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4 Architectural Design
Backlist Titles

Volume 76 No. 4 Volume 76 No. 5 Volume 76 No. 6

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at £22.99/US$45. To order and subscribe for 2008 see page 136.
4 Architectural Design
Forthcoming Titles 2008

March/April 2008, Profile No 192

Versatility and Vicissitude: Performance in Morpho-Ecological Design
Guest-edited by Michael Hensel and Achim Menges

This third AD by the guest-editors of the highly successful Emergence and Techniques and Technologies in
Morphogenetic Design titles shifts the morpho-ecological design project into the realm of performance.
Whereas the dictionary definition of performance – to ‘carry out an action’ or ‘to fulfil a task’ – invokes a
tired utilitarian debate, Hensel and Menges inject the meaning of the word ‘performance’ with an entire-
ly new life. In this context, form is redefined not as the shape of a material object alone, but as the mul-
titude of effects, a milieu of conditions, modulations and microclimates that emanate from an object’s
exchange with its specific environment; a dynamic relationship that is perceived and interacted with by
a subject. A synergetic employment of performance and morpho-ecological techniques combine to create
integral design solutions that will render an alternative model for sustainability. This issue presents his-
torical precursors and precedents for this approach, as well as the current state of the art of morpho-eco-
logical design. Key contributors include: Klaus Bollinger and Manfred Grohmann of Bollinger &
Grohmann, Aleksandra Jaeschke, OCEAN NORTH, Professor Remo Pedreschi, Defne Sunguroğlu, Peter
Trummer and Michael Weinstock.

May/June 2008, Profile No 193

Interior Atmospheres
Guest-edited by Julieanna Preston

What does one mean when describing a room as atmospheric? Does it allude to a space that has been
designed, stylised or even thematised? Is it a spatial quality conditioned by one’s perception? Does
atmosphere originate from material attributes inherent to interior finishes and décor? Is it simply the
dramatic effect resulting from skilful use of lighting and colour? Is atmosphere an immersive ambience?
How is atmosphere crafted? Does it have a critical edge, literally and theoretically?
Visually exciting and provocative, Interior Atmospheres combines contemporary projects and inter-
views alongside analytical essays. Authors such as Rachel Carley, Ted Krueger, Malte Wagenfeld and
Hélène Frichot explore the distinctions between visible and invisible realms within architectural design.
The technological interface between design and atmosphere is tested through digital and creative mate-
rial works by Petra Blaisse, Kevin Klinger, Gregory Luhan, Andrew Kudless, Walter Niedermayr, Kazuo
Sejima and Ryue Nizhisawa, LaMonte Young and Marian Zazeela, Joel Sanders and Karen Van Legnen,
Scott Gowans and Steve Wright and Lewis Tsurumaki Lewis Architects. Paul James, Mary Anne Beecher
and Lois Weinthal probe the physical limits of atmosphere in regard to site, 'the outside' and interiority.
Contributors and projects straddle the boundaries of design, art and architecture in order to gain a fuller
understanding of atmosphere’s elusive and pervasive presence.

July/August 2008, Profile No 194

Proto Architecture: Analogue and Digital Hybrids
Guest-edited by Bob Sheil

The illusive and uncertain world of translating ideas into matter is a negotiation between the ideal and
the real and a central preoccupation of architectural production. By invading the toolbox of digital fabri-
cation, design has transgressed into protocols of manufacturing previously the domain of other disci-
plines and skills sets. Craft, assembly and installation, once the realm of trades, are qualities that are
now dependent upon design information and its status as an instruction to make. The ensuing loop
between the physical and tactile, the imaginary and speculative, has defined a new expectation in mak-
ing architecture as a construct that is part real, part ideal.
With contributions from Lebbeus Woods, Evan Douglis, Theo Jansen, Shin Egashira and many more,
Proto-Architecture presents an explicitly diverse collection of works from leading and emerging practition-
ers, educators, researchers and visionaries from all corners of the innovative field.
Architectural Design
January/February 2008 Cities of Dispersal

