The Origin of the Crisis in the Spatial Development of Contemporary Cities: A Review of Selected Historical and Modern Mechanisms

Abstract

The presented research is a review containing an original synthesis on some of the causes of urban development problems. The article covers historical and contemporary aspects of selected phenomena since the end of the 19th and 20th centuries in cities with patterns of European and American structures. The research background focuses on issues related to morphology, function, and form. The aim of the research is to present the results of the review, mostly canonical publications surrounding the history of architecture and town planning, grouping them according to the observed regularities. The research thesis assumes that the observed trends that are present in today’s discussion on urban development stem from some phenomena that appear in both selected urban patterns. The research methods are based on the literature query on the development of cities and the issues raised in the articles. The results are combined with a discussion and focus on the author’s synthesis of the observed trends, and they are divided into historical and contemporary groups describing selected causes of the current crisis.

1. Introduction

The contemporary development of cities is associated with many problems on various levels, from environmental, economic, and communicative, to functional and spatial [1,2,3,4]. At present, issues related to sustainable development and climate protection are particularly important [3,5,6]. Some of the current crises are related to town-planning and architectural decisions in recent history [4,6]. Considering only cities based on the European and American urban pattern, trends can be identified that are also present in today’s urban development problems. The mechanisms of urban development began to be discussed in the 1960s; at that time the Italian, German–English (known as the Birmingham school), and French schools were erected to study city morphologies in detail. The investigations of Michael Robert Günter Conzen in Alnwick city became the starting point of these discussions [7]. He focused on the continuation and significance of historical elements and values in urban space, and the development of site identity; he also emphasized the importance of genius loci. The basic urban unit distinguished by him was a morphological region, corresponding to space with a similar identity, history, and form; he also distinguished marginal belts, in which lot size and suburban development type were of significance [8]. It should be pointed out, however, that this quest was based on two-dimensional methods. The Italian school, referred to as Neorational (in contrast to Italian rationalism and the Enlightenment rationalism) [9], was established in the 1920s, before M.R.G. Conzen’s studies, and connected with the investigations of Saverio Muratori in Rome and Venice [10,11,12]. The latter author focused on local elements in opposition to regional patterns. Paolo Porthoghezi [8] emphasized the great significance of Italian researchers in shaping the postmodernist methods and ideas, in opposition to the American school represented by Roberto Venturi [9,13]. Neorationalists underlined the significance of space tradition as an identity element being the guideline for further urban development. Their studies concentrated on specific forms and dimensions occurring in urban structures [10]. The most well-known Neorationalist was Aldo Rossi, who referred to the antimodernism trend in his works [14]. He also drew attention to Contextualism in urban development and to the great significance of historical patterns as the starting point for further urban development. Rossi based his investigations on the works of Giusseppe Samona; they indicated the possibility of considering the city as an inspiration, treating it as a continuously evolving entity [9,15]. For him, the city was at the same time an object and a process, two elements that built an entity whose substance is composed of the most essential artefacts (fatto urban). His basic research method consisted of observation as the basis of all other activities and studies in an attempt to capture ‘the sense of space’. He also renounced the ‘form follows function’ concept in the name of the transcendence of culture and the history of the latter [9]. His discussions on arranging architecture, in which similarities based on a specific architectural style are less significant than the specific architectural ‘types’ (central, longitudinal, etc.) are also worth mentioning [14]. Moreover, Aldo Rossi drew attention to the views of Antoine Quatremere de Quincy, who referred types to particular historical forms, expanding them by undefined similar elements as inspirations in space development. Noteworthy are Rossi’s afterthoughts on site definition, which were later developed by Marc Auge [14,16]. He drew attention to issues related not only with physical reconstruction or site location, but also to their level of significance. Emphasizing site significance in urban development, he invoked, for example, Palladio and Violet-Le Duca, highlighting the key significance of locus solus; a unique site in urban development [14]. A similar view was presented by an influential group of architects connected with the conservative La Tendenza movement, as well as the research of Rob and Leon Krier, whose realizations and reports were continuations of Rossi’s achievements. They were part of the unobvious Contextualism concept, considering the exact development of urban morphology through the repetition of historical forms and proportions based on a genetic code of the developing structure [17,18,19,20]. The French school was associated with the architectural school in Versailles (l’Ecole nationale supérieure d’architecture de Versailles), where sociologist Jean-Charles De Paule and architects Philippe Panerai and Jean Castex conducted their research in the 1960s, focusing at first on studies of the historical evolution of areas neighboring with Paris and the city itself [21,22]. Later, architecture critic Henri Lefebvre and architecture historians Francoise Boudon and Andre Chastel joined the quest for urban morphology in this concept [22,23]. The differences and similarities are worth noting; furthermore, all mentioned trends in the evolution of studies on urban morphology should be summarized. They may be subdivided as follows [8,9,14,17,18,19,20,22]:

• The historical trend: its main aims include the study of the evolution and theory of urban structure; it is present in the research of geographers, as well as the Birmingham and French schools.

• The development trend: its main aims include studying how cities can further evolve based on the morphology; it is present mainly in the Italian and French schools.

• The practical trend: its main aims include how theories of urban structure are transferred on their further development; it is present in the French school.

Presently, all schools aim at cooperating in the frame of ISUF (International Seminar of Urban Form) which gathers researchers from all over the world. The main assumptions of ISUF in reference to urban morphology refer to analyses. They accept that urban forms can be recognized on three basic levels [23]:

• Urban forms comprise buildings, lots, the space between them, and streets; form determination.

• Urban forms occur in multiscale relationships, from building/lot, through to streets, quarters, to relations in the scale of the entire region or city; form resolution.

• Urban forms may be interpreted with regard to their historical components and should be subject to potential transformations taking into consideration these components; form in time.

Spatial planning in cities, similarly to any type of production or creation, is related to three basic elements: aim, need, and action leading to the goal, i.e., with point, emotion, and process. Heidegger refers them as ‘being’, which perfectly describes a particular subject demand [24]. This ‘being’ particularly refers to a human being but also to his relations with nature. Humans and their most favorable multidimensional quality of being is the basic goal of spatial arrangement. Human subjectivity is considered here on different scales, as described by Wojciech Kosiński, from individuality through to community and humanity [25]. The relationship between action and goal was distinctly determined by Karl Popper [26], who indicated particular hierarchical accents, in which human subjectivity and the objectivity of his creations were emphasized. A significant element is the role played by ‘humans’ in these actions, with a relationship between the goal (‘being’) and the designer, whose actions are a bridge between himself and the need. A lack of communication may be dangerous, as reflected in post-war Second Modernism. The alarming development of American cities in the 1940s–1970s or the implementation of Corbusier’s ideas in Europe are also good examples, especially in the case when the improvement of what has been destroyed by these actions takes place until the present, which this article aims to highlight. Uniqueness should also be remembered when analyzing the phenomenon of urban morphology. Mature cities are not uniform or are not unambiguously based on the same factors which were the foundations of their origin; however, some general subdivisions may be made. The main aim of the presented studies is to show the origins of the crisis in the development of contemporary cities by evoking recent historical processes which led to this crisis, and indicating the most important contemporary mechanisms, according to the authors, which are related with hazards in urban spatial development. This paper focuses on urban morphology, function, and form.

