what kind of place is this?

Presentation for Ignite Boise 2 July 16, 2009

Martin Johncox, Alexander and Associates

Twitter @mjohncoxFacebook.com/martin.johncox

http://idahowonk.wordpress.comwww.alexanderandassociates.com

Homo sapiens has existed for about 250,000 years, yet oldest cities are just 5,000 years old.

Cities share permanence; specialization of skills among inhabitants; reliance on countryside; communal buildings; accumulation of resources.

People have created three kinds of cities in history and their built form reflects their values: the Cosmic City, the Machine City and the Organic City

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The most ancient cities were designed to express religious beliefs; this unity of purpose may give the Cosmic City great harmony and remarkable beauty. Cosmic Cities adapted to a low-energy environment and natural topography and were

created with great effort.

COSMIC FORM: Important activities,

such as administration and worship, typically at center.

Streets and buildings arranged to express spiritual beliefs; walls and gates enforced hierarchy.

Layout obeyed topography and used local materials, producing a striking sense of identity.

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COSMIC VALUES: Projection of authority, enforcement of social hierarchy Authoritarian administration ; economic development and quality of life were not high priorities. Build elaborate structures to display power, obey gods.

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COSMIC TRANSPORTATION

Limited to animals, human feet, carts and boats.

Slow transportation required everything close together.

Energy was scarce, coming only from humans, animals, gravity, passive solar and burning things

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COSMIC EXAMPLES In Old Beijing, designers arranged streets and buildings to improve the flow of chi, applying feng shui city-wide. The Mayans sited buildings in Chichen Itza to represent cosmic forces.

After 4,000 years, Cosmic Cities ceased being the dominant urban form – but their influence persists in other ways.

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Starting around the Middle Ages, people began applying more advanced building and energy

technology. The city was viewed as a kind machine to power and fabricate industrial civilization. Classic Machine Cities were at

their apex until around 1950

MACHINE FORM Plentiful steel &

power allowed people to subdue topography and serve efficiency and commerce.

Large public works, skyscrapers and bridges.

The rail station, port and commercial district became the new centers of importance – not the temple.

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MACHINE VALUES Efficiency in housing,

administration, transpor-tation and commerce.

Overcoming terrain, waterways and weather.

Economic development supreme, even if it produces slums and pollution.

Public areas matter and merit nice buildings and comfortable form; North End is good example.

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MACHINE TRANSPORTATION

Very diverse: elevators, escalators, electric cars, cable cars, bicycles, boats, trains and aircraft.

Developers imposed a mechanistic grid on the city to promote efficient transportation.

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MACHINE EXAMPLES Machine grid, cable car allow San

Francisco to conquer very hilly terrain.

Classic American small towns and neighborhoods.

Machine Form is versatile, capable of producing places awful and wonderful, remains popular in much of the world.

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In the Organic Form, the city is viewed as a living creature, its inhabitants likened to cells and its

“health” is paramount. To survive, the Organic City requires abundant energy, omnipresent

machinery, the automobile and communications technology.

ORGANIC FORM The Organic City

sprawls, reflecting the democratic living choices of its inhabitants.

Hundreds of “land use zones” mark permissible areas for families, old people, apartment dwellers, shopping centers, offices and industry, resulting in social segregation.

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ORGANIC VALUES Privacy, convenience, safety and

environmental protection. Satisfaction of residents. Leaders must balance quality of

life with economic development. Elaborate bureaucracy looks

after “health” of the city.

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ORGANIC TRANSPORTATION Automobile transportation is crucial

(emphasis on convenience). Majority of energy, money and

attention goes to using, maintaining , planning and expanding roads.

The spatial demands automobiles consume the public realm; the Organic City has few public plazas.

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ORGANIC EXAMPLES Young American cities like

Boise. Residents are reluctant to build grand places, instead investing their wealth in trans-portation, parks, public services and landscaping.

Nature, much more than man-made structures, gives the Organic City its sense of place.

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ORGANIC ASPECTS Critics say Organic City is ugly,

a chaos of parking lots, forbidding streets and cartoonish architecture.

Most valued places are natural features and legacy Machine Form districts (downtowns).

I argue the Organic City is the natural form of an affluent, democratic, individualistic society with abundant energy and advanced technology.

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The Cosmic and Machine forms created places of terrible misery and dramatic beauty. The Organic

City is likely to have neither.

The Cosmic City existed to serve God; the Machine City existed to serve society; the Organic City

exists to serve the individual.

Organic City residents feel there are higher priorities than efficiency – much like Cosmic

residents.

Facebook quiz: “What City Type Are You?”

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Martin Johncox is public relations director at Alexander and Associates, focusing on the development,

energy, local government and small business sectors.He was a reporter and editorial writer at the Idaho

Statesman for nearly 12 years, focusing on local government, urban planning, growth and

development, where he read far too much for his own good. He would someday like to serve on a planning

and zoning board.Sources for this presentation:Good City Form by Kevin Lynch

The Geography of Nowhere by James Howard KunstlerA Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander

Close-Up: How to Read the American City by Grady ClayEdge City by Joel Kotkin

Twitter: @mjohncox