UrbaNews.fr : l'actualité française et internationale de l'urbanisme, de l'aménagement du territoire et de l'architecture pour le plus grand nombre. Mediated Cityscapes 02: 'Memory and the City' by Greg J. Smith (@serial_consign) In 1978 Rem Koolhaas (wiki) published Delirious New York, a “retroactive manifesto” that wildly reframed Manhattan through a rigorous analysis of the street grid, the skyscraper and congestion while excavating the history of the “mythical island”.
A few years later Ridley Scott’s film adaptation of Blade Runner (wiki) explored the limits of the human condition against a backdrop of decaying art deco, flickering neon and unchecked corporatism. In thinking about creative projects that explore memory and the city, one would be hard-pressed to find a more influential (or ambitious) work than Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project. This masterwork was a meticulous examination of 19th century shopping arcades and Parisian city life largely driven by urban exploration, a reverence for the aesthetics of the poet Charles Baudelaire and countless hours spent at the Bibliothèque Nationale. Built during the 1820s and 30s, the Parisian shopping arcades were exciting and progressive spaces. Epilogue.
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