An Israeli-born architect shows how the built form can be used for purposes of oppression, and how the contemporary emphasis on urban warfare has given military planners a better understanding of cities than design professionals.
"Designers of the spatial landscape have never been architects," says architect Eyal Weizman, "but rather politicians and military men. Right now, most research on urban planning is carried out by soldiers and officers in uniform. Wars take place in urban areas and the army studies the city, the infrastructure layout, the built-up areas and the public expanse to know how to tear down and how to gain control, and it has a better understanding than do the architects. It is a parallel world to architecture, a mirror world of it."
Thanks to Michael Dudley
FULL STORY: Surroundings / A parallel world
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