Unitary urbanism
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Unitary urbanism (UU) was the critique of status quo "urbanism", employed by the Letterist International and then further developed by the Situationist International between 1953 and 1960.
The
- The situation
- The dérive (drift)
- Psychogeography
- Détournement
- industrial painting
- Revolution
The critical practice continued to be developed by the Situationists and others. It was largely abandoned for the Debordian theory of the
Unitary urbanism was announced as a very specific praxis at the Alba platform between the Lettrist International and the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus. In his Address to the Alba Conference in September 1956, the Lettrist International Delegate Gil J. Wolman said: "A unitary urbanism—the synthesis of art and technology that we call for—must be constructed according to certain new values of life, values which now need to be distinguished and disseminated."[1] This mode of urban practice was also called for in a tract distributed during a demonstration by Lettrists in Turin, Italy in December 1956.[2]
Unitary urbanism, one of the major early Situationist concerns,[4] stands on two tenets:
- The rejection of the Euclidean, overly functional, urban architectural design, and
- The rejection of the detachment of art from its surroundings.
In the UU ideal, structural and artistic elements of humanity's metropolitan surroundings are blended into such grey area that one cannot identify where function ends and play begins. The resulting society, while it caters to fundamental needs, does so in an atmosphere of continual exploration, leisure, and stimulating ambience.
Unitary urbanists
- Piero Simondo
- Providence Initiative for Psychogeographic Studies
- Psy-Geo-Conflux
- The Workshop for Non-Linear Architecture
Quotes
Whatever prestige the bourgeoisie may today be willing to grant to fragmentary or deliberately retrograde artistic tentatives, creation can now be nothing less than a synthesis aiming at the construction of entire atmospheres and styles of life. ... A unitary urbanism—the synthesis we call for, incorporating arts and technologies—must be created in accordance with new values of life, values which we now need to distinguish and disseminate.
— George Williams, La plate-forme d’Alba; originally appeared in Potlatch: Information Bulletin of the Lettrist International #27 (Paris, 2 November 1956), quoting Gil J Wolman.
References
- ^ "Situationist International Online".
- ^ "Unitary Urbanism".
- ^ "Constant Niewenhuys: New Babylon".
- ^ "History of Unitary Urbanism and Psychogeography at the Turn of". Archived from the original on August 8, 2006. Retrieved June 27, 2006.