Urban theory in postmodern cities: Amnesiac spaces and ephemeral aesthetics

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Teoría urbana en la ciudad postmoderna: espacios amnésicos y estética de lo efímero

The study of Postmodern architecture demands freedom from any
pre-conceived rule or traditional stylistic analysis. Because of this dogma, urban
transformations have been brought to postmodern cities in recent decades.
Some of these are chaotic and are not related to the urban experience of the
individual. Thus, the modification of space and time in a city generates a brand new architecture – a reflection of a renewed society, freed from the
philosophical, aesthetic and social concerns of the central decades of the
twentieth century. A formerly attempt to establish a quaint and recognisable
typology of “local architecture” is now discarded, then refusing the sense of
unique identity of the city and which in the past, promoted the urban memory
of the inhabitants. Urban spaces are created far from historical centres, built
deprived of both history and memory. The individual, therefore, is unable to
find a relationship between these “anti-cities”, familiarity and daily life. The
citizen appears nowadays as seemingly detached from these new and
disproportionate constructions, spaces that show no architectural personality.
Urban models are presented as the assimilation or systematic copying favors of
interaction with the individual. This new city model is based on the copy, in the
simulacrum of reality itself.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)57-65
Number of pages9
JournalURBS. Revista de Estudios Urbanos y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de Almeria
Volume7
Issue number1
Early online date3 May 2017
Publication statusPublished - 3 May 2017

Keywords

  • urban studies
  • Postmodernism
  • aesthetics
  • Visual Culture
  • Arquitecture

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