PRUITT IGOE VS CITY OF THE FUTURE

K e y w o r d s : Pruitt Igoe; Modernism, postmodernism; City of the future; Paredes, UOS. 4/2019 A R C H I T E C T U R E C I V I L E N G I N E E R I N G E N V I R O N M E N T 15 A R C H I T E C T U R E C I V I L E N G I N E E R I N G E N V I R O N M E N T The Si les ian Univers i ty of Technology No. 4/2019 d o i : 1 0 . 2 1 3 0 7 / A C E E 2 0 1 9 0 4 8 A . G ą s o w s k a K r a m a r z history of this housing estate has entered the history of world architecture. The housing estate did not survive this, leaving impurities, lack of media and a group of residents left to vegetate in neglected buildings. The scope of the Minoru Yamasaki’s project was immortalized in Godfrey Reggio’s documentary entitled “Koyaanisqatsi”. In the film, harmony and the beauty of nature were confronted with images of civilization. The eloquent images of the liquidation of Priutt-Igoe, carry a message of a disruption of the nature by man [20]. Attempts were made to correct the errors of modernist era. The 1950s corresponded to the period of redevelopment of the urban space. In this time, housing estates that were left empty during the day and industrial and service estates that were empty during the day were designed and built. The measures that were followed were guided by planning with a strict separation of areas designed for residential and service purposes. This is the way in which cities that were developed did not meet the needs of residents. As a result, a massive urban migration to the suburbs occurred. The areas of the city that were not adjusted to the needs to the residents generated problems: – only the less wealthy citizens remained in the urban space, – for the reasons of social segregation into the rich and the poor, richer and poorer neighborhoods began to emerge. (The problems of segregation based on material status is addressed by Grzegorz Nawrot, who provides criteria for classifying apartments in a house based on financial capabilities into categories of wealthy, moderate, and poor. The division also concerned classification for cities dying out and developing and the ones in a state of stagnation) [8]. – along with outflow of residents, an increasing 16 A R C H I T E C T U R E C I V I L E N G I N E E R I N G E N V I R O N M E N T 4/2019 Figure 1. Development of the Pruitt-Igoe housing estate, author’s own drawing [13] P R U I T T I G O E V S C I T Y O F T H E F U T U R E degradation of urban space occurred, – by failing to invest in valuable areas for the city, the condition of the natural environment has deteriorated. The ideas of modernism were aimed at improving human life. The resistance of ideas opposed in relation to modernism grew from the mid-1950s. In the criticism of postmodernism, postmodernists accused the previous era of ignoring human needs by adopting an attitude of opposition against modernity, and by following a belief that architecture does not have to undergo technical progress, and creative work should depend on the context and personal affection of the investor and architect. Postmodernism in architecture has no uniform ideology, as it is not represented by a specific style in architecture, actually, postmodernism forms a protest. The aspects considered to be postmodernism include: – symbolism (Robert Venturi), – romantic current developed by the neostylism (Hans Hollein), – classisizing concept of the new vernacular (Leon and Rob Krier) [10]. These aspect include a number of common characteristics , including: – a return in the classical sense to the definition of public space in the sense of the urban fabric (street, square) to replace the modernist housing estate with distinct quarters and districts, thus denying most of the principles of modern design [9], – restoring the function to the facade, giving the building an individual feature and character, – return of passages and narrow corners, scale differentiation. The return to the traditional and historical composition of the city represents a postmodernist New Urbanism. As it is related to the work of the Krier brothers, in particular with Leon, who promotes an innovative organization of the urban community integrated with traditional elements such as apartment, building, store, school, work, park, entertainment along with range of such places within the walking and cycling distances. New Urbanism defines [14]: – focus on the public space, – organization of the landscape: replenishment of buildings, underground car parks, reduction of visual chaos, – role of greenery located near the streets, as well as in parks and squares, – limitation of car transport, implementing the idea of traffic calming zones, – care for infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists, – priority for road safety through intuitive solutions: intersections with priority to the right, – implementing measures limiting urbanization, – use of building quarters while maintaining the building line, – differentiation of functions in order to socialize common spaces, – sustainable development: the use of ecological solutions. 