Urbanization in Sweden. means and methods for the planning

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Reviews RONNEBERGER, F. und G. TEICH, Eds. (1972): Von da mwr industriogoseiis&aft. Sozialor wandoi auf dom Land0 in Siiostouropr, Hoft 9 und 10.115 S., 14 lab., 2 Karton. Darmstadt: Vorlag Hopponstodt & Co. This rrios appears TV bo one of the mob usofui and thwghtful publications on routhoastorn European structural changes in rocont years. The prorant fssuesdoll with the herding wonomy (by T. HERSENI), with the sociaiist rural economy in Yugoslavia (by I. SQBOHKE), with the social consoquoncos of cumnt agrkultural policy In Turkey (by V. TAYSI), and with population dovolopmont in South East Europe (by G. KRALLERT). Ail contrlbutions are woil documontod, con&o (romo 20 to 35 pqos each) and yet comprohonsivo. They are intrrdisciplinrry and intornational in scope. m0 wkctd tcwpics af0 in particular ropmontativo of ma@ characteristics of South East Europa, and their prosentatkm hoopsDOovarcpmo ianguago over pmsont problems. cf. Geoforum 6, p. 96. W. TI ETZE, Wolfsburg

Internationalor Atlas (1972). 526 pp., muitlcolorod maps, muitHlngual text, 160,000 gopgraphkal names. Braunschwoig: Goprg Wostorman Vorlag, Chicagr~: Rand McNally. DM 180,-. Mayors BOgor Wdtauas (1970). 490 pp., multIcolored maps, 120,OBO goographlul nunMannhoim: BMRognphkchos lnstitut DM 89,-. Contra) Eumpo the vrditknal home of fundamental World Atiam has produced two new ambitious pubikations. The lntomatknal Atlas, jointly published by Wostormann of Braunschwoig and Rand McNaiiy of Chicagu is “intornarional” in its appiicatlon of the metric system (including conversion aids) and the German, English, Spanish and French languages (appiiod in title, oxplanatwy text, legends and indox). The maps have boon compiled mostly by Rand McNaJly, in a fow cases by Philip, London or Essoito, Stockholm. Unfortunatoiy, the suporb oxporioncc of the Westormann c-hors has not been applied to this atlas.

The contents of the lntornational Atlas are made up of four rather different typos of maps. Ten maps of the world (1: 75 Mn) and of the oceans and continents (1: 48 Mn and 1: 24 Mn rasp.) are of the picturesque typo allowing for some fantasy as far as ice ccvoragt is concomod, for oxampie. The bulk of the following 126 maps of continental regions atascaloofaithor1:1,3,6or12Mnprcwidos a remarkable amount of tqmgraphic information. Just the fow gonoral political maps among this gmup are disappointing by their carte+ gnphy and nogiigabio informative value. A highlight is the concluding 60 maps of major conurbations of the world all at the same scale 1: 300,000. The GroiIo Mayor is ontiroly homemade, a fact which, howovor, does rust contrlbute u, more uniformity in style, layout and goneral prosontatkn. Tho contrary is true, omphaskod evon by adding 24 p-s of satollito (calour) and astronmnk (black and white) photos all most improssivo but not oxplainod. Furthormore a sot of sky maps, and, finally, six maps each of gookgy and wgotation are included. These have boon takon from the famous Moyors GroUor Physischor Woitatias. This series is the real clue to the value of the atlas. On0 can only regret that tho romaining six parts of thh little approciatod work wore not included as wall. rnw0 ar0 six map pages of tourist VW Apart from ono on the Mombasa-Nahobi&r~oti aroa in East Africa, all other cowr Modltorranoan tourist goals, sume in stamp size only, dl displaying poor cartography and hence sppillng a usofui idea. Altgothor the lntomatianal Atlas contains 196 map pages compared wtth 105 of the GroUo Mayor. Both publishers prosont a large number of place namo% The GroUe Meyer has non-aesthetic symbols for roads, and, rails and isbhypsos (in most maps) which protond a psoudd accuncy. Spociai place name maps (the general politIcal maps) arc inserted botwoon the physical maps to ease the readlng problem. Howovor they show hardly more names and in fact skip the landscape names which are shovn on tho physical maps! Considorablo space is spoiled by this method. In additiun the maps are only printed on one sido. Noithor of the two atlases copes satisfactorily with the trkky langu~o problem in cast contral Europe. Lack of consistency is extreme in the Gro6ie Moyor in spite of special place name maps. The index, howover, contributes to identification, which in turn is npt true of the international Atlas On the other hand, the index of the international Atlas provides

much mpre information than the GroeC Moyer and indicator the gobgraphical coordinatos of ah piacos listed. The coordinates in the Grogo Mayor only rofor to the SW cornor of the grid qudrangio which contains the place concomod. Both atlases take the liberty of switching maps uut of the northom direction, and the GroQ Mayor applies a now, most sbphisticati proioktion which, however, is unidontifiabio. By doing so the earth’s surface is obscurely twistod and unnessarily puzzling to the layman. The extreme close to absurdity - is found on page 316. Printing, papor and binding are oxcoilont throughout both atiasos. Much ungraphic improvomont would be desirable in future editions. W. TIETZE,

