Perforated, Bent and Folded: Urban Fabric for Human Consumption

As cities moved toward the new world order of the automobile, the urban terrain of the 20th century began to shift paradigmatically. The traditional measure of place, once understood in terms of centers, now gave way to an auto-specific linear construct. Simply getting from one place to another, in terms of distance and time, became the order of the day. The outward thrust of the post industrial revolution city coupled with modernists' tenets, and the proliferation of the automobile, soon began to smooth out the geometries of traditional urban fabric. The perforated, bent and folded terrain of traditional cities, i.e. the colonnades, covered walks; raised pedestrian crossing, street markets, and tree lined boulevards soon began to disappear. Smooth-cities, unable or unwilling to define place and motion in terms of human scale, became less and less pedestrian and alive. To view the academic paper submission, click here