4 Guest-edited by
Rafi Segal and Els Verbakel
ISBN-978 0470 06637 9
Profile No 191
Vol 78 No 1
C O N T E N T S

4
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Urban Voids: Grounds for Ville-Port, Saint-Nazaire Interior Eye
Change The Historic Periphery Reinvigorating Childhood
Reimagining Philadelphia’s Manuel de Solà-Morales Howard Watson
Vacant Lands
Deenah Loeb 94 114+
Nam Van Square, Macau Practice Profile
74 Manuel Vicente KieranTimberlake Associates
Urban [IM]plants Jayne Merkel
Tactics for Recombining 100
Landscape and Collective Space Mur Island, Graz, Austria 120+
in Bonheiden, Belgium Vito Acconci Userscape
Els Verbakel and Elie Derman Natural Methods of Interaction
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User-Focused Public Space Architecture and Dispersal Valentina Croci
(M)UTOPIA in Denmark Rafi Segal and Els Verbakel
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Royal Dutch Military Police Architecture
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Zvi Hecker’s Landscape
Urbanism 126+
Rafi Segal Unit Factor
Radical Interface
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Joel Newman, Theodore
Spyropoulos and Vasilis
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Yeang’s Eco-Files
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Ken Yeang

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McLean’s Nuggets
Will McLean
4
Editorial

When most people are asked where they would like to live, they will answer quite categorically the
town or the country. Yet fewer and fewer people worldwide actually inhabit city centres or truly rural
surroundings. Home for most of us is somewhere in between, whether it be outer- or inner-city
suburbia, urban sprawl or a makeshift shanty town. This is a trend that is set to intensify with the
growth of the world’s population from 5 billion in 1987 to 6.7 billion in 2007. According to the UN
Habitat 2006 Annual Report, for the first time in history half of the people worldwide are now living in
towns or cities; this shift towards urbanisation is only set to continue with 60 per cent of the world’s
population living in or around cities by 2030. Whereas growth and diffusion of urbanity has been
most famously associated with the ‘edge city’ of Los Angeles or the unharnessed development of
illegal housing in India and South America, it is a situation that affects us all. It is most apparent in
some of the small wealthiest nations of northwestern Europe, such as Belgium, the Netherlands and
the UK, where space is scarce and, despite falling birth rates, their buoyant economies continue to
attract migrant workers, boosting their ageing populations. This is epitomised by the Dutch
conurbation of the Randstad, made up of the four major cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and
The Hague, and their respective satellite towns, which form a continuous rim around a green
heartland. One also only has to drive along the M4 corridor to wonder where London begins or ends.
Rafi Segal and Els Verbakel’s title of AD represents an important shift in mindset and aspirations. It
squarely positions the dispersed city as a fertile territory for architectural intervention. Whereas outer
urban areas have conventionally been the stronghold of the house builder or commercial developer, it
places architects and urban designers’ sights on exurbia. Segal and Verbakel regard ‘dispersal as an
opportunity to reinvent urbanity’, and specifically to question the notion of public space, which was
traditionally positioned in the centre of cities. Featured projects range across the world from Macau
in southern China to Copenhagen and Mexico City. Sometimes the investigations are theoretical, but
always the focus is on application. Both guest-editors have undertaken projects in this field; Segal
here publishes his own project for Beer Sheva in the Negev Desert of Israel, and Verbakel her
scheme for the town of Bonheiden in Flemish Belgium. What all the contributors share is an
understanding of the possibilities of reinventing and re-editing the given built environment.
Abandoned is the notion of Modernist control; to have a place in this setting one has to be deft and
flexible, content to engage with the world as it is rather than to recast it as one would like it to be. 4
Helen Castle

Guy Saggee, Digital print, 2007

In a response to the theme of this issue and in collaboration with its guest-editors, graphic artist Guy Saggee
explored images of dispersed cities. Similar to the production of collective space in dispersed urban conditions, his
graphic technique of dithering produces a blurred image interspersed with emerging patterns.

