The changing urban patterns of a global society

Abstract

Opening sections of this paper report impressions gained from an architectural study tour of cities and towns in Italy – notably Venice, Milan, Florence and Rome. All are centers of great art inherited from the past and attracting an increasing number of tourists from all over the world. Current building activities in these places are described and contrasted with what is happening in Paris and elsewhere. Architects and urban planners in every country appear frustrated and uncertain as to their future roles in community efforts to improve the built environment, esthetically as well as socially. All communities are rapidly being linked together worldwide by the still evolving networks of transportation and electronic telecommunication. Following sections of the paper therefore explore some implications of the “universal city” idea, long ignored but now receiving renewed attention as a result of the international development of motor roads. Creation of a global network of information centers for the pooling, interchange and interactive processing of knowledge about environmental conditions and potentials in every locality worldwide is seen as a basic need in establishing desirable guidelines for an integrated development of the built environment that will be beneficial to everyone living on this planet.