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On he sea ch o a los
u ban planning mode ni y:
h oughou he legacy
o Lewis Mum o d
Josep T. Mun añola Tho nbe g, Magda Sau a Ca ulla
In oduc ion
I is wi h g ea sa is ac ion ha we w i e his a icle o he new in e na ional jou nal
o he also new “Te i o ialis ” Associa ion ounded in 2011 in Flo ence, a ci y, indeed,
wi h a e y impo an his o ical legacy on a chi ec u e and u ban planning….
Some new heo ies and p ac ices in planning a e s ongly needed oday, and i is jus
o his cha ac e iza ion o “new” heo ies, ha we link ou ex o Lewis Mum o d’s lega-
cy, books and a icles ha in oduced a chi ec s and u ban planne s du ing he wen ie h
cen u y A.C. in o a new wo ld o mode n ideas, opening, a he same ime, he planning
p ac ices o he nex cen u ies, as he himsel w o e in 1975 (MuM o d 1980):
… he as ophysicis s mus eckon wi h he possibili y ha hei ou e wo ld is only ou
inne wo ld u ned inside ou . So pe haps wi h a u he wis he impene able Black Hole
migh p o e he shadow o a b igh e sun. E en he no ion o an ‘explosion’ and an ‘implo-
sion’, a ‘beginning’ and an ‘ending’, may be only a e y human me apho , which he uni e -
se o easons o i s own, nei he ecognizes, no exhibi s. On ha ul ima e skep icism my
own ai h bli hely lou ishes.
LET THE CURTAIN RISE ON THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY - AND AFTER! …
So, le us open he cu ains o he play…
1. Fi s ac : “ he egg o he snake”
Taking in o accoun he me apho ical idea o Be gman in he known ilm “The Egg
o he Snake” poin ing ou o he da k o igins o ascism in Ge many and in Eu ope,
we will expand his me apho ical meaning o hose da k o igins, o he undamen al
heo e ical and p ac ical u ban planning mis akes ha ha e p oduced he ca as o-
phic si ua ion oday in a lo o coun ies and mo e speci ically in Spain, a comple e
pa adigm o hese mis akes ha Lewis Mum o d o ecas in such a clea manne .1
The i s ‘egg’, and he i s mis ake, deals wi h ‘ ee ade’ and akes in o accoun he
wo d ‘ ee’. Mode n u ban de elopmen has been ied o cen u ies o heal hy u ban
ade. The ‘egg’ o ee ade has been ela ed wi h social and u ban de elopmen as a
1 Mo e han wo million o emp y houses, and mo e han hal a million o people who need social hou-
sing, show he o al social igno ance o u ban planning p ocedu es. Mum o d insis ed upon he ac ha
his ‘blind social’ condi ion o planning is ela ed wi h a w ong use o echnologies and inancial powe s.
© 2014 Fi enze Uni e si y P ess
ISSN 2284-242X (online)
n. 2, 2014, pp. 433-444
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basic componen o space cons uc ion. The ‘egg’ began o de elop in o a poisonous
snake when we o go ha ee ade canno su i e ecological des uc ion o social
con ol by gigan ic inancial ne wo ks, as Lewis Mum o d insis ed upon o yea s and
yea s. Then, educa ion is con e ed in o a igid ule, like hese days in Ba celona whe-
e child en in he schools build high skysc ape s because ‘ hey wan o be as ich as
hei pa en s’. This is no mode ni y a all, his is ascism.
The second ‘egg’ is also e y signi ican . U ban sys ems and echnologies a e o ally nee-
ded in planning, bo h in design, in building and in dwelling. Howe e , hese ools be-
come a dange ous egg when hey con ound neu ali y wi h eedom. Then, a chi ec u e
and planning become unlimi ed ne wo ks o eeways wi hou his o ical and geog aphic
in e aces. U ban sys ems a e no neu al as Wal e Benjamin claimed when he saw he
eggs o he snake in he “glass cul u e” and ound no mode ni y a all.
A hi d ‘egg’ is when ecology and pa icipa ion is manipula ed o poli ical pu poses
o e y small heal hy social g oups, and his p oduces deep misunde s andings. Lewis
Mum o d analyses e y ca e ully hese h ee ‘eggs’ and he was accused o old- ashion
beha io and o e o mism, a big mis ake and, again, a poisonous snake. In 1980
he sen o us his las book My Wo k and My Days, whe e i is possible o ind he
ollowing hough s:
… we discussed DH Law ence oge he … you had ac ually seen him in I aly. His le e
om Ge many was w i en in 1924 (and i was no published un il a e he wa ). He e he
w o e (p ophe ically) “... Ge many is e y di e en om wha i was wo and a hal yea s
ago … he g ea leaning o Ge man spi i , is once mo e eas wa ds, owa ds Russia, o-
wa ds Ta a y … THERE IS A SENSE OF DANGER. IT ISN’T THE PEOPLE. THEY DON’T SEEM
DANGEROUS. OUT OF THE VERY AIR COMES A SENSE OF DANGER, A QUEER, BRISTLING
FEELING OF UNCANNY DANGER…”
( om a le e o F au V. alking abou a mee ing in Lubeck in 1934).
