Topic 7B: Planning Under Fascism

Alastair Robbins

Hitler vs. Schumacher

In this paper I aim to illustrate the different planning undergone by Fritz Schumacher followed by the planning done through Adolf Hitler.  Then I will compare both men’s planning methodology and evaluate which method holds greater resonance in today’s age.

Fritz Schumacher was born in 1869 in Bremen, Germany however, spent his childhood in Bogota, Columbia before moving to New York, USA. He returned to Germany to study and eventually became an architect, urban designer and planner.  He had a high focus on creating cities with a new awareness of tradition and landscape (Colquhoun 2002). Thus he designs depicted not singly the aesthetic properties but also included other disciplines into his plans such as topography, demographics, social trends, transportation, industry and trade. By doing this resulted in a greater blend of urban form with the surrounding landscape, thus resulting in designs catering for a greater audience.  Venturi, Brown and Izenour (1972) refer to the ability to learn from a landscape as being revolutionary of an architect in 1970, emphasizing Schumacher’s innovation at the time. Additionally, Schumacher had a great interest in the blend of nature and urban form and he believed that nature should flourish within the city. The garden city movement adopted by Germany in the beginning of the 20^th century from Great Britain stoked his interest of nature within cities. This is illustrated in his plans for Cologne in 1923 where he introduced green belts amongst the urban form (Diefendorf 1993).  Today these belts still exist and are a legacy of what he created (refer to fig. 1).

Figure 1 Schumacher's Green Belt Legacy

Further, presenting Schumacher’s brilliance was his ability to plan for future needs. Diefendorf (1993) illustrates this, highlighting how Schumacher anticipated the population growth of Stubben, Germany and aimed this growth to be located around the radial arms of the transportation network. Today in Melbourne, there is this aim of guiding development around public transport (Victorian Government 2014), highlighting how innovative Schumacher was. Overall, we can evaluate Schumacher’s urban planning, design and architecture style as innovative and ahead of his time.

Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 in Braunau am Inn, Austria but moved to Germany at a young age. At an early age Hitler gained an interest in fine arts, which grew to his interest in architecture, and in particular the baroque architectural style in which he favored.  This was seen with his love of Berlin Cathedral a grand baroque style architected building. Another influence that shaped the architecture and urban planning throughout Hitler’s period of power was his German nationalist mindset. This mindset was prevalent throughout most of his life however; it grew more radical and bias as he aged.

Throughout Hitler’s period of power he dictated that the cities of Germany all required certain traits in each highlighting, his want for uniformity (Diefendorf 1993).  In particular, he demanded buildings of monumental scale across the cities to express the German power over the world illustrating his radical German nationalist mindset.  His designs were often created to be the biggest in the world; some of these designs were Munich train station, Berlin Hall and Hamburg skyscraper. Hitler aimed these structures to rival and outdo their precedents from other nations to reinforce the power of the Third Reich (refer to fig 2 & 3).

Figure 2 St Peter's, Italy (Trinity 2014)

Figure 3 Berlin's planned domed assembly hall (Pergher 2007)

Often smaller traditional homes and business were being destroyed to make way for these monumental buildings. Not only was his aim to be express the Third Reich power but also aimed to make building confronting and intimidating to foreign visitors.  

Hitler himself did not design a great number of buildings however, he had a great influence over what was built. For example, Hitler had final say in the in which architectural design would be used for his buildings.  Always the architectural plan that won were designs that foster his ideas of German power, usually through monumental size, whilst also fostering his passion for baroque style buildings.  Albert Speer designs frequently won these competitions as he designs meticulously followed Hitler ideals.  Overall, what is identifiable is the unorthodox planning done by Hitler. Less did he focus on the needs of the people instead rather focusing on reinforcing his radical notion and ideals.

Hitler and Schumacher were eminently different, which can be express through the different plans and development controlled by each. Schumacher had a large focus of blending landscape with urban form whereas Hitler, with his aim to express German Power, created monumental buildings that protruded out of the landscape, often replacing the previous landscape. Hence, it is shown as Schumacher having a more contemporary style of planning whilst Hitler having a similar opinion to Le Corbusier who said “tear down Paris and start again”, which holds as ill practice in contemporary age.

