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Review by Prof. Dr. Alexander R. Cuthbert, 23. Januar 2001
Von Ein Kunde
Rezension bezieht sich auf: Metropolis Now!. Urban Cultures in Global Cities (Taschenbuch)
Biswas' edited collection 'Metropolis Now!' acts as a series of markers for all the wonderful things that cities represent, reminding us of the realm of the senses that can never be replaced by any corporate strategies. Offering us thirteen portraits of urban cultures around the world from Soweto to Las Vegas, Biswas purveys a wonderful array of flavours that is almost always missing from standard academic texts about urban development. To this extent he has consciously sacrificed 'academic rigour' to portray something that simply could not be done through scholarly methods, in his words, 'to eroticise the text'. This is the book's singular contribution to our heritage of world cities, an urgent reminder that the complexity of urban experience with its colours, smells, flavours, textures and the kinaesthetic joy of moving through city spaces are the very essence of our being absorbed in urban life.
Unlike most edited collections Biswas has written one third of the articles himself, and this definitely helps to maintain the feeling of the book. Such efforts frequently disintegrate into a series of isolated texts, something that has been carefully avoided in this collection, which seems to have been written with one hand. Every chapter is a wonderful melange of concepts, ideas and practices that deliberately blur the boundaries between analysis, design and experience, a strategy that permits easy entry into the matrix that the various authors inhabit, both mentally and experientially. While the book has clearly been written for academics and the general public alike, the contributors are all internationally significant urbanists in their own right. Authors such as Mike Davis, Richard Burdett and Jean-Claude Gillebaud collectively bring an astonishing array of life experiences to the table.
Thus it is difficult to abstract out any single one of these beautiful 'cameos' for particular consideration. While Biswas hails from Kuala Lumpur, he is at his best when describing his adopted city of Vienna, a city we can almost taste from his prose, but his images of Shanghai, Bombay and Hong Kong are all insightfully drawn. Mike Davis' portrayal of Las Vegas as an 'off world' in the context of the movie 'Blade Runner' is both a chilling and exciting vision of urbanisation in the South West of the United States. Guillebaud, formerly a star reporter for Le Monde describes Istanbul as 'A City in Search of a Continent' peeling back 'the alchemic processes' bubbling below the surface of an astounding metropolis. This is a text that can be read in any order, and whether one starts with Tokyo, London, Marseille or Soweto is of no consequence. This beautifully produced work can be read in any direction, from any part of the matrix, just like the cities so beautifully portrayed for our admiration, and hopefully our respect.
Review by Dr. Alexander R. Cuthbert, Professor of Planning and Urban Development. Director Urban Design Graduate program Faculty of the Built Environment, The University of New South Wales, Sydney
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