Maroš Krivý and Leonard Ma, “The Limits of the Livable City: From Homo Sapiens to Homo Cappuccino,” Avery Review 30 (2018).
Whatever happened to urbanism? asked Rem Koolhaas in 1995, describing the paradoxical demise of the discipline at the moment that the urban condition appeared ubiquitous. Confronted with the global triumph of urbanization, the city ceased to exist, its traditional rules and precedents, its very ontological foundations, transformed beyond recognition. Urbanists appeared doomed to irrelevance, caught up as they were in the “belated rediscovery of the virtuesof the classical city at the moment of their definitive impossibility.” It is perhaps revealing then that the urban question featured centrally in Al Gore’s Livability Agenda, announced just a few years later, with a focus on preserving green spaces, easing traffic congestion, fostering community engagement—all while enhancing cities’ competitiveness. While urbanism may have been doomed to irrelevance, it appeared urbanists had not, newly charged with a task that captivated the popular imagination—designing the livable city. ...
Whatever happened to urbanism? asked Rem Koolhaas in 1995, describing the paradoxical demise of the discipline at the moment that the urban condition appeared ubiquitous. Confronted with the global triumph of urbanization, the city ceased to exist, its traditional rules and precedents, its very ontological foundations, transformed beyond recognition. Urbanists appeared doomed to irrelevance, caught up as they were in the “belated rediscovery of the virtuesof the classical city at the moment of their definitive impossibility.” It is perhaps revealing then that the urban question featured centrally in Al Gore’s Livability Agenda, announced just a few years later, with a focus on preserving green spaces, easing traffic congestion, fostering community engagement—all while enhancing cities’ competitiveness. While urbanism may have been doomed to irrelevance, it appeared urbanists had not, newly charged with a task that captivated the popular imagination—designing the livable city. ...