Further difference can be identified through the different use of precedents for each of the men’s designs.  The British Garden City movement influenced many of Schumacher’s designs. He aimed to learn from Garden Cities and implement aspect into his designs. He did this with the aim to improve urban form and urban life within German cities. In contrast to Hitler, who used precedents from other countries to create urban form in Germany that are more impressive and monumental to illustrate his idea of German dominance over the world. Here instead of learning from the precedent he aimed to create something that dominated it and make it regarded as inferior to his designs. Kenny and Brophy (2011) suggest that precedents can be used to create a correct idea of what is good for the environment. This notion is similar to what Schumacher did with the precedent of Garden cities and how he applied it to Cologne illustrating innovative methodology. However, nowhere in contemporary design guidelines is using precedents as structures to make inferior with your design, emphasizing Hitler’s unorthodox designs plans.

Overall, what are prevalent are the innovative ideas and designs that Schumacher did. This compared to Hitler was vastly different with Hitler having less focus on surrounding environment and instead only the building in design.  This meant that designs by Schumacher accommodated more people’s needs and the surrounding environment whereas Hitler designs only catered for the notion of German prowess over the world.  I believe planners can learn from Schumacher as his ideas are innovative and many still feature in plan for cities today even in plan Melbourne. In addition, much can be learnt from the planning during Hitler Third Reich period however, Hitler ideas often teach us what not to do rather than applying his ideas into todays planning.

Reference List:

Colquhoun, A 2002, Modern architecture, Oxford University Press.

Diefendorf, JM 1993, In the wake of war: the reconstruction of German cities after World War II, Oxford University Press.

Kenny, P & Brophy, V 2011, 'A Methodology to Develop Judgment Skills in Sustainable Architectural Education', in World Sustainable Building Conference, 18-21 October, 2011 Helsinki, Finland.

Pergher, R 2007, Order from Stone, Sitemaker, viewed 24 April 2015, <http://sitemaker.umich.edu/artunderfascism/architecture%3E.

Trinity, IBIasdH 2014, St Peters Basilica, Wordpress, viewed 24 April 2015, <http://italianoht.global2.vic.edu.au/famous-italians/st-peters-basilica/%3E.

Venturi, R, Brown, DS & Izenour, S 1972, Learning from Las Vegas, vol. 102, MIT press Cambridge, MA.

Department of Transport Planning and Local Infrastructure 2014, Plan Melbourne, by Victorian Government, Victorian Government.

Topic 7A: 20th century planning under communism

Cheuk Fung (Clement) Chan

            Communism was a political system which greatly influenced the planning and development of the newly formed Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in the early 20^th century. Before 1917, there were strong Marxist attitudes towards the inequality and backwardness of rural life in the Russian Empire, which engendered the outbreak of the October Revolution on 28 October 1917 (French, 1995). Since then, the pursuit of common ownership of the means of production and absence of social classes caused the great changes of planning in the new Soviet State, which raised the living standards of the proletariat a lot.

            Regarding the planning strategies adopted in the new State after the revolutionary period, many of them were originated from the ideas and theories of different artists and architects during the period from the Revolution to the new Stalin era. This period of time was regarded as the fundamental process of Soviet town planning, which was about the consideration of what should be planned in the Soviet period (French, 1995).

            The earliest influence to Russia’s planning in the 20^th century was the Garden City movement proposed by Ebenezer Howard as shown in Figure 1 (French, 1995). Garden Cities were planned on a concentric and radial patterns with plenty of open space and greenery. These cities were linked by roads and rails to the central city but they were sustainable themselves. French (1995) mentions that the idea of Garden City for enhancing physical and psychological health was remained in Soviet planning later on. Moreover, the concept of Garden City expressed the Marxist thought of breaking the differences between town and country. Since Garden City was suitable to the new socialist society which improved the poor living conditions for the peasants, it had been proposed for a few times in the early 20^th century of Russia (French, 1995). Garden City movement was therefore one of the most influential ideas for the planning in the Soviet period.

Figure 1 – Garden City planned by Ebenezer Howard

Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Garden_City_Concept_by_Howard.jpg

Under the influence of Marxism, there were two main principles of the new social order derived, including Suprematism and Constructivism. Although these two principles had totally different perspectives of art, both of them have had deep influences to the Soviet planning since 1920s.