2. Materials and Methods

The presented research is a review. The methodology is based on a library query of existing studies on the immediate history of architecture and town planning. Initially, the research covered over 200 publications, from the 1900s to the present, before finally settling on 150. Cities with the pattern of European and American urban structure were adopted as the research field of the described phenomena. This selection criterion is related to the specific historical and social character of the selected two basic groups of city patterns with different spatial development, while being embedded in the same cultural group. An important element here is the social factor, where, despite the fact that previous experiences with urban space were based on the same basis as European examples, American cities developed their pattern of urban structure [1,27,28,29]. This criterion indicates that, despite a different pattern of regularities in the development of European and American cities, they are ultimately similar. The research work showed regularities in the historical and contemporary development of cities, with these specific patterns that were presented in the groups described in the results, giving them original names based on research observations and the repeatability of specific features. The presented division is an author’s proposal. The beginning of each of the described phenomena explains the adopted nomenclature.

The most general subdivision of spatial patterns, related to the origin of establishing and shaping, distinguishes American and European cites [30]. The first group includes cities that developed from economic needs and are based on a dispersion system, often with a lack of downtown space and relatively few inhabitants. The second group comprises centers with a long tradition and history of development. They are usually densely populated and characterized by a compact system of spatial development. The subdivision into American and European cities is conventional. They are treated as patterns that developed also beyond the USA and Europe. European and American cities represent specific spatial codes which can be used all over the world in the shaping and development of metropolitan structures. It could be argued that understanding urban morphology in our part of the world grows from the tradition related to the exchangeability of the trends mentioned above, visible in these types of spaces (Figure 1).

2.1. Patterns of European Cities

European cities are mostly classified as mature cities [30]. They are characterized by a relatively stable economy, a large number of workplaces (but also areas of poverty), openness, and a prevalence of aging inhabitants with higher education. Due to the latter, they represent spaces requiring larger concentration of services, including those related with health care. Mature cities require large amounts of energy and good infrastructure; their functional structure is in continuous fluctuation and the attractiveness of particular districts changes with time. One element connecting European cities is the large significance of culture, and similarly, history, as a rudimentary factor. What remain unchangeable are the identity and identification of European cities based on their historical fabric and tradition. These are elements of high social, emotional, and economic significance. Beside obvious income from tourism, the historical roots of cities often generate the development of higher standard business zones [31]. A large problem for the spatial development of modern European metropolitan areas is the disregard for this context in implementation decisions and the uncontrolled sprawling of external city structures. Two parallel processes may be distinguished in the description of modern European cities [30]:

• ‘Inner city expansion’: the revitalization and development of historical urban space, with the simultaneous supplementation of undeveloped areas and reinforcement of space that is losing significance;

• ‘External/territorial city expansion’: the development of city margins and peripheral space along with technical and communication infrastructure.

In contemporary understanding, European cities began to develop along with the postulates and actions of Ildefons Cerda [32] in Barcelona and Camillo Sitte [33] in Bohemia in the end of the 19th century. Their actions and the development of rail, road, public, and individual transport resulted in the rising significance of roads and public space, and additionally provoked thought about the city as a complex entity [34]. Peter Hall subdivided the development patterns of the first modern European cities into two trends [31]:

• English cities, characterized by dispersed areas of single-family houses, located in the suburbs;

• Continental cities, emphasizing the development of structures allowing for going to work on foot and relatively efficient public transport [35].

At first, the spatial development of cities did not particularly focus on green areas and water management present in the modern concept. This caused an effect visible in modern cities, where there are relatively few open spaces and construction often takes place across water courses [30]. In the 1930s, with the announcement of the Athens Charter (1933), larger weight was placed on the development of transport networks and road infrastructure. It was considered to be one of the priorities of urban development, with pedestrians and vehicle traffic remaining clearly separated. Similarly to the USA, gigantic overpasses were constructed, which resulted in the appearance of often undeveloped open space. These actions had a direct influence on the quality of sites and interpersonal relations, causing a diminishing of the latter [36,37,38]. Urban space in many cases transformed into escape space [38]. It should be emphasized that between the 1930s and 1970s, most European cities were absorbed in the reconstruction of post-war damage. The debate over restoring greater importance to pedestrian communication zones and transforming urban development into a more sustainable one arose in the mid-1960s along with the dissemination of the publication by Kevin Lynch and Gordon Cullen [27,39,40]. In the 1970s, the trend that emphasized a harmonious city structure in human scale began to be implemented through the scientific achievements and designs of Jan Gehl [41]. This successive change of thinking was supported by a postmodernism trend postulating the subdivision of public space, restricting dimensions, and density in architecture, as well as social communication using architectural and urban elements. Jan Gehl refers to this return to uniform thinking, in Europe often based on the historical tradition, as the ‘regained cities’ after earlier ‘appropriation’ by traffic and parking lots, and abandonment through urban life [42].

2.2. Patterns of American Cities

After Lewis Mumford, Edward Hall noted that the grid pattern of American cities is a rudimentary issue for all Americans, such that many of them often become lost in European cites, whose irregular fabric is considered alien to them [43,44] There are several crucial moments in the development American cities which have had an impact on the condition of modern cities. Piotr Lorens distinguishes four stages in the history of modern American cities: (1) the existence of a traditional city centre until the end of World War II, (2) the flourishing of shopping malls after World War II, (3) the return to midtown in the 1970s, and (4) the revolution of information and communication technologies, and locking in safe enclaves [45,46]. This is well indicated in subsequent models related with thinking on urban structure, realized in the USA from the turn of the century. They may be roughly subdivided into several components. The first, known as the colonial model [45], largely refers to Sentimentalism. In the midtown zone it is an open pattern based on the domination of a central square [47]. The next model linked with Monumentalism refers to the city beautiful movement, and is strictly connected with characteristic Neoclassical and Neobaroque forms. Its grandeur is perfectly reflected in the famous sentence by Daniel Bunham, who was the most famous contemporary architect linked with this movement: “Make no little plans” [48]. The next model may be referred to as the ‘practical city’—in reference to the domination of thinking in the Kooning category—designing cities based on functional zones [49]. The following is a functional model based on settlement satellites connected with a communication network. This model is the direct continuation of Howard’s model [50,51]. Another model of the city development system is based on public policy of the social-functional development linked with federal projects [45]. In general, it may be assumed that the development of American cites is part of the subdivision of repeatable transformations between the urbanization and deurbanization of such spatial structures. The phases include: 1. Urbanization (faster population growth in city centres in contrast to the peripheries), 2. Suburbanization (an opposite case, with faster population growth in the peripheries in contrast to city centres), 3. Deurbanization (the depopulation of cities), 4. Reurbanization (with the process of urbanization taking place) [45]. In the USA, city development was mainly based on economic factors, which resulted at some point in the small number of public spaces. The spatial patterns of American and European cities represent specific codes that influence the rest of the world [52,53,54,55]. Their development and specific character are significant in shaping modern cities from Asia across to South America, where the acquired spatial patterns, usually based on the effects of colonial influence, developed in accordance with the local political-economic and cultural dynamics. European and American spatial patterns often overlap, creating a specific mixture as in the case of the Brazilian São Paulo or the Uruguayan Montevideo. The characteristic grids of urban patterns, the overlapping of function and communication, the structure of scenic sequences, openings and closures, and city panoramas based on these two patterns are the basis of modern urban morphologies. Despite different transformations, particularly related with height, these basic types of city fabric still influence the perception, identification, and identity of urban space.

3. Results and Discussion

The Main Historical Trends Forming Modern Cities; Their Achievements and the Resulting Hazards.

