Table Of ContentOther Titles of Interest
NEEDHAM, D. B.
How Cities Work: An Introduction
LASKA, S. & SPAIN, D.
Back to the City
PEDERSON, E. 0.
Transportation in Cities
SOEN, D.
New Trends in Urban Planning
VAN DEN BERG, L. etal.
Urban Europe: A Study of Growth and Decline
CENTRE DE CREATION INDUSTRIELLE
World Design Sources Directory 1980
HEIGHT, F. & CRESSWELL, R.
Design for Passenger Transport
RAPOPORT, A.
Human Aspects of Urban Form
Journals of Interest
Building and Environment
Computers, Environment & Urban Systems
Geoforum
Habitat International
Progress in Planning
Transportation Research
Full details of any Pergamon publication and a free specimen copy of any
Pergamon journal available on request, from your nearest Pergamon office.
LIVING CITIES
A case for urbanism
and guidelines for re-urbanization
by
Jan Tanghe, Sieg Vlaeminck and Jo Berghoef
With contributions by
Catherine Bruant, Jan Gehl, Lars Gemzjzre, Frans Hondius,
Ulrich Keppler, MarinRlla Ottolenghi, Philippe Pannerai,
Johan Van Dessel, Robert Walker and Alfred Wood
Translated by
RONALD SOUTHAM
Translation edited by
BARRY NEEDHAM
PERGAMON PRESS
OXFORD · NEW YORK ■ TORONTO ■ SYDNEY ■ PARIS ■ FRANKFURT
U.K. Pergamon Press Ltd., Headington Hill Hall,
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75240 Paris, Cedex 05, France
FEDERAL REPUBLIC Pergamon Press GmbH, Hammerweg 6,
OF GERMANY D-6242 Kronberg-Taunus, Federal Republic of Germany
Copyright ©1984 Jan Tanghe, Sieg Vlaeminck and
Jo Berghoef
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any
form or by any means: electronic, electrostatic, magnetic
tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
First published in Dutch by CIAUD/ICASD,
1975, under the title Wonen of Wijken?
First English edition 1984
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Tanghe, Jan.
Living Cities
"Originally written in Dutch in 1975 under the
title Wonen of Wijken?" — Pref.
1. Cities and towns—Europe. 2. Urbanization —
Europe. 3. Man —Influence of environment. 4. Housing
— Europe. 5. Quality of life —Europe. I. Vlaeminck,
Sieg, 1933- . II. Berghoef, J. F. III. Title.
HT131.T2913 1983 307.7'6'094 82-22283
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Tanghe, Jan
Living Cities
1. Europe—History
I. Title II. Vlaeminck, Sieg III. Berghoef, J. F.
IV. Wonen of Wijken? English
363.5Ό94 HT169.E85/
ISBN 0-08-025238-9 (Hardcover)
ISBN 0-08-025237-0 (Flexicover)
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
William Clowes Limited, Beccles and London
DEDICATION
This book is not dedicated in the traditional manner to
our wives and children, but to the "unknown citizen",
who can no longer dwell in the city, and to the
politicians and planners who must bear the responsi
bility for his plight.
We have lost the feeling for quality in everything we do: we must win this feeling back and base our
lives again on quality, which is the greatest enemy of all forms of vulgarization.
Socially this means giving up the race for high office, refusing to subscribe to the cult of personality,
accepting others without bias whether they are high or lowly-placed, especially in the choice of intimate
friends with whom we share our innermost secrets, and it also means that we should have the courage to
take part in public life. Culturally it means turning back from newspapers and the radio to reading
books again, turning from feverish activity to leisure and tranquillity, from distraction to concentration,
from sensationalism to reflection, from virtuosity to art, from snobbery to modesty, from extravagance
to moderation.
Quantities are competitive, qualities are complementary.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER, 1942
From Verzet en Overgave, published by Ten Have, Baarn, 1978, 3rd edition, p. 18.
Preface
This book was originally written in Dutch in 1975, under the title "Wonen of
Wijken?", at the request of the Belgian Minister of Public Works at that time, Mr
A. Califice, who was responsible for an enquiry into the problems of life in Belgian
housing estates, and for the investigation of new solutions to such problems.
The authors rapidly concluded that the project ought to cover a much wider field.
It occurred to them, for example, to question whether the inhuman aspect of our
urban environment is due to our modern way of life. Can we still live in such an
environment, and if so, how? How can people live in modern housing estates?
The relationship between the inhabitant and his habitat, and that between our
society and its cities was first examined. It was established that many city-dwellers
felt dissatisfied with their immediate surroundings.
