Les 1 – Beyong Urban Projects
La Segunda Historia del Proyecto Urbano, Manuel de Solà-Morales (wss niet belangrijk)
Manuel de Solà-Morales explains two ways of shaping ciAes. The first is about big plans, like zoning
and infrastructure, that organize ciAes from a technical and large-scale perspecAve. The second,
which he supports, is about smaller, more focused projects that improve specific places in the city.
These projects aim to make spaces beJer for people, taking into account how they live and interact
with their surroundings. Solà-Morales argues that instead of rigid, one-size-fits-all plans, ci?es need
flexible and thoughCul designs that adapt to their unique history, culture, and complexity.
H.P. Berlage, 1915-1917, Vrijheidslaan, Minervalaan e.o., Amsterdam Zuid
Amsterdam's growth was running into problems because the city was expanding in a circular paJern.
Many new houses were built quickly and cheaply, packed closely together on long, narrow streets.
This "jerry-building" reflected a hands-off aQtude, where developers focused on profits rather than
quality. The result was unhealthy and dull living condiAons. To address this, in 1900, Hendrik Petrus
Berlage was asked to create a beJer plan for expanding the city to the south.
Berlage drew inspiraAon from Camillo SiJe’s treaAse City Planning According to Ar0s0c Principles,
which emphasized aestheAcs in urban design. His iniAal plans (1900-1907) prioriAzed beauty but
faced pracAcal challenges due to strict adherence to municipal boundaries and water levels. The low
building density of just 40% also made the plan economically unviable due to high land costs.
A revised version (1915-1917) presented a more pragmaAc approach. Berlage accounted for
necessary expropriaAons and land acquisiAons, creaAng a balanced plan where urban spaces were
defined by street elevaAons. The layout included a network of grand avenues, public squares, and
monumental landmarks, o]en in the form of public buildings. Streets, green strips, and landscaping
were meAculously designed by Berlage, based on geometric paJerns such as pentagons.
Two primary axes define the plan:
1. The main road stretching from the Amstel Bridge (built by Berlage in 1926-1932) to
Victorieplein, where J.F. Staal’s iconic skyscraper stands.
2. The grand axis of Minervalaan, developed by architects C.J. Blaauw, G.J. Rutgers, and J.F.
Berghoef, intended to lead to a railway staAon that was never built.
Berlage’s plan included housing for all social classes, with different types of homes to suit their needs.
Wealthy families had villas, the middle class lived in stacked apartments with private entrances, and
75% of the people lived in shared housing blocks with common staircases. His design balanced
pracAcal needs, social fairness, and arAsAc beauty, leaving a lasAng mark on Amsterdam’s city layout.
The workers' housing in Amsterdam-South was built using perimeter blocks, a design inspired by the
garden city idea but adapted for the city. These blocks, with conAnuous street walls, emphasized a
sense of community. The design combined a grand, organized layout with tradiAonal Dutch charm,
favoring the decoraAve Amsterdam School style between 1925 and 1940. Architects used classic
materials like brick walls, Aled roofs, and wooden window frames, excluding modernist architects of
the Nieuw Zakelijkheid movement, who preferred modern materials and sleek designs. Some
modernist proposals were rejected, and even Duiker's famous Open Air School was tucked away in a
,quiet square. It wasn’t unAl 1994 that modernist architecture appeared in the area, with a new
apartment building on Victorieplein by the DKV firm from RoJerdam.
J.J.P. Oud, 1925-1930, 1e en 2e KieYoekstraat/Lindtstraat, Ro\erdam
The Kienoek housing estate consists of around 300 homes, two shops, a hot-water facility, two raised
playgrounds, and a church. Designed by J.J.P. Oud between 1925 and 1930, it was built for low-
income workers' families. The design uses long rows of simple, two-story houses that follow a logical
layout but adapt creaAvely to the area. In the southern part of the estate, where the boundaries are
angled, Oud added rounded corners to the sharp edges of the blocks. This clever design detail shows
how he solved spaAal challenges in an innovaAve way.
Eliel Saarinen’s Munkkiniemi–Haaga town plan. Aerial view from the north (1911-1915)
In the 1910s, the rapid populaAon growth in Helsinki presented new and exciAng opportuniAes in
urban planning for architects like Eliel Saarinen and his colleagues. Recognizing the need for a
cohesive strategy, architects, municipal officials, and business leaders began envisioning Helsinki as a
unified metropolitan region, aspiring to elevate it to the stature of other major naAonal capitals.
