Urban Architecture

Abstract

Geographers’ study of urban architecture has followed a number of theoretical and methodological trends in both urban and cultural geography. It would be difficult to argue that a true subdiscipline of ‘urban architectural geography’ has ever existed – as geographers who study urban architecture regularly draw on issues as diverse as urban planning and design, iconography, social difference, local historical context, and everyday practice, in the course of their work. Yet certain discrete (but not separate) approaches in urban architectural research can be discerned, which are discussed in this article. These include: the Berkeley School; the built environment tradition, and behavioralism; Marxism and political-economy; textual and iconographic approaches; and critical, material, and nonrepresentational geographies of urban architecture. This article also considers the most significant thematic issues considered by geographers of urban architecture, including machines and modern architecture; the display of power in architecture throughout history; play, leisure, and experimentation in urban architecture; globalization, mega-structures, and the architecture of gentrification; and nostalgia, neotraditional urban design, and ‘gated communities’.