Reading Questions
If you choose to write on one of these questions, the rough draft is due on Friday, April 17th. Please email a copy to me, as well as a copy to three of your classmates. It would be easiest if you emailed it to three members of your group.
1) Camillo Sitte argued for a more aesthetic, rather than scientific approach to planning and designing cities. This call was largely ignored, but the argument has had renewed force over the last few decades. Discuss what you think the role of art should be in city design. You can take this in many possible directions, but as one suggestion, you might consider in what way the city is not like art, for example, art may be commissioned, it does not have to by, whereas urban design is nearly always commissioned; or that public participation in art is voluntary, but public participation in the city is not voluntary.
2) Audirac and Harvey both comment on the role of “sense of community” in Traditional Neighborhood Development and New Urbanism (you might also recall the reading from SuburbanNation earlier this term). Discuss what you think the role of community ought to be in American cities or suburbs. Be sure to define community, and to consider the geographic and social scale of “community.” (For example, the geographic scale of community is very different in New Urbanist design than it is in Jacob’s writings).
3) Sternberg argues that urban experiences are uncommodifiable, and thus urban design are needed in order to unify these experiences. An alternative reading of the role of urban design is that that urban experience, and particularly commercial (shopping) experiences have been commodified; we have Pearl Street, 16th Street, Flatirons Mall, etc. all of which have created (or duplicated) commercial experiences that are saleable, and perhaps even experiences that are standardized. One might see New Urbanism as creating standards for design that also standardize the residential experience. Discuss the role of commodification in urban design. Is commodification possible? Is it desirable? Are urban experiences being standardized for the purpose of commodification? Does urban design contribute to this or does it help?