            Suprematism was an art movement originated by Kazimir Malevich in 1913 which focused on basic geometric forms (French, 1995). The UNOVIS (Affirmers of New Art) group led by Malevich and the Suprematists was surrounded by the concept that creative art and practical design for living were inseparable (French, 1995). Nonetheless, El Lissitskiy, who was a member of the group in the town planning context, led the movement from Suprematism to Constructivism for the culture of materials (French, 1995). Since then, there were more concerns with construction rather than representation by art, which favored the construction of practical buildings and plans in the Soviet period.

            Constructivism had a different goal as Suprematism, which transformed from the foci of expressions of art into engineering-like constructions (French, 1995). In light of the availability of new building materials such as concrete, sheet metal and glass, Constructivism inspired plenty of designs for factories and hydroelectric plants in Soviet planning. Besides, there were massive Constructivist buildings in Moscow built in 1920s, aiming to improve quality of life for the workers and the belief in communal activity (French, 1995). Thus, Constructivism had contributed a lot to the architecture and infrastructure of the Soviet towns.

            Other than the two principles above, there were two schools of planning which also greatly influenced the Soviet planning in 1920s, including ‘Urbanist’ and ‘Disurbanist’.

            The Disurbanist school was based on the concept of the ‘Green City’, which was strongly influenced by the theory of Garden City (French, 1995). The Deurbanists envisaged people living in a form of ribbon development along roads through the countryside, with public bus services at road junctions (French, 1995). Since both Garden City and Deurbanist shared the same Marxian goal of abolishing the difference between town and country, they were similar in pursuing the goal of a socialist society, in which raising rural living standards to those of urban areas by the disappearance of towns and large cities. The triangles planned by M. Okhitovich were a good example of the idea of ‘Green City’ in 1920s as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 – Okhitivich’s concept of the disurbanist city

Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Barschdisurbanism.jpg

            On the contrary, French (1995) states that the Urbanist school believed town should exist and replacement of family unit by communal house. The concept of communal living had led to the concept of the ‘superblock’ and the ‘microregion’ later, which were communal housing blocks and neighbourhood units of communal housing blocks respectively. These communal living cells were a new way of living, which separated people from necessities. On the other hand, there was high surveillance of the workers within the living cells. Consequently, the idea of communal living was effective to deal with the concerns of workers’ living standards and productivity of the ‘Sotsgorod’ (Socialist Towns).

            The linear city planned by N. A. Milyutin was a good example to achieve both of the goals between Urbanist and Disurbanist as shown in Figure 3 (French, 1995). Regarding the importance of greenery, there was buffer zone of trees between houses and workplaces, which ensured the workers’ living conditions and quality of life. On the other hand, parallel strips of communal houses and industries shortened the travelling time between residence and work, which enhanced productivity of the Sotsgorod. Hence, it was a feasible plan to be adopted in the Soviet Union under communism.

Figure 3 – Milyutin’s plan of linear city

Source: http://www.oginoknauss.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Nikolai-Milyutins-plan-for-the-Linear-City1.jpeg

            Yet, many of the concepts and ideas of planning had not been adopted due to the rapid change of political and economic environment during the Stalin years (French, 1995). Even though some of the principles were well-planned, they were ignored in practice. Mercifully, there were quite a lot of the principles remained in the plans in the post-Stalin era and even spread to foreign countries. Hence, Cities around the world might have similar approaches as the planning principles originated from Russia in the early 20^th century.

            To conclude, the period from the Revolution to the First Five Year Plan was a crucial period of the urban development in the new USSR. Although lots of the planning principles appeared in the early 20^th century had not been practiced, we might find a lot of similarities between the old planning principles and the modern planning strategies. Therefore, those ignored principles were useful in guiding us the way towards the future urban planning.

References

French, R. A. (1995). ‘The City of Socialist Man’ in Plans, Pragmatism and People. The Legacy of Soviet Planning for Today’s Cities. London, UCL Press.

Topic 6B: A Metropolis for the 20th century (Canberra)

Yiyun (Evian) Xu

This week’s reading basically concentrates on the process of the capital city’s planning and designing in Canberra from a ‘pre-historical’ perspective. Besides the article offers planning theory and concepts applying in the city construction program as well.

How a practical twentieth century town has been planned from an unnamed region to the capital of Australia and Australian Capital Territory (ACT)? What sort of city is Canberra? These questions always haunt Canberra since the city started to be projected fantastically and then appeared in the public. Perhaps the background of the formation, location, construction and other aspects could describe and explain the modern urban planning in Canberra.   

