Urban planning and design as verbal and visual rhetoric

Abstract

This paper explores planning and design processes through a verbal and visual rhetoric approach by examining three case studies of train station area redevelopments in the Netherlands. The paper illustrates how these case study projects were conceived, constructed, transformed and communicated to the stakeholders through stories and pictures. Three threads are discerned, which run through the verbal and visual narratives employed in the case study projects. The first is a longing for identity and a return to the past. The second is a desire to project an image of progress and success. The third is a shift from grand to piecemeal planning. The three threads are overlapping but also contradictory. While some of the rhetoric appears to be post-rationalization, its employment had a strong ethical basis because, by densifying and revitalizing the areas in the vicinity of main train stations, the three projects sought to advance the public interest. While visually diverse and controversial, all three case study areas represented a response to contemporary problems, such as urban economic decline or automobile dependence.