E-Book Overview
The Unknown City takes its place in the emerging architectural literature that looks beyond design process and buildings to discover new ways of looking at the urban experience. A multistranded contemplation of the notion of "knowing a place," it is about both the existence and the possibilities of architecture and the city.An important inspiration for the book is the work of Henri Lefebvre, in particular his ideas on space as a historical production. Many of the essays also draw on the social critique and tactics of the Situationist movement. The international gathering of contributors includes art, architectural, and urban historians and theorists; urban geographers; architects, artists, and filmmakers; and literary and cultural theorists. The essays range from abstract considerations of spatial production and representation to such concrete examples of urban domination as video surveillance and Regency London as the site of male pleasure.Although many of the essays are driven by social, cultural, and urban theory, they also tell real stories about real places. Each piece is in some way a critique of capitalism and a thought experiment about how designers and city dwellers working together can shape the cities of tomorrow.
E-Book Content
The Unknown City
The MIT Press | Cambridge, Massachusetts | London, England
The Unknown City Contesting Architecture and Social Space edited by
Iain Borden, Joe Kerr, Jane Rendell, with Alicia Pivaro a Strangely Familiar project
Disclaimer: Some images in the original version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook.
© 2000 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. This book was set in Garamond and Geometric by Graphic Composition, Inc. and was printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The unknown city : contesting architecture and social space : a Strangely Familiar project / edited by Iain Borden . . . [et al.]. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-262-02471-3 (hc. : alk. paper) 1. Architecture and society. 2. Architecture—Human factors. I. Borden, Iain. NA2543.S6 U55 2000 720´.1´03—dc21
00-020375
to London
Here, in the new town, boredom is pregnant with desires, frustrated frenzies, unrealized possibilities. A magnificent life is waiting just around the corner, and far, far away. Henri Lefebvre
Contents
Preface
x
Acknowledgments
xvi
Contributors
xx
1
Things, Flows, Filters, Tactics Iain Borden, Jane Rendell, Joe Kerr, and Alicia Pivaro
2
Part I Filters
28
2
Twice-Told Stories: The Double Erasure of Times Square M. Christine Boyer
30
3
That Place Where: Some Thoughts on Memory and the City Barry Curtis
54
4
The Uncompleted Monument: London, War, and the Architecture of Remembrance Joe Kerr
68
5
From Tribeca to Triburbia: A New Concept of the City William Menking
90
6
“Bazaar Beauties” or “Pleasure Is Our Pursuit”: A Spatial Story 104 of Exchange Jane Rendell
7
I Am a Videocam Philip Tabor
122
8
Stories of Plain Territory: The Maidan, Calcutta Helen Thomas
138
9
Colonialism, Power, and the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Shirley Wong
160
Part II Filtering Tactics 10
Another Pavement, Another Beach: Skateboarding and the Performative Critique of Architecture Iain Borden