Putting Whole Teeming Cities on the Drawing Board
By NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF
Published: September 10, 2006
BUILDINGS are looking prettier than ever, thanks to the freedom that
contemporary architects have these days to play with form. Meanwhile,
many of our cities are falling to pieces, as the infrastructure that
once bound them into functioning communities crumbles from years of neglect.
New Orleans exposed a breakdown in infrastructure and social policy that
will not be repaired by a conventional formula of tourism, architectural
nostalgia and gated communities. And the atomization of cities as
diverse as Dubai, Beijing and Beirut, where the construction of
glistening new urban centers masks growing social inequities at their
edges, have only further exposed the hollowness of some contemporary
urban-planning strategies.
....
The 10th Venice Biennale of Architecture, which opens this weekend, is
the first to focus on entire cities rather than uncovering the latest
architectural trends. Organized by Ricky Burdett, the exposition
examines the effect of design in cities as diverse as Cairo, Mumbai, São
Paolo, Johannesburg, Mexico City and Caracas.
cont'd....
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/10/arts/design/10ouro.html?ref=design