In 1915, Saarinen helped create the Munkkiniemi–Haaga Plan, working with others to design two
suburbs outside Helsinki. The plan also included ideas for the city's overall growth. It aimed to create
a modern and well-organized Helsinki by connecAng the suburbs with the city centre, making
everything work together as one funcAonal and ambiAous urban area.
The book has based his city planning town-building ideas, especially about organic decentralizaAon,
that is his theoreAcal system. Also, the book follows the organic growth of the ciAes from the
beginning of civilizaAon unAl twenAeth-century.
Sven Markelius, 1954, over a model of Norrmalm
Acceptera (1931) is a Swedish manifesto advocaAng for modern architecture and design. WriJen by
architects Gunnar Asplund, Wolter Gahn, Sven Markelius, Eskil Sundahl, Uno Åhrén, and art historian
Gregor Paulsson. It argues that Swedish architecture and design had not kept up with the rapid social
and technological changes sweeping Europe in the early 20th century.
The authors urge a move towards funcAonalism, a design approach that focuses on pracAcality and
addressing the true needs of modern society. They criAcize old-fashioned architectural styles and
tradiAonal methods, stressing the need to create homes and products that reflect contemporary life
and values. The manifesto encourages people to embrace change instead of resisAng it. It argues that
by accepAng the modern world as it is, society can shape these changes to create a flexible, pracAcal
culture that serves everyday life.
,Ljubljana Triple Bridge (1932), by Jože Plečnik
In the early 1930s, Jože Plečnik, working with Ljubljana's public works department, created plans to
revitalize two rivers running through the city centre. This was part of his broader effort to transform
Ljubljana by focusing on key areas needing improvement, such as main roads, squares, and bridges.
During the interwar period, Plečnik effecAvely became the city’s chief architect. By collaboraAng
closely with municipal engineer Matko Prelovšek, he quickly turned his ideas and sketches into
completed projects, achieving significant urban improvements in a short Ame.
Secundino, Zuazo Ugalde (1887–1971)
Early in his career, Zuazo Ugalde favored tradiAonal styles, regional influences, and historical
architecture. However, a]er traveling to Holland and Central Europe, his approach changed towards a
more modern and raAonal style. He started focusing on simpler, cleaner designs that prioriAzed
funcAonality, hygiene, and comfort, reflecAng the needs of society in the 1920s. His background as an
urban planner also helped him design buildings that fit well with the character and layout of the ciAes
where they were located.
Giuseppe Campos Venu?
During a period of poliAcal instability, Campos VenuA's urban reform efforts played a key role in the
Bologna Communist Party's efforts to renew itself a]er their regional conference in June 1959. The
main focus of this movement was tackling issues related to land rent, which influenced the city's
urban planning in the 1960s. Campos VenuA helped shape Bologna’s future by guiding the city’s
development with several important principles:
1. Preserving the Historic Centre: Efforts were made to protect and restore the city centre,
while also considering the working-class communiAes in Bologna's tradiAonal factories.
2. Protec?ng the Hills and Building for the Working Class: A plan was devised to safeguard the
surrounding hills and create neighbourhoods near the city centre, designed for the working
class.
3. Expanding Services and Transporta?on: The city’s services and transport systems were
expanded from the centre to the outskirts, creaAng a network of civic centres across the city
that funcAoned efficiently.
Other projects included moving the city's fairgrounds and business district to the north, creaAng a
regional plan with 14 nearby towns, and addressing traffic issues with a new ring road. Bologna
became the first city in Italy to introduce a mixed-use system for urban and toll lanes, which helped
improve traffic flow.
Campos VenuA's urban reform policies gained naAonal recogniAon and made him a key figure in
Italy's urban development. This led to his involvement in creaAng Italy's first naAonal urban reform
plan in 1963, and he also helped shape the laws that followed. During this Ame, he visited Bologna
with his students from the Polytechnic of Milan.
, The Tendenza movement, led by architect Aldo Rossi, emerged as a response to the rising influence
of Modernism in post-war Italy. It was defined by a strong reacAon against the idea of an idealisAc
and futurisAc architecture, which the movement saw as unrealisAc. "Tendenza" translates to "trend,"
and the movement criAqued the avant-garde as impracAcal, focusing instead on a more poliAcal,
grounded approach to architecture. The architects of Tendenza rejected utopian visions, advocaAng
for designs based on pracAcal realiAes rather than abstract ideals.