The spatial development of both European and American cities was subject to several distinct wider trends. Some of them represented the reaction to the decline in quality of life in industrial cities, others were linked with the identity-based need to emphasize achieved economic success, and some were manifestations of various social requirements [12,13,17,18,19,36,38,43,45]. According to the authors, when presenting the origin of the spatial development of modern cities, it is worth emphasizing three basic trends that shaped their ideas, but also caused crises, whose elucidation is currently still the burden of some cities. Each of these regularities reflects the endeavour to construct a space ideal for a specific community. All these trends aim to answer particular social demands but also reflect a specific set of emotions related with perceiving cities and their role in human life. The presented trends are the authors’ synthesis of wider processes taking place at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and in the 20th century. In their interpretation, they draw attention to the identity of specific groups of transformations. The first two subchapters, Sentimentalism and Monumentalism, focus on the turn of the centuries as a milestone, being an introduction to thinking about modern cities. They concentrate on various types of ideological desires reflected in spatial development, but also on the creation of cities as social–political landscapes. Radicalism is the next step, as a conclusion drawn from the deficiencies of the two first stages. Sentimentalism and Monumentalism may be discussed almost simultaneously, whereas Radicalism is the continuation of these trends. According to the authors, the presented mechanisms have significantly influenced the crisis in the spatial development of modern cities.

3.1. Sentimentalism

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, most of the Americans that played key roles in city development were white emigrants and their descendants. Despite using the grid pattern typical for American cities, in spatial planning they followed the existing sentiment, visible not only in architectural forms but also in spatial arrangement [45]. It should be highlighted that the central source of thinking regarding the concept of American cities was their economic dimension. Cities were developed for the new society; in contrast to European cities, they did not rise from accumulated spatial traditions. Despite that, in some cases American cities repeated European forms and structures. It was also important to show the spirit of a given place in the designed space. The developing cities and towns were supposed to recall the atmosphere of a specific pattern that had been remembered or was passed onto the next generation. This matrix was not only applied in form, but was drawn from the longing for ancestors’ heritage on one hand, and nature on the other. Industrialization following the end of the 19th century and its enormous influence on the quality of life and the formation of urban space were also of great significance. This resulted in anti-urban movements, return-to-nature demands, and simplicity as specific antidotes for the confined spaces and uncleanliness of cities at that time. Obviously, only a few people had the ability to turn away from the city [36,37,38,43]. In Europe, the discussion on the alternatives to large cities was introduced by John Ruskin and his student William Morris, who had romantic visions of dwellings in tribute to the Art and Crafts concept [12,13,17,18,19,36,38,43,45]. This concept was supposed to identify idyllic life as the spirit of the self-production of all goods. The ideas of Ebenezer Howard and Eriel Saarinen followed the same path, developing into the popular concept of urban space subdivided into smaller, self-sufficient centres connected by commuter routes [17,18,19,38,43,44]. Howard’s concepts of satellite cities became a particularly comprehensive idea, to which many present-day urban researchers often refer [18,52,53,54]. Howard was the father of the English New Cities. His ideas were often criticized, but significantly, the cities based on his ideas have mostly lasted to the present day and are considered to be attractive living spaces (Figure 2). They were constructed in England, Scotland (3), and Northern Ireland (4); a total of 32 such centres were established [38].

A similar theory was proposed in 1904 by Georges Benoit-Levy, who adjusted the patterns of the peripheries to the specifics of cities in continental Europe (La Cite-Jardin); he later tried to merge the concept with the linear cities of Arturo Soria y Mata [20,27,34,36,56,57,58]. An interesting idea that developed along with Howard’s ideas in England was the French concept of the ‘industrial city’ of Tony Granier. It posited the creation of satellite cities with 35,000 inhabitants which included subdivision into functional zones. The next innovation in this concept was the introduction of zones of housing units with the basic services of neighbouring zones, located on unfenced lots [27,36,37]. These assumptions were readily utilized in the development of modernistic city ideas. Contemporary urban planning, art, and literature are all fascinated with the simplicity of life and the separation of work time, pejoratively identified with large cities, and free time, identified with small green peripheries. The commuter man archetype—commuting to work and living in two worlds, the good one and the bad one—developed at that time [20,27,59]. This reasoning came into life in the model cities of Letchworth (England) and Greenbelt (MD, USA), and the idea was realized in the design of numerous European and American cities [27,36,37]. Railway or trolley bus peripheries represent interesting examples of this concept; they were constructed in the east and mid-west of the USA, e.g., Forest Hills Gardens (Queens, NY, USA), Riverside (Illinois), and Shaker Heights (Ohio) [27,36,37]. Linear cities are another fascinating example of this idea. In 1992, Arturo Soria y Mata proposed a plan based on suburban units, in which communication was based on a dense railway network, along which housing was situated. This concept assumed also romantic rusticity, which was characteristic of Howard’s satellite ideas. Although it has often been brought up that both designers, Ebenezer Howard and Arturo Soria y Mata, were in many cases opponents in public discussion, both signalized that the basic problems of urban planning lie in transportation issues [20]. In this case also, architecture was supposed to be small and dispersed. Similarly to garden cities, linear cities were aimed to provide for the romantic appetite for a life surrounded by nature [37,60]. The romanticism of architectural and urban assumptions can be observed in the construction of the neocolonial districts of Santa Barbara, particularly in the town of San Simon (CA, USA), known also as Hearst Castle; the name refers to the ‘castle’-home, perfectly described in the approach of Mr. Wemmick in Charles Dickens’s ‘Great Expectations’ [61]. This realization, inspired by the eclectic Gothic Revival style, is one of the characteristic designs of the architect and urban planner Bertram Goodhue [62]. His distinctive style, full of meticulous references to details from different historical epochs, perfectly fitted with such an attitude and became the background of a whole trend of Spanish-style cities in the west of the USA. The wild development of Los Angeles in the 1920s and 1930s, where the remains of film decorations often became the direct inspiration for new urban developments and architectural projects, represents a special case of such an approach. These activities fall in the theming concept, which in almost every epoch was responsible for the sentimental needs of city inhabitants and creators [20,37]. Sentimentalism personifies a type of longing for rusticity and traditionalism in spatial development. It represents a hope for connecting all that is good, and can be derived from cities and villages. Form and function remain problematic issues. The achievements of Sentimentalism include extended green spaces in cities combined with aeration wedges and a city structure based on a communication network. The origin of Sentimentalism is important because it shows the sources of the mechanisms of urban structure dispersal. Efforts to escape from noise or air pollution coupled with the need to possess communication or technological achievements results in dangerous city extension [63,64,65,66,67] (Table 1).

3.2. Monumentalism

The monumentality trend is a crucial issue related to the development of modern cities. The trend has its roots in the late 16th century and is strictly connected with the commencement of social–political transformations. At present and in the past, the trend is usually linked with power and success. It is often related to various types of oppressive political systems concentrated on absolute power and control, but it also appears as a manifestation of the economic success of a given city or country. Expressions of Monumentalism can be found during the domination of totalitarian and fascist systems, but also in success propaganda or in the rising demand for large-format shopping centres. Therefore, Monumentalism may be subdivided into two trends easily visible in the urban structure—political and economic—and later, in reference to a city or country’s success, and in commercial aspects [27,37].

