This book examines how catastrophes—natural, technological, ideological, biological, and socioeconomic—transform urban design and planning, potentially creating "turning points" in a city's development trajectory.
Through historical case studies, the book traces urban responses to catastrophe: the 1755 Lisbon earthquake that accelerated European Enlightenment; Haussmann's Paris redesign addressing cholera and social unrest; Chicago's reinvention following the 1871 fire and economic depression; and New York's expressway developments that sparked community activism. Each case reveals significant shifts in urban planning theory and practice. The book explores how urban planning often begins with promising visions that ultimately betray their original intent. Drawing on Plato's Republic and the myth of Atlantis, urban development is framed as a cycle where destruction is inevitable, yet contains seeds of renewal and innovation. This examination of catastrophe's role in urban transformation offers critical insights for understanding contemporary cities and planning for their futures.
The book will be of interest to researchers and students of architecture, urban design, planning history and planning theory.
This book examines how catastrophes—natural, technological, ideological, biological, and socioeconomic—transform urban design and planning, potentially creating "turning points" in a city's development trajectory.
Chapter
1. Introduction: Navigating Chaos
Chapter
2. The Cycle of
Catastrophe: Muthos Logos
Chapter
3. The Great Lisbon Earthquake: A Turning
Point
Chapter
4. Purity and Disgust: The Biopolitics of Paris Moderne
Chapter
5. America is Utopia
Chapter
6. Utopian Socialism: Howards Vision
Chapter
7.
Seduction and Propaganda: A Nation on Wheels
Chapter
8. The Politicisation of
Urban Form
Chapter
9. Conclusion: Impacts
Mary Ganis is an Architect and Urban Designer. She has completed qualifications in Fine Art, Architecture and Urban Design, and has completed a PhD at the Queensland University of Technology in a study of exploratory behaviour in architecture and urban design and a PhD at the University of Queensland, Australia in urban design and planning focusing on network theory. Her research in the perception of place and network theory is published in her book, Planning Urban Places: Self-organising Places with People in Mind (2015). She has published papers in environment and behaviour journals, and in urban design and planning journals and conference proceedings. Mary Ganis professional experience is diverse and spans private practice, government, and academia.
