Collage City [Paperback]

Colin Rowe (Author), Prof Fred Koetter (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0262680424 | ISBN-13: 978-0262680424 | Publication Date: March 15, 1984

This book is a critical reappraisal of contemporary theories of urban planning and design and of the role of the architect-planner in an urban context. The authors rejecting the grand utopian visions of "total planning" and "total design," propose instead a "collage city" which can accommodate a whole range of utopias in miniature.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Coming upon this book in rather a skeptical state of mind, I must say I found it intriguing, enlightening, brilliant, witty, and exasperating as it pursued its thesis with a species of grammatical acrobatics that I can only call arresting. This is a book about the ideologies of modern architecture, their philosophical origins, their manifestations, and the ways in which they are flawed. It is a book about architects who had and have conceptions about the ideal city, and it tries to reorient those conceptions from the utopia of a single vision to a more multivalent view of city form." Donald Appleyard APA Journal

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (March 15, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262680424
• ISBN-13: 978-0262680424
• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 8.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #255,429 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Difficult, opaque, frustrating, but important, July 1, 2006

By 

J. V. Lewis (secure undisclosed location) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Collage City (Paperback)

I am a second-generation Rowe disciple, I guess. I studied with a Rowe acolyte in graduate school and worked with co-author Fred Koetter in an urban design studio. Without the efforts these teachers have made to bring Rowe's ideas to urban design students, they may well have been neglected, because Collage City is a mess. It is badly marred by dense thickets of poorly-edited, idiosyncratic prose. It was one of the more frustrating books I had to read in school, but I'm glad it was required, because the close readings uncovered real gems of theory. Rowe reintroduced the complexities and possibilities of art into urban design right at the peak of Modernism's influence. Architecture was still in the thrall of La Ville Radieuse and socialist-utopian projects that aimed to simplify and disinfect cities. Jane Jacobs saw the social perils of these projects, Colin Rowe saw the architectural perils. His critique of the Modern project was among the most powerful, and among the least cogent. Still, though it requires some serious digging in prose-mud, the gems are there and worth the search. I recommend this book for graduate-level urban theorists or serious urban design students.

But there are more accessible urban design primers: Aldo Rossi, et al, The Architecture of the City, for example, covers much of the same ground Rowe so spottily tilled [except where Eisenman is involved in the book: he is a worse prose-stylist than Rowe]. For non-specialists I also recommend Witold Rybczynski's City Life as a thoughtful and LUCID introduction to American urbanism, along with a critique of the last few decades of urban "development".

11 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most Important Book on Urban Design Theory Today, March 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Collage City (Paperback)

Colin Rowe proposes a form of inclusive urbanism that meshes the modern city with the traditional city.

25 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Pompous garbage, September 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Collage City (Paperback)

This book is the most pompous garbage I have ever seen. It is unreadable drivel that has no point and adds nothing to the search for solutions to our urban problems. What were the authors thinking? They deserve the "Emperor has no clothes" award for this trash. Save your money and buy "A Pattern Language," "Edge City," "Changing Places," "Home from Nowhere," or any of many meaningful books that say something relevant.