Emptied Lumen HWIM 04 032

2024-03-06T00:00:00Z

Emptied Lumen "In the 1950s Architectural Forum published optimistic pieces on new housing developments. [Jane] Jacobs went to see them, analysed them in detail, and discovered something that was fresh news at the time: they weren’t working. Planners had bulldozed large slum areas and replaced them with carefully organized collections of apartment buildings and open spaces. On paper they looked fine, but when Jacobs visited them she discovered that the open spaces were empty of people. Planners had segregated residences, retail stores, business offices, and schools, an arrangement that was tidy but also inhuman and uninteresting. Amazingly, people appeared to like these projects less than they had liked the old slums. An environment created out of goodwill and careful thought had turned out to be boring, dangerous, and ultimately unliveable. The new developments had literally been planned to death: they left no room for happy accidents, and no room for life. How could such a thing have happened?" (p. 77) Fulford, Robert. Accidental City: The Transformation of Toronto . MacFarlane, Walter & Ross, 1995. https://archive.org/details/accidentalcitytr00fulf/mode/2up