- Title
- Congestion & movement: cities, crowds & Chandigarh
- Creator
- Chapman, Michael; Lehmann, Steffen
- Relation
- Design Philosophy Papers Issue 3-4
- Relation
- http://www.desphilosophy.com/dpp/backissue_list/body.html#everyday
- Publisher
- Team D/E/S
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2007
- Description
- In his now famous book Delirious New York, Rem Koolhaas argued that Manhattan was the epitome of a "culture of congestion". Representing the antithesis of sprawl, the density, heterogeneity and vertical dynamism of Manhattan was, for Koolhaas, a model of a new cultural paradigm where urban populations can exist in dense, spatially confined environments, while still maintaining the traditional characteristics of urban life. Fundamental to this "culture of congestion" is the crowd. The relationship between Koolhaas's definition of 'congestion' and urban planning has traditionally been a negative one. Much modern urbanism is concerned with movement, circulation, ventilation and other dynamic qualities necessitated by the movement of people and the demands of public transport. Modern planned cities demonstrate coherent strategies of 'movement' and removing congestion, but at the same time seem to lack the kind of residual spaces where humans can gather and socialise. They represent urban environments of movement and exchange. However as Koolhaas argued, congestion is equally an essential urban quality, particularly in cities of high density where large populations share small spaces. As urban populations become denser and cities continue to grow, the demands placed on urban spaces become more critical. One of the characteristics of urban spaces which is undervalued in contemporary criticism is the space of the crowd - one of the tangible by-products of increased density and modernisation. Drawing from crowd theory from the 1960s, this paper considers the notion of urban congestion by revisiting the iconic modern city of Chandigarh. Fifty years after its construction, the city has accommodated the demands of rapid population growth and increased infrastructure, but the quality of its vast urban spaces is much less understood. The paper will look at the urban spaces of the city within the context of Koolhaas's notion of congestion and Corbusier's broader theory of urban space. Modernity, in the work of Corbusier, is a thesis calibrated to remove congestion, but can be equally hostile towards the residual activities of modern life and in particular the crowd.
- Subject
- Koolhaas; congestion; urban planning; urbanism; urban spaces; Chandigarh (India); Corbusier; crowds
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/926818
- Identifier
- uon:9952
- Identifier
- ISSN:1448-7136
- Language
- eng
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