Seminar Six: Anglo-American town planning theory since 1945: three significant developments but no paradigm shifts

Myself and our fellow class member Skye Chan had the opportunity to present a presentation in this seminar about a topic which I found very profound in the sense of planning today. The reading Anglo-American town planning theory since 1945: three significant developments but no paradigm shifts by Nigel Taylor explains the great theoretical changes and understanding of town planning during the course of the post World War II era. These changes were brought about through, what Taylor calls, a 'paradigm shift'. This paradigm shift explained by Taylor is in reference to the shift from the modern to the post-modern era during the mid twentieth century. Taylor also explains about how theorists and academics applied this concept of a 'paradigm shift' to town planning. This article is simply a discourse between academics and theorists who believed that planning should be seen in a more systems analytical sense and the planners and architects who see it simply as an exertion of design. I believe that the new theorists were within their own rights to claim that the artistic elements of planning were in fact 'outdated'. How can planning be sustained if it were to continue to focus heavily on design alone whilst we live in a world of vast social, political, economical and environmental change? towns are always subject to change because of these elements which contribute heavily to them. For towns to be sustainable and conformable us planners must expand our tuition beyond the areas of design and be more aware of these much broader issues. This paradigm changed the strategic aspect of planning, from the more universal, longer term approach to the much short-term, localized approach. I believe that this was the most fundamental change for planning because planning cannot be universally implemented in cities and towns which range in difference complexity, population growth etc. For each town are each to their own, or distinct to one another.

The shift from modernism to postmodernism was also a topic of debate for theorists since 1945 and Taylor has given us a brilliant interpretation of how this shift was perceived during the last half of the last century. We must understand that, as I've shown in a video during the seminar, there is no exact definition for postmodernism. It is a complex term that can be interpreted in many ways in discourse to modernism therefore the reason why postmodern theorists such as Jane Jacob and Christopher Alexander accused the modern thinkers like Le Corbusier and Ebenezer Howard for their 'outdated' modern beliefs. 

How can we achieve sustainability and adaptive towns and cities when we are constantly faced with the paradigm which continuously exacerbates the changes we see today? Taylor's reading highlights the importance that we simply cannot allow to continue to believe or understand that planning solely serves the purpose of design alone. We need to be better equipped to understand change, albeit we like it or not, through elements such as politics and economics, because through that we can make a positive difference in our world.

A great example of how one generation perceives a paradigm shift to another generation. Funny that.