3.2.1. Political Monumentalism

Politics has always had a considerable effect on the urban spatial structure [17,27,37]. The entire period wherein European cities developed is directly linked with politics, and thus with defence issues, and with emphasizing the prestige and success of the ruling party. In modern cities, the former aspect has become devalued, whereas the latter aspects remain important. This is particularly visible in the continuous transformation of European cities. At the end of the monarchist 19th century, the post-baroque pattern based on the historism of Paris modernized with a star pattern began to dominate in the countries of Western Europe, treated as an example of a modern, available city on the one hand, and as a vouchsafe for the rulers in relation to the dangers its inhabitants could cause on the other [27,36,37]. In his radical reconstruction from 1853 to 1868, Georges Haussmann broadened the streets of Paris, and gave the city a new breath by establishing new parks and squares and renovating the most significant public space by adding statues and constructions which reflected the ambitions of emperor Napoleon III [37,64]. Worth mentioning are the aesthetics of those times, which resulted in a specific stylistic eclecticism; design was bombastic, formally huge, and referred in its proportions and details to history, particularly the periods of Baroque and Antiquity, but accounted for new construction techniques and the increased need for multi-storey buildings. Despite initial criticism, this eclecticism became a very important model implemented all over the world [37]. Constructions and structures based on French design were founded in Europe, both Americas, and Asia. An interesting example is the reconstruction of Barcelona in 1858, whose plans were selected following a competition (won by Anton Rovira) and realized thanks to the project by Ildefonso Cerda [32]. The design is characterized by a highly flexible layout of housing quarters in relation to function, as well as a complex public transport network [20]. Examples of developments related to colonialism based on historism can be found in cities of Central and South America, Asia, and Australia; they bear manifestations of proportion similarities, often with traces of local cultures and traditions with regard to detail. However, in the whole of the constructed (or intended) system they refer to the political manifestation of the owner of a specific land property. Asian examples may also be brought up, because they exemplify how European patterns of urban morphology are interpreted through colonialist ideas. The plans to reconstruct New Delhi, India by Edwin Lutyens (1912) and the design of Canberra by Walter Burley Griffin (1913), wherein the knowledge of the Neoclassical works of Haussman and Burnham are manifested, are interesting examples [37,64]. A similar realization can be seen in the construction of New Delhi, India, designed by Edwin Lutyens (1930), who was earlier associated with city gardens and the Queen Anne style [37]. Despite the fact that the latter of these realizations still delights with its lightness, from the very beginning the Indian city resembled a heavy, Neobaroque symbol of colonial rule. In later years, this trend with regard to politics evolved into solutions that were more relevant to the local tradition [20,27,37,64], but in the mainstream it remained a source of inspiration, a starting point in the development of modern structure in urban space. With the rising popularity of extremist regimes, historicizing sources applied to urban spaces continued to provide a starting point in the development of national styles, characteristic for particular regimes. In Nazi Germany, the proposals of Albert Speer, despite Modernism evolving in the Bauhaus school, were very traditional, directly linked with historical reference to the architecture of Ancient Rome and simplified historical structures [20,27,37]. In addition to their enormous scale and ambition (the Germania plan, the design of the Grosse Halle in Berlin), these projects were characterized by the total compliancy of the space subordinated to the ruling party (Figure 3).

The totalitarian imagery of space in communist cities, still evident in post-Soviet capital cities, represents a similar trend. Here, too, starting from Moscow and Stalin’s admiration of the Baroque style, historical architectonic citations are utilized in the service of monuments to the rulers [64,65,66,67]. Cities following such development were supposed to display the grandeur and irrevocable continuation of the best (as was assumed) patterns as interpreted by the ruling regime. Soviet skyscrapers with the most characteristic realizations, such as the Stalin’s Seven Sisters in Moscow, were largely inspired by American skyscrapers, but their final form attained a similar character and proportions with inherent steeples [68,69,70,71,72]. Despite the similarities, particularly formal ones related with their source in Parisian renovations, they were not employed by all Monumentalists who were politically inclined [64,65,66,67]. An example presenting a different, more modern, even modernistic thinking in detail, is the construction of the EUR district in Rome (1936–38) [72]. The team of Marcello Pacentini proposed an urban architectonic structure that was exceptionally modern for its time and situation, whose main element was the usage of simple (although still referring to Ancient Rome) characteristic forms such as the famous arcs of the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, or the characteristic windows of La Casa di Marescialli d’Italia with discontinuous pediments, where the keys have been replaced by Mussolini’s heads [72]. This was, however, a rare case in historism, which was generally applied more directly. Mussolini introduced a new development in the spirit of Monumentalism dedicated to fascism on a large scale throughout Italy. The largest number of such developments were located in the Agro Pontino region [72]. All new cities were based on the castrum romanum plan, but with two main squares, with a dominant feature located next to each of them. The area next to the larger square supposed to serve as a gathering point, and this dominant feature was the headquarters of the fascist party with an obligatory podium. A catholic church was located next to the second square. Each new fascist city had two characteristic dominant features which shaped its morphology. Large existing agglomerations were modernized in the same spirit. Similarly, Mussolini treated the symbolic capital of his African colonies in Addis Ababa, where Marcello Pancettini designed an urban structure of the city in the spirit of “Mediterranean imperialism”. This was supposed to be the next “new Rome” as an apotheosis of fascist rule, established on a classical geometrical plan of a Roman camp, with compulsory squares, axes, and dominating buildings for the party and the church. Subdivision into several functional zones was planned, including military, residential, and shopping areas. The city structure reflects the accepted racial segregation, with some of the space being inaccessible for native Ethiopians; in turn, they were offered separate districts detached by a wide green belt from the districts meant for white settlers [72]. The existing central squares were expanded so that parades and performances serving to enforce the myth of power could take place [20,37].

3.2.2. Success Monumentalism

The need to emphasize the importance of a given nation and its wealth was, as in the case of power, reflected in urban and architectonic solutions [20]. Almost from the beginning, large banks and institutions related to trade flow tried to emphasize their prestige and wealth through their headquarters. Over the years, they usually displayed a single dominant feature, such as a church spire [27,36,37]. This approach started to change by the end of the 19th century, also owing to the trend commenced by Hausmann, but with the additional contribution of changing technologies and the quest for the tallest buildings. This does not mean that the political trend abstained from new technologies; on the contrary, gigantomachy was part of the ideology: high, much, and plentiful [37,64,65,66,67]. Less oppressive, but not less spectacular spatial methods were used to emphasize success and wealth. The basic difference was that the whole decision-making process was based on democratic norms. During the economic and technological quest for the tallest buildings and the best space, the “City Beautiful” movement and accompanying transformations of urban structures appeared in the USA. The establishment of this movement is linked with social requirements that activated in the mid-1800s. Due to widespread corruption and unclear procedures linked with city expansion, with the simultaneous increased wealth of the nation, the previous ten years were known as the “gold-plated century” [62]. Americans travelled to Europe, admired the splendour of its cities, and began to expect the same in their own country. Therefore, after the success of the World Exhibition in Paris in 1889, the USA applied to host the following exhibition in 1893. New York and Saint Louis competed for the right to host the exhibition, but finally the event was hosted by the nouveau-riche Chicago. The exact location was selected by the landscape architect Frederic Law Olsmed, but the designer of the entire project was Daniel Burnham. At first, the architectural style was supposed to correspond to the lightness and subtleness of London’s Crystal Palace (1851), but in the end the Neoclassical and Baroque-like Haussman’s style was chosen. This was clearly in opposition to the main trends of the remaining part of the USA, where the “American renaissance”, much more modest in detail and corresponding to the style of the French Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris, was promoted. In the end, a new “White City” was constructed on an area of 240 ha. It was the quintessence of contemporary architectural and urban trends, showing the luxury and grandeur of the new nation [62,73]. The Chicago exhibition was the ennoblement of the USA as a rich and modern country, aware of contemporary trends. Its success resulted in the commencement of activities related to the vast reconstruction of other American agglomerations (Figure 4).