Text © 2008 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Image © Guy Saggee

5
Introduction

Urbanism
Without
Density
The predominance of sprawling, low-density the American context),1 ‘wild living’ and the ‘diffused city’
urban environments throughout the world (‘citta diffusa’ – mostly referring to the European context).2
begs the question: What constitutes a city? Dispersal functions as an umbrella term for these
phenomena, by zooming out and describing them as part of a
Such environments also require us to rethink larger global tendency. In this context, Cities of Dispersal can
public space, traditionally at the core of city be recognised as emerging types of low-density environments:
centres. Rafi Segal and Els Verbakel outline decentralised, heterogeneous, and radically different from
the challenges and opportunities that cities traditional definitions of the city in their spatial organisation
of dispersal raise. and patterns of growth.3

Our built environment is in the process of reorganising itself, Between 1960 and 1990, the population in more than 200
redistributing densities of buildings, population and activities. American cities increased by 47%, while urbanised land
Cities are expanding, growing and sprawling, while at the increased by 107%, resulting in a density decrease of 28%.
same time their centres and downtowns are shrinking, Statistics from David Rusk, Cities Without Suburbs,
disappearing, voiding out. Woodrow Wilson Center Press (Washington), 1995

By mid-century, the populations of 39 countries are Throughout these physical transformations of the urban
projected to be smaller than they are today: for example, environment, the notion of public space has not remained
Japan and Germany 14% smaller, Italy and Hungary 25% unaltered. Public space has long been a decisive factor in our
smaller, and the Russian Federation, Georgia and Ukraine understanding of the city. Furthermore, we can say that the
between 28 and 40% smaller. notion of the public itself, even if by virtue of imagination,
Statistics from World Population Prospects: The 2000 has been essential for any act of urban design or planning.4 It
Revision, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, is therefore inevitable to ask: What is the place and role of
United Nations, 2000 public space in new dispersed urban environments? How have
dispersed urban conditions changed the notion of public? And
This process of growth and redistribution has been partially what are the current notions of the public that influence the
described by terms such as ‘sprawl’, ‘suburbs’ (with roots in way we conceive cities?

Veneto, Italy Philadelphia, US

6
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 50% of US housing is suburban, 20% of US housing is integration within urban systems, are generally not viewed as
non-metropolitan. urban or as cities. This is mainly due to their lack of density
From American Housing Survey for the United States: and centrality, the absence of a coherent urban fabric or
2001, US Census Bureau, 2002 distinguishable boundaries, and a ‘damaged’ relationship
between the pedestrian and urban space.6 More importantly,
The traditional distinction between the urban and the non- they are seen to lack the conventional forms and uses of
urban relied on a hierarchical organisation of density. Cities urban public spaces to which we have become accustomed.
at the centre were the densest, most concentrated, moving to Current attempts to qualify dispersal usually refer to the loss
less dense areas towards the suburbs, the countryside, and yet of these characteristics.7 Yet when we look at examples of
further to the wilderness. These different types of sprawling cities such as Los Angeles and Mexico City, or
environments not only presented different degrees of human larger, spread-out areas such as the Veneto region in Italy or
intervention and habitation, they also developed different the state of New Jersey, we find different urbanities that have
ways of living. The opposition between negative and positive emerged from such apparent losses. Dispersal has led many to
attributes of city and countryside has long been supported by paint a sombre picture of an irresponsible ‘non-urbanity’,
clear boundaries between one and the other, be it through from which the only escape is a move back into the city.
walls, ring roads, green belts and the like. Yet over the course However, if we are to accept Rem Koolhaas’ claim that the city
of the 20th century, whether due to economic, industrial, is dead, or Mark Wigley’s statement that the city has ceased to
military or technological developments, the distinctions be a useful idea in planning, we are left in confusion, with
between city, suburb, countryside and wilderness have losses on both sides.8
become blurred. This issue of AD treats dispersal as an opportunity to
In their currently advanced state of dispersal, cities have reinvent urbanity. It questions whether the urban should
lost their traditional boundaries.5 Due to a redistribution of remain reserved solely for the dense physical environment.
urban activities and intensities, we can no longer recognise a Can not the notion of the city be established through
clear pattern of high density in the centre and lower densities combined degrees of interaction, access and communication
at the periphery. In this process, programmes that were that do not necessarily require high densities? High degrees of
previously associated with the city centre, such as commerce, exchange, interconnectivity, the overlapping of networks,
office work, leisure and entertainment, have been transplanted juxtapositions and proximities of diverse programmes – all
to suburbia and have taken on a different shape. Suburbs, can create an intensity that generates an urban condition,
new towns and satellite cities, initially designated for housing, urban in its function, notions and experiences (chance,
have gradually become multifunctional environments, anonymity, conflict, and so on). Moreover, in the process of
independent of the city. The distinction between the city as a seeking new opportunities for alternative urbanities, the
centre and suburbia as its subordinate kin has become, in notion of public space itself needs to be questioned. Recent
many cases, neither accurate nor appropriate. Low-density studies of contemporary urbanities have suggested that
environments have ceased to be sub-urban, no longer relying traditional definitions of public space are no longer accurate
on the city as their centre, or raison d’ê tre. to describe chance encounters, temporary spaces of gathering,
Many of these low-density environments (also outside the partially accessible meeting places, commercialised and
European and American context), despite their increasing themed entertainment. Can we, then, replace the more

