new collage essay
4 bulbs
print poster
bridge as-built drawings
halftone moiré studies
hand prints
2nd year book
house at lee street
café
2%K
solar cadence
stone

By default, the city manifests itself as a demonstration of the decisions, alterations, and evolutions of the societies that have inhabited it over time. Typically, the vast history of civilization, complete with the rise and fall of ruling nations, industrial development, and cultural influence, creates a complex and transitory metropolitan experience – often accompanied by an entirely specific series of spontaneous urban events. The city then, becomes an honest and accurate record of the desires of the people, deriving its credibility from the fact that the conception of the place is born of the hands of many, past and present. The model of the cité mélange exists therefore, for the sole reason that it is conceived not as a whole, but in pieces – that those who build, do so upon the existing framework of the city, independent of the intent of their predecessors.

What then, can be said about the consequences of a city envisioned at once? What are the urban implications of an explicitly arranged town, in which the rules of an organic network are recast as the unyielding rigor of the future city? The structure of this city depends solely on the decisions of the developer, with whom lies the responsibility of providing the same attractive way of life, but with nothing to rely upon for urban stimulation – no pre-established setting for the metropolitan lifestyle. However, an advantage exists in the opportunity to dream of a new model that acknowledges successful precedent and creates a dynamic and thriving environment free of established convention. This so-called Utopia is often as inaccessible as it is enticing, and the question for the planner/architect then becomes: how can a city made “from scratch” be anywhere near as economically viable, socially appealing, or historically valid as the collage city?

These ideas, as so eloquently proposed by Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter in their pivotal work, Collage City, form the basis for a critical re-appraisal of the ideal utopian cities of the late eighteenth century in favor of the more ancient and circumstantial city model of the “bricolage”. The authors’ approach to the subject is one of attack; clearly dismayed by the so-called “illusion” of ideal cities which were gaining popularity, Rowe and Koetter set out to remind us of the role of chance, the importance of variety, and the absolute necessity of chaos. In the context of the two models, according Rowe/Koetter, the question is “...not so much whether the traditional city, in absolute terms, is good or bad, relevant or irrelevant, in tune with the Zeitgeist or otherwise. Nor is it a question of modern architecture’s obvious defects. Rather, it is a question of common sense and common interest…”(1)

Now if, through the course of reading the benefits of the thriving natural city outlined by Rowe/Koetter, one arrives at the conclusion that the ideal city is not only illogical but disastrous to the spirit of the city, then the reader may expect to uphold this logic to all cities, and all planning ventures. Indeed, with the growth rate of cities today, one simply cannot expect a great deal of “utopian” planning without the systematic demolition of large portions of the urban environment. The scale of the city, the level of economic networks, the necessity on large areas of housing development, all restrict the ability to “wipe clean” the modern metropolis. The attainability of such a tabula rasa is in fact a proven failure, as shown by the unsuccessful efforts of Le Corbusier and his “Plan Voisin” in the medieval section of Paris in 1925.(2) Traditional cities, unorganized and chaotic though they may be, are vibrant, culturally active centers, crucial to the formation of the identity of the region and the nation. For this reason, any attempt at redeveloping the heart of the urban environment to meet heavily researched and organized plans en masse would seem to have highly devastating social ramifications.

Though the method of letting a city grow on its own is preferable in the eyes of theorists like Rowe and Koetter, there exists a common rule that applies to both models. The critical tenet of these theories, which is almost certainly inherent to the question itself, is that the two models of the city-builders, for better or worse, must be applied to the city.

Well of course, the city – the great center of wealth, population, and education, government, culture, and recreation. What other place would such a specific idea as “collage city” be more relevant? And how could an “ideal city” exist if it were not in fact a “city”? In today’s world, there thousands of large cites, each with its own identity and variety. But, with the accumulation of these cities, along with increases in population and the proliferation of car culture, the city has seemingly spread across the landscape. In doing so, the phenomenon results in the effective dispersal people and jobs in a wide radius that overlaps the influence of other cities. It is in these areas, known as the suburbs, that our focus turns to in the decision-making processes of rapid development of the modern age.

Could the ideas of Rowe and Koetter be applied to a suburb? Is there reason to believe that the “edge city” is any less capable of bearing the title of “collage city”? Clearly the answer is yes. With even a casual glance at the conditions of the development between cities, especially in the United States, it becomes alarmingly obvious that there is in fact little to no planning whatsoever involved in the creation of our suburbs. On the contrary, the development of retail, housing, and civic structures are almost always a result of the organization of the roads and highway infrastructure. In this way, the transportation connections between major cities become the rule by which new towns begin to sprout up; the necessary routes of transit provide circumstantial hubs by which trade points become towns, and eventually more cities. All of this describes perfectly an example of the traits of the traditional collage city – only here, they are removed from the urban context of the major city.

So, if the collage city method works so well in the densest of urban environments, and adds such rich character and value to the city core, one begins to wonder why the American landscape has become so poorly neglected and underused when developed by the same logic. George Orwell, in his 1939 work Coming Up For Air, describes the resulting sprawl:

“…and the newness of everything! The raw, mean look! Do you know the look of these new towns that have suddenly swelled up like balloons in the last few years, Hayes, Slough, Dagenham, and so forth? The kind of chilliness, the bright red brick everywhere, the temporary-looking shopfronts full of cut-price chocolates and radio parts…”(3)

Today, urban situations such as the plaza, the market, the alley, and the courtyard, have all successfully been maintained from their medieval origins and still hold a place in the dense environments of American cities. Yet, more contemporary fixtures, such as the parking garage, the retail strip, and the multi-lane highway – while recent additions to the urban vocabulary – have a an equally commanding presence in the highly populated areas of the United States. As such, the idea of the modern collage city in America is as much defined by its cultural and practical elements as it is by these new giants in built landscape.