The background of the formation

-Political factor

A hundred years ago, the Canberra region was consisted of farms and grazed land with a small community, which was composed of a school, a church and poor infrastructure (Aronson, 2014). Since the Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901, the seat of the government was a specific issue in the federation of the Australian colonies (Freestone, 1997).  Especially the debate and competition between the oldest city Sydney and the biggest city Melbourne, different camps were fighting for the seat of government (Nichols, 2015). However, Canberra was the biggest winner in this protracted battle and beneficial for itself development. It satisfies the physical qualities in terms of available land area, climate conditions and water supply.

Location

-Site selection

The question about settling the capital in a place had clarified that the location needed to be accessible, not far away from east coast, purposed built and not equally distance between Melbourne and Sydney (Nichols, 2015). Canberra’s occupied land matches all these conditions. In addition it is surrounded by bush demonstrating a special meaning for Australians that they believe they belong to the bush land as being close to the main land (Nichols, 2015).

Construction

-Social factor

The public and different experts from various domains gave high expectation on the establishment of a capital city. The typical features that a federal capital should possess had been defined and reported by politicians, government and professors based on the creation of the city contributing to planning and designing (Freestone, 1997). Thus, a range of planning concepts and theories enriched the city planning in Australia. Canberra can be a representative sample to reveal the idea of garden city.

-Inspiration

Since Walter Burley Griffin won the competition of the planning for Federal Capital, and in a proper understanding of garden city, he integrated the concept in the planning of the capital city (Nichols, 2015). Furthermore, the federal city can be a model city in Australia that it could be attractive and healthy including a good water supply, an efficient sewerage system, detached house, tree planted streets (Young, 1901 cited in Freestone, 1997). These elements can be the principles for comprehensive planning in Canberra.

Personal perspectives based on the lecture, reading and research

Topic: A pursuit of a durable development and prosperity for the metropolis in 21^st century

A successful city achieving sustainable development should make the city combine with the application of the nature, historical background and building concept. There is no doubt that Canberra almost perfectly embodies these characteristics. Through the Canberra, it is obviously to figure out the reasonable urban layout, coordination, convenience and comfort. It performs the uniform structure of city aesthetics and function. However, it is more significant for Canberra to present a cosmopolitan lifestyle as its national image based on the unique city vision.

First of all, Canberra compering to other cities does not posses culture depth. Referring back to the background of the formation of the city, Canberra benefitted from the competition between Sydney and Melbourne, and became the capital city of Australia unexpectedly. Thus, in each person’s mind, Canberra’s special identity is only the capital city of Australia and hard to be mentioned so often. The public believes that it does not look like what they think of as a city. If a person prefers to spend his time browsing in shops, or visiting museums and galleries in between cups of cappuccino at patio cafes, then Melbourne is better choice. If someone likes to relax by soaking up the sand, sun, and sea, then Sydney—with its famous beaches and fine weather— is the place for him. Nevertheless, although Canberra has been established for over a hundred year, people still barely to discover the specialty besides its reputation of garden city.

Secondly, Canberra was a completed planned city and it still insists the plan now. Although Griffin’s city planning had been acceptable and usable until now, the rapid growth can quickly exceed the bounds of any plan relating to the lost force of the original plan (Aitkin, 2012). In Canberra, slow development of the national capital in its first fifty years paradoxically canvasses the plan would not be rational and durable any more (Aitkin, 2012). Thus, the city planning for Canberra should be improved and specified on a timely basis.

Thirdly, the population density has become a main issue in Canberra. It is necessary to attract young people to stay or move to Canberra in order to solve the problem of the aging (Hamilton & Barbato, 2005). Besides, economy growth depends on population growth. Therefore, Canberra can be encouraged to being a competitive market contributing to more job opportunities can be offered to the young generation and stimulate economic growth.

In conclusion, a durable development and prosperity can be a new contemporary aim for Canberra to achieve. Government can shift the emphasis on city designing and planning to a cosmopolitan lifestyle development. It is important to make the public re-realize its unique, creativity and innovation. Hence, it can eventually achieve the continuation of the original ownership of the national capital.

