The Twentieth Century witnessed an ambitious range of planning schemes for new towns and capital cities. While these projects were driven by diverse political, economic, and geographic conditions, many of them shared an enthusiasm for landscape as a medium of urbanism. Given the widely documented and generally accepted shortcomings of modern planning, many of these cities are seen as failures in social, environmental, and cultural terms.
The 1st Topos International Seminar – Landscapes of Power: Reconsidering the Twentieth Century Capital Cities proposes cross-disciplinary discussion into the historical claims, present status, and future potential of those modern capitals, reconsidered in theory and practice. By presenting a range of approaches that include urbanism, architecture, ecology, and social engagement, this symposium will provide an opportunity for imagining future possibilities of contemporary urbanism, and the role of equity in design.