The authors finally came to the conclusion that the "unlimited expansion" of our
cities must be halted, and that we should strive instead for "inner growth", i.e.
expansion not outwards but within urban centres, and for a more human approach
to city development; the intention should be to encourage contact between towns
people, thus reducing the isolation of those living in sprawling communities, and to
remedy the evils resulting from the dispersion of urban functions.
Our opinion is that the process of réintégration of the cities will be better achieved
by what we have called "structure planning" methods (see Chapter 5 and 6) than by
the classic "physical planning" approach.
From these conclusions a number of planning and design criteria are proposed,
by means of which the problems of housing and living conditions in cities might be
solved more satisfactorily.
The authors are aware that although the problems of living in cities in different
European countries are determined by the particular history and culture of each
country, the whole of Europe is in fact faced with the same problem, namely the
loss of identity in cities and housing districts, the disintegration of established ways
of life due to the influence of the media and of mobility, and the increase in scale of
production and consumption.
It was also noted that, since 1965, this decline in the quality of the habitat has
provoked a great deal of reaction, resulting, amongst other things, in the formation
of pressure groups and residents' action committees, and has led to the development
of alternative urban planning approaches, in which the continuity of the existing
urban fabric takes precedence over the demolition-and-expansion policy of
functionalist city planning. "End-state planning" must be replaced by a continuous
vn
viii Preface
planning process, which means that it can always be carried on where it has been
left off, that it is never finalized, and that it exists for the benefit of users and
residents.
The authors later thought of using the ideas from "Wonen of Wijken?", which
was written in relation to the situation existing in Belgium, and applying them to a
broader European field. The book was therefore largely re-written, and we invited
our Dutch friend Professor J. F. Berghoef to become the third author. His
contribution has placed the evolution of the city and architecture in a wider
European context.
For practical reasons it was decided to use the English language, and a firm of
English publishers was found. We have pleasure in thanking them for their great
interest in the book and for their invaluable assistance.
This edition aims to give an idea of the evolution of urban housing in present-day
Europe, and it is thanks to the close co-operation of several European architects and
town planners who responded to our invitation to contribute that this book has
finally come into being.
They are: Johan van Dessel and Ulrich Keppler for Belgium; Jan Gehl and Lars
Gemz0e from Copenhagen, for Denmark; Catherine Bruant and Philippe Panerai
for France; Ulrich Keppler for West Germany; Alfred Wood and Robert Walker,
for Great Britain; Marinella Ottolenghi, for Italy; Frans Hondius, for Holland. We
thank them all most sincerely for their contributions.
This English edition of Living Cities aims to demonstrate the new awareness con
cerning urban environments in Europe, and the direction in which the urban scene
must, and can, develop.
The angle from which the authors approach the problem of living in cities is
social-spatial. Economic aspects are discussed less, as the authors are well aware that
there are economists who - from their own specific standpoint - subscribe to the
same objectives as ourselves.
This book is written primarily for the intelligent layman rather than the
specialist. It does not boast of its originality, nor that it develops new ideas or
theories, and it is altogether without ambition to be labelled avant-garde. It is quite
possible that it lags behind the latest co-called "scientific standpoint". We think that
this may be all the better, for hindsight sometimes gives better insight.
It does, however, intend to bridge the gulf between the specialists - urban
designers, planners, sociologists, architects, etc. - and the man-in-the-street, or the
politician who has to make the decisions. All too often we see how, on the one hand,
those who are involved in everyday decision-making - the representative of the
housing association or the local political figure - and on the other hand, those
responsible for the people's education - the teacher, the social worker or the activist
- are hopelessly remote from those who function in the ivory towers of science - the
professor, the research worker, the specialized journalist or the chief engineer of the
city engineer's department, all of whom have a tendency to regard the ordinary
citizen with a certain disdain.
If the city really is man's most important invention, it gives one hope to realize
that many Europeans, living in an era of the advanced evolution of machines and
technology, are again becoming aware that living in cities can have its own intrinsic
value as a form of community life.
Preface IX
The future of mankind will ultimately be decided by the choice between the city,
which contains the germs of man's salvation, and the machine which, as a substitute
for happiness, may eventually be the cause of his complete destruction; and so this
book seeks to point out the heavy responsibility of the politicians who must
stimulate this awareness, and be capable of drawing the necessary conclusions from
it.
Human contact - and thus awareness - is the only thing of value which can
compensate for man's self-destruction complex, and the city - in its historical form
- is the only form of community which can stimulate this contact.
Cities - like life itself- are never in the static "completed" condition. Perfection is
sometimes described as the immutability of things, a status quo in which nothing
can be added or changed. We wish to make it clear that in our opinion the ideal city
is a living organism, which is continuously changing and adapting itself to the new
demands of life. This is not to deny that each city, as indeed each person, has its
own specific characteristics or identity. Men must not become stereotyped, and
neither must their cities.
