Postmodern Urbanism

Toronto as an Example

Outline

Clarification of Terms: Postmodernism, Postmodernity and Postmodern City

Structure of the Article Toronto: from Modernization to

Postmodernism Modernization and Anti-Modernism:

Regent Park as an example Postmodern Urbanism:

• Renovation of Historical Building and the Retro Chic

• Urban Social Movements • Social Geography of Toronto: the Issue of

Gentrification

Postmodernism, Postmodernity and Postmodern City

Postmodernism

(cultural dominant—resistant or complicit)

Postmodern City Texts

(representation/concept and lived experience)

Postmodernity Postmodern City

≠

Postmodernism, Postmodernity and Postmodern City

1. postmodernity (postmodern conditions 後現代性 : 後工業資本主義、跨國企業 ) － overall commofication + multinational capitalism + electronic/tele-communication ; reinforced or critiqued by postmodernism.

2. 後現代主義 (postmodernism) － Cultural Dominant in the Postmodern Age 文化表現（ in music, architecture, pop culture, politics, critical theories, etc. ）

特色：無深度 (depthless) 、互文、諷擬、拼貼(intertextuality, parody & pastiche 古都 ) 、後設(metafictional; e.g. Mermaid) 、模擬兩可(ambiguous) 、質疑大敘述／真理 (de-doxification) 、折衷 (eclecticism) 、跨界 (boundary-crossing) 、多元 (pluralistic), etc.

What is Postmodernism? (1)

Negative Positive

Flattening of subjectivity;

Pastiche

Ambiguity

Eclecticism

Pluralism

De-Centering & Boundary-crossing

Literature & Film:

Surfiction, metafiction pastiche

Parody

Ensemble film

Sci-fi . . .,etc

Historiographical metafiction & metafilm

Urban space

Society as spectacle;

Plural space;

Multiple historical signs

De-zoning or democratization of urban space;

re-creation of historical spaces

“Postmodern Urbanism and the Canadian Corporate City”: Structure

Postmodern Urbanism—(defined p. 100) Anti-Modernist –according to social/urban critics –

machine-modeled, not practical Modernism pro and con—rationalization and

enlightenment as passé or an unfinished project A New Paradigm—polyphony

Social Movements – Metropolitan restructuring (service-centred) : 1)

gentrification or deindustrialization, 2) harborfront development, 3) functional diversity of the suburbs 4) de-agriculturalization

Corporate City (four periods: 116-119); Canadian city vs. American city

Features of Postmodern urbanism in Toronto: ball park, Yonge Street, China town.

Main Issues … for us

Gentrification, de-gentrification = re-gentrification (116) In Taiwan? Gentrification: to change a place from being a

poor area to a richer one, by people of a higher social class moving to live there.- 東區 , areas which are nodes of the main transportation lines (e.g. the bullet train line).

Urban Social Movements, the correct targets? Local or structural (113), Reactive or radical changes?

Urban spatial re-structuring in Taipei: e.g. 內湖 (Miramax); 河濱公園 ; 巨蛋 and 小巨蛋 ; the impact of MRT mega city

Modernization and Anti-Modernism Modernization –

architecture: geometric design; universal structure committed to a ‘unified organization of life.” (Less is Beautiful; More is Bore.”)

Urban design – rationalized division of functions in life// zoning of a city or compartmentalization, dissociation of internal elements (ref. “A City is not a Tree” p. 130)

Utopian in spirit. E.g. Corbusier’s 馬賽公寓 (ref)

Anti-Modernism

e.g. Mumford, Jane Jacobs, Venturi (p. 102)

1. destroy the historic fabric and organic structure of traditional cities

2. De-humanizing; mechanical

3. Ignore the practical functions of life (e.g. pedestrian walkway “The City is not a Tree.)

4. An elitist architectural language that failed to speak to most city dwellers their hostility to the modern forms ( Regent Park)

Modernist Housing Project: An Example –Regent Park in Toronto Canada's oldest social housing project, having

been built in the late 1940s. Location: bounded by Gerrard Street to the north,

River Street to the east, Shuter Street to the south, and Parliament Street to the west.

A majority of families in Regent Park are classified as low-income, with 68% of the population living below the LICO (Canada's Low-Income Cut-Off Rate) in one of its census tracts and 76% in the other (compared to a Toronto-wide average of just over 20%).

Now being revitalized: Regent Park: A Place to Call Home (source )

Regent Park: Location

East

Regent Park: Location

Regent Park: Image

Postmodern Urban Design A mixture of styles ‘consistent with nearby

traditional forms.’ (p. 101; 105 ) 1. a difference practice of Modernism’s

egalitarian objectives; 2. Dialogic (or polyphonic), rather than

monologic (107)3. Turns the utopian vision into something

communicative—created by the people, but not the designers alone.

Examples: Yonge Street BCE Place; some malls in the suburban areas

Renovation and Preservation of Historical Preservation

Yonge Street, north from Adelaide, Toronto, Ontario, c. 1885.

Renovation and Preservation of Historical Preservation

Yonge Street, present

Historical Preservation: Retro Chic Canada Trust

BCE Place: several buildings connected by a shopping mall. Forming T’s skyline are the Canada Trust Tower and its sibling the Bay Wellington tower.

Historical Preservation: Retro Chic

Façade of an old building

Mall – Disney Like

Erin Mills Town CentreMississauga, ON

Woodbine CentreEtobicoke, ONMore . . .

Woodbine Centre: Fantasy Land

Déju vu? 101?

Urban Social Movements

Local Social Movements—not necessarily organized by class.

Three different views: (Harvey) Community-building: In resistance to the

global flows and flexible accumulation, urban social movements cannot avoid sliding into ‘parochialism( 地域觀念 ), myopia and self-referentiality.’

(Castells) directed at specific circumstances, but not the general, more strategic objectives. failure to attack the real targets.

Struggles of specificity movements of a broader scale.

e.g. Middle-class resettlement in Toronto (p. 109-110); 七號公園 vs. 保護寶藏巖運動 . 樂生。

Social Geography of Toronto: General Characteristics 1. Gentrification;

2. Waterfront development;

3. Increasing demographic and functional diversity of suburbs. – GTA: polynucleated urban region.

4. Deindustrialization of inner city; deagriculturalization of some rural villages.

Social Geography of Toronto: General Characteristics (2) 1. Development

Mercantile ( 重商 ) Commercial Industrial Corporate (service and entertainment)

11 Differences from the American cities: no utter abandonment of inner residential districts; similarities ‘Anglophone suburb’

11 How about Taipei?

References

Virtual Tours: Toronto http://www.toronto.com/feature/244/index.html

Greater Toronto Area: Places & Streets http://www.dplib.com/epc_tor.htm

Examples: Regent Park http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Regent%20Park

從寶藏巖出發，然後我們回到城鄉所 http://www.ncu.edu.tw/~eng/csa/journal/journal_park135.ht

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