CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF THE NEW UTOPIA (URBAN PATTERNS)

SUBMITTED BY : SPARSH JHA ( BMSA/15/133)

SUBMITTED TO : AR. SOHAM MUKHERJEE

The search for a new utopia or thought of an ideal place is urgently required due to the
escalating growth of urban population and poses many problems due to physical expansion
of population and the expansion of cities and towns. Some of the problems associated with
the urbanization and urban sprawl are population density, inadequate infrastructure, lack of
affordable housing, flooding, pollution, congestion, crime and dispairity between HIG classes
and LIG classes. As the cities started getting urbanized and getting populated, people
started to move into the cities in search of employment and better life. The cities started
getting populated. After that emerged the concept of skyscrappers to accommodate the
population. As the roofs of skyscrappers moved upwards, so did the proposals for multilevel
streets. The planning failed to catch up with the advancements in technology and science.
To solve the minor problems, people started creating major problems with some fantastic
solutions. The dwellers or the inhabitants started getting far away from the realities of life,
started to loose their individual identity , lost connection to the place they live in, and got
obscurred in the fake artificial glow of the new “Great City”. In this chapter, he stated some
words quoted by a great industrialists that nothing will work effectively to solve the
problems than destruction of land values because people started to think that it is valid
because of the high land values.

The great cities lack the human scale. The sense of community is obscurred by the grayness
of metropolis. The connection between the individuals and the place they live is lost. The
suburban areas started to expand and exhausted the space it was intended to preserve.
People stared to move to suburban areas in search of a desired environment. ASCORAL
setforth the ‘three human establishments”, the farming unit, the radiocentric unit and the
linear industrial city. In search of new utopia, an assumption is made that land zoned for
specific use will be reserved for specific use. In the present scenario, the residential areas
also consists of offices of the owners on the ground floors. This is either a result of flaws in
planning, or lack of infrastructure.
The extreme population density to which we have accustomed is due for critical review. The
balance between the floor space occupied by the people and the ground space for
circulation is among these critical factors. In 1922, paris exposition, Le Corbusier displayed
his model for the new utopia. His scheme consists of magnificient skyscrappers surrounded
by sweeping large surrounding space. The city must accommodate its vehicles. In the
scheme of Le Corbusier, the surrounding space would be used in accommodating the
vehicles leaving less space for transportation.
On the common Ground, it is true that whatever the ideas and whatever the direction taken
in search of a new ideal utopia, the idea of city will not be forsaken. The complex and
diverse functions of a city may be reshaped, reorganized but the constitutional elements of
a city are not abandoned. The commerce and the industry upon which our society or a city
depends for its material enrichment are retained. We may have tall buildings or attractive
skyscrapers and convenient communication. These advantages will be forthcoming when a
rational view is taken of the density equation.
The question or the search of perfect ideal desired space is relevant and should have been
paid attention very earlier as the consequences of Great cities and urbanization are fatal to
the city and to the people. We have been obscured by the artificial glow of cities. The article
draws attention of architects, students, planners to the problems of urbanization of urban
growth. In the words of modernization, major problems are being constructed to solve the
problems of urban growth. The author puts light to some important topics like the search
for ideal space, search for form and the density equation. Although Many activists, planners,
Urban designers and architects want to contribute towards the same objectives, their
theories conflicts and opinions vary.