La Tendenza, which laid the groundwork for what would become Post-Modernism, sparked a broad,
internaAonal debate that extended well beyond Italy. The movement's conflict between tradiAonal
values and the minimalist, abstract ideals of Modernism echoed debates that had existed for
centuries in architecture, with figures like AlberA, Vasari, Palladio, Bernini, and Borromini all having
parAcipated in similar discussions about architecture's role in society. In the 1970s, these architects
quesAoned whether to prioriAze the “comforAng reality” of historical architecture or the radical,
idealisAc vision of Modernism. In 1981, art criAc Rosalind Krauss declared that the historical period
shared by the avant-garde and Modernism had come to an end.
Really important moment for the Urban Projects definiAon. Aldo Rossi stated that he needed to re-
think the way of teaching architecture. The idea of Utopia, he stated that we should start form the
reality and not from the utopia; but start from what is really there!
(Started to divide a architectural project in two parts: Urban Analysis and Urban Projects (by order):
these was an aJempt to revoluAon.
The Tendenza movement emphasized reconnecAng architecture with history and society, focusing on
its role within the urban context while criAquing modernist ideals.)
Carlo Aymonino
In the 1960s, as Italian architecture schools faced student protests and occupaAon aJempts, Aldo
Rossi sought to reform them with the idea of a "tendency school," which he shared with Carlo
Aymonino. This concept aimed to reshape architecture as both a discipline and a theory. Rossi’s
theory had two main components: urban analysis and architectural design.
The urban analysis saw the city as always changing, reflecAng the social unrest of the Ame, while
architectural design focused on the structure and logic of buildings, especially monuments. This
approach aimed to use both urban analysis and architecture as tools for revoluAon. One important
idea was the “monument in revoluAon,” which looked at how monuments could represent change
and transformaAon.
Aymonino’s concept of tendency involved two key ideas:
First, architects should clearly express their cultural viewpoints, recognizing that these views are not
neutral but unique. Second, architectural discussions should involve a clash of different perspecAves.
The focus here wasn’t on specific architectural styles, but on how architects organized themselves as
a group and approached design problems. IniAally, Aymonino saw "tendency" as a new way to
organize architects, moving away from the mix of styles that dominated postwar Italian architecture.
Later, he applied this idea to the crisis in architectural educaAon, where it addressed the varying
needs of students and became a key part of debates about reforming architecture schools at the
Ame.
La Segunda Historia del Proyecto Urbano, Manuel de Solà-Morales (wss niet belangrijk)
Manuel de Solà-Morales explains two ways of shaping ciAes. The first is about big plans, like zoning
and infrastructure, that organize ciAes from a technical and large-scale perspecAve. The second,
which he supports, is about smaller, more focused projects that improve specific places in the city.
These projects aim to make spaces beJer for people, taking into account how they live and interact
with their surroundings. Solà-Morales argues that instead of rigid, one-size-fits-all plans, ci?es need
flexible and thoughCul designs that adapt to their unique history, culture, and complexity.
H.P. Berlage, 1915-1917, Vrijheidslaan, Minervalaan e.o., Amsterdam Zuid
Amsterdam's growth was running into problems because the city was expanding in a circular paJern.
Many new houses were built quickly and cheaply, packed closely together on long, narrow streets.
This "jerry-building" reflected a hands-off aQtude, where developers focused on profits rather than
quality. The result was unhealthy and dull living condiAons. To address this, in 1900, Hendrik Petrus
Berlage was asked to create a beJer plan for expanding the city to the south.
Berlage drew inspiraAon from Camillo SiJe’s treaAse City Planning According to Ar0s0c Principles,
which emphasized aestheAcs in urban design. His iniAal plans (1900-1907) prioriAzed beauty but
faced pracAcal challenges due to strict adherence to municipal boundaries and water levels. The low
building density of just 40% also made the plan economically unviable due to high land costs.
A revised version (1915-1917) presented a more pragmaAc approach. Berlage accounted for
necessary expropriaAons and land acquisiAons, creaAng a balanced plan where urban spaces were
defined by street elevaAons. The layout included a network of grand avenues, public squares, and
monumental landmarks, o]en in the form of public buildings. Streets, green strips, and landscaping
were meAculously designed by Berlage, based on geometric paJerns such as pentagons.
Two primary axes define the plan:
1. The main road stretching from the Amstel Bridge (built by Berlage in 1926-1932) to
Victorieplein, where J.F. Staal’s iconic skyscraper stands.
2. The grand axis of Minervalaan, developed by architects C.J. Blaauw, G.J. Rutgers, and J.F.
Berghoef, intended to lead to a railway staAon that was never built.
