Marcus White

The Death of Urbanism

Marcus White

Koolhaas pronounced urbanism dead in 1995. Since then, urban design has struggled to come to terms with this and other losses including environmental stability, af- fordable housing, design control, and urban amenity. This book explores urban design paradigms transitioning through a misappropriation of Kübler-Ross' «five stages of grief» – from pro-sprawl 'denial', NIMBY 'anger', revisionistNewUrban'bargaining','depressed'starchitects, through to an optimistic manifesto of 'acceptance'.