Some of the ideas standing behind these changes contributed to the later 20th century radical social gentrification. It should be remembered that transformations during the early 19th century served mostly the rich social classes by developing a “nice city for nice people”, and one of their aims was the displacement of poorer social classes from the city centres [20,73]. The most famous is the McMillan Plan from 1901, being the reconstruction of Washington, D.C. (designed by Daniel Burnham, Frederic Law Olmsted Jr., Charles McKim). It encompassed huge boulevards connected with a network of representative buildings, corresponding in style to Baroque garden developments, particularly Versailles. The architecture of the public buildings mostly derived from this style. The entire entity is in line with the rhetoric and demands of the “nice city for nice people” concept [62]. Besides urban layouts, worth noting are the changing outlines, in which the pursuit of the erecting of higher buildings was becoming a symbol of wealth. The race initiated by the technical possibilities that arose from the invention of reinforced concrete and steel construction was also used to display status. City outlines began to change. In the early 1900s, downtowns (city centres) began to be established at first in the USA and later across almost the entire world; their location was intended to symbolize the prestige and success of a city. The pioneering projects of Richard Morris Hunt (“Tribune” editorial team, New York, NY, USA, 1875), George B. Post (Western Union, 1872, New York, NY, USA), or Louis Sullivan resulted in a complete change of emphasis in the recognition of large cities [74]. The previous symbol, in form of single dominant structures that could be spotted from a far distance in the landscape, usually elements of religious structures, was transformed into a compact wall of multi-storey buildings that could be observed from a farther distance, and were lighter, larger, and statelier. From the moment when skyscrapers appeared, the city changed the way of its recognisability. The perception of human scale was also transformed. The pattern of a high city centre was picked up by rich cities of the east and south. Its sources are linked with the huge impact of this part of Corbusier’s ideas, which also referred in form to the spirit of Monumentalism, visible in the designs of La Voisin and Villa Radieuse [37]. Due to oil resources, the largest, boldest, and most expensive architectural objects are nowadays constructed in the Far East and in the Arabian Peninsula. This also refers to urban structures. Artificial city islands in Dubai or fantastical new city projects built in the desert, commissioned by the United Arab Emirates, are perfect examples of Monumentalism linked with wealth and the possibilities supplied by an economic boom. The Masdar and RAKgate projects are just two examples [15].

3.2.3. Shopping Space Monumentalism

Another example of large structures in the patterns of modern cities are gigantic shopping malls, often approaching the dimensions of small city districts in their size. Closed spaces focused on trade have a long history [20]. In European cities the first shopping centres, which offered a similar variety of offered goods to today’s huge shopping complexes, were the 18th century Galeries de Bois in Paris or the spectacular Crystal Palace in London, and the highly specialized trade bridges, such as Rialto in Venice, the London Bridge, Pont Marie, and Pont St-Michel. In the 19th century, the latter began to transform into a roofed shopping arcade, and later began to expand, leading to huge shopping centres and malls [20]. The origin of the development of European trade space is also linked with the new archetype of social behaviour, immortalized by Charles Baudelaire as the flâneur; a person strolling around the city, eager to receive new aesthetic and emotional impressions [75]. Interestingly, in modern societies, such an archetype occurs in mall-rats, who participate in the life of shopping malls but do not purchase anything, being endless viewers. This concept is followed by the Marxist idea of ‘commodity fetishism’, in which purchasing goods realizes fantasies and becomes an allegory of fortune leading to consumerism [76]. Despite the fact that these objects were at first erected in the city peripheries, due to their large economic strength and social demand they began also to appear in the city centres, often radically transforming the functioning of social space. From the 1930s to the 1950s, shopping towns were constructed in the rapidly expanding suburbs of American cities. This was the response to the social demands of the white, wealthier majority, usually coming from the middle class. In addition to trade offerings, these centres provided a full cultural program, and they were also focused on building a community around particular centres. To a certain degree, they also influenced identity by subdividing people into cyclical groups meeting on certain days in particular shopping malls [76]. The latter issue was often related with a subsequent gentrification trend and the exclusion of the surrounding space, as well as with the change of trade structures, often eliminating small, ‘neighbourly’ shopping points [77]. However, the essence of responding to demand and to social yearning was harnessing trade into the idea of a specific performance. Due to its scale, the shopping mall began to be a type of wanted fairy world, where everything is smoothened, positively amazing, and still attractive. The cradle of such facilities is the USA coupled with social–economic transformations related to the shaping of the wealthy middle class. Despite the fact that large-format shopping facilities were developed after 1907 (Baltimore’s Roland Park Shopping Center, Baltimore, MD, USA), the first large shopping mall in modern terms was the Southdale Center (peripheries of Minneapolis, MN, USA) erected in 1956 and designed by Victor Gruen. Situated in the suburbs, separated from the surrounding landscape by huge parking lots, and not taking into account any specificities of the surrounding space context, this mall became such a huge economic success that subsequent malls began to be constructed [20]. The development of shopping centres often accompanied other functions, mainly transport, growing near train stations or petrol stations, and reaching the dimensions of huge, multifunctional halls. One interesting example are the Japanese depāto, constructed since 1900 near underground stations. In Tokyo, the Shibuya-ku, Shinjuku-Ku, and Ginza districts are in reality huge shopping centres concentrated around railway stations. A similar case is seen within the airports of large cities (Zurich-Kloten in Switzerland, Lyon-Saint-Exupéry in France) [20]. Such shopping centres were established all around the world but the largest boom for this type of facility took place from the late 1950s to the mid-1990s in the USA. At that time, huge facilities often situated in the mid-town areas of American cities were erected, forming ideal and closed spaces, mostly separated context-wise from other small districts. Margaret Crawford referred to them as archetypical ‘windowless fortresses’, completely concentrated on internal space, without any reference to the surrounding landscape [76]. Due to their aforementioned economic success, huge malls started to develop massively, at first mainly in the USA. The most well-known designers of those supposedly idyllic shrines of trade were Victor Gruen and Jon Jerde. The former proposed the shopping mall pattern as a modern agora; a place with all the functional features that enable pleasantly spending free time and are favourable for developers. These completely artificial structures, concentrated on internal space, were in their aesthetic simplicity supposed to ensure maximum amusement in pleasant, aesthetic, and formally safe surroundings. In these closed, huge buildings, the street was a pleasant meeting place with a large number of streetlights, benches, and flowerbeds surrounded by numerous attractions [77,78,79,80]. Victor Gruen planned his design in a specific social context. His idea of the Gruen transfer, encompassing the transformation of a client expecting a specific purchase into an emotional client, impulsive, and succumbing to numerous entertainments, was an important element of shopping malls [78,79,80,81]. The later designs of Jon Jerde also added a stylistically rich formal aspect. One of the first and most widely described examples of such facilities is the Horton Plaza, erected in 1985 in San Diego (CA, USA) by the famous developer Ernst Hahn and designed by Jerde Partnership International [79,81]. The spatial development of a modern city derives much from Monumentalism, particularly in its historical–political forms. One valuable issue is restoration of the role of the dominant structure as a climactic element for a specific scenic sequence, but also as an orientation point. Moreover, the establishment of scenic corridors, which allowed the connection of the historical fabric with the later spatial development of cities, is equally important, clearing out urban structures [79]. One harmful issue is the marriage between Monumentalism and Radicalism, whether in the form of gigantic shopping malls or unrestrained skyscraper constructions, without strict links to the surrounding space. Furthermore, Monumentalism introduced pomposity and oversized proportions in city structures. It has also had an impact on space commercialization. In its marriage with Sentimentalism, Monumentalism also extended the tendency toward the harmful thematisation of cities (Table 2).

