The seed title of INMERSIONS collection revisits Ludwig Hilberseimer’s unique investigation, a radically modern proposal of territorial colonisation that relied on historical knowledge for justification and remained loyal to the unconditional alliance between the communal spirit of a small city and the pragmatic efficiency of infrastructures.
"With clear and elegant writing, González Martínez unravels an important paradox in this book: the unexpected emotional intensity hidden within this figure who was commonly described as cold, dull and stubborn; his tragic love story with Otti Berger, a student he met in Bauhaus de Dessau; his close relationship with students at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago (IIT), who suffered from the daunting arrogance of a certain Mies van der Rohe… In short, this book reveals the profound human dimension behind the leader of urban and architectural rationalism in the 20th century".
—Carlos García Vázquez.
Prisoner of a radical warlike rhetoric, the American post-war city was a privileged test field for new forms of contemporary urbanity from which today its immateriality constitutes one of the most captivating aspects. Occupying an ambiguous space between that which is urban and that which is natural, the levity of the suburbanization of the American suburbs finds a clear antecedent in New City, the first introduction to the collection.
Originally published in 1944, The New City. Principles of Planning is a work of research that views historical knowledge as a justification for a radically modern proposal of territorial colonisation, unsuspecting of the unconditional alliance between the community spirit of a small city and the pragmatic efficiency of infrastructures.
Thanks to the overwhelming conviction of its discourse and the captivating beauty of its images, The New City managed to spur the deep suspicions of the large metropolis characterising American urban development, a suspicion marked by the weight of ideological antecedents and above all the traumatic experience of the war that had turned European cities into catastrophic battle fields.
Various references at the proposal of Hilberseimer take us from the book The City: Its Growth, its Decay, its Future (1943) by Eliel Saarinen to Kingo Houses (1957) by Jørn Utzon. All of these share an interest in an organic approach of the city and architecture, accentuating the prevalent and optimistic course of post-war modernity in which the beautiful yet devastating graphite representations of the New City, drawn by Alfred Caldwell, produce a troubling feeling of estrangement halfway between terror and science fiction.
Under this pretext, an immersion into the New City provides a unique vision of the warlike interpretation of the suburban model in which a sustainable reading of alimentary self-sufficiency did not clash with the waste of energy in dispersed urban developments. Likewise, the recovery of the prominent role of the pedestrian was not incompatible with the colossal layout of infrastructures.
The objective and positive nature of Hilberseimer’s descriptions does not hinder the scenario of pacific coexistence between city and countryside, which guarantees the success of the civil rebirth of the New City, from going back to that which needs to be conveyed. Therefore, it led to the incorporation of a discourse of fear into the urban theory in the United States, which would later be dealt with in great length by the same author in successful publications throughout the 1950’s within the hysterical context of McCarthysim.
The trophy of immersion is the intuition of a lost beauty, austere, stark and monotonous, a beauty that surrendered to the colourful optimism of pop which became the hallmark of the American Way of Life. In the end rejected by the strength of consumerist society, the New City remains a souvenir of the infrequent transit along the fine line separating city and countryside in 21st century suburbs around the world.
PLÁCIDO GONZÁLEZ MARTÍNEZ has a PhD in architecture and has been an associate professor at the ETSA in Seville since 2002. He has taught at the University of San Pablo – CEU (2008), University Pontificia de Salamanca (2007) and Texas Tech University (2005). His doctoral thesis, La plaza de los trofeos. Arquitecturas y paisajes para el lugar común de la periferia (2010), studies the link between nature, architecture and memory in shaping the suburbs of modern and contemporary cities in Europe and the United States. He earned a PhD with distinction from the University of Seville in 2010.
The cultural dimension of 20th century architecture is the author's main field of interest. He undertakes research in contemporary heritage and has collaborated with the Andalusian Historical Heritage Institute for which he headed an architectonic heritage programme. He is a member of the technical committee of records for the Foundation Docomomo Ibérico. Currently, he is part of the committee of the Spanish Cultural Heritage Institute and is working on drafting the national plan for 20th century cultural heritage.
Title: The New City: Ludwig Hilberseimer
Author: Plácido González Martínez
Publisher: Vibok Works, INMERSIONS collection
ISBN: 978-84-939058-6-6
Pages: 112
Size: 15x21 cm (width·height)
Illustrations: B/N
Language: English
Electronic Edition + Printed Edition
