What did you find compelling, interesting, valuable in Mumford’s approach? What would you disagree with? Most importantly, were you convinced by his vision of the good city and his prescriptions for urban design?
In the chapter about the myth of Megapolis, Mumford provides his insights about some negative trends that many cities were expereicning during his time period such as city sprawls and giantism, and power centralization. These ideas are still effective after several decades that they can largely reflect in those newly developing cities in China.
Urbanization has been a constant trend lasting for decades. In the book, Mumford lists three characteristics illustrating the growth of megacities: number, area, and population (Mumford, 1961). As cities are attracting an increasing …show more content…
In the book, Mumford provided his opinions of a good city. In the article, he described that “by building up sub-centers, based on pedestrian circulation, within the metropolitan region, a good part of urban transportation difficulties could have been obviated” (Mumford, 1961). Mumford’s main idea is to reduce unnecessary traveling to reduce traffic pressure and reduce traveling hours. Instead of attracting everyone goes towards the same direction during peak hours, a great megapolis center can be decentralized to create more subcores so that people do not have to crowd to one place but fully utilize the city’s current road infrastructure with more journey options. In addition, Mumford warns that “one cannot bring about the renewal of the city by replacing old structures with new buildings that only confirm the obsolete pattern of city growth. (Mumford, 1961)“one metropolis will merge physically with its neighbor” (Mumford, 1961). A merge will usually eliminate the local characteristics in culture, landscape, and so forth. This is true in
In the chapter about the myth of Megapolis, Mumford provides his insights about some negative trends that many cities were expereicning during his time period such as city sprawls and giantism, and power centralization. These ideas are still effective after several decades that they can largely reflect in those newly developing cities in China.
Urbanization has been a constant trend lasting for decades. In the book, Mumford lists three characteristics illustrating the growth of megacities: number, area, and population (Mumford, 1961). As cities are attracting an increasing …show more content…
In the book, Mumford provided his opinions of a good city. In the article, he described that “by building up sub-centers, based on pedestrian circulation, within the metropolitan region, a good part of urban transportation difficulties could have been obviated” (Mumford, 1961). Mumford’s main idea is to reduce unnecessary traveling to reduce traffic pressure and reduce traveling hours. Instead of attracting everyone goes towards the same direction during peak hours, a great megapolis center can be decentralized to create more subcores so that people do not have to crowd to one place but fully utilize the city’s current road infrastructure with more journey options. In addition, Mumford warns that “one cannot bring about the renewal of the city by replacing old structures with new buildings that only confirm the obsolete pattern of city growth. (Mumford, 1961)“one metropolis will merge physically with its neighbor” (Mumford, 1961). A merge will usually eliminate the local characteristics in culture, landscape, and so forth. This is true in