Reference:

Aitkin, D. (2012). Don Aitkin 'The Problem of Planned Cities: Canberra in Context’. Retrieved from http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Senate/Research_and_Education/~/~/link.aspx?_id=0F842ACB67834F70B0C6B26E3F0A5362&_z=z

Aronson, J. (2014). Canberra, Australia. Salem Press Encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/eds/detail/detail?sid=80d7b1bd-384c-43ef-9ddf-7a41f6fbc65f%40sessionmgr4003&vid=2&hid=4111&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#db=ers&AN=94740312

Freeston, R. (1997). The Federal Capital of Australia: A Virtual Planning History. Urban research diagram, pp.2-30

Hamilton, C., & Barbato, C. (2005). How big should Canberra be? Retrieved from http://www.tai.org.au/documents/downloads/WP76.pdf

Nichols, D. (2015). Week 8 Lecture Urban History Canberra: a city for the 20^th century. ABPL20034_2015_SM1: Urban History

Topic 6A: Cities of Tomorrow – the origins of Urban Planning

Qihui (Peter) Wang

A Garden City ideal could never be built by throwing the existing upside element in cities, but by bottom up generation and mix use neighbourhoods. The garden is defied as a city that it once built, nobody would ever live in his or her original place anymore and come to it instead. The construction of garden city is built on the basic need of human being, from basic physical need to esteem needs.

Likewise, the design of Canberra ought to have elements representing Australia, including culture, politics, economics, etc. However, if we look back the current state of Canberra, which is the capital city of Australia, it’s not as famous as other cities in the Australia, like Melbourne Sydney and Brisbane. If we reflect on the design process, it selected important elements, which represents Australia in other cities and try to thrown them is a small town. The result is obvious, from the perspective of attracting people live their, it failed.

The question is why did it failed, the city had all the elements it needs to build a perfect that represents Australia. A very similar question could be asked, why did Garden city (a city with all the ideal elements of human being want) never could be constructed? Or in other words, why there are so many people (Thomas Horsfall, John Nettlefold,) try to build a city according to the Garden City Ideology but problems keep coming?

There are also cities was build according to the political and economical need of the country which regenerated nowadays, these cities are facing problems of lack of high quality space. (Vasiljeva,2013) in order to do so, cooperation with other discipline is require such as landscape architecture.  The case of exploring topics of human need in urban environment in Olaine, which aim to improve the quality of recreation areas, proves that systemic approach is more efficient in planning. This is not limited in landscape but architecture as well.  Bristol (2008) addressed the responsibilities that architects has to the basic human needs of society by providing shelter, healthy workplace and a liveable city by using development working examples of communities in China and Southeast Asia.

Planners’ epistemology play an important role in how they design cities, and it’s preconceived with marginal reductionism. According to Eagleton (1991), the key to claim something is ideological is to prove that it had been orientated with pre-occupied ideas.

Take a closer look at how Canberra was designed, the designer took out elements from different cities which represents Australia and thrown into it. The understanding is purely based on marginal reductionism, the approach to understand things is by breaking it to its smallest components. Marginal reductionism is the foundation of the modern science, which provides human being with the advantages of technical breakthrough.

However, planner ought to identify, understand and treat cities as problems of organized complexities instead of problems of simplicity (Jacobs, 1961). Cities are more than just a collection of two-variable questions. A systematic approach should be adopted in order to understand cities. Reynolds (1991) examines how transportation reshaping the cities to meet the needs of human being in a background of large scale urban sprawl in Australia. Approach public transportation systematically becomes the new focus of town planners.

de Haan, F et al (2013) address societal systems are systems which evolved to meet the societal needs by using established social psychological framework of societal needs is developed. The approach has a more comprehensive and systematic description of societal system and ‘intrinsic facility to address matters like sustainability and liveability’. The systematic approach allows planners think about cities as a whole and understand the community more comprehensively.

Additionally, instead of over-focusing on why current cities succussed, it’s more important to understand what the users, people living in the city, really needs and integrated into the plan. For that purpose, bottom-up planning approach would be more user-friendly and effective in promoting walkability and encouraging mix used of streets. On the other hand, a top-down approach is more suitable at large scale regeneration.  

For instance, temporary parking at Sunday streets meets the needs of  outdoor recreation of people living in high density urban areas. A wide range of survey was conducted in San Francisco which found a strong positive correlation between the concentration of residential parks and the probability of participation at Sunday Street. The same result also was found in the Spanish and Chinese community.

Bibliography:

de Haan, F. J., Ferguson, B. C., Adamowicz, R. C., Johnstone, P., Brown, R. R., & Wong, T. H. (2014). The needs of society: A new understanding of transitions, sustainability and liveability.Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 85121-132. doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2013.09.005

Human needs in urban public spaces : improving the quality of recrea on areas in Olaine, Latvia. (2013).

