ABSTRACT
Modernist urban design and architecture – from the work of CIAM in the early twentieth century to the proliferation of a watered-down and incoherent urbanism of the mid-century – experienced a barrage of criticism from both the high critics of design taste and the discontented general public. Infamous critiques of modern design and planning processes (see the work of Jane Jacobs, Christopher Alexander, and Edward Relph in this edition) focused on the failed utopian and heroic aspirations of designers with “messiah” delusions who utilized totalizing design strategies in attempting to control outcomes. In Collage City, Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter launch a direct attack on the profession of which they are a part. They disdain the “retarded nature of architectural debate,” the weak science used to support project justification, and the poor state of design poetics.
