The City After the Automobile: Past, Present, and Future

Forty-three percent of the world's 5.5 billion inhabitants live in cities, many of them, says architect Safdie, regional mega-cities that are growing recklessly, with traffic congestion that daily threatens the environment. Safdie, who achieved prominence for his futuristic Habitat housing complex at Montreal's Expo '67, blames a lack of regional planning and the unexpected impact of the automobile for our deteriorating cities. In the first two parts of his book, Safdie treads familiar territory--noting the dispersal of affluent families to the suburbs that left empty downtowns and contributed to social polarization, monolithic office buildings that dwarf pedestrians, and the vast, unsafe garages in airports and commercial buildings. Along the way he touches on the role of the architect, several of his own projects that were derailed by shortsighted clients and the need for buildings to take best advantage of their natural sites. In the last third of the book, Safdie describes his vision of a new kind of urban center, one that accommodates the beauties of its particular topography and is a central spine of intense activity. He also proposes a new method of transportation, replacing private ownership of cars with a pool of government-owned electric vehicles that would be at drivers' disposal by the hour, day, week or month. These Utility cars would be instantly available from a storage depot and left there after use. But radical ideas such as this are best bolstered by practical details for implementation, which Safdie fails to offer. (June)