After Corbu

These new development plans for Abu Dhabi seem like a case study in bad urban planning. To quote what irks Archidose about the projects:

:: The assertion of authorship at the scale of the city,
:: The desire to be innovative at the same scale, linked with
:: The apparent tabula rasa conditions of each, and
:: The apparent lack of learning from history at various levels.

Criticisms with which I completely agree. City-scale architecture is an exercise in coordination and system design, not artistic vision, which is why urban planning is a distinct field from architecture. Assuming a good architect will be a good planner is…not smart.

Arup’s approach to designing Dongtan, at least as described here, seems much more promising.