Table of contents for N. 115 in Topos

TOPOS E-PAPER: AVAILABLE FOR YOUR DESKTOP Dear readers, the famous French sociologist and urban researcher Henri Lefèbvre was born on 16 June 120 years ago. And it’s precisely on June 16 that the new issue of topos, Right to the City, will be published. This is not entirely coincidental, however, because the main theme is more topical than ever. But let’s start with a brief look back: Lefèbvre’s book Le droit à la ville (The Right to the City) was published in 1968, during a time of upheaval and increasing industrialisation in the post-war period, and also during a time when the urban was being increasingly commercialised. Lefèbvre identified what he considered “urbanisation without urbanity” and saw both its causes and consequences in the construction of mass housing, the emergence…

Scott Streeb is an Associate Principal and a key member of the Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA) creative team. His interest lies in creating inclusive spaces that children of all ages, cultures and personality types can find comfort in while also encouraging caretaker interaction. He assumes a central role in MVVA’s approach to play spaces and the firm’s research on the role of play in park design. 1 INFLUENCED BY? Mother nature. I grew up among the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Exploring these monumental landforms influenced my spatial and material instincts. It taught me to read landscapes as three-dimensional and sculptural. 2 INSPIRED BY? People who use the parks we design are a great inspiration. Play spaces are my favorite environments to design, so I am inspired by watching children…

“Henri Lefèbvre’s ideas about the new city of participation remain virulent.” Although Henri Lefèbvre was somewhat of a latecomer, the French sociologist and urban researcher nonetheless had a timely influence on the social upheavals of the 1960s. Lefèbvre was already 65 years old when he took up a newly established professorship at the Univer-sity of Nanterre, in the far west of Paris. Con-struction of the university, which was under-taken to relieve pressure on the Sorbonne, had just been completed, and Lefèbvre was sur-prised to see old, run-down parts of the city being cleared out to make way for large new housing estates. Here he was able to experience first hand what urbanisation without urbanity meant, which he later eloquently lamented in his book Le droit à la ville (The Right…

There have been many significant achievements by women in the past – women who have already influenced and shaped today’s cities. Their contributions range from small interventions that have an impact on our everyday urban life to bridges, squares and urban parks to large scale urban master plans – from Marjetica Potr?’ temporary lake for urban swimmers in London to Emily Warren Roeblings Brooklyn Bridge in NYC that she completed in 1883 to Marion Mahoney Griffin’s winning design for Australia’s capital Canberra. In some cases, the work of the women who created those projects is well known, even globally renowned. In some cases, the women are forgotten, their works lost in the archives and the dominantly male narratives of urban history. But in some cases their names and contributions were…

There’s a bitter irony in the fact that one of the most radical urban concepts of the early Soviet communist state, Nikolay Milyutin’s Sotsgorod, the socialist city of Magnitogorsk, founded in 1929, was not only appropriated as a convenient, well-controlled urban structure by the Stalinist tyranny. The ancient Egyptian pharaohs relied on a very similar urban planning idea in the city of Aten, built in the 14th century BC. The Sotsgorod’s ur-ban plan called for the implementation of functional zoning of industry, leisure and housing. That was a continuation of the functionalist idea of separating housing structures into distinct volumes based on the kind of activity: cooking and eating, child care, leisure and sleeping areas. The idea was to free the worker and especially the working woman from the burdens…

Michael Van Valkenburgh is founder and partner of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA). His lifelong dedication to the medium of landscape and its robust material expression is evident in MVVA’s diverse body of work, including gardens, museums, parks of all sizes, campuses, and urban design. Regardless of size, Michael strives to bring out the potential for every project to move people and make the world a better place. 1 INFLUENCED BY? Going back to the beginning – at least, to the summer after I graduated from Cornell, in 1973 – I drove across the US, visiting projects I admired by the offices of Dan Kiley and Lawrence Halprin. When I think of Kiley’s Miller Garden, I still can feel the grace in the geometric transitions; Halprin’s Embarcadero Plaza in San…

People fleeing their countries due to persecution, oppression or political unrest can be seen in a certain light as optimists, as they pursue a better life in their search for a new homeland. The risk of leaving their homes, the sacrifice of their land, property, and communities to seek another life only arises in those seeking a place that holds opportunity, freedom, and justice. The contemporary, global geopolitical landscape is indelibly marked by rising international conflicts and nationalism creating multiple regions and countries beset by massive migrations. Today, the refugees are caught between borders with so few countries accepting their growing numbers, while they become trapped in refugee camps. These expanding settlements were intended to be “temporary” tent communities. However, the camps have increasingly become permanent, such as in Rabouni,…