Wolfsburg

HAGERSTRAND, Torston, Hrsg. (1970): Urbanisoringon i Smigo. En goog&isk samhtlinnaiyr 463 S., Tab., Abb. Stockholm: Allmgnna FBriagoL skr. 36:GDMANN, Ella und GuwBrltt DAHLBERG (1970): Urbaniaation in Swodon. Moans and Mahods for the Planning. Fig., tables, 1 map. Stockholm: Allmgnna F(lrlagot. skr. 25:20. Fast giokhtoitig sind zwoi fast giokhartigo Studion horausgokommon, die oine groge Zahi somltigor Anaiyson zusammonfasson, mit doron Hilfo man das sich nach dom II. WeI,.kriog rasch stoigomdo Vorstgdtorungsphgr.,:,. mm in Schwodon orkonnon mtichto. Die Untorsuchungon gdton oinor Gosolischaft, die don h&hston durchschnittiichon Lebonsstandard boi kldnstor Abwoichung von diesom Durchschnitt untor Jion Nationon orroicht hat In ErgXnzung tu ihron bemerkonsworton oigenon Kapaait%ton stohon diner Gesollschaft botrgchtlicho natiirikho Rosourcon zur Vorfiing. Davon spkion in beidon Bikhorn vur allem dio GtisC dos Torritoriums line Roiie und dosson Ausfiillung und Bonutrung durch dir Bovohnor. Entsprechond goht es in orstor Linie urn die Verteiiung dor Bev8ikorung, urn die Vorteiiung dor Siodlungon und urn doron Grille und Struktur. in Schwedon stoht nicht mohr wio in don vergangonen 350 jahren die Expansion des Siodiungsraumos im Vordsrgrund, sondorn im Gegentoii dossen %hNmpfUng bei gloichzoitiget ganr bedeutender Sreigerung der Erschlie-

86

pungsquolidt: das ist die Urbmisicrung. Sk etfa6t such - beginnend etwa mit der Jahrhundertmitte - im Laufe einer Generation fast den gesamten Sektor der PrimSrwirtschaft (Landwirtschaft, Forstwirtschaft und Fischerei). Wo das aus Lokaiisierunlrgriinden nkht maglich ist, ist das Ende dcr betreffendcn Bctriebe besiegeIt. S&on 1960 konnten 235 Zwergsiedlun8en zur Gruppe der inyosamt 1808 st8dtiscbm Siedlun8en @hit wrrdm, obwohl mehr aIs 50 % ihrrr Erwerbsbev6lkerung im Prim&rsoktor trtig war. Bis 1965 war die Bewohnerzahl der 1819 stgdtischen Siedlungen kreits urn vchr als eine halbe Mill&n auf Cber 6 Millionen (von miner Gesamtbev#kerung von 7,77 Millionen) gestiegan. S&her diirfte sich die Labensweise liner weltrren Millkn Schweden urbanisiert haben. Dieser Vorgang ist selbstverstindlich mlt tiner betrgchtlichen Wanderung verbunden. Bemerkanswert ist dabei, da8 die GroenYdte mlt mehr als 100.000 Einwohnern nur 3,6 % diesel Wandtrungen auf skh zkhen konntm, wXhrend die Masse (56,8 %I) den kleinemn Mittelstfidten zwischan 10.000 und 50.000 zustrebte. Diese Zahlen brtreffen dk Zeitspanne 1960-l 965. Danach folgende bedeutende VerSnderungen der Kommunalgrenzen machen das Bild wider unklarer. WIhrend JJrbaniwringen i Sverige” die Untersuchungsmethoden fiir diese au6erordsntlkhen VIITnderungen enthw, bringt JJrbmizrtbn in Sweden” eine Kennzeichnuy der Symptome dioses Proz~s~s und der planerischen Ma8nahmen. Keines kider Biicher nennt die Ziele, die man emmbt oder fUr erreichbar h8lt Das 1st bedauerlich. Aber das Versiiumnis kenme ja noch aufgeholt werden. Es wird ja von gro8em allgemeinen lnteresse xin, zu beobachtsn, wie skh das Verhlltnis zwischen geseatem Ziel und Erreichtem cntwickelt. Die Zielsetzung und ihre Formulierung selbst w&en &&rst aufschlu&eich, ebenso die Bedrngungen, die sich auf dam Wege dorthin dnstellen. Geographen, Soziologen, Planer, Wirtschaftler und Politiker wiirden dankbar sein, such das zu erfahren. Wolf TI ETZE, Wolfsburg

