Discourses of Identity and Representation in the Regeneration
Re-imagining a new town: the architecture of empowerment and segregation in a Dutch post- war neighbourhood LEEKE REINDERS Introduction Architects meet a practical need for places to dwell, work, rest or play, but they tend to operate on the premises of an artist. There is, however, something irrevocable behind architecture. Architects put an ineradicable stamp on the environment. In contrast with a painting or a play, one cannot alter an architectonic work of art other than by blowing it up or pulling it down. Streets, squares, buildings and parks form the physical structure within which social life takes place. Yet the hard city as it is designed, built and managed, is not only guided by aesthetic or artistic ideas. Architects, designers and town planners also play a crucial role in translating conflicting claims on urban space. The urban landscape in this sense has been understood as materialized discourse, be it an expression, reflection or reproduction of political ideals and ideologies. This paper explores this social production of space through an examination of two design projects in Hoogvliet, a post-war neighbourhood in southwest Rotterdam, undergoing radical restructuring. This paper argues that questions of symbolism, discourse, imagery and representation, which have come to the foreground of urban studies, are tied up with the political and economic processes of social and spatial transformation. Striking a middle ground between culturalist and political economic approach to urban space (Eade & Mele 2002), this paper shows how architectural designs in hoogvliet are linked to shifts in the ideological foundations of urban renewal policy and the emergence of an entrepreneurial discourse in public sector planning.
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