Summary Of The City By Lewis Mumford

The City (1939) is a short documentary film, produced by Lewis Mumford for the 1939 New York World's Fair as part of the "City of Tomorrow" exhibit. The City can be divided into three segments; the first being a nostalgic look at the ideal of pre-industrial communities, the second shows the realities of industrial progress, and the final segment is a utopian vision of a city; a future revolving around humanity and not machines. The documentary raises many planning issues and ideas which are still important in our current times with varying degrees of relevance. In saying that however, it is important to contextualise the documentary in that the people involved in the making of it seem to have had a specific aim in mind; to promote the concept of suburbia. As a result, the industrial city’s pitfalls are portrayed in an overdramatised way, whereas the idea of suburbia is simplified. This is not to say that either one is incorrect, but it

A key idea addressed is Scott Campbell’s ‘planner’s triangle” which aims to balance the divergent priorities of planning – social justice, environmental protection and economic growth - to attain sustainable development. Mumford’s new cities were well intentioned and strived to achieve a balance of this tri-axial relationship. As previously mentioned, Ebenezer Howard’s ‘Garden City’ is quite a prominent idea also promoted in the final segment. “Much of The City's power derives from the fundamental goal behind the new planning ideas not merely to provide the good life in new towns, but to reorder existing urban forms out of the congested central cities into a regional framework of small urban nodes, each tied together by new forms of transportation and communication.” (Howard, 1977) Another idea touched on in the final segment is the advancement of technologies to aid with sustainable development and “making science work for