Berlage’s plan included housing for all social classes, with different types of homes to suit their needs.
Wealthy families had villas, the middle class lived in stacked apartments with private entrances, and
75% of the people lived in shared housing blocks with common staircases. His design balanced
pracAcal needs, social fairness, and arAsAc beauty, leaving a lasAng mark on Amsterdam’s city layout.
The workers' housing in Amsterdam-South was built using perimeter blocks, a design inspired by the
garden city idea but adapted for the city. These blocks, with conAnuous street walls, emphasized a
sense of community. The design combined a grand, organized layout with tradiAonal Dutch charm,
favoring the decoraAve Amsterdam School style between 1925 and 1940. Architects used classic
materials like brick walls, Aled roofs, and wooden window frames, excluding modernist architects of
the Nieuw Zakelijkheid movement, who preferred modern materials and sleek designs. Some
modernist proposals were rejected, and even Duiker's famous Open Air School was tucked away in a
,quiet square. It wasn’t unAl 1994 that modernist architecture appeared in the area, with a new
apartment building on Victorieplein by the DKV firm from RoJerdam.
J.J.P. Oud, 1925-1930, 1e en 2e KieYoekstraat/Lindtstraat, Ro\erdam
The Kienoek housing estate consists of around 300 homes, two shops, a hot-water facility, two raised
playgrounds, and a church. Designed by J.J.P. Oud between 1925 and 1930, it was built for low-
income workers' families. The design uses long rows of simple, two-story houses that follow a logical
layout but adapt creaAvely to the area. In the southern part of the estate, where the boundaries are
angled, Oud added rounded corners to the sharp edges of the blocks. This clever design detail shows
how he solved spaAal challenges in an innovaAve way.
Eliel Saarinen’s Munkkiniemi–Haaga town plan. Aerial view from the north (1911-1915)
In the 1910s, the rapid populaAon growth in Helsinki presented new and exciAng opportuniAes in
urban planning for architects like Eliel Saarinen and his colleagues. Recognizing the need for a
cohesive strategy, architects, municipal officials, and business leaders began envisioning Helsinki as a
unified metropolitan region, aspiring to elevate it to the stature of other major naAonal capitals.
In 1915, Saarinen helped create the Munkkiniemi–Haaga Plan, working with others to design two
suburbs outside Helsinki. The plan also included ideas for the city's overall growth. It aimed to create
a modern and well-organized Helsinki by connecAng the suburbs with the city centre, making
everything work together as one funcAonal and ambiAous urban area.
The book has based his city planning town-building ideas, especially about organic decentralizaAon,
that is his theoreAcal system. Also, the book follows the organic growth of the ciAes from the
beginning of civilizaAon unAl twenAeth-century.
Sven Markelius, 1954, over a model of Norrmalm
Acceptera (1931) is a Swedish manifesto advocaAng for modern architecture and design. WriJen by
architects Gunnar Asplund, Wolter Gahn, Sven Markelius, Eskil Sundahl, Uno Åhrén, and art historian
Gregor Paulsson. It argues that Swedish architecture and design had not kept up with the rapid social
and technological changes sweeping Europe in the early 20th century.
The authors urge a move towards funcAonalism, a design approach that focuses on pracAcality and
addressing the true needs of modern society. They criAcize old-fashioned architectural styles and
tradiAonal methods, stressing the need to create homes and products that reflect contemporary life
and values. The manifesto encourages people to embrace change instead of resisAng it. It argues that
by accepAng the modern world as it is, society can shape these changes to create a flexible, pracAcal
culture that serves everyday life.
,Ljubljana Triple Bridge (1932), by Jože Plečnik
In the early 1930s, Jože Plečnik, working with Ljubljana's public works department, created plans to
revitalize two rivers running through the city centre. This was part of his broader effort to transform
Ljubljana by focusing on key areas needing improvement, such as main roads, squares, and bridges.
During the interwar period, Plečnik effecAvely became the city’s chief architect. By collaboraAng
closely with municipal engineer Matko Prelovšek, he quickly turned his ideas and sketches into
completed projects, achieving significant urban improvements in a short Ame.
Secundino, Zuazo Ugalde (1887–1971)
Early in his career, Zuazo Ugalde favored tradiAonal styles, regional influences, and historical
architecture. However, a]er traveling to Holland and Central Europe, his approach changed towards a
more modern and raAonal style. He started focusing on simpler, cleaner designs that prioriAzed
funcAonality, hygiene, and comfort, reflecAng the needs of society in the 1920s. His background as an
urban planner also helped him design buildings that fit well with the character and layout of the ciAes
where they were located.