The main difference between the two groups lies in the fact that while the cities remain relatively unchanged by their adaptation of the urban spaces, the suburban elements are heavily impacting the land through the attempt at recreating the urban conditions at an enlarged scale. The implicit nature of car transit facilitates the movement of people over large distances quickly, eliminating the need to crowd city functions together in a city center. As a result, artificial centers are created in the form of hubs of various combinations of big box retail, industrial parks, fast food chains, and fueling stations. In this fashion, the city’s previously walkable programmatic functions are exploded across a sea of asphalt, making it virtually impossible to act the way a city pedestrian would. This mindset even becomes ingrained to the point of irrationality, when a shopper doesn’t think twice about driving a distance that they would have no problem walking in the city.

If the notion of the “collage suburb” may now be considered a generator of waste and misuse in the modern landscape, perhaps the next option is to look to the other model of city planning, the ideal city, to possibly create the “ideal suburb”. Looking back at what made the utopian cites so advantageous, we may notice that qualities of the initial land, the “blank slate”, are readily available in many areas of the regions in between major cities. Now, for the most part, extensive parts of edge city developments are gated communities. These residential areas make an attempt at creating a sense of density by grouping detached homes or townhomes together, often with a community center or clubhouse, but rarely achieve the level of spontaneity and serendipity associated with an urban residential environment. In fact the result is one of heightened anxiety, with neighbors becoming increasingly private and reclusive due to repetitive contact with the same groups of people. Misleading and unlcear boundaries of interstitial public space often lead to underutilization of those areas and propagate a reclusive neighborhood with empty, wasted land. Moreover, the level of anonymity of the city environment is simply absent, along with the rest of the city's widely varied social networks.

Perhaps more an indication of a preoccupation with socio-economic status than that of a rejection of urban life, many Americans choose to live in suburbia, owning a larger tract of land, and commute to their employment in the city. Another conclusion from this behavior suggests that the only economically sustainable job market is provided by the major city in the area. This leads to the strange situation of having multiple areas of almost entirely residential development in the areas surrounding a city, with few commercials districts scattered among them. Low-density urbanization, as it may be called, has a curious effect of not being sparse and yet not being urban enough, leading the dilution of both the true city fabric, as well as the unnecessary infill of what could potentially be greenspace. Kenneth Frampton, architectural historian and professor of Architecture at Columbia University, has written on his concern regarding the “flattening out” of cultures and place caused by this new low-density sprawl. In order to remedy this condition he proposes using landscape reserves as holding grounds, or voids, which are not to be in-filled by development until, according to Frampton, “society comes to its senses and acknowledges the destruction it has caused with wasteful development practices.” (4)

The low-density urbanization therefore may even be categorized as part of the “collage suburb” movement, as separate parties place these highly organized parcels of development, independently, at different times. This model is in fact highly similar to the way in which Roman emperors would commission structures to be built in the Forum in Rome, with seemingly no regard for the alignment or composition of the overall whole. With this “first-come-first-served” attitude, developers do not pay any mind to the region as an indirect urban network – an organized series of nodes in support of the metropolis.

Therefore a solution presents itself: in order to create enough interest and demand for jobs in the regions outside the city center, a plan must be introduced to consolidate the sprawl of the low-density development into specific and strategically spaced centers around the suburban region. Then, in order to maintain proper density and encourage microcosms of urban environments, green areas such as parks and reserves should be maintained between the towns, with little to no development between. Areas such as the Baltimore Washington highway corridor have suffered sub-urbanization to the degree that almost the entire region is purely developed. If the right steps were taken to maintain buffer zones, towns may have emerged and become dense, providing a more balanced ratio of urban to natural environment, and increasing the quality of both landscape and cityscape. As it stands now, the convention in American land development is to expand along the road, starting closer to cities and moving outward. Interstates, highways, and freeways dictate the movement of our future towns and city centers. However, a problem exists in the fact that, as shopping centers fall into decline, new ones are built down the road, not further from the road. This eventually creates an endless string of dying retail, decreasing the land values each time. In fact, as of 2001, over 440 indoor regional malls, representing 21 percent of all U.S. malls, were declared abandoned, dead, or dying.(5) Yet, there is still hope for the remaining developing areas of the nation, and again the solution lies in the way the land is planned, allowing for predetermined “no-build” zones to deter rapid consumption of free natural land, and to encourage denser and more active hubs of commerce and residence.

It seems that while the “collage city” model is well suited to the urban condition, there is a lot to be learned from the “ideal cities” in the context of American urban sprawl. While the concepts of urban space and varied contextual cues may be ideal for planning the next building in the city, The garden cities of Ebenezer Howard (6) might be the best model for the towns found in the in-between, as is the case in the successful towns of Greenbelt MD, Colombia MD, and Reston VA. Waste of land by development has never reached as high a point as today, and the job as architect/planner has never been so important in the definition of our suburban conditions.


Works Cited :

(1) Rowe, Colin / Koetter, Fred 1968 Collage City. Cambridge: MIT Press
(2) Le Corbusier 1967 (1933) The Radiant City. London: Faber and Faber
(3) Hall, Peter 2005 (1988) Cities of Tommorow. London: Blackwell
(4) Frampton, Kenneth 1995 Toward an Urban Landscape. New York: Colombia University Press
(5) Berger, Alan 2006 Drosscape: Wasting Land in Urban America. New York: Princeton Architectural Press
(6) Howard, Ebenezer 1965 Garden Cities of To-Morrow. Cambridge: MIT Press