Overview

Forgotten chapter in early 20th-century European planning history, offering a fresh perspective on urbanism, grounded in a theory of urbanization The Art of Urbanization reexamines a forgotten tradition in Belgian and European planning history, reconstructed through a longitudinal analysis of the Study Committee of the Antwerp Agglomeration (1907-1939). Against prevailing trends, Antwerp’s urban expansion was not the product of rational master planning, but evolved gradually through collective and pragmatic responses to emerging urban questions. Drawing on a wide range of historical sources and richly illustrated, the book reconstructs how numerous sub-plans – each addressing economic, sociocultural, political and ecological needs – coalesced into the incremental components of a reasoned and dynamic urban agglomeration. As it engages with classical concepts in urban theory and global urban history, The Art of Urbanization is presented as a generative, redistributive, reproductive, and situated worlding practice – offering a fresh perspective on urbanism that resonates in our current age of (planetary) urbanization.

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9789462704893

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Reviews

This work offers an important contribution to international urban planning and urban history, as the first study of early 20th century urbanization of a Belgian city of metropolitan scale. It adds a new perspective to the extant literature that often focusses on formal spatial planning, the role of leading urban designers or the impact of influential politicians, by writing the history of a predominantly technocratically led, infrastructure and services-based urbanization. It sheds light on an urbanization project that produced a meaningful piece of the city that is in many ways more coherent, livable and socially inclusive than many (sub)urban environments produced by late 20th century suburbanization in Belgium. - Michael Ryckewaert, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

This work offers an important contribution to international urban planning and urban history, as the first study of early 20th century urbanization of a Belgian city of metropolitan scale. It adds a new perspective to the extant literature by writing the history of an urbanization project that is in many ways more coherent, livable and socially inclusive than many (sub)urban environments produced by late 20th century suburbanization. - Michael Ryckewaert, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Author Information

Tom Broes is a post-doctoral research fellow and teaching assistant at the department of architecture and urban planning at Ghent University.

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