Book review post modern urbanism nan ellin

History and Theory of Urban Design Arunima Sen | PA100815

Book Review

NAN ELLIN. Postmodern Urbanism, United States, Princeton Architectural Press, 1999, 401p.

History is always significant because it lets us know our past, our basis of being, and our foundation to the present. We live in a world today that has been largely shaped by every bit of our past – the socio – economic aspects, the anthropological aspects. In order to understand the present, it becomes relevant to know the past better; the roots of the present societal setup thus need to understood.

The post industrial landscape was welcoming ideas that ultimately lead to desolation. The dilution of the sense of community reached to and end of public realm. There was a sudden globalizing phenomenon, accentuated further by the Television. Integrating music like the Jazz was popular. But the growth in sceptical attitude in people resulted in the need of community spaces, places where people would care about each other, almost a desire to return to the “Old American Dream” 1.

Postmodernism, by virtue of its name succeeded the modern movement. It was a term given to everything that did not comply by the modernist principles. There was a tendency to defy the ideas of the modernist ideal unity, the puritan aspect, the need for originality, a prescribed formal consistency manifest as strict order. It gave rise to several metaphors – the collage, the book, the border.

Decentralization of economic centres with equity, led to a new form of capitalism. While modernism failed to create a humane backdrop for lives of people, in the form of cities, Postmodernism tried to use the local and the historical contexts. It went back to what was, as people felt nostalgic, anonymous within the massiveness of the city. However, there has been substantial amount of debate regarding the success of Post modernism. Much has been written, critiquing both Modernism and its successor. The present book has been written at a time when postmodern era has seen quite some years and there can be a stance made. It tries to assess postmodernism against the various social aspirations of urbanity that modernity has failed to keep.

The author, Nan Ellin is an academician based in the United States where she holds the Chair for Department of City and Metropolitan Planning, College of Architecture and Planning, University of Utah. Her background in Anthropology and Urban studies has enabled her to write heavily on Urbanism and it various aspects. In this book – Postmodern Urbanism, she has put together an exhaustive compilation of all that Postmodernism manifested in cities. The author is clear about providing an assessment of what postmodernism stood for, the enduring values and the flaws.

The book – Postmodern Urbanism begins with a short reminder of what Modernism did to the cities – the placelessness 2 that grew into people, the loss of community. It briefly mentions some of the social 1 2

Nan Ellin, Postmodern Urbanism, 1999, Pg. 135 Nan Ellin, Postmodern Urbanism, 1999, Pg. 13

implications of the world war that lead to Modernism, how modernism in turn, proved futile in unifying people. The answer to these came as Postmodernism – which wanted to romanticize.

“Romanticism has been described as “the revulsion against uniformity, generality, calculated simplicity, and the reduction of living phenomena to common denominators; the aesthetic antipathy to standardization; the abhorrence of platitudinous mediocrity.” 3 The 20th century had the truth being questioned, cumulatively leading to a cynical attitude spread over.

A much needed relief was Postmodernism with its allowance to be perceived subjectively. Pluralism enabled multiplicity, leading to cultural relativism 4.

There is an elaborate discussion on the various forms that postmodernism took, in the European and the American subcontinents. While the American approach was much focussed on the suburbs and individual buildings, the European agenda was about referring back to the past, in order to set up a new vision of the city.

In Europe much of the reaction was an outcome of the functionalism, which was advertised much by Le Corbusier. In the Athens charter, the Functional City 5 has been conceived, which became the base for many a developments around the world, including Brasilia. As a reaction to this loss of cultural autonomy 6, there was an attempt to go back to history, to study the type of various elements.

Meanwhile the American subcontinent had more than one theme prevalent – relationship between the landscape and the man, the public space and the ecological aspect of the city came to forefront. The idea of women being a crucial part of the societal setup was never acknowledged in terms of design as yet. There is Eclecticism, Gentrification and Critical Regionalism, which further aggravate the plurality and existence of several realities.