Macau, China Saint-Nazaire, France

7
Ørestad, Denmark Mexico City, Mexico

demanding term ‘public space’ with the somewhat more jurisprudence13 – preoccupied with locating the boundary
adaptable option of ‘collective space’? And how does this between public and private – can be seen as those
impact our understanding of the city? mechanisms that also propagated urban sprawl.
Within the field of urban design and planning, the Our changing notion of the public has thus allowed
shaping of public space has been considered the primary task certain forms of urbanity to evolve, but on the other hand
of the architect or urbanist.9 Its role and place in the city as a changes in the urban realm have contributed to creating new
space of gathering and exchange has been treated as a kind notions of public space. The problem lies in the fact that
of ‘glue’ that holds together the city and promises to there is not always a clear or direct correlation between
generate urban coherence and active use. Yet this notion has social, political and cultural notions – in this case the notion
undergone substantial changes. Rather than a singular, of the public – and their architectural or urban expression.
continuous sphere or space, the public today is better While the public is an abstract, highly dynamic, at times
understood as a fragmentary interplay of multiple publics vague and unpredictable notion, urban space by its nature
and multiple groups. The idea of a public sphere, as identified refers to concrete places that undergo slower processes of
by J Habermas as having emerged from 18th-century change in appropriating new conceptions and conditions.
bourgeois society,10 no longer functions for the reasons that This inertia of the urban environment is enhanced by the
brought it about – as the place where opinions and ideas general tendency (also of architects and urbanists) to preserve
about society and state were formed and discussed. With the old models and expressions even though they may no longer
rise of consumption culture, the public sphere has become an serve current necessities.14
‘arena for advertising’ channelled at pleasing various tastes Many previous approaches to public space in sprawled
and personal preferences. With this understanding, critical conditions have attempted to impose traditional urban
reason is seen to have shifted to other groups (lawyers, models rather than seek new types of spaces, forms and
doctors, academics, and so on) who engage in it un-publicly, programmes. They have seldom led to innovative work and
while mass consumers might have a public receptiveness but have often contradicted contemporary notions of scale,
remain non-critical.11 This shift of rationalism and criticism diversity and flexibility.
has left the public sphere prone to stronger forces such as The Congress for the New Urbanism, for example, proposes
marketisation and privatisation, processes that have been the reintegration of traditional forms of public space such as
considered by some a threat to democracy. Public space, urban plazas, commercial main streets and other components
according to this conception, is essential to the preservation of a townscape tradition within contemporary sprawled
of democracy since it provides the space for freedom of environments. Its approach operates within a new urban
speech and public assembly, enables the publicising of condition that assumes a notion of an old public – mimicking
dissent, maintains awareness of the needs of others, and traditional architecture (and a historic way of life), enforcing
allows the organisation of grassroots campaigns.12 pedestrian movement, limiting social diversity, and
Mechanisms that have contributed to the privatisation of discouraging long-distance commuting even when these are
public space (at least within the American context), such as alien to the way we live today.
the reorganisation of collective space towards consumption, Other approaches to urban dispersal understand and thus
the extension of undemocratic governance systems such as address contemporary notions of the public and public space
home-owners associations and development districts, and but without projecting new urban configurations, and

