happening; multi-use buildings are becoming homogenizers because they are placed on

corporate islands. As a result of this contemporary collaged vision, the city is in a way

continuing the legacy of the modernist utopia.

Shane attempts to break down the seven ages of postmodern design extending Charles Jenks

genealogy diagram of the Modern Movements (1973). Framed as a way to understand the

“return of interest in the traditional design of urban places,” the list proceeds as decoupage,

collage city, bricolage, montage, assemblage, and rhizomatic assemblage. All are attempts to

restructure and understand the city ideal through more complex terms. They break down the

utopian central idea but this utopia is still in the application (Shane 145-7). With this scattering

of the utopia similar effects can still exist, especially when vest-pocket utopias produce isolated

enclaves that divide society even worse that the modernist connected vision. What Martin and

Baxi explain is an unplanned hybrid of the modern and postmodern theories pushed by political

and economic forces.

One of many results is the ubiquitous suburban centers. In the landscape of the sprawling city

the key monument is the shopping mall and the highway interchange is the monumental

entrance (Shane 96). In their article published in Architect Magazine in 1991, Steve Kieran and

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James Timberlake tie Rowe, Venturi, and Olmstead into an equation producing the perimeter

city organized around these interchange nodes.

[Paradise Regained, diagram in Architecture, December 1991 (Kieran 91)] Roughly mapping the continuities and transformations of specific themes below, one can see

the major concepts that persist are those of economics and the idea of transformation to a

modern standard. Reshaped concepts are large scale to corporate entities and globalized

connections, and technology to a new integration within the building and complex. Altered

concepts are the totality to fragmentation, rationalization to collage and layering. These are

generalizations which manifest much messier in application but help to understand how urban

ideals have changed in the postmodern setting.

[Diagram of continuities and discontinuities in postmodern urbanism]

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“ Confronted with an all-too-totalizing system of late capitalism with its global reach and administrative rationalizations, however, the indeterminacies and undecidabilities of our postmodern stance offer no virtuous solutions with which to confront contemporary crises, nor allow us to oppose and resist the uneven development of our cities and nations” (Boyer 3). With the avid reactions against the modernist urban philosophies it is easy to assume a

complete departure, but there are a myriad of remnants that remain in the postmodern psyche.

Partially a result of larger societal and economic alterations, especially the influence of

capitalism, modernisms philosophies have continued to be adapted in new ways. We as

architects have to question our position in the current world economic downturn and what this

signifies for the future. Since the overarching vision is well out of the picture frame, it is

necessary to continue to reconceptualize the seams and the overlaps that are remnants of

haphazard planning. It may be time to look at the world through the eyes of Martin and Baxi,

turning things inside out and addressing the ever-expanding interconnected web that we will find.

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WORKS CITED

Boyer, Christine M. The City of Collective Memory: Its Historical Imagery and Architectural

Entertainments. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1994.

Ellin, Nan. Postmodern Urbanism. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996.

Kieran, Steve and James Timberlake. “Paradise Regained.” Architecture (December 1991) 48-

51.

Martin, Reinhold and Kadambari Baxi. Multi-National City: Architectural Itineraries. Barcelona:

Actar-D, 2007.

Rowe, Colin and Fred Koetter. Collage City. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1978.

Shane, David Grahame. Recombinant Urbanism: Conceptual Modeling in Architecture, Urban

Design, and City Theory. Chichester, England; Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2005.

WORKS REFERENCED

Le Corbusier, City of Tomorrow and its Planning. Courier Dover Publications, 1987.

Robbins, Edward and Rodolphe El-Khoury. Shaping the City: Studies in History, Theory, and

Urban Design. New York; London: Routledge, 2004.

Lynch, Kevin. The Image of the City. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1960.

Pinder, David. Visions of the City: Utopianism, Power and Politics in Twentieth-Century

Urbanism. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005.

Venturi, Robert and Denise Scott Brown. Learning from Las Vegas. Cambridge, Mass: MIT

Press 1972.

Vidler, Anthony. “The Idea of Unity and Le Corbusier’s Urban Form.” Architects’ Year Book 15:

225-235.