In this sense our cities must strive to maintain a balance between identity and
change. The proper aims of a policy for making the city worthwhile again, and for
rebuilding it as a place for living, must therefore be to encourage a continuous
metamorphosis whilst retaining the city's identity. The sort of attitude which is
hostile to all change, and which is motivated solely by historical or aesthetic
considerations of secondary importance, leads inevitably to nostalgia, to
uninhabitable conditions and finally to the death of the city.
This book seeks to stimulate mental awareness concerning the city and living in
it, without which better town planning and social choices can never be made, with
the result that the world will become less inhabitable. In this sense it comprise sa set
of proposals, or perhaps even a salvage plan, for better living conditions in the city.
It presents some ideas which seek to re-arouse an interest in this subject, and we
hope that their evident incompleteness may help to stimulate further questions.
JAN TANGHE
1
A Positive Choice in Favour of the City
cannot be made without a change in our
way of life
"The ultimate outcome of the suburb's alienation from A. The choice between the city
the city became visible only in the twentieth century, and the machine
with the extension of the democratic ideal through the
instrumentalities of manifolding and mass production. Urban development has evolved in a
In the mass movement into suburban areas a new kind less than satisfactory manner since the be
of community was produced, which caricatured both ginning of the 20th century. Too much
the historic city and the archetypal suburban refuge: a
attention has been paid to urban design in
multitude of uniform, unidentifiable houses, lined up
inflexibly, at uniform distances, on uniform roads, in terms of rationalism and functionalism
a treeless communal waste, inhabited by people of the concepts, which has tended to neglect the
same class, the same income, the same age group, wit real needs of the inhabitants and to con
nessing the same television performances, eating the
centrate instead on the functional aspects
same tasteless prefabricated foods, from the same
freezers, conforming in every outward and inward of the development of our environment.
respect to a common mould, manufactured in the cen The application of such concepts has re
tral metropolis. Thus the ultimate effect of the sub sulted in the disappearance of the street,
urban escape in our time is, ironically, a low-grade
traditionally an essential element in the
uniform environment from which escape is impossible.
city and a socio-environmental phenom
What has happened to the suburban exodus in the
United States now threatens, through the same mech enon of immense value. Its disappearance
anical instrumentalities, to take place, at an equally has driven people apart and upset the
accelerating rate, everywhere else - unless the most functioning of the city itself.
vigorous counter-measures are taken.
The scale of our habitat has changed
But before we confront this final caricature of the from "living-side-by-side" in houses to
unfettered suburban life, lived according to nature, for "existence" in layers, one above the other
the sake of health and child nurture, let us consider
in large-scale high-rise housing blocks
more closely the actual development of the suburban
container. For we shall see that out of this break-up of (Fig. 1).
the old urban forms, out of the chaotic freedom and The concept of streets, city squares and
spatial looseness of the suburban community, came the the entire traditional pattern of cities has
first substantial changes in urban structure, which
been scrapped, in exchange for a more
matched, unconsciously, the changes that have been
taking place in our whole conception of the cosmos. The "progressive" faith in the future of the
open basket-work texture of the suburb bears little modern suburban life-style, and for the il
resemblance to the solid stone container of late neolithic lusion that living in a suburban neigh
culture. Though the suburb lacked many of the attri
bourhood is the same as living in the pure
butes of the ancient city, it has served as an experi
air of the countryside. The unity, diver
mental field for the development of a new type of open
plan and a new distribution of urban functions. sity and liveliness to be found in cities,
1
2 Living Cities
Thus the suburb has prepared the way for a better and also in city-dwellers, have been ex
order of planning, not yet fully expressed or achievedc hanged for the soulless monotony of fea
anywhere, in which both the static and dynamic func
tureless housing units, awkwardly sited
tions, those of the container and the magnet, would
find fresh expression. Though the suburb, as such, amidst dreary streets, or strung along
belongs to the past and has already been enveloped byh ighways in ribbon developments. People
the conurbation, some of the lessons that modern living there seem to have become es
planners first mastered in the suburb must be incor
tranged robots, the slaves of the con
porated into the new concept of the city. "
sumer-society, rather than folks who still
Lewis Mumford, The City in History, a Pelican
Book, pp. 553-554, published by Penguin Books regard all men as brothers.
■ m ■ ■ ■ ■ » ■ · ■·;:;:
:
:■:!"::■■■■■
mm m * w ^-^*'W^l♦,
Fig. 1. "Urban development has evolved in a less than satisfactory manner since
the beginning of this century." From Children in the Town. Series 'Villes et
Villages '80'. Fondation Roi Baudouin, Brussels, 1979.
