Are Los Angeles and New York merely year-round versions of Quartzsite, Arizona?
After reading Joel Kotkin‘s The Rise of the Ephemeral City, I am tempted to think so.
Month: July 2005
MacMansions
McMansions aren’t just limited to the United States. On the contrary, they are spreading like wildfire throughout many countries, including Ireland. Three photos from County Claire can be found full-size [here].
An article on the destruction of the Irish landscape by Mark Lynas can be found here on the Guardian’s web site [read more].
I think we need to call them MacMansions in Ireland, though.
Future City
Today, I received my long-awaited copy of Future City, edited by Stephen Read, J?ɬºrgen Rosenmann, and Job van Eldijk.
The book describes itself as follows: Future City mixes the experience of particular urban places with a more general discourse about the nature of urbanism today. Well-known urbanists are asked to look at sixteen cities around the world and the different ways they are changing and discuss their vision for the future. The book features a widely exhibited collection of images by NEXT architects comparing and contrasting eighteen metropolitan cities around the world. Interleaved throughout the book, are short theoretical pieces on issues relating to urban change written by leading urban theorists, offering a series of critical perspectives. This unique book links practical examples and theory though its accessible visual and writing style. It provides a stimulating source of ideas and vision for both student, practitioner and the general reader.
Contributors: Stefano Boeri, Ramesh Kmuar Biswas, M. Christine Boyer, Lindsay Bremner, Gary Chang, Penelope Dean, Dirk Frieling, Andreas Huyssen, Jim Masselos, NEXT Architects, Stephen Read, J?ɬºrgen Rosemann, Saskia Sassen, Richard Sennett, AbdouMaliq Simone, STEALTH Group, Erik Swyngedow, and Kazys Varnelis
My own contribution is the essay, “Los Angeles, Cluster City,” first presented at TU-Delft in 2000.
Networked Publics Fellowship
The long gap in updating the web site can at least partially be explained by my being in Europe for the last two weeks.
Now that the position is official, I am delighted to announce that I will be spending the next year at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Center for Communication, as Senior Research Associate first annual research theme, Networked Publics.