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Full-Text Articles in Architecture
New Urbanism As A New Modernist Movement: A Comparative Look At Modernism And New Urbanism, Clara Irazabal
New Urbanism As A New Modernist Movement: A Comparative Look At Modernism And New Urbanism, Clara Irazabal
Clara Irazabal
This article situates New Urbanism, and neotraditionalism more generally, on the ideological continuum of Modernism — as a neo-Modernist movement. By comparing the social and environmental goals of Modernism and New Urbanism as laid out in their respective charters and questioning the ability of New Urbanism to achieve its goals where Modernism failed, it offers a contextual analysis of the motivations behind the movements and their implications in practice. It then presents the cities of Brasilia, in Brazil, and Celebration, in the United States, as examples of the difficulty of putting the altruistic rhetoric of Modernism and New Urbanism, respectively, …
Constitutional Reforms In Venezuela Foretell A Planning Revolution, Clara Irazabal
Constitutional Reforms In Venezuela Foretell A Planning Revolution, Clara Irazabal
Clara Irazabal
The National Assembly of Venezuela is discussing a proposal by President Hugo Chávez to change thirty-three of the 350 articles of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. The proposed changes would create new forms of land tenure and restructure the nation’s governance system, both of which are essential to urban planning. The changes attempt to address the obstacles posed by a corrupt and ineffective bureaucracy created largely as a result of the huge surplus from Venezuela’s petroleum- dependent economy. The bureaucracy has often paralyzed and sabotaged the revolutionary process. The Venezuelan Bolivarian Revolution has often been criticized for …
Grassroots Disaster Recovery Planning: New Orleans And Beyond, Clara Irazabal
Grassroots Disaster Recovery Planning: New Orleans And Beyond, Clara Irazabal
Clara Irazabal
Weeks have turned to months and months to years as New Orleanians both those living in the city and those yet to return have waited in vain for leadership and resources from local, state and federal sources. In the face of such neglect, and united with a determination to rebuild their lives and communities, many residents and grassroots organizations have begun planning for their devastated communities on their own. Attendees at this year's Planners Network conference in New Orleans were intimately exposed to these grassroots phenomena through community-based panels and workshops. While most planners that have come to New Orleans …
Entertainment-Retail Centres In Hong Kong And Los Angeles: Trends And Lessons, Clara Irazabal, Surajit Chakravarty
Entertainment-Retail Centres In Hong Kong And Los Angeles: Trends And Lessons, Clara Irazabal, Surajit Chakravarty
Clara Irazabal
This paper examines the evolution and recent trends in the design of Entertainment Retail Centres (ERCs) in Los Angeles and Hong Kong. Most of the literature on spaces of consumption and leisure deals with economic reasons for the development of these spaces, and with the social, cultural, and political implications of the phenomenon. There are limitations to this approach that this study addresses. First, there has been a lack of attention to processes of globalization in the analysis of these spaces. Furthermore, a largely US-centred approach has left out an understanding of the significance of the ERC phenomenon in other …
Kitsch Is Dead, Long Live Kitsch: The Production Of Hyperkitsch In Las Vegas, Clara Irazabal
Kitsch Is Dead, Long Live Kitsch: The Production Of Hyperkitsch In Las Vegas, Clara Irazabal
Clara Irazabal
This study investigates the production ofhyperreality and kitsch in the latest generation of hotel-casino developments in Las Vegas. In these environments, visual imagery is manipulated for the creation of spectacle and a sense of alienation from time and reality. This suspension of real time and space is aimed at both facilitating the production of a simulated environment as "natural" and producing ideal sites for pleasure and consumption. Building upon the concepts of hyperreality and kitsch, this study proposes the framework of hyperkitsch to understand Las Vegas ' contribution to contemporary urbanization. Through four case studies, this paper suggests that the …
Bounded Tourism: Immigrant Politics, Consumption, And Traditions At Plaza Mexico, Clara Irazabal
Bounded Tourism: Immigrant Politics, Consumption, And Traditions At Plaza Mexico, Clara Irazabal
Clara Irazabal
Conceived and owned by Korean investors, the shopping mall Plaza Mexico in Southern California embodies a unique case of invention and commodi!cation of traditions for locally-bound immigrants and US citizens of Mexican descent, showing the force of the contemporary processes of deterritorialisation and reterritorilisation of identities and the recreations of imagined conceptions of homeland. The Plaza is a unique architectural recreation of Mexican regional and national icons that make its patrons feel ‘as if you were in Mexico’. Plaza Mexico produces a space of diasporic, bounded tourism, whereby venture capitalists opportunistically reinvent tradition within a structural context of constrained immigrant …
Neighbourhoods In The Lead: Grassroots Planning For Social Transformation In Post-Katrina New Orleans?, Clara Irazabal, Jason Neville
Neighbourhoods In The Lead: Grassroots Planning For Social Transformation In Post-Katrina New Orleans?, Clara Irazabal, Jason Neville
Clara Irazabal
The article offers insights about the potential for broader democratic transformation in post-Katrina New Orleans vis-a`-vis its autonomous grassroots planning process, surveying some of these neighbourhoodbased processes (to the extent possible, considering their ongoing nature). Our point of departure is the acknowledgement that, in the absence of an effective governing coalition capable of creating stability and a political mandate for effective planning, the onus of planning has, to a great extent, been relegated to, or taken over by, the communities themselves. In this context, the widespread ‘taste’ of autonomous democratic place-making could trigger a wider sociopolitical transformation, resulting in a …