Windows upon Planning History

Windows Upon Planning History delves into a wide range of perspectives on urbanism from Europe, Australia and the USA to investigate the effects of changing perceptions and different ways of seeing cities and urban regions. Fischer, Altrock and a team of 13 distinguished authors examine how and why the ideologies and the processes of city making changed in modern and post-modern times.

Illustrated with over 45 images, the themes addressed in the book range from the changing outlook on Berlin’s historic apartment districts, their demolition, salvation and gentrification to how planning was deployed to support dictatorship; from the shattering of myths like democracies totally departing from preceding dictatorships to the model of the post-war modern city and its fate towards the end of the 20th century.

The volume combines case studies of cities in three continents with reflections on the historiography and the state of planning history.

With a Foreword by Stephen Ward, this book will appeal to a wide readership interested in the histories of planning, architecture and cities.

Karl Friedhelm Fischer studied urban design and worked at the universities of Aachen, Berkeley and Canberra. He also has as a degree in English/American Literature (Aachen). At the HafenCity University, Hamburg, he was a professor for ‘History and Culture of the Metropolis’, and at the University of Kassel, he taught planning history and urban regeneration. In 2013, he moved from the University of Kassel to take up a position as acting director of the MUDD program (Master of Urban Development and Design) at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, where he is a now a visiting professor. Professional affiliations include Progress in Planning (editorial board), AESOP (Council of Representatives while in Europe) and German Werkbund. Following the publication of his PhD thesis ‘Canberra – Myths & Models’ the majority of his publications have been in the field of planning history.

Uwe Altrock, urban planner, is Professor for Urban Regeneration and Planning at the University of Kassel, Germany. He is co-editor of the German Yearbook of Urban Regeneration, of Spatial Planning and Urban Development in the new EU Member States (Ashgate 2006) and of Maturing Megacities: The Pearl River Delta in Progressive Transformation (Springer 2014). His fields of interest and research are: urban governance, megacities, urban regeneration and planning, planning theory, planning history.