Context: I’m currently taking a class on public planning and this post is actually one of my homework assignments. However, I liked my answers so much I thought I’d share. So enjoy!
Max Weber once wrote that “Politics is a strong and slow boring of hard boards. It takes both passion and perspective. Certainly all historical experience confirms the truth – that man would not have attained the possible unless time and again he had reached out for the impossible. But to do that a man must be a leader, and not only a leader but a hero as well, in a very sober sense of the word.” (1919) Reactionary movements are exciting and enthusiastic because they show the world as we want to see it, not as it is. However, “to seek for the look of things as a primary purpose or as the main drama is apt to make nothing but trouble.” (Jacobs, 1961)
Pi de Brujin was one of those planners who embraced the reactionary Modernist movement of Le Cite Radieuse, Le Corbusier’s vision of a utopian city that was environmentally friendly (green spaces), used little land (because of high-rise apartment blocks, and most importantly, were cheap (using concrete). Amsterdam created an entire new community called “Bijlmermeer,” and for seven years, worked to create this new utopian community. Although the community was created as intended, the expected infrastructure did not follow. Construction was delayed on the new metro line. One dirt road led to the community. There was a shopping area, but no shops moved in, which meant residents travelled far to get essentials. Eventually, the middle class Amsterdamers failed to take up the units, and were eventually taken up by the poor, recent Surinam immigrants, and the neighborhood became a ghetto. (Mingle, 2018) Often people would simply break in and squat in the empty apartments, which meant that the association responsible for maintenance didn’t have enough money to keep up repairs. Vandalism was rampant and drug use (especially heroin) was common. (ibid)
The intent was good; post-war Amsterdam was crowded, expensive, and polluted. The planners considered economic, environmental, and equitable considerations when planning the housing. However, de Brujin thought that middle-class families want to live in high-rise apartment complexes instead of single-family homes… or more likely, would have no choice. “Unsuccessful city areas are areas which lack this kind of intricate mutual support” (Jacobs, 1961) and by trying to force unrelated people into a mold you want to fit, rather than how they want to live, your project is inevitably doomed to failure.
Bibliography
Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Knopf Doubleday Group. 1961.
Mingle, Katie. Bijlmer (City of the Future, Part 1). 99 Percent Invisible. February 20, 2018. https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/bijlmer-city-future-part-1/
Weber, Max. Politics as a Vocation. Konigl-Bibliothek Berlin. 1919.
Albigensia Press 