American urban architecture : Catalysts in the design of cities

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In pre-twentieth-century Europe, cities often reflected common ideas about the design of urban buildings. Typically the form of cities was cohesive, and public spaces were clearly defined because each building played a part in an ensemble. The individual structures on Kramgasse in Bern, Switzerland, were conceived in sympathy with their neighbors and in consideration of their role in defining an outdoor public room. The issue here is not whether these design gestures were spontaneous and purposeful or were required by public policy; rather, it is the common agreement that each building played an important part in continuously generating and regenerating urban places.

In the twentieth century, urban form has derived more often from theory than from such a consensus. Contemporary European urban design theorists have tried to create a new consensus based on different attitudes toward urban form, attitudes often characterized by the terms functionalist, townscape, structuralist, and neo-rationalist (or rationalist). Our concern here is not the application of these attitudes in Europe but rather our belief that European urban design theory in the twentieth century has not provided a sound basis for American urban design. An appropriate urbanism for America must grow out of the inherent characteristics and conditions of American cities, not out of theories derived from an alien experience.

Much recent urban development in the United States has been based on a pragmatic picking and choosing among European theories and precedents, with a few homegrown techniques thrown in. But the European theories are unconvincing in American contexts. Instead of the appliqué of imported ideas and homegrown methods, we need an urban design theory that is appropriate to American circumstances and allows architects, urban designers, and planners to develop a consensus about our own urban values.

This book presents such a theory, which we call catalytic architecture. It describes the positive impact an individual urban building or project can have on subsequent projects and, ultimately, the form of a city. It encourages designers, planners, and policymakers to consider the chain-reactive potential of individual developments on civic growth and urban regeneration. It advocates design control as part of a catalytic strategy for urban design.