Giuseppe Campos Venu?
During a period of poliAcal instability, Campos VenuA's urban reform efforts played a key role in the
Bologna Communist Party's efforts to renew itself a]er their regional conference in June 1959. The
main focus of this movement was tackling issues related to land rent, which influenced the city's
urban planning in the 1960s. Campos VenuA helped shape Bologna’s future by guiding the city’s
development with several important principles:
1. Preserving the Historic Centre: Efforts were made to protect and restore the city centre,
while also considering the working-class communiAes in Bologna's tradiAonal factories.
2. Protec?ng the Hills and Building for the Working Class: A plan was devised to safeguard the
surrounding hills and create neighbourhoods near the city centre, designed for the working
class.
3. Expanding Services and Transporta?on: The city’s services and transport systems were
expanded from the centre to the outskirts, creaAng a network of civic centres across the city
that funcAoned efficiently.
Other projects included moving the city's fairgrounds and business district to the north, creaAng a
regional plan with 14 nearby towns, and addressing traffic issues with a new ring road. Bologna
became the first city in Italy to introduce a mixed-use system for urban and toll lanes, which helped
improve traffic flow.
Campos VenuA's urban reform policies gained naAonal recogniAon and made him a key figure in
Italy's urban development. This led to his involvement in creaAng Italy's first naAonal urban reform
plan in 1963, and he also helped shape the laws that followed. During this Ame, he visited Bologna
with his students from the Polytechnic of Milan.
, The Tendenza movement, led by architect Aldo Rossi, emerged as a response to the rising influence
of Modernism in post-war Italy. It was defined by a strong reacAon against the idea of an idealisAc
and futurisAc architecture, which the movement saw as unrealisAc. "Tendenza" translates to "trend,"
and the movement criAqued the avant-garde as impracAcal, focusing instead on a more poliAcal,
grounded approach to architecture. The architects of Tendenza rejected utopian visions, advocaAng
for designs based on pracAcal realiAes rather than abstract ideals.
La Tendenza, which laid the groundwork for what would become Post-Modernism, sparked a broad,
internaAonal debate that extended well beyond Italy. The movement's conflict between tradiAonal
values and the minimalist, abstract ideals of Modernism echoed debates that had existed for
centuries in architecture, with figures like AlberA, Vasari, Palladio, Bernini, and Borromini all having
parAcipated in similar discussions about architecture's role in society. In the 1970s, these architects
quesAoned whether to prioriAze the “comforAng reality” of historical architecture or the radical,
idealisAc vision of Modernism. In 1981, art criAc Rosalind Krauss declared that the historical period
shared by the avant-garde and Modernism had come to an end.
Really important moment for the Urban Projects definiAon. Aldo Rossi stated that he needed to re-
think the way of teaching architecture. The idea of Utopia, he stated that we should start form the
reality and not from the utopia; but start from what is really there!
(Started to divide a architectural project in two parts: Urban Analysis and Urban Projects (by order):
these was an aJempt to revoluAon.
The Tendenza movement emphasized reconnecAng architecture with history and society, focusing on
its role within the urban context while criAquing modernist ideals.)
Carlo Aymonino
In the 1960s, as Italian architecture schools faced student protests and occupaAon aJempts, Aldo
Rossi sought to reform them with the idea of a "tendency school," which he shared with Carlo
Aymonino. This concept aimed to reshape architecture as both a discipline and a theory. Rossi’s
theory had two main components: urban analysis and architectural design.
The urban analysis saw the city as always changing, reflecAng the social unrest of the Ame, while
architectural design focused on the structure and logic of buildings, especially monuments. This
approach aimed to use both urban analysis and architecture as tools for revoluAon. One important
idea was the “monument in revoluAon,” which looked at how monuments could represent change
and transformaAon.
Aymonino’s concept of tendency involved two key ideas:
First, architects should clearly express their cultural viewpoints, recognizing that these views are not
neutral but unique. Second, architectural discussions should involve a clash of different perspecAves.
The focus here wasn’t on specific architectural styles, but on how architects organized themselves as
a group and approached design problems. IniAally, Aymonino saw "tendency" as a new way to
organize architects, moving away from the mix of styles that dominated postwar Italian architecture.
Later, he applied this idea to the crisis in architectural educaAon, where it addressed the varying
needs of students and became a key part of debates about reforming architecture schools at the
Ame.