3.3. Radicalism

The rejection of the humanitarian assumptions of the first modernism and the trend of various types of Monumentalism caused the social and formal satiation of large cities. Demands for better quality of life for individuals and more friendly public space to meet social demand were postulated once again. At first, the realization of these postulates was linked with the new urbanisation enforced by industrialisation. At that time, housing estate structures and urban concentrations were developed around new factories, such as the phalanstère (1830) of Charles Fourier or the Familistère (1880) of Jean Baptiste Godin, or in the designs of Robert Owen, which were focused on ensuring that basic housing demands were met for the labourers employed in the central object, the factory [27,37]. Their construction did not take into account the spatial context and was only concentrated on their function. The radical concept of Le Corbusier’s housing unit, based on collectivism and module, derived from these ideological patterns [82,83,84,85]. However, each revolution, here exemplified by the postulates and transformations of Modernism, has its sacrifice. There were several distressing trends, which led to the deflection of the humanitarian assumptions of early Modernism [20]. The most significant element with the largest impact was Radicalism II of Modernism and its effects in the form of the long-term policy of a strongly degraded city. Le Corbusier’s plans—La Voisin (1936) and Villa Radieuse (1930)—were absolute visions, negating the historical fabric. This does not mean, however, that they completely evicted the historical fabric; rather, they treated its remains as a type of a relic or monument. In Le Voisin (Figure 5), Le Corbusier assumed the retention of the main historical buildings (Louvre, Notre-Dame) as such [37,84]. These were ideas presenting the city in a vision of huge forms and open space, the dominance of communication, with the simultaneous destruction of individual desires, not to mention the identity of the tradition of the place [82,83,84,85].

The second wave of Modernism showed the destruction of the basic assumptions through gigantomania and ambition. For creators, only revolution was an efficient remedy for city problems, which perfectly fitted in the political–social atmosphere of those times (1920–1940). The replacement of traditional development by residential blocks, functional regionalisation, and the precedency of long-distance communication networks became the main effects of introducing this idea. Interestingly, their assumptions were enthusiastically received in American as well as European cities. One of the examples of such activities are the English post-war developments following the radical zonal trend in the frame of the “New Towns Committee” starting in 1946, when a network of satellite settlements was established around London, including Stevenage, Hatfield, Harlow, Hemel Hempstead, Bracknell, Crawley, Basildon, and Welwyn, or new cities were constructed, usually in the vicinity of larger cities, such as Livingstone near Edinburgh, or East Kilbride and Cumbernauld near Glasgow. A similar approach was adopted in France, where based on the English patterns, a network of satellite settlements—grand ensembles—was designed around Paris (1965); they included Melun–Senart, Evry, Saint-Quentin-en Yvelines, Marne-la-Vallee and Cergy-Pontoise. The new English and French cities, at first complimented, did not avoid numerous pathologies related to security threats to the inhabitants caused by crime or social exclusion [20,86]. Despite historical Monumentalism and the related Socialist realism, the cities of Eastern Europe were also subject to the Radicalism of the block housing estates. The need to refurbish after the thawing of the dictates of socialist realism readily drew on the assumptions of the Modern Movement with regard to zoning and the primacy of block housing estates in relation to historical remnants. In the Soviet Union in particular, this type of space shaping was attained as in perfect correspondence with the ideology of post-revolution transformations. From 1926 to 1956, 564 new cities were erected, including several large cities with 500,000 residents, such as Stalinabad [now Dushanbe] or Norilsk, but also several smaller ones, such as Zaporizhzhia [27,86]. Practically all European post-war cities were subject to this concept. On the other side of the Atlantic, this was also the time of formal and functional cities. After the Great Crisis of the 1930s, Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ was focused on spatial issues. Huge funds were allotted to the renovation of the transportation network, new bridges, and new social estates [Sutton]. After the transfer of the CIAM architects Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Walther Gropius, and Marcel Breuer, the Modern Movement ideas became very popular in the USA, although tentative attempts to propagate modern cities based on their main radical assumptions has already been made. This refers to the economically wild plan of Richard Neutry, the Rush City Reformed from 1928, assuming the construction of huge block housing estates. However, the most spectacular was the ideological success of Futurama, presented during the World Exhibition in 1939 in New York, where Norman Bela Geddes presented a gigantic model with a zonal city of the future city with skyscrapers in parks and huge highways [79,87,88]. These speculations were considered to represent a remedy for the problems of American cities, particularly those related with divisions in society and city quarters inhabited by the poor. In those times, the term blight was used for such areas; it was supposed to be a synonym of degraded areas in need of refurbishing, which was considered to be a superior social demand, by default referring to the strong racial and economic divisions in American society [79]. The refurbishing idea readily found its reflection in state regulations, which were the basis of further radical city transformations. Regulations such as the Redevelopment Companies Law from 1942 and Urban Redevelopment Law from1945 began to form the urban renewal front, which was the legal basis for determined actions [37,79]. These regulations allowed for the massive expropriation of residents and the resale of the lots to investors planning to construct new housing estates, entwined in expanded highway construction as one of the superior aims of urban renewal. One of the disgraceful characters realizing such regulations was Robert Moses, whose radical actions were met with the firm social resistance associated with Jane Jacobs [87,88]. Demolitions and communal estates constructed in their place, suburban sprawl, huge highway networks and the radical method of fast change introduction, lead to crises and the gradual degradation of huge American cities [77]. The creators of modernistic architecture played an important role. Worth mentioning are the works of Mies van der Rohe in Chicago (Lake Shore and Commonwealth apartments) and New York (Seagram Building), which are very fine-tuned, considered to be model architectural realizations, despite their form and location not completely taking into account the space context [37]. Brasilia (1960) is an example of radical urban planning, in this case with reference to nature rather than the existing urban pattern, which shows that intentions related to imposing a specific life style may not keep up when meeting a specific reality. The design by Lucio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer shows an ideal, zonal city with huge, modernistic public spaces, residential areas, and employment zones. This cross-shaped (or bow and arrow) vision was supposed to socialize the residents by removing all social inequalities and barriers. What happened was just the opposite. Not planning any space for the builders and the unqualified service staff resulted in Brasilia beginning to be surrounded by favelas covering the fertile area at first intended for farming. This caused a huge increase in crime and the change of the developments in the city centre, where gated communities (some of the first ones) began to be established, and the number of residents within the urban structure started to decrease [20,37]. Radicalism is linked with the complete negation of existing historical structures. In urban space, it serves as an example of the fact that despite sublime ideas containing answers to most drawbacks posed on the society, a lack of consideration for subtleties may contribute to further, completely new issues, whose fixing may take many years. The most significant element of Radicalism is the complete spatial–functional and social context negation. Both in form and structure, and on all other levels, this is a trend which, in the name of restrictive and at first glance essential solutions, destroys the existing social relations and landscape. Artificial zoning and the treatment of transit as an overriding issue caused a serious crisis in many cities, in which they are still stuck today, as expressed in the destruction of neighbouring zones, the lack of functional variability on a local scale, and the rescaling of public space. In reality, there is no city in which Radicalism has not done harm, not only during the Second Modernism period. Unfortunately, such actions are still encountered today. In the name of economic benefits, facilities or large accumulations of them that are in clear conflict with the surrounding space are frequently founded (Table 3).