Then we find the author finally positing her critique of the Postmodern Urbanism. The author has divided her opinion into four sub-headings. This makes it further clearer as to where does Postmodernism stands. Georg Simmel is quoted to establish that “More is more” 7 is no longer true, people thus have become indifferent. The first critique that has been put is the ignorance of already existing modernist remains in the city. One of the greatest remnants of the modernist society was the car. Automobile would still be an undeniable part of the everyday life. The “context” created by the functionalist society was completely overruled. Robert Venturi’s interpretation of mannerism has also been said to be personal and isolationist. 8 Even if the context was considered, there would be an underlying modern skeleton to all the new development. Hybridization 9, that was one of the principle features in postmodernism, on the world scale, would ultimately be found universally. Thus the intended plurality was much diluted. The postmodern society had also given rise to private space coming from the population boom, which lead to demarcation of spaces. A number of urban design strategies that tried to diminish these spaces did not really work, keeping the ghettoization intact.

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Nan Ellin, Postmodern Urbanism, 1999, Pg. 18

Nan Ellin, Postmodern Urbanism, 1999, Pg. 19 Charter of Athens, 1933 6 Leon Krier, The Reconstruction of the European City 7 Robert Stern, New Directions in Modern Contemporary Architecture, 1977 8 Lesnikowsky, Nan Ellin, Postmodern Urbanism, 1999, Pg. 160 9 Nan Ellin, Postmodern Urbanism, 1999, Pg. 175 5

The author emphasizes that in spite of trying to establish a societal setup to which people could more easily relate to, postmodernism falls into similar pits, as did modernism.

“Ultimately, despite its efforts to counter the negative aspects of modern urbanism, postmodern urbanism falls into many of the same traps.” 10 Also the bases, to focus more on the image, makes postmodern ignore the humane component. This was what modernism did too.

However, the author acknowledges what postmodernism did at the same time - to establish new meanings of the industrial landscape. Because there was a detachment from the industrial elements, there could be a different use to them – putting them in museums to commemorate them. The hyper real environments 11 that blurred the idea of realities were actually liked by the people. Postmodernism provided the freedom to shop, which was already so popularized by the modernist agenda.

The attempt to discuss every possible manifest of Postmodernism onto cities is commendable. The author shows no bias, and discusses the Postmodernism in Europe and America, thus showing how relevance of the various metaphors. She realizes the need to have a proper judgement of the post functional era. However the author becomes very clear about how Postmodernism failed in its attempt to provide a legible lifestyle, which it promised. The tendency of postmodernism to cling to image has been criticized heavily. “... the tendency to let image determine form rather than vice – versa.” 12 However, Postmodernism recognised that the society needed a meaning, which can never be a holistic one. Meaning is always subjective, and that leads to the establishment of identity. Postmodernism allowed multiple realities to exist, truths to be perceived differently by different people.

Postmodernism respected the emotional angle that has to attached to a place and let people develop their interpretations.

“Postmodernism accepts diversity; it prefers hybrids to pure forms; it encourages multiple and simultaneous readings in its efforts to heighten expressive content.” 13 Postmodernism perhaps had authenticity being questioned thus, however, there are instances of the NARA Document of Conservation, which allow authenticity of a building or a place to become relevant based on it context thus enabling flexibility in the definition of Authenticity.

“Consistency and purism do not equate with integrity” 14 Moreover, postmodernism as an idea, highly dominates the present day society and the functioning of things. That itself serves the basis of judgement in the present day. It may not be allowing fully socialistic society, but does not let communism take over the world.

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Nan Ellin, Postmodern Urbanism, 1999, Pg. 186 Nan Ellin, Postmodern Urbanism, 1999, Pg. 188 12 Paul Goldberger, Post-Modernism: An Introduction, AD,Vol. 47, 1977 13 Robert Stern, New Directions in Modern American Architecture, 1977 14 Charles Moore, Charles Moore on Post-modernism, AD,Vol. 47, 1977 11