Racines modernes de la ville contemporaine (Modern toots of the contemporary city)
under the direction of Paola Viganò and Panos Mantziaras, MétisPresses editions
Almost a century after the La Sarraz Declaration, the founding act of the International Congresses of Modern Architecture and, by extension, of modern urban planning, new questions arise for the future of a predominantly urban planet. Widely known and partly justified, the criticism of the CIAM principles, the projects and ensuing concrete results has never sufficiently taken into account their discrepancy with the environmental and social challenges of the contemporary city. Designed to achieve objectives of social emancipation, the urban framework of the last hundred years must be evaluated with regard to its resilience to the ecological crises that are looming. In short, what about the modern city as a bridge between the first modernity and the ecological transition project?
This book tackles this problem both from a theoretical and critical angle, as well as through the study of the evolution of the modern city in its European geographic epicenter and outside it. Original research themes are thus sketched between global visions and case studies, diagnoses and prospects, by reconstructing the trajectories of eminent personalities and dynamic collectives. There emerges a startling disciplinary aporia, that of the trajectory taken by the city of the 20th century, undoubtedly promising for individuals, but very ambiguous for communities and certainly too demanding for the biosphere.
Texts from Éric Alonzo, Enrico Chapel, Florian Faurisson, Andrei Feraru, Filippo Fiandanese, Kent Fitzsimons, Malaury Forget, Fanny Gerbeaud, Maarten Gheysen, Silvia Lanteri, Géry Leloutre, Thierry Madoul, Panos Mantziaras, Eric Mumford, David Peleman, Alessandro Porotto, Matthew Skjonsberg, Marcel Smets and Paola Viganò.