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Postmodern Urbanism

Postmodern Urbanism. Toronto as an Example. Outline. Clarification of Terms: Postmodernism, Postmodernity and Postmodern City Structure of the Article Toronto: from Modernization to Postmodernism Modernization and Anti-Modernism : Regent Park as an example Postmodern Urbanism :

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Postmodern Urbanism

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  1. Postmodern Urbanism Toronto as an Example

  2. Outline • Clarification of Terms: Postmodernism, Postmodernity and Postmodern City • Structure of the Article • Toronto: from Modernization to Postmodernism • Modernization and Anti-Modernism: Regent Park as an example • Postmodern Urbanism: • Renovation of Historical Building and the Retro Chic • Urban Social Movements • Social Geography of Toronto: the Issue of Gentrification

  3. Postmodernism, Postmodernity and Postmodern City ≠

  4. Postmodernism, Postmodernity and Postmodern City • postmodernity (postmodern conditions 後現代性: 後工業資本主義、跨國企業) －overall commofication + multinational capitalism + electronic/tele-communication ; reinforced or critiqued by postmodernism. • 後現代主義 (postmodernism)－Cultural Dominant in the Postmodern Age 文化表現（in music, architecture, pop culture, politics, critical theories, etc. ） • 特色：無深度(depthless)、互文、諷擬、拼貼(intertextuality, parody & pastiche 古都)、後設(metafictional; e.g. Mermaid)、模擬兩可(ambiguous)、質疑大敘述／真理(de-doxification)、折衷(eclecticism)、跨界(boundary-crossing)、多元(pluralistic), etc.

  5. What is Postmodernism? (1)

  6. “Postmodern Urbanism and the Canadian Corporate City”: Structure • Postmodern Urbanism—(defined p. 100) • Anti-Modernist –according to social/urban critics –machine-modeled, not practical • Modernism pro and con—rationalization and enlightenment as passé or an unfinished project • A New Paradigm—polyphony • Social Movements – • Metropolitan restructuring (service-centred) : 1) gentrification or deindustrialization, 2) harborfront development, 3) functional diversity of the suburbs 4) de-agriculturalization • Corporate City (four periods: 116-119); Canadian city vs. American city • Features of Postmodern urbanism in Toronto: ball park, Yonge Street, China town.

  7. Main Issues … for us • Gentrification, de-gentrification = re-gentrification (116) In Taiwan? • Gentrification: to change a place from being a poor area to a richer one, by people of a higher social class moving to live there.-東區, areas which are nodes of the main transportation lines (e.g. the bullet train line). • Urban Social Movements, the correct targets? Local or structural (113), Reactive or radical changes? • Urban spatial re-structuring in Taipei: e.g. 內湖(Miramax); 河濱公園; 巨蛋 and 小巨蛋; the impact of MRT mega city

  8. Modernization and Anti-Modernism • Modernization – • architecture: geometric design; universal structure committed to a ‘unified organization of life.” (Less is Beautiful; More is Bore.”) • Urban design – rationalized division of functions in life// zoning of a city or compartmentalization, dissociation of internal elements (ref. “A City is not a Tree” p. 130) • Utopian in spirit. E.g. Corbusier’s 馬賽公寓 (ref)

  9. Anti-Modernism • e.g. Mumford, Jane Jacobs, Venturi (p. 102) • destroy the historic fabric and organic structure of traditional cities • De-humanizing; mechanical • Ignore the practical functions of life (e.g. pedestrian walkway  “The City is not a Tree.) • An elitist architectural language that failed to speak to most city dwellers their hostility to the modern forms ( Regent Park)

  10. Modernist Housing Project: An Example –Regent Park in Toronto • Canada's oldest social housing project, having been built in the late 1940s. • Location: bounded by Gerrard Street to the north, River Street to the east, Shuter Street to the south, and Parliament Street to the west. • A majority of families in Regent Park are classified as low-income, with 68% of the population living below the LICO (Canada's Low-Income Cut-Off Rate) in one of its census tracts and 76% in the other (compared to a Toronto-wide average of just over 20%). • Now being revitalized: Regent Park: A Place to Call Home (source )

  11. Regent Park: Location East

  12. Regent Park: Location

  13. Regent Park: Image

  14. Postmodern Urban Design • A mixture of styles ‘consistent with nearby traditional forms.’ (p. 101; 105 ) • a difference practice of Modernism’s egalitarian objectives; • Dialogic (or polyphonic), rather than monologic (107) • Turns the utopian vision into something communicative—created by the people, but not the designers alone. • Examples: • Yonge Street • BCE Place; • some malls in the suburban areas

  15. Renovation and Preservation of Historical Preservation • Yonge Street, north from Adelaide, Toronto, Ontario, c. 1885.

  16. Renovation and Preservation of Historical Preservation • Yonge Street, present

  17. Historical Preservation: Retro Chic Canada Trust BCE Place: several buildings connected by a shopping mall. Forming T’s skyline are the Canada Trust Tower and its sibling the Bay Wellington tower.

  18. Historical Preservation: Retro Chic Façade of an old building

  19. Mall – Disney Like • Erin Mills Town CentreMississauga, ON Woodbine CentreEtobicoke, ON More . . .

  20. Woodbine Centre: Fantasy Land Déju vu? 101?

  21. Urban Social Movements • Local Social Movements—not necessarily organized by class. • Three different views: • (Harvey) Community-building: In resistance to the global flows and flexible accumulation, urban social movements cannot avoid sliding into ‘parochialism(地域觀念), myopia and self-referentiality.’ • (Castells) directed at specific circumstances, but not the general, more strategic objectives.  failure to attack the real targets. • Struggles of specificity  movements of a broader scale. • e.g. Middle-class resettlement in Toronto (p. 109-110); 七號公園vs. 保護寶藏巖運動. 樂生。

  22. Social Geography of Toronto: General Characteristics • Gentrification; • Waterfront development; • Increasing demographic and functional diversity of suburbs. – GTA: polynucleated urban region. • Deindustrialization of inner city; deagriculturalization of some rural villages.

  23. Social Geography of Toronto: General Characteristics (2) • Development Mercantile (重商)  Commercial  Industrial  Corporate (service and entertainment) •  Differences from the American cities: no utter abandonment of inner residential districts; similarities ‘Anglophone suburb’ •  How about Taipei?

  24. References • Virtual Tours: Toronto http://www.toronto.com/feature/244/index.html • Greater Toronto Area: Places & Streets http://www.dplib.com/epc_tor.htm • Examples: Regent Park http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Regent%20Park • 從寶藏巖出發，然後我們回到城鄉所 http://www.ncu.edu.tw/~eng/csa/journal/journal_park135.htm

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