8
Schiphol, The Netherlands Veneto, Italy

without considering the need for a new urban/architectural Alex Wall outlines the emerging typology of lifestyle
expression. Reinterpreting Foucault, Grahame Shane and centres, large-scale commercial complexes situated in low-
many others explain how the concept of heterotopia provides density urban areas, as a possible prototype for a new kind
opportunities for hosting contemporary spaces of gathering or of public space. The dominance of bigness within urban
collectivity within the city.15 Yet a primary trait of heterotopia sprawl is also examined by Kjersti Monson in a critical
is its ‘mirror-function’. It mirrors an existing reality, meaning investigation of the Chinese superblock, one of the most
it does not carry a form or shape of itself. It is not particular rapid modes of urban expansion worldwide.
to any specific physical-spatial setting, but rather capable of These critical observations are further explored by a series
taking on several forms/shapes/arrangements present in the of much more speculative projects. Martha Rosler’s ‘utopian
existing environment. Identifying heterotopia as a type of community’ challenges existing structures of interaction and
public space does not therefore require a new urban- advances the potential of the art project as space for social
architectural setting.16 change. The notion of utopia also characterises the Beer Sheva
While these approaches have contributed considerably to (Israel) proposal by Rafi Segal, which imagines the desert
the discourse on dispersal and the role of architects/urbanists landscape as a site of shared, temporal programmes that
within this type of environment, the relationship between function as urban voids, separating different community-
new publics and new urban spaces has yet to be explored, based neighbourhood islands.
potentially leading to more innovative models and approaches The use of landscape, agriculture, ecological tourism
of design and intervention. and other forms of programmed open spaces become
Cities of Dispersal is an attempt in this direction. It calls alternatives to redensifying former city centres such as
for an investigation of the public and/or collective the urban voids of Philadelphia (the ‘Grounds for Change’
dimensions of dispersed urban conditions, presenting both competition proposals) featured in Deenah Loeb’s article.
research essays and design examples from different scales, In other projects such as Jose Castillo’s El Caracol in
cultures and geographies. Mexico City, landscape becomes a strategy for urban
Two framing essays open the issue, offering new ways of peripheries. Both cases present the transformation of a
looking at the relationship between collective spaces and ‘negative’ useless space to a positive attractor, while
urban dispersal. Bruce Robbins, in ‘The Public and the V2’, establishing a new balance of built and open space for
describes how certain literary ideas of public space can ecological and infrastructural functions, and the
possibly inform urban thinking. In parallel, Albert Pope betterment of urban living,
examines the morphological and structural processes that The last section of the issue pulls together a series of built
characterise the development of low-density urbanisms. The work, or projects under construction, some of which
essays, research and design projects that follow present an emphasise a method for urban growth and renewal rather
interpretation, understanding and/or critique of how new than offer one solution. Els Verbakel and Elie Derman present
forms of collective space can be imagined. a ‘toolbox of interventions’ – a method for combining green
The research presented in this issue includes parts of the and collective spaces – for the suburban town of Bonheiden in
extensive studies and mappings of European urban Belgium. Danish group MUTOPIA propose an interactive
dispersal by Bruno De Meulder (on Flanders) and Paola approach that utilises user-based computer software to aid in
Viganó (on the Veneto region). appropriating collective spaces.

