Description
The turn of the 1960s-70s, characterized by the rapid acceleration of globalization, prompted a radical transformation in the perception of urban and natural environments. The urban revolution and related prospect of the total urbanisation of the planet, in concert with rapid population growth and resource exploitation, instigated a surge in environmental awareness and activism. One implication of this moment is a growing recognition of the integration and interconnection of natural and urban entities. The present collection is an interdisciplinary inquiry into the changing modes of representation of nature in the city beginning from the turn of the 1960s/70s. Bringing together a number of different disciplinary approaches, including architectural studies and aesthetics, heritage studies and economics, environmental science and communication, the collection reflects upon the changing perception of socio-natures in the context of increasing urban expansion and global interconnectedness as they are/were manifest in specific representations. Using cases studies from around the globe, the collection offers a historical and theoretical understanding of a paradigmatic shift whose material and symbolic legacies are still accompanying us in the early 21st century.
Table of Contents
Introduction: global cities, global nature (Gabriel Gee & Alison Vogelaar) Part I: Forgotten Spaces 1. Beyond Narcissus: the sea and the metamorphosis of port-cities in the late twentieth century (Gabriel N. Gee) 2. Bangkok against its nature (Worrasit Tantinipankul) 3. Growing up in a Steel Mill: a Conversation with Historian and Nature-lover Elmer J. Hall (Michelle L. Stefano) 4. Looking beyond the image of ‘the wasteland’: Newark, New Jersey (Lori M. Gibbs) Part II: Artificial Spaces 5. Passages: From Artificial Animal to Planetary Man (Paolo Perulli) 6. Luigi Ghirri: the theatre of landscape (Giuliano Sergio) 7. Nature, plastic, artifice: in conversation with Tuula Närhinen (Tuula Närhinen & Gabriel Gee) 8. Naturally Representative: the Environmental Planning of the New African Capitals Abuja and Dodoma (Ayala Levin) 9. Grey, Green, Gold (Uriel Orlow) Part III: Interstitial Spaces 10. Reyner Banham’s Desert Landscapes 11. (Eliana Sousa Santos) 12. ‘Nature’ in interstice: reflections on China's "Obscure Poetry" in the 1970s (Jundan Zhang) 13. The Green Corridor: a vision for Lisbon (Maria Joao Matos) 14. Weather, science & cinema: in conversation with Conor McFeely (Conor McFeely & Gabriel Gee) 15. The Postcolonial Garden City? Changing Representations of Nature in Christchurch, New Zealand (Alison Vogelaar and Brack Hale)