Sentimentalism, Monumentalism and Radicalism, which have their roots in numerous modern visions of cities and their remains, are the foundations of crisis in urban spatial development. Leon and Rob Krier [17,18,19] and their apologists related with new urbanism, such as Andres Duany [52,53,54], used Monumentalism and Sentimentalism in their theories re-establishing the proportions of a historical city, seeing the former as the dominant and the latter as the longing for the retaining of the basic city pattern. Radicalism, which among other factors developed from the idea of a functional city, is a type of warning drawing attention to excessive ambitions despite good intentions. The latter trend has its positive sides, particularly in the aspect of the retrieval of degraded forms, where the reconstruction of a historical code is not possible due to the radical change of the neighbouring context. Monumentalism also shows Radicalism, particularly in its commercial image, where a lack of adequate conditions causes the degradation of central urban space through exaggerated skyscrapers. There are a plethora of examples, beginning with the gradual degradation of the London panorama, through to the intervention into the historical fabrics of Paris and Warsaw. Sentimentalism is present also in the forcibly reconstructed fragments of historical space, despite the irreversible change of the existing spatial structure.

3.4. ‘Black Swan’ and the City Landscape

The spatial development of modern cities may be hampered by systematized long-term processes and equally dangerous rapid phenomena. Nassin Taleb’s ‘Black Swan’ theory, with its philosophical–mathematic foundations indicates that rare and unexpected phenomena may have huge impacts on our reality. He indicates that it cannot be automatically assumed that events or evolution will proceed in one specific direction. This refers also to urban processes. The theory takes its name from ornithology. For decades, scientists were convinced that swans always had a unique white plumage; this opinion persisted until the moment when a black swan was spotted in Australia. In an urban aspect, the ‘Black Swan’ effect corresponds to an unpredictable disaster [89,90]. A good example is Detroit, which in the 1950s was the symbol of success owing to its dynamically developing car industry [91,92,93]. The ‘Black Swan’ for the city came in the form of the 1967 riots, whose unexpected escalation and severe destruction of the urban structure resulted in a serious crisis. In effect, rising racially induced tensions caused mass migration. Crime waves and incompetent policies were the additional reasons for a drastic decrease in the number of residents, by 60% [89]. In the 1970s another phenomenon took place, which caused the further breakdown of the city (a second ‘Black Swan’). This was a fuel crisis, which seriously weakened the car industry, the main employer in the city [89,90,91,92,93]. Finally, in 2013 Detroit was forced to declare bankruptcy [89,91], which had a great social–economic impact on the entire of middle-class America, and probably indirectly influenced the results of the presidential election won by Donald Trump [76]. Other similar examples are the remains of mining restructuring in the UK and the ‘cod wars’ between Iceland and the UK. In the 1980s most mines were closed down in the UK, which caused an unemployment wave whose level still remains high in the cities located in post-mining areas (Leeds, Stoke and Trent, Liverpool). A comparable case may be observed in the northern port towns, where the closure of huge fish factories caused a similar effect (Grimsby), as cited by the Office for National Statistics (www.ons.gov.uk (accessed on20 December 2021)).

3.5. Identity and Theming of the City Landscape

Places and spaces in the city landscape are created by structure, its meaning, and the phenomenon that it builds. Identity is part of the latter. Numerous aspects, both material and non-material, have to be taken into account in the definition of identity in reference to perception. Theming destroys the notion of identity in the city and is its negation. It developed with the mechanisms related to Sentimentalism and Monumentalism. Ute Hannerz emphasises that a human’s life and role in the city may be discussed in several ways depending on the starting point. When the starting point is the individual, a human’s life in the city is subject to shaping by combining several roles in the repertoire and adjusting them to each other. The social structure of the city is composed of relationships to which humans are connected through the different components of the role repertoire [94], which depend upon various relationships, and on which identity construction is based. In turn, when a complex assumption is made, then it can be stated that the city is a type of network of relationships, connections, and meanings. The city is part of an area in which human interactions take place. The remains of what was previously the natural landscape are included one way or another in the organization of human society [31,35,95]. Ammos Rappaport initiated environmental studies, which attempted to determine the way in which human beings affect the environment and, at the same time, in which the environment affects human beings. His experiences drew attention to crucial semantic issues referring to space not on an identity level but also on a deeply perceptive level. The basis of these investigations were environmental–behavioural studies, that is, relations between ‘environmental triggers’ and ‘human reactions’ [95]. Social studies [96] indicate that technological developments influence individual and group necessities. At the same time, the priorities in relation to particular urban functions also change. Requirements related to living or fast commuting remain the most crucial ones, whereas other necessities continuously change. The transformation of social behaviour related to access to information, social media, and the evolution of mobile communication also applies to spatial needs. The approach to the demands of specific functions is at present more commonly linked with the trends or ideas developed by means of the internet. In general, the IT revolution [43] is an indispensable factor when thinking about modern cities. Equally essential also are issues related to the significance and value of urban space [8]. Not only quantitative, but also qualitative elements testify for its condition and priorities. Rem Koolchas draws attention to a specific subsequent dimension of the city in a virtual sense [97]. Apart from having a physical dimension, space continues in the world of information exchange technology. In the globalization era, mankind is subject to huge social transformations which cause the perception of the surrounding world to change significantly. The successive changes of social and individual behaviour cause that space to begin to be redefined bottom-up, first at a semantic and functional level, and later at a formal one [96,98]. The individualization of social behaviour requires the provision of appropriate services. The functions of public space are modified, though perhaps not at a basic level, as they still remain meeting points, identify particular places, and constitute the city identity. Nevertheless, more and more is expected from public space. When writing about the theming of public space, Piotr Lorens draws attention to social necessities in emotional categories. A place not only has to exist, but has to be associated, be of a kind, carry an event [45]. At this point, another significant element may be added: value in space [56]. Modern cities exist not only on physical or virtual levels, but also on emotional ones. Theming in urban space is a topic indirectly described already in the 1960s [56]. The increasing popularity of this term is associated with the trend for large shopping malls that developed in the 1980s in the USA [81]. The development of the thematic city term is connected with their construction. According to Piotr Lorens [45] the term of public space theming should be understood as the conscious and intentional conferring of architectural forms corresponding with past times or different civilizations, to a specific space, which may be related to creating an urban performance for the mass recipient. In this case, an urban performance represents a specifically designed space, corresponding to specific connotations, which is described later in reference to public space as a particular urban set design, as well as, in some cases, to use architectural terms, a specific account (almost literary), intended to engage the viewer and draw his attention [45]. It should be emphasized that the definition of theming refers to animated space associated with creating specific social behaviours in urban space, free of architectural stylization. This definition can also be found in stylized spaces not referring to the staging of the city performance. The term space theming has its beginning in the wide range of neohistorical styles, which were a specific trend of bringing up to date elements or styles corresponding to the spatial past. The trend is strictly associated with the direction of city development at the end of the 19th century, described in Chapter Monumentalism. In reference to cities and the large concentrations of public space, theming largely has negative resonance associated with the kitsch of thematic parks, beginning with Disneyland and Disneyworld [45]. It is also associated with the progressive commercialization of space, which refers not only to the escalation in the size of shopping and entertainment zones, but also to growing social demands. Temples, entertainment centres, and shopping malls, constructed and decorated in a similar richness and garishness of form, may be compiled and defined, as suggested by Joseph Rykwert, as Disneyism [37] When describing theming in reference to cities and public space, Piotr Lorens notes their ambition to be more (more urban than a real city) [45]. Las Vegas, with its miniatures of European and American historical monuments, from the Orthodox St. Vasil’s church to the Statue of Liberty, is an example of the theming trend peak [45]. Such activities linked with showing what has been built elsewhere in a smaller scale have been seen for a long time. More obvious examples are stations of the cross present in every church, or calvarias. The most recent, popular thematic arrangements of urban space are the various types of urban games and the trend of reconstructing particular historical events [27]. The sociological aspect is crucial in this case; the creation of thematic sites is an attempt to idealize space in the spirit of purity and safety, constructed as national public culture based on difference aestheticization and terror management [27]. This especially refers to entertainment parks, with idealized provinciality coupled with elements and stage sets corresponding to the times before the 1870 war or the Wild West, in American examples, or Ancient Rome in the gigantic entertainment park devoted to Asterix in Paris [79]. Worth noting is the fact that thematic parks refer to the future or the past, never to contemporary times [27]. Authenticity is linked here with urban space identity, understood as the existence of a physical reflection of city history and tradition and its residents or the urban community, differing from other places and communities [45]. In this case, identity is discussed in various scales and aspects, from the geographic–neighbourhood, local, district, and citywide identity scale, to social, in reference to the human, group or community scale. Equally significant are elements associated with cultural identity in a symbolic or characterological frame in reference to the genius loci. The safety aspect, both directly experienced as well as culturally, is also of crucial significance [80]. Identification and other values linked to it are what cause a place to become authentic. This refers to the quality of public space. With regard to accessibility, Piotr Lorens subdivides the latter into ‘open’ and ‘inbound’ spaces [45]. The former is a natural continuation of urban fabric without any additional barriers. In turn, ‘inbound’ space is conditionally accessible. Its openness depends on the entrance permit (gated estates, office spaces) or purchased ticket (courtyards related to various events). The creation of the latter space is also related to safety issues. Citing Michael Sorkin, when describing American cities, Piotr Lorens draws attention to the losing of public space in the urban fabric, and mentions three basic features characterizing this process: cities being out-of-context (‘lack of stable relations to local geographic and cultural conditions, to any kind of specific space’), safety issues (being of priority during urban structure design), and social demand issues (being spectacular, demand for stronger triggers leading to urban theming). In the latter aspect, a large role is played by the economy. Urban space is becoming a sort of product, something that can be exchanged both on a social and a trade basis. Theming may be subdivided into five different groups referring to two sets. The first is linked with thematic space sensu stricto; intentionally shaped space creating the illusion of a specific place associated with expected emotions based on the requirements of urban performance. The following examples may be mentioned [45]:

