Urban Imaginary

I once saw a book titled The Endless City by Phaidon, in the museum bookstore of Arken in Copenhagen. I didn’t mind too much, but guess what – even Brugge’s local library holds a copy. Time to read up.

The book draws on the imaginary of what urbanism means for the world we live in. The punchline:

10% lived in cities in 1900

50% is living in cities in 2007

75% will be living in cities in 2050

The Endless City elaborates on the rapid growth of cities such as London, New York, Berlin, Johannesburg and Mexico City, and seeks new answers on the issue of sustainability and climate change (public transport solutions taking up much of the 512 pages), with the city as its main point of reference. A hot topic indeed.

The volume also elaborates on the city as a brand, the coolness of living in a place, the imaginary coming along with a certain street name on a business card. And there, the writers ask a mostly un-asked, though vital question:

“The cities everyone wants to live in should be clean and safe, possess efficient public services, be supported by a dynamic economy, provide cultural stimulation, and also do their best to heal society’s divisions of race, class and ethnicity. These are not the cities we live in. They fail on all these counts due to government policy, irreparable social ills and economic forces beyond local control. The city is not its own master. Still, something has gone wrong – radically wrong – in our perception of what a city should be. We need to imagine just what a clean, safe, efficient, dynamic, stimulating, just city would look like concretely (…).” (pp. 290)

[Burdett, R. & Sudjic, D. (eds.). The Endless City. London/NY: Phaidon, 2007.]