9
Shanghai, China Bonheiden, Belgium

From a more direct architectural point of view, the meeting of super-size islands, piecemeal implants or ad hoc and user-
of dispersal and the notion of collective space produces based events, they are spatialised not by streets and piazzas
intriguing projects such as Zvi Hecker’s KMar campus in but by infrastructure and landscape.
Amsterdam or Manuel de Solà-Morales’ mixed-use project in In addition to the potential of the void, the question also
Saint-Nazaire, France, where the conventional distinction arises whether the notion of public space may be replaced by
between city, building and landscape is questioned. These spaces of collectivity, less dependent on designations of
projects manage to overcome a restricted and problematic democracy and freedom. Here there is room for broader
site, reproducing their own context and creating a sequence discussions concerning the place of collective spaces in
of inner voids/open spaces that are integral to the sociopolitical processes, and the role of the architect/urbanist
architecture. in these processes through the shaping and programming of
The potential of public space as an island can be seen in space – whether by offering new imaginations of collective
the Nam Van Square project in Macau (Manuel CM Vicente, life, or by repeating conventional forms associated with past
Carlotta Bruni and Rui Leão) and in Vito Acconci’s Mur Island, notions of the city. The selected essays, projects and buildings
a temporary floating bridge/gathering space. Both of these that appear in this issue of AD aspire to address the former
suggest, on different scales, that infrastructure can generate rather than the latter, thereby unfolding a spectrum of critical
multi-use spaces, rather than monofunctional structures and self-conscious approaches that contribute to a new field of
intended only for movement from one place to the other. research and design yet to be further defined and explored. 4
This collection of research essays, projects and built work
raises questions on how to approach the ‘emptiness’ of the Notes
dispersed city, how to use, appropriate and inhabit the space 1. In the American context, and consequently other regions in the world,
sprawl has largely been initiated by the post-Second World War housing
in between spread-out buildings, and how to redefine this
crisis, the democratisation of ‘the good life’, and the encouragement of
space as part of the public realm. 17 consumption: a growing demand and supply of choice, privacy and mobility.
These questions provide a major challenge for architects Also in Europe, suburban communities gained importance after the Second
and urbanists, who have tended to ‘look down’ on dispersal, World War with massive reconstruction efforts and the creation of new towns
as satellite settlements around existing cities.
conveniently avoiding it, claiming no responsibility for its 2. ‘Diffused city’, a term invented during the 1990s to describe the spread-out
outcome. urban fabric of Italy’s northern Veneto region, has been adopted to identify
The projects and explorations presented here point out the multiple regions in Europe such as the Dutch Randstad, the Flemish
opportunities of what are commonly seen as negative Diamond, the German Ruhr area and others. These areas have grown from a
network of medium- to small-size cities interspersed with former agricultural
characteristics of sprawl, low density, suburbs and the territories and rural villages, transformed into a mixture of industrial parks,
diffused city. Fragments become islands, voids become commercial complexes and suburban housing. Similarly, the term ‘wild living’
landscapes, lack of context becomes an opportunity to create refers to the massive inhabitation of the dispersed European territory.
Originally introduced in reaction to Dutch government-controlled standardised
an artificial context, large distances and building plots
housing, it came to describe the process of modernising the rural landscape
provoke super-size design approaches, and the non 24/7 as a means to prevent city growth.
lifespan of programmes opens up a redefinition of accidental 3. Even though much attention has recently been drawn to cities being built
places of gathering. The unbearable fluidity of dispersal has from scratch, whether in China or the Middle East, the phenomenon of urban
dispersal – the spreading out of existing metropolitan areas – is much greater
the potential to be transformed into a more grounded
in scope.
condition whereby new collective spaces take a prominent 4. ‘If we did not have a practical sense of what publics are, if we could not
role: whether ecological, utopian, social. Whether in the form unself-consciously take them for granted as really existing and addressable

