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Postmodern Urbanism
Toronto as an Example
Outline
Clarification of Terms: Postmodernism, Postmodernity and Postmodern City
Structure of the Article Toronto: from Modernization to
Postmodernism Modernization and Anti-Modernism:
Regent Park as an example Postmodern Urbanism:
• Renovation of Historical Building and the Retro Chic
• Urban Social Movements • Social Geography of Toronto: the Issue of
Gentrification
Postmodernism, Postmodernity and Postmodern City
Postmodernism
(cultural dominant—resistant or complicit)
Postmodern City Texts
(representation/concept and lived experience)
Postmodernity Postmodern City
≠
Postmodernism, Postmodernity and Postmodern City
1. postmodernity (postmodern conditions 後現代性 : 後工業資本主義、跨國企業 ) - overall commofication + multinational capitalism + electronic/tele-communication ; reinforced or critiqued by postmodernism.
2. 後現代主義 (postmodernism) - Cultural Dominant in the Postmodern Age 文化表現( in music, architecture, pop culture, politics, critical theories, etc. )
特色:無深度 (depthless) 、互文、諷擬、拼貼(intertextuality, parody & pastiche 古都 ) 、後設(metafictional; e.g. Mermaid) 、模擬兩可(ambiguous) 、質疑大敘述/真理 (de-doxification) 、折衷 (eclecticism) 、跨界 (boundary-crossing) 、多元 (pluralistic), etc.
What is Postmodernism? (1)
Negative Positive
Flattening of subjectivity;
Pastiche
Ambiguity
Eclecticism
Pluralism
De-Centering & Boundary-crossing
Literature & Film:
Surfiction, metafiction pastiche
Parody
Ensemble film
Sci-fi . . .,etc
Historiographical metafiction & metafilm
Urban space
Society as spectacle;
Plural space;
Multiple historical signs
De-zoning or democratization of urban space;
re-creation of historical spaces
“Postmodern Urbanism and the Canadian Corporate City”: Structure
Postmodern Urbanism—(defined p. 100) Anti-Modernist –according to social/urban critics –
machine-modeled, not practical Modernism pro and con—rationalization and
enlightenment as passé or an unfinished project A New Paradigm—polyphony
Social Movements – Metropolitan restructuring (service-centred) : 1)
gentrification or deindustrialization, 2) harborfront development, 3) functional diversity of the suburbs 4) de-agriculturalization
Corporate City (four periods: 116-119); Canadian city vs. American city
Features of Postmodern urbanism in Toronto: ball park, Yonge Street, China town.
Main Issues … for us
Gentrification, de-gentrification = re-gentrification (116) In Taiwan? Gentrification: to change a place from being a
poor area to a richer one, by people of a higher social class moving to live there.- 東區 , areas which are nodes of the main transportation lines (e.g. the bullet train line).
Urban Social Movements, the correct targets? Local or structural (113), Reactive or radical changes?
Urban spatial re-structuring in Taipei: e.g. 內湖 (Miramax); 河濱公園 ; 巨蛋 and 小巨蛋 ; the impact of MRT mega city
Modernization and Anti-Modernism Modernization –
architecture: geometric design; universal structure committed to a ‘unified organization of life.” (Less is Beautiful; More is Bore.”)
Urban design – rationalized division of functions in life// zoning of a city or compartmentalization, dissociation of internal elements (ref. “A City is not a Tree” p. 130)
Utopian in spirit. E.g. Corbusier’s 馬賽公寓 (ref)
Anti-Modernism
e.g. Mumford, Jane Jacobs, Venturi (p. 102)
1. destroy the historic fabric and organic structure of traditional cities
2. De-humanizing; mechanical
3. Ignore the practical functions of life (e.g. pedestrian walkway “The City is not a Tree.)
4. An elitist architectural language that failed to speak to most city dwellers their hostility to the modern forms ( Regent Park)
Modernist Housing Project: An Example –Regent Park in Toronto Canada's oldest social housing project, having
been built in the late 1940s. Location: bounded by Gerrard Street to the north,
River Street to the east, Shuter Street to the south, and Parliament Street to the west.
A majority of families in Regent Park are classified as low-income, with 68% of the population living below the LICO (Canada's Low-Income Cut-Off Rate) in one of its census tracts and 76% in the other (compared to a Toronto-wide average of just over 20%).
Now being revitalized: Regent Park: A Place to Call Home (source )
Regent Park: Location
East
Regent Park: Location
Regent Park: Image
Postmodern Urban Design A mixture of styles ‘consistent with nearby
traditional forms.’ (p. 101; 105 ) 1. a difference practice of Modernism’s
egalitarian objectives; 2. Dialogic (or polyphonic), rather than
monologic (107)3. Turns the utopian vision into something
communicative—created by the people, but not the designers alone.
Examples: Yonge Street BCE Place; some malls in the suburban areas
Renovation and Preservation of Historical Preservation
Yonge Street, north from Adelaide, Toronto, Ontario, c. 1885.
Renovation and Preservation of Historical Preservation
Yonge Street, present
Historical Preservation: Retro Chic Canada Trust
BCE Place: several buildings connected by a shopping mall. Forming T’s skyline are the Canada Trust Tower and its sibling the Bay Wellington tower.
Historical Preservation: Retro Chic
Façade of an old building
Mall – Disney Like
Erin Mills Town CentreMississauga, ON
Woodbine CentreEtobicoke, ONMore . . .
Woodbine Centre: Fantasy Land
Déju vu? 101?
Urban Social Movements
Local Social Movements—not necessarily organized by class.
Three different views: (Harvey) Community-building: In resistance to the
global flows and flexible accumulation, urban social movements cannot avoid sliding into ‘parochialism( 地域觀念 ), myopia and self-referentiality.’
(Castells) directed at specific circumstances, but not the general, more strategic objectives. failure to attack the real targets.
Struggles of specificity movements of a broader scale.
e.g. Middle-class resettlement in Toronto (p. 109-110); 七號公園 vs. 保護寶藏巖運動 . 樂生。
Social Geography of Toronto: General Characteristics 1. Gentrification;
2. Waterfront development;
3. Increasing demographic and functional diversity of suburbs. – GTA: polynucleated urban region.
4. Deindustrialization of inner city; deagriculturalization of some rural villages.
Social Geography of Toronto: General Characteristics (2) 1. Development
Mercantile ( 重商 ) Commercial Industrial Corporate (service and entertainment)
11 Differences from the American cities: no utter abandonment of inner residential districts; similarities ‘Anglophone suburb’
11 How about Taipei?
References
Virtual Tours: Toronto http://www.toronto.com/feature/244/index.html
Greater Toronto Area: Places & Streets http://www.dplib.com/epc_tor.htm
Examples: Regent Park http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Regent%20Park
從寶藏巖出發,然後我們回到城鄉所 http://www.ncu.edu.tw/~eng/csa/journal/journal_park135.ht
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