ABSTRACT
Indeed, the purpose of this chapter is to look at the very real possibilities of shaping a more informed urban thinking by shifting the balance from an illustrative to a more critical urban photographic investigation. John Roberts' outlook on the question of realism and the everyday, offers another particularly useful counterpoint to architectural idealism. The work of John Szarkowski allows a view that shifts from the social landscapists' general interest in the urban scene, through to a much more explicit architectural study. More importantly, the Alison and the Peter Smithson raised the idea of architectural realism and so pointed the way to the possibilities of overlaying photographic and architectural theories and the interdisciplinary insights that could arise from this process. The work of Denise Scott-Brown and Robert Venturi especially that which focused on the urban characteristics of the mall and the strip, resulted in ground-breaking architectural research that was focused upon the everyday.
