Suchergebnisse

Introduction: The arc of utopias -- Neotechnics in the garden : the marriage of country and town -- Planning for national regeneration : techno-cities in the interwar years -- Techno-città : technology and urban design in fascist Italy -- The techno-city goes to war : America in World War II and after -- Utopia revived : from industrial modernism to community -- The city of disciplines : utopia denied, utopia restored -- Techno-nostalgia and the new urbanism -- Conclusion: The fate of the industrial Eden

Tracing the design of "techno-cities" that blend the technological and the pastoral. Industrialization created cities of Dickensian squalor that were crowded, smoky, dirty, and disease-ridden. By the beginning of the twentieth century, urban visionaries were looking for ways to improve both living and working conditions in industrial cities. In Invented Edens, Robert Kargon and Arthur Molella trace the arc of one form of urban design, which they term the techno-city: a planned city developed in conjunction with large industrial or technological enterprises, blending the technological and the pastoral, the mill town and the garden city. Techno-cities of the twentieth century range from factory towns in Mussolini's Italy to the Disney creation of Celebration, Florida. Kargon and Molella show that the techno-city represents an experiment in integrating modern technology into the world of ideal life. Techno-cities mirror society's understanding of current technologies, and at the same time seek to regain the lost virtues of the edenic pre-industrial village. The idea of the techno-city transcended ideologies, crossed national borders, and spanned the entire twentieth century. Kargon and Molella map the concept through a series of exemplars. These include Norris, Tennessee, home to the Tennessee Valley Authority; Torviscosa, Italy, built by Italy's Fascist government to accommodate synthetic textile manufacturing (and featured in an early short by Michelangelo Antonioni); Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela, planned by a team from MIT and Harvard; and, finally, Disney's Celebration--perhaps the ultimate techno-city, a fantasy city reflecting an era in which virtual experiences are rapidly replacing actual ones.

Dynamic triad: city, exposition, and museum in industrial society / Miriam R. Levin -- Bringing the future to Earth in Paris / Miriam R. Levin -- From modern Babylon to White City: science, technology and urban change in London, 1870-1914 / Sophie Forgan -- Counterrevolution of progress: a civic culture of modernity in Chicago. 1880-1910 / Robert H. Kargon -- "Damned always to alter, but never to be": Berlin's culture of change around 1900 / Martina Hessler -- Promoting scientific and technological change in Tokyo, 1870-1930: museums, industrial exhibitions, and the city / Morris Low -- CODA / Miriam R. Levin