Architecture and shelter : the roles and responsibilities of architects in meeting basic needs. (2008).

Reynolds, M. (1991). Urban Sprawl--The Need for Reform. Social Alternatives, 10(2), 23-24.

Eagleton, T. (2014). Ideology. [electronic resource]. Hoboken : Taylor and Francis, 2014.

Jacobs, Jane. 1961. The death and life of great American cities. New York: Random House.

Topic 5A: Racial Segregation in 19th Century US Cities

Yik Loh

Racial segregation can be defined as the separation of people in everyday activities in to groups according to racial characteristics. Although evident in many countries even today, it is particularly prominent in America as most African Americans were brought over as or descended from slaves.

Even after being freed in the aftermath of the Civil war in-between 1861-65, African Americans continued to live segregated and with fewer rights until the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and 1968 when all forms of segregation were outlawed. Therefore before the Act, there would be signs indicating areas where African Americans could legally eat, drink, walk, talk or rest. De Facto Segregation (in practice but not by law) is still present in today’s society. For example, there is a pattern occurring wherein whites live in more affluent suburbs and minorities dominate the urban centres. Research also indicates that many whites are willing to pay a premium in order to live in a predominantly white neighbourhood.

This week’s reading by Baldwin focuses in particular on the ‘Black Metropolis’ in Chicago. African American settlement was concentrated in to small parts of the city, the largest being a five mile long narrow strip in the Near South Side called the ‘Black Belt’. Despite other neighbouring residential areas, African Americans were prevented from renting or buying houses in those areas with the rationale of protecting property values. This effectively kept those areas all white while African Americans who managed to move in to white areas as well as the agents who had sold to them suffered racial violence in the form of having their homes bombed. The fact that the African Americans were restricted to a small area even as their population sky-rocketed meant that it resulted in overcrowded housing even as there was an abundant surplus in other parts of the city.

Sourced from: http://www.americanhistoryusa.com/static/images/chicago-south-side-1919.jpg

At the time, Chicago’s business as well as social institution was rather indifferent to the African-American community. This meant that the ‘Black Belt’ grew to become a completely independent social, commercial and economic area. Thus it took on characteristics of a ‘city within a city’ leading to the term ‘Black Metropolis’.

The South Side community in Chicago grew rapidly with its population growing from 320 in 1850 to 30,000 in 1900. With the advent of the ‘Great Migration’ between 1910-20, where large numbers of African Americans left the rural south for opportunities in the North, the African American population of Chicago reached 110,000 by 1920. This increase in population led to access to financial resources and meant that the lack of support from the white financial community in supporting black enterprise became much less of an obstacle. The greater financial resources meant that the commercial and business interests within the ‘Black Metropolis’ was able to diversify in to a wide range of professional, commercial and manufacturing interests. Thus it was able to satisfy its own demand for goods and services while being cut off from the rest of the city.

The main business and commercial district was known as the ‘Stroll’. It illustrated the struggle between three basic images that came to represent the ‘Black Metropolis’. These images were black primitivism, racial respectability and leisure based labour. Together they show how the ‘Black Metropolis’ was not just a built environment but also an ideal that was fought over by different intellectual groups.

‘Black Primitivism’ was essentially a way in which African Americans and thus by extension the ‘Black Metropolis’ was viewed. Baldwin points out that at the time; ‘deviance’ was identified as a Negro trait in contrast to the traits of ‘enterprise and action’ that characterised white civilisation. This could be seen through the types of enterprise found in the ‘Stroll’ especially at night where it was the chief source of Vice and Amusement in Chicago. Businesses like brothels, theatres, clubs and illegal lottery operators were the most profitable institutions in the area. The difference between white and black civilization can be identified by how Baldwin describes, “White tourists could enter, partake of, and enjoy the ‘vitality’ and ‘spirit’ of the African safari in the city’. Although later studies would discredit African Americans having genetic traits like deviance, attributing the lack of black assimilation to slavery and racial discrimination, they still stressed the need for African Americans to assimilate in to white customs.

