Cities and towns; Social psychology; Sociology; Sociology, Urban
A collection of articles on various technical phases of city life.
Article 4, “Die Baupolizei,” by Oberbaukommissar Gruner, is a
discussion of the public regulation of buildings and the function of
zoning and building codes in the modern city. (VI; VII, 3; VII, 1,
2.)
In addition there are available reports of zoning commissions of the
various cities and numerous articles in magazines dealing with the
administrative aspects of city life, such as _The American City_, in
which digests, criticisms, and discussions of these zoning devices may
be found.
5. The needs of communal life impose upon the city a certain degree of
order which sometimes expresses itself in a city plan which is an
attempt to predict and to guide the physical structure of the city. The
older European cities appear more like haphazard, unplanned products of
individualistic enterprise than the American cities with their
checkerboard form. And yet, most European cities were built according to
some preconceived plan which attempted to take account of the needs of
the community and the limitations of the environment. There is a
tendency, however, for the city to run counter to the plan which was
laid out for it, as is seen, for instance, in the problems of
city-planning of the city of Washington. The fact is that the city is a
dynamic mechanism which cannot be controlled in advance unless the
conditions entering into its genesis and its growth are fully known.
City-planning, which has grown into a highly technical profession, is
coming to be more concerned with studying the problems of a changing
institution, with city growth, and the forces operating in city life
than with the creation of artistic schemes of city structure. On the one
hand the importance of devising a scheme of wholesome, orderly existence
in the city is being recognized, on the other hand, the limitations of
any attempt to make the city conform to an artificial plan impresses
itself upon the experience of the technicians engaged in this work.
Agache, Auburtin and Redont. _Comment reconstruire nos cités
destruites_, reviewed in _Scott. Geog. Mag._, XXXIII, 348–52, and
_Annales de Geog._, January, 1917, by F. Schrader.
A criticism of suggested plans for the reconstruction of cities in
the French devastated area. (III, 6.)
American Institute of Architects. _City-Planning Progress in the
United States_ (New York, 1917).
Bartlett, Dana W. _The Better City: A Sociological Study of a Modern
City_ (Los Angeles, 1907). (III, 6.)
_English Catalogue_, “International Cities and Town-Planning
Exhibition, Gothenburg, Sweden, 1923.”
A comprehensive summary of the town-planning movement. A work to be
consulted by all students of the subject. (II, 3; V, 4.)
Geddes, P. _Cities in Evolution: An Introduction to the Town-Planning
Movement and the Study of Civics_ (London, 1915).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account