City Visions 1910-2010

City Visions 1910-2010Link to the exhibition 
http://www.designforlondon.gov.uk/what-we-do/all/city-visions-19102010-exhibition/

This exhibition celebrates the birth of urban design . It is the centenary of " General town Planning Exhibition" in Berlin which had grand masterplans for Berlin, Paris, London and Chicago. The earlier plans with wide boulevards and monumental civic buildings are in stark contrast with the more humble and politically sensitive approach of contemporary urban design.
The planning and execution of cities involve political will and  invariably make or break the careers of those involved .It is no coincidence that this event also celebrates the endorsement of Design for London  by Boris Johnson  thereby securing it's survival.
The elephant in the room is the century between the two exhibitions.
Everyone present at this exhibition was aware that London and Berlin had both been bombed to bits by each other and many of the problems that still exist in these cities can be traced back to those very destructive years, the lack of proper housing and scars left by hastily replacing what had been destroyed left scars that both cities are still trying to heal.
It is also a subtle confirmation of the role Germany is taking within the EU as important form giver and decision maker of the way Europe should be heading. The term soft power springs to mind.
This is a positive way of looking into the future and defining the discipline of urban design as a craft that spans beyond historical timeframes. The cities we inhabit today were build for very different people with different needs and agendas, yet we can exist within and rebuild on the remnants left behind.
The beautiful diagrams created by the likes of Ebenezar Howard give us simplistic solutions on how cities should work .As seductive and simplistic as these diagrams are , the implementation of them often lead to the destruction of existing systems.
The challenge with modern urban design is to create those clear simple diagrams to explain the complex issues that lie behind them. an example that I found fascinated was the design for the new Berlin airport, it showed an airport that formed part of an urban context, with the main entrance at the end of a linear axis, similar to the way a station was traditionally located within cities. Once seen it clear that the obvious solution to integrating airports into cities is to design them as a component of a larger a multi functional urban landscape.
This is clearly a bow to the Tempelhof airport since closed , it sat on a similar axis , but the association with Albert Speer and his patron have always kept the diciples silent.
tPanels mounted on scaffolding props are displayed in an empty commercial space which forms part of the mixed use Dalston Square development. On the way to the exhibition one walks past shops that have been standing empty for at least a year , this serves as a reminder that the active street frontages so loved by urban designers and sketched by artist being full of trendy people sipping lattes takes years to materialise if ever.