Many of the older African American residents in Chicago tried to gain respectability from the white people by running respectable businesses like banks and insurance. They blamed southern migrant behaviours and ways for the racial tension and violence at the time which would result in events like the race riots of 1919. However, it was undeniable that it was the leisure and entertainment world that provided ‘the socioeconomic and conceptual base for the black metropolis. This is perhaps best personified by the fact that black businesses like beauty salons or lunch counters often struggled and had to serve as legal fronts for gambling institutions. The fact that this was the case showed the power of black consumer culture which we still see today despite their lack of presence in the mainstream world at the time.

Employment for new migrant African Americans at the time was difficult especially due to the fact that trade unions excluded black working men who had acquired skills in southern states. They were mostly restricted to unskilled labour, service positions or dangerous work. For women, it was even worse with most restricted do domestic labour. This made work in the sex trade more tempting as they were able to sell their bodies for $25 a week in comparison to $6 working as a maid. Eventually new institutions were formed in response to post-migration realities and programs for education, sports and music were formed. The most successful of these was the Chicago Urban League which sought employment for both black working and professional classes.

We can see then the struggles that African Americans went through as a result of segregation and how they were forced to rely on entertainment and leisure as their main form of socioeconomic progress. Although this made earning respect from the white community more difficult, the lack of support from the rest of the city of Chicago meant that it was the only viable option. Despite the struggles within the Black Metropolis in establishing housing, employment and respect, the South Side managed to become self-sufficient as a city within a city largely thanks to a large population movement in to the city and gradual transformation in to a unique consumption lifestyle. The Black Metropolis thus grew in to an independent city where self-transformation and the formation of dreams could occur as well as a desire for a different city and world.

Topic 5B: Haussmann, Sitte and streetscapes

Jarvis Chen

Background information of Haussmann and Sitte:

·         Haussmann was chosen by Napoleon III to become the prefect of Seine Department in France after Haussmann`s predecessor was sanctioned by Napoleon III. The Emperor of the French the Second Empire assigned Haussmann to carry out the project to transform Paris.

·         Camillo Sitte is an Austrian architect and urban planning theoretician. His work “Der Städtebau nach seinen künstlerischen Grundsätzen” (“City Planning According to Artistic Principles”) is universally regarded as the founding literature for urban planning and Design.

Haussmannization and Transformation of Paris

Pre-Haussmannization period:

Before Haussmann`s transformation of Paris, Paris is a medieval city of irregular shape, unpleasant smell and diseases. Stepping into the Era of Industrial Revolution, the old form of Paris can no longer meet the needs of industrialized city as well as the aesthetic experience of a highly industrialized capital. In this sense, the transformation of Paris is imminent and inevitable.

Haussmannisation period:

Napoleon III handed plan of Paris with the network of new streets drawn in different colors indicating level of urgencies to Haussmann. Haussmann started this major transformation project and carried it out in three phases.

Figure 1. Plan of Paris. Source: Google Image.

The first phase of the transformation is to complete the grand croisee, which is the great cross in the center of Paris to enhance the movement from east to west and north to south along Strasbourg and Sebastopol.

The second phase of the transformation is building a grand network of new Boulevards that connect to the inner city of Paris with the ring of grand boulevards and the new railway stations.

Figure 2: The boulevard network of Paris. Source: Urban Planning Library Cornell.

The third phase of the transformation was planned to construct more boulevards to broaden the street and enhance the streetscape. However, the third phase was left unfinished accompanied with Haussmann`s sanction by the emperor due to the mounting criticism of the project and the incredible amount of expense on the project.

The destruction of old streets expedited the construction of new streets and Boulevards to replace the old ones. Compared to the former type of streets, new ones are much broader, which promoted the movement of fresh air and lights penetrating into unhealthy quarters. This concept of design in regards to the theory of infectious diseases is reducing the chance of spreading of disease by improving the air quality in unhealthy quarters.

The implementation of the idea of annexing suburban area of Paris in the process of transforming Paris successfully enlarge the area of urban Paris. The augmentation of urban area in Paris facilitated the population growth since more space is vacated, which can be developed and utilized to accommodate Parisians. The growth of population expedited the industrialization of Paris and the process towards capitalism as it not only fulfilled the need of labor forces for production to generate capital but also boosted the level of exchange of goods in Paris.

Legacies of Haussmann

·         Enlarged Urban Area of Paris/ Increase of population

The enlarged urban area of Paris boosted the population growth, which then consolidated Paris`s status as the prosperous center of trade and capital around the world.

