Civic Realism.

"Peter Rowe's Civic Realism is a most important and timely book that proposes a critical examination of the historical relationship between civic place and urban architecture and suggests that this relationship needs to be restructured for a contemporary practice. The book's relevance is heightened by Rowe's concern for the difficult task of making these civic places, and for the necessary presence of an architecture willing to establish a dialogue with the urban realm, beyond aesthetic ideologies." -- Mario Gandelsonas, Professor of Architecture, School of Architecture, Princeton University

A civic place belongs to everyone and yet to nobody in particular. In Civic Realism, Peter G. Rowe looks at the shape and appearance of civic places, and at the social, political, and cultural circumstances that bring them into existence. The book is as much about the making and reshaping of civic places as it is about urban architecture per se. According to Rowe, the best civic place-making occurs across the divide between the state and civil society. By contrast, the alternatives are not very attractive. On the one side are state-sponsored edifices and places of authoritarian nature. On the other are the exclusive enclaves of corporate-dominated urban and suburban environments. Rowe begins with an example of a civic place that has stood the test of time--Siena's Piazza de Campo. To be a citizen of Siena is to participate in the life of the Campo. The Campo was and is real, with a realism that encompasses everyday life, occasional events, solemn occasions, and extraordinary celebrations. It is this sense of the word "real" that, together with "civic" forms the design practice called "civic realism." Topics covered in the book include the role of the state and civil society in the construction of civic spaces, aesthetic and architectural dimensions of realism, individual and collective uses of urban space, and how civic places constitute as well as represent the civic aspects of our lives. The examples, mostly from the modern period, include recent public spaces in Barcelona, several of the Grand Projets in Paris, neorealist projects in post-war Rome, contemporary transformations of the Manhattan grid, and Plecnik's water axis in pre-war Ljubljana.

Peter G. Rowe is Raymond Garbe Professor of Architecture and Urban Design and Dean of the Faculty of Design at Harvard University. His previous books include Design Thinking, Making a Middle Landscape, and Modernity and Housing.