The Urban Legend

Check out the latest pieces from our contributors…

ON THE CONCRETE, LITERALLY AND METAPHORICALLY

I want to be a planner who lives in the real world and is animated by joy, togetherness, self-actualization, and the creation of spaces that allow for communal connection.

by Louisa Hanson

“MADE IN CHINA”; The production and circulation of cultural revolution era posters in china and the west

This poster advertising visiting Cuba hung in the living room of my childhood home in California for most of my life. I remember as a little kid thinking that it was a painting of my mother matching the woman in the poster with her dark curly hair, rosy cheeks, and warm smile.

by sophiehaugendc69a11e15

Tracing Glodok, Jakarta’s Chinatown

Almost every city contains at least one Chinatown–an enclave of Chinese immigrants that may have initially grown out of discrimination and segregation, but have since developed into thriving centers celebrating Chinese culture. While Chinatowns in the Western imagination may capture Asian identities more broadly, Chinatowns in Asian cities have roots in a long history of…

by ionahadinoto

urbanism

The ‘Urban’ is poorly defined. Oxford gives “(1) relating to or a characteristic of a city or a town”, and “urbanism” as a field of study does not have a methodology, being defined as both “a way of life” and as the “development and planning” of cities.

The theoretical flexibility of the “urban” demonstrates the extraordinary role of cities in this era. Humans create settlements, and we organize these settlements into cities. The development of these cities becomes culture, and vice versa. Human history is an urban history, either explicitly being integrated into the city, or playing off the urban in opposition of its’ force.

So what does this mean for a student paper on Urbanism?

We created this paper to investigate the oddity of this vocation. We’re young urbanists in an era where cities are expanding across the globe, and the usable land mass is contracting. Where the boundaries of the urban is tenuous, and nothing can be entirely excluded from its scope.

So like the Urban, we are multidimensional; including content of any media, introducing events and spaces, art and poetry, as well as long form pieces and analysis- and accepting content from anyone, all focused on the confounding questions that arise living in the “Urban”.

Art

Our multimedia section.

Voices

Prose that defies categorization.

opinion

Perspective pieces from the best and the brightest.

concept

Inspiration from the edge of Urbanism.

place

Highlights of spaces and events.

interview

Dialogues on Urbanism.

Analysis

Structured pieces on space, place, and people.