·         Transportation

The new streets and boulevard not only enhances the aesthetic experience of the city but also improved the connection of Paris, which facilitated the movement between the outer suburbs and the center of the city.

·          Public health

-         Movement of Fresh Air

Haussmann`s design of broad new streets permits the airflow to move into the quarters more easily. Thanks to this design, it effectively minimized the risk of spread of disease in a large scale, which can be considered as the contribution to the improvement of city`s public health.

-        Water supply and Sewage

Before Haussmann, drinking water was insufficient to satisfy the need of water usage in Paris as a swift-growing city. To cater the needs of water usage, Haussmann appointed Eugene Belgrand to be in charge of gentrifying the status of water supply and sewage in Paris. The new system of the water supply and sewage managed to double the supply of water and increased the capacity of flushing the sewage away from the city. The enhanced performance of water supply system and sewage system maximized the level of hygiene in the city by providing enough water and minimized the possibility of the spreading of water borne disease and other infectious disease caused by the poor air quality from the sewage.

Haussmann`s influences on urban design and planning

Haussmann`s work of transforming Paris had significant impact on planning of cities. For example, L` Enfant`s plan for Washington shared Haussmann`s idea of all roads connect to the center. Coincidently, in the master plan of Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, people who designed Benjamin Franklin Parkway shared the same faith with Haussmann`s idea of all roads connect to the center.

Figure 3. L` Enfant Plan of Washington. Source: Google Image

Figure 4. Benjamin Franklin Parkway Master Plan. Source: Architectural Record.

Haussmann`s work in relation to social re-organization  

Haussmann`s contributions towards the great transformation of Paris is undeniable. However, while benefiting Parisians with new streets, districts, gentrified water supply and sewage system and enhanced air quality, Haussmann also separated people with different social classes. The old plan of Paris was illogical and unregulated as people live in the city are not separated by their social classes. Whereas in Haussmann`s work, people who live in new quarters were divided by their social and economic status.

Sitte

Reared in an atmosphere of craft, beauty and non-conforminst creativity, Sitte` thought was never constrained.  Sitte`s theory in urban design is more concerned with urban space rather than building, which is known as “contextualism”. In regards to cityscape, Sitte emphasize on irregular urban structure, spacious plazas, promoted by monuments and other aesthetic elements. Sitte`s idea with a special obsession of monuments about cityscapes, is regarded as his pro-Germanic bias. However, given the fact that Sitte`s cultural background is close to Germany and intensively influenced by Germanic ideas of thought, his pro-Germanic obsession is reasonable. As Sitte said in his letter to a friend, “the basic philosophy of his life`s work was that, especially in art, every serious subjective feeling, every higher spiritual aspiration must be and could only be national.” (Collins & Collins,1965).

Haussmann and Sitte`s works in relation to streetscapes

Haussman:

Haussmann`s work in regards to streetscapes is mainly focusing on broadening the streets, connecting all streets into the center, framing and linking imperial monuments of the nation and the aesthetic experience of walking on the Boulevards along with the view of Façade of street.

Sitte:

Sitte`s works in relation to aesthetic streetscapes are concentrating on irregular urban structure, spacious plazas and especially the monuments and other aesthetic elements that creates the picturesque streetscapes. In addition to this, Sitte`s theory of streetscapes emphasize on contexts that arouses subject feeling, higher spiritual aspiration generated from attachment to nation.

Bibliography:

Collins, G., & Collins, C. (1965). Camillo Sitte and the birth of modern city planning. New York: Random House.

Google. (2015). L` Enfant Plan of Washington. Retrieved from

https://www.google.com.au/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi&ei=uk8eVeurM8TTmgWh3IDYAQ&ved=0CAoQqi4oAQ

Google. (2015). Napoleon III Paris. Retrieved from

https://www.google.com.au/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi&ei=uk8eVeurM8TTmgWh3IDYAQ&ved=0CAoQqi4oAQ

John W. Reps .(2015). Sitte,Limitations of Modern City Planning. Retrieved from http://urbanplanning.library.cornell.edu/DOCS/sitte.htm

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc,. (2015). Benjamin Franklin Parkway Master Plan. Retrieved from http://archrecord.construction.com/features/Philadelphia-Remix/Barnes-Foundation-on-Benjamin-Franklin-Parkway-slideshow.asp?imt=drawing

Van Zanten, D. (1994). Building Paris. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press