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When Henri Lefebvre published The Urban Revolution in 1970, he sketched a research itinerary on the emerging tendency towards planetary urbanization. Today, when this tendency has become reality, Lefebvre’s ideas on everyday life, production of space, rhythmanalysis and the right to the city are indispensable for the understanding of urbanization processes at every scale of social practice. This volume is the first to develop Lefebvre’s concepts in social research and architecture by focusing on urban conjunctures in Barcelona, Belgrade, Berlin, Budapest, Copenhagen, Dhaka, Hong Kong, London, New Orleans, Nowa Huta, Paris, Toronto, São Paulo, Sarajevo, as well as in Mexico and Switzerland. With contributions by historians and theorists of architecture and urbanism, geographers, sociologists, political and cultural scientists, Urban Revolution Now reveals the multiplicity of processes of urbanization and the variety of their patterns and actors around the globe.
Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- Chapter 1 Introduction Worldmaking of Architecture -- Chapter 2 A Global Development Path Accra, 1957-66 -- Chapter 3 Worlding Eastern Europe Lagos, 1966-79 -- Chapter 4 The World Socialist System Baghdad, 1958-90 -- Chapter 5 Socialism within Globalization Abu Dhabi and Kuwait City, 1979-90 -- Epilogue and Outlook -- A Note on Sources -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- Image Credits.
Israel and Africa critically examines the ways in which Africa – as a geopolitical entity - is socially manufactured, collectively imagined but also culturally denied in Israeli politics. Its unique exploration of moral geography and its comprehensive, interdisciplinary research on the two countries offers new perspectives on Israeli history and society. Through a genealogical investigation of the relationships between Israel and Africa, this book sheds light on the processes of nationalism, development and modernization, exploring Africa’s role as an instrument in the constant re-shaping of Zionism. Through looking at "Israel in Africa" as well as "Africa in Israel", it provides insight...
Shows how Lefebvre's theory of space developed out of direct engagement with architecture, urbanism, and urban sociology.
Toward an Architecture of Enjoyment is the first publication in any language of the only book devoted to architecture by Henri Lefebvre. Written in 1973 but only recently discovered in a private archive, this work extends Lefebvre’s influential theory of urban space to the question of architecture. Taking the practices and perspective of habitation as his starting place, Lefebvre redefines architecture as a mode of imagination rather than a specialized process or a collection of monuments. He calls for an architecture of jouissance—of pleasure or enjoyment—centered on the body and its rhythms and based on the possibilities of the senses. Examining architectural examples from the Renais...
First systematic analysis of modern architecture in Kuwait based on several years of research.From the late 1940s at the inception of the oil exporting industry, via political independence in 1961, through to the late 1980s when Kuwait was invaded, the citystate experienced an extraordinary social and civic transformation, deeply inscribed in its built environment. The old coastal town was radically transformed through architecture and urban planning in the process of gaining wealth and autonomy. Important foreign and local architects found here the possibility to expand their professional horizons and the challenge to compose an entire city, creating important examples of Late Modern Archit...
From 1960–1980, both eastern and western Europe experienced a construction boom of new dimensions. Cybernetics, the science of planning, and sociology, as well as the new possibilities offered by technology and production, paved the way to large-scale processes and systems in architecture and urban design, which favored technocratic and utopian concepts. Increasingly, architects and planners saw themselves as designers of comprehensive infrastructure and mega-structures in a technology-focused world. The authors assesses these developments on the back of a knowledge transfer between East and West. It confirms a change in attitude that can still be felt today – recession, social changes, and environmental problems led to criticism of the then contemporary concepts of modernity.
Brussels, a complex city with a turbulent architectural and urban past, forms a compelling case for examining the tensions between urban politics, architectural imaginations, society’s needs and desires, and the city’s history and fabric. Inspired by pragmatist-relational philosophies, this book tests the potential of criticality through-practice. It studies a series of critical actions and tools, which occurred in Brussels’ architectural and urban culture after 1968. In addition, by showing how pragmatist-relational philosophies can be made relevant for architectural theory, the book opens hopeful potentials for how architectural theory can better contribute to the formulation of a critical agenda for architecture.
This book studies the unexplored history of China-aided architecture erected in the developing world since the 1950s. By 2019, over 1,000 buildings had been delivered to more than 160 countries, including parliament houses, convention centers, stadiums, gymnasiums, theaters, schools, hospitals, libraries, railways, and stations. These projects, which have played a significant role in promoting economic transformation, cultural engagement and social and environmental well-being, have largely been overlooked or misunderstood by the international community. Why did China donate so many foreign-aid buildings? How were these buildings built in the remote land of developing countries with intricat...
Why is it that modern architects and planners - these benevolent and socially visionary ‘experts’ - have created environments that can make one feel so uneasy? Using a philosophical and psycho-analytical approach, this book critically examines expert knowledge within architecture and urban planning. Its point of departure is ‘the gap’ between visions and realities, intentions and outcomes in planning, with particular focus on projects in Sweden that try to create an ‘urban atmosphere’. Finding insights from the work of Sigmund Freud and his followers, the book argues that urban planning during the 20th century is a neurotic activity prone to produce a type of alienation. Besides trying to understand the gap between intentions and outcomes in planning, the book also discusses how to define the concept of the urban, juxtaposing different knowledge traditions; contrasting the positivistic theory of space syntax with poetic-dialectical approaches, the planner’s view of the city with that of the flâneur, examining texts by Virginia Woolf and August Strindberg.