10
Beer Sheva, Israel Venice, Italy

social entities, we could not produce most of the books or films or 11. From Craig Calhoun, op cit, p 26.
broadcasts or journals that make up so much of our culture; we could not 12. The main argument presented by Margaret Kohn in Brave New
conduct elections or indeed imagine ourselves as members of nations or Neighborhoods: The Privatization of Public Space, Routledge (New York and
movements. Yet publics exist only by virtue of their imagining.’ Michael Warner, London), 2004.
Publics and Counterpublics, Zone Books (New York), 2005, p 8. 13. From Margaret Kohn, op cit.
5. One of the forefathers of urban design (town planning), Patrick Geddes 14.The layout of the parliament house, for example, as it emerged during the
pointed out a hundred years ago that the antagonism between city and Enlightenment (discussed by Bruno Latour in Making Things Public),
country, wilderness or suburbia is no longer sustainable. Even contemporary established an architectural expression to that period’s conception of political
urban historians and theorists such as Marcel Smets and Manfred Kühn still assembly. The parliament’s architecture, space and setting, made manifest a
raise the need to overcome this dichotomy. certain public-political activity. This same setting is still used today to
6. In current urban design practices, what most people (including architects represent the public (as a political body), even though the structure, function
and urban planners) would consider ‘good urban form’ is largely a convention and spaces of political activity/debate have changed drastically. Latour’s
based on the spatial and architectural qualities of historical models such as examination of past notions of the public as a political body suggests that in
medieval town squares, Renaissance piazzas, 19th-century city boulevards our world, beyond the political, there are many other kinds of assemblies that
and others. A common belief is that we have not created any good cities gather a public around things: church, supermarket, disputes involving natural
since the 19th century. The fact is that new forms of settlements have been resources, and so on. Bruno Latour, ‘From Realpolitik to Dingpolitick or How
created, or re-created, since, from the garden cities to new towns, suburbs, to make things Public’, in Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel (eds), Making Things
edge cities, sprawled cities, diffused cities and so on. These forms of Public: Atmospheres of Democracy, ZKM (Center for Art and Media),
dispersed settlements have now begun to be transformed into a new type of Karlsruhe, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA, and London), 2005, pp 14–44.
urbanism. 15. Graham Shane, Recombinant Urbanism: Conceptual Modeling in
7. Many theorists and practitioners have studied the losses that have occurred Architecture, Urban Design and City Theory, Wiley-Academy (Chichester),
during processes of dispersal, thereby offering new descriptive models that 2005. In Chapter 4, Shane extensively discusses definitions of heterotopias
stress the lack of coherence, definition, limits. See, for example, Richard and their potential use in city modelling and urban design.
Ingersoll’s Sprawltown: Looking for the City on its Edges, Princeton 16. Supported by recent discussions held during the conference ‘Visionary
Architectural Press (New York), 2006, and the ‘Shrinking Cities’ project – an Power: Producing the Contemporary City’ at the 3rd International Rotterdam
ongoing exhibition and publications (2002–05) of the Federal Cultural Biennale. The concept of heterotopia, as understood by Lieven De Cauter and
Foundation, under the direction of Philipp Oswalt (Berlin) in cooperation with Michiel Dehaene, leads to a reading of the environment as made up of binary
the Leipzig Gallery of Contemporary Art, the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation and poles, centre and periphery, leaving no middle ground. From this point of view,
the magazine archplus. existing spaces are reinterpreted as ‘heterotopian’, either belonging to
8. Mark Wigley, ‘Resisting the city’, in Joke Brouwer, Arjen Mulder and Laura conditions of ‘hyperarchitecture’ (of the sanctuary) or in opposition ‘infra-
Martz, TransUrbanism, NAI Publishers (Rotterdam), 2002, p 103. architecture’ (of slums, camps, etc).
9. ‘Shaping public space is considered the first order of urbanism by the 17. What is called empty should be understood in relative terms, specifying
architect/urbanist. Thus the primary role of urban design is to develop that of which it is vacant: vacant of buildings, vacant of activities, vacant of
methods of doing so.’ Alex Krieger, ‘Territories of urban design’, in Malcolm human presence. It is a search for the materialisation of this emptiness, or
Moor and Jon Rowland (eds), Urban Design Futures, Routledge (London and what Willem-Jan Neutelings calls the ‘density of the void’. Willem-Jan
New York), 2006, p 22. Neutelings, De Ringcultuur, Vlees en Beton Publishers (Ghent), 1988.
10. See Craig Calhoun (ed), Habermas and the Public Sphere, MIT Press
(Cambridge, MA, and London), 1992, pp 1–48. See also Catherine Zuromskis,
‘Introduction’ in Invisible Culture: An Electronic Journal for Visual Culture, Text © 2008 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Images: p 6(l) © Paolo Viganò; p 6(r) ©
Issue 6, ‘Visual Publics, Visible Publics’, 2003 Van Alen Institute, photo Jonathan Cohen Litant; p 7(l) © Macau Information
(www.rochester.edu/in_visible_culture/Issue_6/issue6title.html): ‘Our Bureau; p 7(r) © Dominique Macel, Service du Communication de Saint
theoretical understanding of the public has changed since Jürgen Habermas Nazaire; p 8(l) © MUTOPIA ApS; p 8(r) © Jose Castillo Ólea, arquitectura
introduced the high bourgeois public sphere (1962), the more recent work of 911sc; p 9(l) © Zvi Hecker; p 9(r) © Claudia Faraone and Andrea Sarti; p 10(l)
Bruce Robbins, Nancy Fraser, Rosalyn Deutsche and Michael Warner present a © Kjersti Monson; p 10(r) © Els Verbakel, Elie Derman of Derman Verbakel
less definable singular public sphere but rather a fragmentary interplay of Architecture and Ward Verbakel Architect; p 11(l) © Rafi Segal; p 11(r) ©
multiple publics and counter publics.’ Martha Rosler

11
The Public and the V2
The London Blitz has come to epitomise the golden age of urban togetherness and
bonhomie when the public was bound by a common enemy threat. Through his reading of
Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow, literary critic Bruce Robbins questions the archetypal
view of the Second World War as a watershed after which the ideal intact city and its
community were ultimately destroyed.

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