3. MODERN IDEAL OF THE CITY New Urbanism forms a modern ideal of the city. It incorporates an unlimited demographic and spatial development of the city. Cities are derived from communities as tools for meeting the basic economic and social needs. In a simplified manner, the nowadays city houses comfort, aesthetics and safety. The development of cities offers a guarantee of a life enjoyed in a comfortable, aesthetic and well-kept environment. It means social diversity meant for the restoration of social bonds and designed so as to prevent exclusion, environmental protection as well as decrease of air pollution. Cities are for people [5], not for cars. In order to ensure that urban space is attractive and safe, transit traffic should be located outside of it, and the use of vehicles should become expendable. Such activities significantly increase pedestrian safety and have a positive impact on the natural environment. The city should become compact, multi-functional, and provide an opportunity for the development of a close neighborhood with the school, work, health center, small services and the recreation space [14]. How are the principles of New Urbanism applied in cities, why cannot you drive a car into the city center, why shouldn’t we build a house in the suburbs and why should we be forced to ride a bike? Such guidelines form an impediment to a full life. However, as a result of technological development and changes in the mentality of residents, decision-making processes in the local communities are based in local governments, and with the increasing roles of urban movements and activism, physical culture and increasing awareness of the impact on the surrounding space and the environment all affect the promotion of new A R C H I T E C T U R E 4 /2019 A R C H I T E C T U R E C I V I L E N G I N E E R I N G E N V I R O N M E N T 17 a A . G ą s o w s k a K r a m a r z urbanism. The definition of New Urbanism above offers an answer to these questions. 4. THE CITY OF THE FUTURE Are we aware what the city of the future will look like, how the current housing development will evolve within our technical capabilities? Projects of such cities already exist and some are even already implemented. However, we need to remember that projects do not have to reflect what will happen in the future. PlanIT Valley Smart City (Fig. 2), a new wonderful city of the future is designed for the purposes of a new wonderful human, and the city is to be built in Portugal within the small town of Paredes, twenty kilometers east of Porto. Approved by the municipality and recognized by the Portuguese government as “a project of national importance”. The model city of the future will be created to implement the urban UOS operating system – called “Urban Operating System”. The city will be built on an area of 1.7 thousand hectares in several stages so as to ultimately accommodate 225,000 inhabitants. Equipped with processors designed for handling local information, embedded in objects, common surfaces and spaces, clothes, devices and vehicles, it is projected to generate a continuous stream of data for computers whose task is to control: water consumption and recovery, energy management, operation of wind turbines, solar cells, air conditioning and waste management, up to 80% of which is to be used as a source of energy or recycled. A computer network defined as the city's nervous system is to monitor all its functions. It will be used to acquire data, process, analyze, issue commands and even make decisions on its own [3, 7, 17]. UOS is a modular intelligent urban platform, developed by “Living PlanIT” company which is an UK-based company specializing in the design of computer networks. Such networks are projected to be used in the development of other similar smart cities in the near future. Living PlanIT SA deals with software development and data analysis and cooperates with: Cisco, IBM and Microsoft. The company has developed the first Urban Operating System. The objective stated by this company is to build new, sustainable cities of the future. They develop relations with various partners with the purpose of helping them design and implement new infrastructure ideas, including buildings capable of consuming fifty percent less energy and eighty percent less water. This smart city, PlanIT Valley in Portugal, has attracted the partnership of Cisco and is projected to implement new technologies, such as on-line traffic monitoring and intelligent buildings. The objective is to create a safe, effective and environmentally-friendly urban space [3, 7]. PlantIT will become an attempt to build a functional, modern, ecological and self-sufficient city, in which the digital network of connections will provide the flow of information regarding energy consumption, access control, travel, work, leisure and entertainment. Diversified buildings will be applied and supported by intelligent