And Mum o d ollows:
all o hese p ophecies by Law ence, has come o pass in ou ime, wha masses o men
el in hei souls was al eady decla ed in he sel -conscious doc ines o Moelle an den
B uck, E ns Junge and Oswald Spengle , who p o ided new symbols o e e y hing in he
Ge man soul ha was da k, ep essi e and alien o he es o he wo ld….
End o he i s ac .
2. Second ac : Lewis Mum o d’s legacy
A se ious analysis o Lewis Mum o d’s legacy will need some books, so we will use a
long p i a e in e play o le e s wi h Josep Mun añola, aking place since a pe sonal
isi o he old p o esso in Albany (New Yo k) in 1963.This in e play is summa ized
he e in h ee di e en diag ams. The i s - diag am I - is he las le e he sen , da ed
6 o July 1981, when he was 86 yea s old; i is a somewha sad le e , bu ull o deep
conside a ions. The second - diag am II - is a mul idisciplina y mix o ex s, in o de o
g asp he comple e ange o unde s andings he had. The hi d - diag am III - ga he s
some opinions and ideas abou he ques ions ha he esea ch by Josep Mun añola
a ose in o his mind. You should keep in o conside a ion ha he e was a di e ence
o age o 45 yea s, howe e his was ne e a ba ie o a long iendship and mu ual
conce n. Each diag am ca ies i s own commen s wi h i .
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Diag am I - Le e , 6 July 1981
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In ela ion o his i s diag am, his las le e in 1981, i is impo an o poin ou he
signi icance o him o he new ecological ends, especially in he ecen gene a ions.
He was ac i e and wi h a lo o in i a ions, bu he also el o be misunde s ood by
in ellec uals and mo e speci ically by a chi ec s. The idea ha he was conside ed an
‘old ashion’ u ban planne dep essed him deeply.
Diag am II - Le e , 2 June 1970
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In ela ion o diag am II, he selec ion o p o essionals is linked o he p oposi ion o
he co esponden abou s udies on he in e ac ion be ween psycho-sociological e-
sea ch and a chi ec u e. The inclusion o p o esso J. L. Mo eno, o Ge man o igin, and
his “ hea e o spon anei y”, a e y di icul book o ind (Mo eno 1934), was a p oo o
his mode n ision, since he connec ions be ween hea e and a chi ec u e, and hei
psychoanaly ical implica ions, ha e been unco e ed many yea s la e by he heo-
e icians o a chi ec u e and u ban planning. So he mul idisciplina y pe spec i e o
Lewis Mum o d was no simply e udi ion, bu a deep unde s anding o he design and
planning inno a ions in ela ion o science and a s in gene al. And, o cou se, he same can
be de ec ed in hei ecological iew poin s, e y di e en om Pa ick Geddes’ p e ious o i-
en a ions, in spi e o he deep e e ence o his mas e mixed wi h a need o ake dis ance
om wha he e alua ed as an excess o a ogance and sel -es eem.2
Diag am III, Le e s, 17 Sep embe 1967, 18 Oc obe 1972
2 This is clea ly s a ed in he au obiog aphy (MuM o d 1980), no e 1.
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Finally, in ela ion o le e s in diag am III, hei ideas abou planning and he ci y a e
e y clea . Pe haps some a gumen s in he le e o 17 Sep embe 1971 a e he bes
summa y. Following hese sho ex s, wo ideas wo ied Mum o d he las yea s o
his li e: he ole o echnology in social wellbeing, and he w o e a lo o books and
a icles on ha ; and he second opic was he need o a c i icism o he con empo-
a y u ban planning p ac ices in ela ion o ecological misconcep ions and w ong
social p ac ices. The wo ques ions we e ela ed o he bad use o echnologies, no
o he echnologies in hemsel es. This is he eason o he las undamen al book:
“The Pen agon o Powe ” (MuM o d 1970). And i is clea ha he compu e was o him
a dange ous snake, hope ully o us, less poisonous han he el i o be.
We should ead Mum o d’s books as a basic he i age o s a hinking on he bes
u u e o planning ac i i ies. In his book The Cul u e o Ci ies (MuM o d 1938), he
summa izes his iews o a new u ban planning ha oday s ill sound e y mode n
and con empo a y.
3. Thi d ac : he cou se o planning
Taking again some concep s om Mum o d’s legacy, we ha e in mind he ex ao di-
na y a icle w i en in 1934 in The New Yo ke (MuM o d 1934), abou an exhibi in he
MOMA on abs ac pain ings by Picasso, Duchamp, e c., whe e he desc ibes he pow-
e o ep esen ing eali y in a mode n way, in such a way ha abs ac ion becomes
close o eali y han igu a i e ep esen a ion. The “Cou se o Abs ac ion”, which was
he i le o he a icle, means he cou se o a , science, and social li e al oge he ,
in an ex ao dina y mode n manne . Following he open pa h by Pa ick Ged-
des, biologis , u ban planne and sociologis (see diag am IV), he was also e y
imp essed by he ecological s udies and by biosocial heo ies, lying ou side o he
scope o he p esen a icle.
This is an ex ao dina y heo e ical poin , since his iew on mode n a des oys o -
e e he incompa ibili y be ween he new and he old, and he local and he global,
in a chi ec u e and in u ban planning. Almos one hund ed yea s a e abs ac a
began, millions o a chi ec s s ill misunde s and he poin . F om now on, o build new
buildings o o ehabili a e old ames is exac ly he same, and ansla ions o new
w i ings a e no mo e spli in o wo di e en wo lds.