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globally and
also in socialist countries. Although the
outcome of World War II with massive destruction in many European cities seemed
to provide an opportunity for such comprehensive redevelopment, the lack of funds
and the weakness of public authorities prevented the realization of such radical
plans in many cities and favored a more conservative mode of reconstruction,
making use of existing foundations and infrastructures as far as possible.
78
With the
long period of economic prosperity in the West European countries from the 1950s
to the 1970s, the unexpected pressure from motorized traf
—
with some variations
—
c enforced a second
wave of redevelopment and destructions in the 1950s
1970s, aimed to adapt the
-
urban fabric for the requirements of motor traf
c. The consensus on the need for
comprehensive redevelopment, however, was challenged and then quickly broken
in in the mid-1970s, In many cities young people started to occupy empty houses,
earmarked for demolition and defend them against attempts by the police to
evacuate the buildings. This protest movement, wanting to defend affordable
housing against speculation, was back-grounded by a major cultural shift in values.
In a climate of crumbling technological optimism after the Oil-Crisis and in the
midst of a long-drawn period of mass unemployment, old houses and old things
suddenly gained new popularity. This new values went along with new needs and
new styles of living. Young people discovered for themselves modes of communal
living outside classical family structures, for which the older style of mass housing
was far more suitable than modern social housing blocks. The change of paradigm
became very visible in a new style of urban renewal which was
rst practiced on a
larger scale at IBA-Alt
79
1987).
Since the Rio conference of 1992 which formulated
in Berlin (1979
-
“
sustainable development
”
as the general goal of world community,
has been taken on as a new
target of urban planning which means that all planning measures have to be
re
“
sustainability
”
ected according to their effects on resources, particularly energy consumption.
General principles of urban planning which had internationally dominated planning
thinking for large parts of the 20th century such as de-concentration of population
and separation of function have been critically reevaluated over the last 20 years.
The emphasis is now being placed on bringing people back into the cities in order to
avoid long and unsustainable journeys to work and to be able to implement col-
lective solutions of heating, communication and transport which work much better
in a higher-density urban environment than in peri-urban sprawl. Also the idea of
separating urban functions has given way to an at least partial reintegration of work
and living, which is also due to the fact that many industrial or other processes are
much less emitting in terms of pollution and noise and can thus be reintegrated into
residential neighborhoods with only little mutual interference. This change of
paradigm also corresponds to cultural shifts in larger parts of population over the
last decades. Many people, particularly the growing number of senior citizens, now
78
Von Beyme (
1987
).
79
Translates into
'
Internationale Bau-Ausstellung Altbau
'
, international building exhibition, for
old buildings.