BANHAM, Reyner (1971): Los Angeles The Architecture of Four Ecolqics. 256 pp., 123 faures. London: Penguin Pmss. f 2.50. BANHAM’s book on the architecture of Los Angeles is an attempt to get away from the norm of architectural history books. What BANHAM tries to do is, in his own words: “to present the architecture within the topographical and historical context of the total

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artifact that constitutes Greater Los Angeles, because it is this double context that binds the polymorphous architectures into a comprehensible unity that cannot often be discerned by compariq monument with monument of our context”. But since this context of Los Angeles is so powerful, so controversial and so immensely internsting to explore, he ends up wlth a book in which the description of the context becomes far more impottant and mom worthwhile to read than the descrlptlon of the architecturn (in the conventional sense of the word) which he started out to describe in the first place. This dual emphasis on urban context and architecture was also mflected in the title of the book. Many readers will probabbly be confused by the swmir@y dichotomous orientation of the book, and an earlier rt viewer even suggested BANHAM should have made two books out of this one. However the suggestion of two books k diametrically opposed to BANHAM’s intentlon to explain the architectures in a broader context that binds them into a comprehensible unity. Yet, BANHAM did not succeed in making this unity compmhendble. The lnterrelatlon between the different archltectum and between architectures and urban context are sometimes so weak (In spite of attempts such as trying to relate commerical archltecture to the art of preparing harmburgers) that the book appears es a collection of various though well drvrikd aspects of a much larger picture with many connecting parts missing. This might seem an appropriate way to describe a phenomenon as complex as Los Angeles. But what further incmases the sporadic character of the book is the allocation of too much space to the description of certain facets of architectural history that really do not matter to the total picture of Los Angeles but rather reflect BANHAM’s personal interest as an architectural historian. Neither architecture, in the conventional sense of the word, nor history seem to be essential for a city which is generally known as an “instant” and “anti-architecture” city, in spite of the fact that Los Angeles has produced an impressive number of important works of modern architecture. Los Angeles is not a place for architectural history and monuments. As BANHAM observes himseti “The language of design, architecture and urbanism in Los Angeles is movement - mobilky outweighs monumentallty . . .” It is as likely for an architecturally important buildiw in Los Angeles to appear over night as it is for one to be bulldozed down the next night.. Los Angeles and the concept of a city as a museum of architecture seem to be incom-

patible. Only the master-conscious Los Angeles architectural students still pilgrim to the hidden archltectural landmarks according to Gebhard’s and Winter’s book, Architecture in Southern California. For the average Los Angeles architecture student these architectures have lost their attractiveness and have given way to mobile home and trailer sites, the construction of ordinary tract homes or to the more ephemeral commerical poparchiucture. Pop seems to have been part of the Los Angela scene long before the term pop-art was invented. (The CocaCola headquarters in the form of a giant ocean cruiser had been built in downtown Los Angeles 25 years before Hollein’s photographic transpiantations). But there is no space left in Banham’s book for mobile homes, trlilers, etc. The overemphasis on the “European exlks” or on architects such as Ellwood certainly has to do with Banham’s European perspective. (Noutra and Ellwood probably get more attention today In Europe than In the United Sates. The only magezine in the world which ragulariy mports on Ellwood’s work is the Swiss-German magazine Bourn untt Wohnm.) This is not to say that the book suffers in general from the fact that BANHAM is only an Angelrno at heart and not by bkth. Quite to the contrary, to describe thoee espects which establish the mal value of the book requires an open-minded outside observer like BANHAM who can give Los Angeles the attention it desena Because “between the unthinking hostility from outsiders, and equally unthinking indifference from the Angeleno . . . it got attention, but it’s like the attention that Sodom and Gomorrah have recuived, primarily a reflection of other people’s bad consciences.” Once BANHAM leaves the field of architectum (in the conventional sense of the word) and concerns himself with jack-in-theBox, billboards, dingbau, freeways and ocean piers, Los Angeles suddenly becomes alive and hk description of architecture is understood within its cultural and social context. BANHAM touches on aspects of every day buildings as a manifestation of the American dmam consummated in Southern Californian archkectural styles ranging from “Spanish-Colonial mvival, Tacoburger Aztec, Polynesian Gable to Gourmet Mansardic,” he is concerned with the do-yourawn-thing architecture (from Simon Rodia’s Watts-towers to the “homeis-where-the-heart-shaped-flower-bed-is” architecture), with mountain cropping (as an expression of the Anpleno’s attitude to think as a plainsman) and with the beautification of oil drilling structures. In general BANHAM takes a positive attitude towards L. A. reacting sharply against the gioomy preconceptions which have dominated