Established on a former New York Central Railroad track in Manhattan, the elevated 2.3-km-long High Line opened in 2009 and has become a poster child for boosting property values through the introduction of a new park. The West Side of Manhattan was already a trendy neighborhood at the turn of the century when local residents Joshua David and Robert Hammond discovered the post-industrial aesthetic of the abandoned tracks. They founded the non-profit conservancy Friends of the High Line in 1999, advocating for preservation and reclaiming the tracks as public space. The city administration under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani had originally planned to clean up the dark corners under the viaduct by taking down the blighted structure and replacing it with new construction. Writing articles and sharing images by well-known fine-art photographer…

“We are delighted to contribute to this discussion together because cities matter to us as women, mothers, professionals and urban residents. We believe that cities can be places of prosperity, places for all people not only to live in, but to thrive. We have learned that addressing the complex systems that are cities is best understood from multiple perspectives. Our combined backgrounds in environment, architecture, urban planning and public health shape our insights into the challenges and opportunities to build more equitable, healthy and sustainable futures.” – Irene Martín Montes, Sonia Hernandez-Montaño Bou, Carolyn Daher Cities fundamentally influence our health and that of the planet. In the last decade, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Agenda 2030 and the New Urban Agenda have given us an impetus and a roadmap…

In 1961 historian Lewis Mumford, in his monumental work History of the City, speaks of the transformation and reorganization of the “metropolitan complex”, which evolves from the “de-materialization, or etherialization, of existing institutions” to an “invisible city” responding to invisible waves, radiations, and forces beyond the visible horizon. Media theorist Marshall McLuhan will later disseminate this image into popular culture through the slogan of the “global village”. Mumford writes that urban functions that previously required the physical presence of all participants will be transformed into dissociated mobile forms through global production chains, automated transportation, data transmission, and automated reproduction. The consequences of these technological changes go far beyond the mere control of infrastructural and communicative processes via data. A side effect of the coronavirus pandemic is that it has swept…

Le Corbusier would soon learn that it was not quite right to say “the meeting of the pampa and the ocean”. That “majestic line” he spoke about was in fact the meeting of the pampa and the river. Usually held to be the estuary of the Paraná and Uruguay Rivers, the Río de la Plata receives waters draining from the basin of these two rivers, covering a total area of 3.2 million square kilometers, and stretches 220 kilometers where it meets the Atlantic Ocean. Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, is located on the southwestern shore of the estuary. The city was (and is today) physically, culturally and emotionally shaped by this river whose opposing riverbank can never be seen nor made out. The idea of an infinite silvered plane…

As the articles in this issue of topos attest, the concept of the right to the city has taken on increased saliency and popularity around the world over the past decade. Much like the multisyllabic “gentrification,” the term “right to the city” has evolved from a somewhat obscure and confounding phrase to a common component of activist lexicons in cities around the world. The right to the city, however, remains a rhetoric that raises as many questions as it answers. In the title of a much-cited article, geographer Kafui Attoh asks, “What kind of right is the right to the city?” Answering his question with more questions, Attoh wonders, “Is the right to the city a socio-economic right or a liberty right, a legal right or a moral right, a…

SDG 11: To make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Rapid urbanization is exerting pressure on fresh water supplies, sewage, the living environment, and public health. Half of humanity – 3.5 billion people – lives in cities today and 5 billion people are projected to live in cities by 2030. The United Nations General Assembly has designated the 31st of October as World Cities Day, by its resolution 68/239. In Le droit à la ville (1968) Henri Lefèbvre examined how a “crisis of the city” could occur. The sociologist diagnosed the causes as being the car-oriented transformation of cities, an urban exodus of wealthy population groups into suburban homes, the bleakness of new satellite settlements, and a decline of urban centres. (Klaus Englert, see Lead Story) Over 90 per cent…

Kiril Ass works in Moscow, where he combines artistic research and architectural activity. Ass was born in Moscow in 1974 and graduated from the Moscow Architectural Institute in 1998. Among other places, he teaches at the Moscow School of Architecture. anarchitektur@gmail.com Stefan Bendiks is an architect and co-founder of Artgineering, a practice based in Brussels. He is interested in active mobility and its potential to create liveable cities. Currently he is working on the realization of projects in the public space in Brussels and Flanders. stefan@artgineering.eu Gail Peter Borden is a Professor and Director of Graduate Programs at the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture + Design at the University of Houston. His work focuses on the role of materiality and architecture in contemporary culture. gpborden@gmail.com Aglaée Degros is Professor…

Assume you are a co-owner of a 1-billion-EUR corporation that needs a new CEO. Let’s also assume that our corporation operates in a highly volatile environment, is affected by a massive industry transformation, is under attack by several competitors and in deep financial turmoil. How would you embark on the process of recruiting the right candidate for this job? Most likely you’d come up with a list of experiences and skills the new leader should have, such as a proven track-record in leadership and a reputation for getting finances in order, and an engaging personality to give the workforce the confidence they need. You’d probably search for a person who is able to lead the process of developing a strong vision, and who can passionately communicate it while having the…