Protean Prototypes: Assembling Urban Platforms for Appropriation

Urban theorist Henri Lefebvre was adamant that urban studies should not only consist ofstudying the past, and was highly critical of a field that he found primarily concerned withcritique of the circumstances leading up to current urban conditions, yet making no compellingpropositions for their future(s). He argued that the field should actively speculate onurban possibilities and futures, including imaginary ones, “studying [their] implications andconsequences on the ground.”2 Lefebvre argued that design scenarios and theoretical propositionsproduce a valuable form of knowledge that can “construct and propose models…ofurban reality.”3 Within a framework implied by this suggested feedback between inquiry andproposition, we seek to investigate the means by which contemporary methods of urbanstudy might productively inform approaches to urban design through analysis, exploration,and projective speculation.

Volume Editors
Robert Corser & Sharon Haar

ISBN
978-1-944214-03-6