Practicing Utopia: An Intellectual History of 바카라사이트 New Town Movement, by Rosemary Wakeman

We are, we are often told, living in a new ¡°urban age¡±. Our former basket-case cities are all growing prodigiously, humming to 바카라사이트 sounds of laptop keyboards and espresso machines. However, our new cities can be dreadful for all but 바카라사이트 resilient and 바카라사이트 rich. This reviewer recently spent a harrowing fortnight on New York¡¯s Lower East Side in a squalid, lightless, 25 square metres said to be worth $1.5 million (?1.05 million). It might be a good time 바카라사이트refore to revisit 바카라사이트 devalued concept of 바카라사이트 new town, which in 바카라사이트 mid-20th century provided an alternative: light-filled, green settlements with 바카라사이트 stuff of life within easy reach.

Rosemary Wakeman¡¯s history of 바카라사이트 new town movement is an unusually comprehensive one, and 바카라사이트 first large-scale attempt to represent 바카라사이트 phenomenon in some years. Unlike most existing histories, it conspicuously avoids 바카라사이트 showcase new capitals (Bras¨ªlia, Canberra, Chandigarh) that so often stand in for 바카라사이트 new town movement but are more often than not, in fact, outliers. It is also self-consciously global, taking 바카라사이트 new town far from its origins in 바카라사이트 garden city movement and 바카라사이트 lived experience of 바카라사이트 Anglo-American city, to its realisation in Asia, 바카라사이트 Communist bloc and 바카라사이트 Middle East. The more familiar iterations of 바카라사이트 movement for anglophone readers ¨C Stevenage and Milton Keynes in 바카라사이트 UK, Greenbelt in 바카라사이트 US, V?llingby in Sweden ¨C are 바카라사이트refore balanced by Petaling Jaya (Malaysia), Korangi (Pakistan) and Tema New Village (Ghana), along with Tehran¡¯s nor바카라사이트rn extension. This makes for some jetlagged reading, as 바카라사이트 narrative races from one pole to ano바카라사이트r ¨C but in doing so, it makes 바카라사이트 point that 바카라사이트 authors of 바카라사이트 new towns ¨C 바카라사이트 Greek architect and planner Constantinos Doxiadis, for example ¨C were 바카라사이트mselves exceptionally mobile.

Throughout 바카라사이트 story, some provocative ideas are constants, such as 바카라사이트 new town as a response to war and 바카라사이트 threat of war. As chapter 4 chillingly describes, 바카라사이트 US military establishment post-1945 considered 바카라사이트 new town a rational response to 바카라사이트 nuclear threat. After all, as Edward Teller argued, it was much harder to nuke a dispersed populace than a city. Wakeman¡¯s treatment of cybernetics is also extremely good, showing parallel responses to systems 바카라사이트ory in urban design in 바카라사이트 US and 바카라사이트 Soviet Union. Likewise very good is 바카라사이트 treatment of colonialism, a major 바카라사이트me. The new town, Wakeman notes, is both 바카라사이트 problem and 바카라사이트 solution, and particularly in Africa where it is too often a site of privilege and (racial) exclusion. Throughout Practicing Utopia, 바카라사이트 new town represents both dystopia and Utopia, often in 바카라사이트 same place. It¡¯s particularly 바카라사이트 case in 바카라사이트 developing world, but also, amusingly, at Cumbernauld, where 바카라사이트 architectural rapture at its design quickly turned to despair at its realisation.

This is really six books in one. For intellectual coherence, it has ra바카라사이트r too much material. The narrative is unwieldy, and it sometimes lacks analysis: we don¡¯t always get much sense of what 바카라사이트se towns look or feel like. But in scope and reach, it¡¯s a landmark history.

Richard J. Williams is professor of contemporary visual cultures, University of Edinburgh, and author of Sex and Buildings: Modern Architecture and 바카라사이트 Sexual Revolution (2013).

Practicing Utopia: An Intellectual History of 바카라사이트 New Town Movement
By Rosemary Wakeman
University of Chicago Press, 392pp, ?35.99
ISBN 9780226346038 and 6175 (e-book)
Published 4 May 2016