Netzstadt—designing the urban: placing non-place - Book Review

Architectural Review, The, Feb, 2004 by Dean Hawkes

By Franz Oswald and Peter Baccini. Basel: Birkhauser. 2003. [euro] 46.26

Netzstadt, literally 'network city', is the product of a long-standing programme of research and teaching carried out by its authors at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) at Zurich. In essence, it brings interdisciplinary methods to bear on the analysis and interpretation of the contemporary city. Oswald is an architect, who held the Chair of Architecture and Urban Planning at ETH, and Baccini, a natural scientist, was head of the Department of Rural Sciences and Geodetic Sciences. These disciplines fundamentally determine the nature of the work described in this book and invest it with a scope that is both original and relevant.

At the outset the parameters of the work are clearly stated. The domain of the study is urban development outside traditional urban centres--the ever expanding, unstructured territories that sprawl across the landscape of most developed countries. 'Netzstadt' is presented as both a model of this kind of urbanism and as a set of methodological tools by which it may be analysed. At its heart the project is rooted in a long tradition of objective urban analysis to which figures such as Alexander, Castells, Hillier, Lynch and Webber have contributed. But it extends this lineage in two directions, first, by locating contemporary analysis in a broad historical context and, second, by addressing the emerging issues of sustainable resource utilization.

The Netzstadt model proposes criteria of urban quality--identification, diversity, flexibility, self-sufficiency and resource efficiency and relates these to specific categories of activity in the urban system. The Netzstadt method makes a distinction between, on the one hand morphological tools, that describe the spatial characteristics of a territory, and, on the other, physiological tools--these refer more specifically to processes. The application of both model and method is demonstrated in a study of Wigger City, a region located at the interstices of the established locations of Zurich, Basel, Bern-Mittelland and Central Switzerland. This shows how the method effectively identifies the existence of a non-place that is becoming a place.

A second theme of the book refers to the question of participation in urban development. Under the heading of 'Synoikos', an exercise in public consultation by the authors that preceded and, in some respects influenced the development of the Netzstadt method is outlined.

The point of the whole project is to provide a basis for the development of design proposals. This is demonstrated through studies made by ETH students for the Lucerne North region, in which a string of small communes to the northeast of Lucerne have expanded to a point where they now constitute an identifiable, if ill-structured urban entity. The students' projects suggest how, using the Netzstadt concept and method, strategies for a more coherent, historically-based and sustainable future might be achieved. This is the proof of the pudding and is successful to a degree. Five alternative proposals are made and these provide a basis for critical evaluation of both the method and its outcomes. But this is pursued with less rigour and detail than the exposition of the method itself. Part of the problem lies in inadequacy of presentation of designs. The book is graphically delicious, but the small scale and, in all probability, selective reproduction of images compromises a proper appreciation of its content.

In spite of these caveats, Netzstadt will repay the careful attention of academics and practitioners who are concerned about the future of urbanism. It articulates issues that are both specific and generic and should be high on the agenda of both education and practice.

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