Urban architecture
Urban architecture describes the application of ( architectural ) artistic rules for the organization of urban space according to proportion , rhythm and shape. The aim is for the "city [...] to be comprehensible as a meaningful whole". The importance of the city's architecture goes beyond its practical value.
practice
Urban architecture, like urban planning and urban development , deals with the further development of the existing city and new planning. Today urban architecture sees itself as an expanded definition of urban planning, based on an overarching consideration of the morphological properties of the urban fabric. Compared to the disciplines of town planning and town planning, which are often used synonymously or are confused with one another, a clearer stance with regard to the shape of the city should be adopted through an architectural reference. Thus the term urban architecture refers to the city as a body and the artistic work on it. The shape of the city is then attached to a far-reaching influence. Urbanity arises from the interaction of architecture and urban design. The urban morphological properties are viewed as a result of planning action and are decisive for the state of the social-cultural structure. This gives the public space its identity. The urban plan is viewed as the result of a formal design attitude that follows a recognizable urban ideal. The composition is limited to the order and structure of the public. Monuments and secular buildings are functionally determined by a hierarchical rhythm of solitaire and mass. Spatial density is an indication of social proximity and mixed use. The private space is clearly separated from the public, whose memorable contours are juxtaposed with a parceled out mass that can be converted. This means that it is flexible to changing uses over long periods of time, is resistant to the outside and adaptable to the inside. A congenial organization of traffic, economy, social issues, free space and representation, supported by all planning disciplines, serves as the basis for the design. Urban planning takes on the role of review, translation and further completion, for example when it comes to transferring an urban planning framework plan into the plan levels necessary for implementation. It is also the task of urban planning to determine the needs for an urban design or to push for a larger-scale planning, although every construction task in the city should be permeated by a (urban) architectural claim.
discussion
In specialist circles, “urban planning” is generally recognized as a necessary control of urban living conditions and “urban architecture” is often questioned as “conservative” or “conservational”, often assigned solely to art historical considerations of currently only formal importance. But precisely with the reference to the classic city, the concept of urban architecture raises the question of the nature of the urban, of a degree of urbanity (what is a city?) Depending on a formal character, the individual architecture and the relationship between them. Here, however, the demand for spatial proximity and mixture contradicts the strategy of conflict avoidance on the part of urban planning and the desire for a unifying form is seen as an interference with the artistic interests of architecture. At this point, a current urban development debate begins about the tools of urban planning and the influence on the shape of the conventional and the future. In this discussion, the question of the shape of the city is often posed in an anachronistic context, in contrast to a 'progressive' attitude in urban planning, which seeks to constructively work towards the factual in the development process of intermediate cities and shrinkage. A criticism of the control instruments of urban planning and the emphasis on form and self-regulation do not mean the abolition of planning, but the (possibly controlled) reduction of influence, if z. For example, if mixed use is raised to the ideal of an urban community, the precise specification of proportions in a building plan has a redundant effect , while urban architecture would like to work specifically towards an 'open system'.
history
The German “Stadtbaukunst” can be traced back to the reception of the “ Ten Books on Architecture ” by Vitruvius and its continuation by, for example, Leon Battista Alberti . In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance , the art of urban architecture is sometimes in close proximity to a technical knowledge of the construction of cities, such as fortress technology and a formal idealization of city plans. With the baroque era , the artistic aspect relates more and more to an inner (urban) spatial context and the formal quality of the architecture that forms this space.
In 1799 Heinrich Gentz became professor for urban architecture at the newly founded Berlin Academy of Architecture . In the course of the 19th century, the concept of urban architecture was more and more replaced by the less complex concepts of urban planning, and later urban planning. These form an increasingly socio-political (technical, socio-hygienic, traffic-related) approach to settlement. But apparently (also for the understanding of the time) the simplification of the use of the word went hand in hand with the simplification of a pictorial understanding of the city.
So it was the intention of Camillo Sitte in his book “Urban planning according to its artistic principles” (1st edition 1889) to relate urban planning and the will to form again. And the broad reception makes the importance of his criticism of an urban development owed solely to “technical” and “hygienic” requirements clear. His considerations combine spatial effects and the use of European squares as a clear collection of patterns for future urban planning tasks. With the book “Platz und Monument. Investigations into the history and aesthetics of urban architecture in recent times ”(1908) Albert Erich Brinckmann not only succeeds in significantly expanding from the details to the layout of entire cities, he emphasizes historical references and connects them with spatial motifs. In addition, he uses the term urban architecture anew.
The definition of the term goes back to the current understanding of Wolfgang Braunfels work ("Medieval City Architecture in Tuscany", 1953, "Occidental City Architecture. Dominance Form and Building Design", 1976), who created a precise interpretation and this not only from a historical point of view, but in In the sense of viewing the city as a cultural asset and a way of life in itself. This use goes against very contrary ideas of urban architecture (such as Hans Bernhard Reichow ), which want to translate an urban form of society into an agrarian way of life, for example. Braunfels also tries to dispel the myth of interpreting the medieval city form as picturesque and grown, in the sense of an unconscious development. In 2001, Klaus Humpert and Martin Schenk postulated a general planning of medieval cities, which, however, is in contrast to archaeological findings and has insufficient source-critical security.
Rediscovery of urban architecture
The new urbanism is an overarching theme in the development of today's cityscapes . After recognizing the structural failure of the especially since the Modern and the Athens Charter incurred loosened settlements (or satellite towns ), it comes since the 1980s with this Urbanismusbewegung (u. A. With Team 10 its beginning took) to the rediscovery of the block development and Mixed use of quarters and thus urban density. According to this, this type of urban development, which was previously lamented by the settlement planners, supports the advantages of urban life, in connection with a healthy social and economic mix and considerable savings in resources (travel routes, heating costs, infrastructure costs, etc.) compared to the lavish settlements. The revival and further development of classic architectural motifs also plays a role in the gradually rediscovered urban architecture. The new urbanism aims at both the preservation and the compatible further development of sustainable cityscapes.
literature
- Albert Erich Brinckmann: Place and Monument. Investigations into the history and aesthetics of urban architecture in recent times. Berlin, 1908
- Camillo Sitte, Urban planning according to its artistic principles. Vienna, 1889
- Wolfgang Braunfels: Medieval urban architecture in Tuscany. Berlin, 1953
- Wolfgang Braunfels: Occidental city architecture. Form of rule and structure. Cologne, 1976
- Klaus Humpert, Martin Schenk: Discovery of medieval urban architecture. The end of the myth of the grown city. Stuttgart 2001
- Christoph Mäckler, Wolfgang Sonne (ed.): Dortmund lectures on urban architecture. Sulgen / Zurich Volume 1 2009, Volume 2 2010
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lexikon der Kunst, Volume IV, p. 625 "Stadtbaukunst" 1977, VEB EA Seemann Verlag, Leipzig
- ↑ K. Humpert, M. Schenk “Discovery of the medieval city. The end of the myth of the grown city ”, 2001. - cf. but the critical review in Zeitschrift für Archäologie des Mittelalters 30, 2002, 226ff. (R. Schreg)
- ↑ Charter of New Urbanism - German translation of the Engl. Charter of the New Urbanism