Tracing the Influence of urban design and the CIAM architects
19. September 2009
An analysis of the development of urban design in Eric Mumford’s new book highlights our current failings.
by Thomas Wensing of Meld Architecture
My first encounter with the work of Eric Mumford was his book The CIAM Discourse
on Urbanism, 1928-1960, a historical account of the rise and fall of the CIAM
movement, challenging the stereotypical views surrounding this important avant-garde
association of architects. Defining Urban Design expands this historical reappraisal
to the American context and it shows in great detail how CIAM doctrine was received,
expanded and finally worked into the curriculum at Harvard University as “urban
design”.
Urban design was the creation of Josep Lluis Sert, CIAM president (1947-1956)
and dean of the Graduate School of Design (1953-1970). It was an attempt to unify
architecture, urban planning and landscape architecture, drawing from science
and the visual arts. The historiography of Mumford again succeeds in unnerving
some of the prevailing prejudices against modern city planning and reveals how
many of the token issues normally associated with post-modern urbanism, such as
the preservation of urban city centres, criticism of sub-urbanisation and sprawl,
and even a budding environmentalism, originated here.
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