• Historical groups and complexes—including historical parks—representing space corresponding to particular events from the past, often based on the revitalization of historical structures with new functions. These are often developments based on the continuation of existing structures, and may also contribute to enhancing the identity of local space.

• Contemporary commercial complexes—devoted to shopping and entertainment—created as completely new urban structures, related to a specific economic plan. They may represent a completely new space or that which is already part of the historical urban structure.

• ‘Thematic parks’ complexes; newly created spaces associated with a particular attraction, based on a specific thematic narrative. These are places founded on an attempt to idealize space, where the narrative is linked with the expected concrete reaction of the spectator. Uniqueness, treated as one of the crucial criteria, is of high significance (similarly to the case of commercial complexes).

The second group refers to ‘stylized space’, i.e., space in which the demands of urban performance are not fulfilled. The following examples may be mentioned:

• New urban structures constructed on the basis of ancient ones, usually based on specific functional design developments, which represent a topic specific to a given space. This group of structures refers to the new urban trend, often referred to as the third wave of the ‘urban revolution’ [45] (after the first urban utopias associated with Monumentalism and Sentimentalism, through to the urbanism of modern times). It is related to the construction of social enclaves based on a ‘neighbour unit’, high safety levels, and extensive structures of single-family houses. The space issue lies in the foundation of the design process. The creation of such urban systems is known as ‘neotraditional design’ [45].

• Reconstructed old-town complexes; urban systems which reflect space after annihilation, also subordinated to presently determined functions. The created structures are supposed to reproduce the genius loci of historical space, at the same time retaining modern demands in relation to the functional pattern. The resulting urban patterns are of great significance in the shaping of urban identity. They are often a retaliation to the downtown feeling, or a reconstruction of the mental and physical ‘heart of the city’.

Space theming is of great significance in the development of modern cities. Conflict between investors, political situations, and bottom-up social initiatives cause the development of modern cities to be less than uniform, and often unpredictable in the near or far future. The combining of specific thematic elements in urban structures may cause the loss of authenticity of the entire urban pattern. Such a process is observed in Warsaw, which even without this issue is a city with a daunting identity. The first element related to this difficulty is the discussion on the city centre. In its present form the Old Town, almost symbolically falling into space theming, is a good example, with the residents rarely identifying with the city centre. When asked about the Warsaw city centre, students and residents often indicate different parts of the city, not always representing public space. These sites include: the Palace of Culture and Science, the Parade Square, the ‘Frying Pan’ (Patelnia; the square in front of the Centrum underground station at the Marszałkowska and Jerozolimskie streets’ intersection), the Royal Route along Krakowskie Przedmieście–Nowy Świat, or the Piłsudski Square. In reference to the Old Town, such a central position is attributed to Sigismund’s Column and the Castle Square. In general, Warsaw is usually identified by its residents in local categories. The space is differently understood by residents of the Praga or Żoliborz districts. They commute differently in the city. Excluding their workplaces, they concentrate on their direct neighbourhood in their districts or travel to thematic spaces, represented by shopping malls. Interestingly, similar trends are observed in all large cities in Poland, Europe or the USA. However, this fact is not always related to the lack of an unequivocal identity of the central space, as in Warsaw. In a certain sense the accepted theming form linked with the reconstruction of the Old Town contributed to its final lack of authenticity. A replica, at most being a tourist attraction, was constructed in place of the heart of the city [20,56].

3.6. Demographic and Climate Crisis in Relation to the Presented Problems of Urban Development

The most important and currently discussed aspect is the climate and environmental protection of cities, which is a relatively new issue [1,4,5,6,99]. The current global and local protection and resilience policy is conducive to the improvement of the condition of these elements in cities [100,101]. However, this does not mean the threats are gone. An important element that also troubled the cities of the nineteenth century and directly influenced the trend here called Sentimentalism, is the relationship between environmental and climate protection and overpopulation [102]. This problem is the cause of many urban development crises, not only based on European or American patterns. Uncontrolled sprawl, the lack of sustainable housing policies, and the economic system that causes frequent social exclusion continue to affect the contemporary urban structures of both cities and the surrounding areas [63,99,103]. It is worth noting here that this problem concerns not only cities, but also rural areas, especially those that perform satellite functions around large cities. The problem of suburbs with monothematic functions directly affects transport and economic issues, which indirectly causes environmental crises [1,99,103]. The remnants of Radicalism related to zoning, in turn, mean that overpopulation issues have a large social dimension, contributing to the creation of urban ghettos [103,104]. When discussing urban and rural areas, it is also worth considering issues related to thematisation [103]. Part of the area is subordinated to local attractions, which means that economic aspects begin to prevail over social and living needs, which may be related to the mechanisms described here as thematisation and shopping space Monumentalism. An important element that is worth referring to is also the mechanism related to the “Black Swan” phenomenon, which may cause, apart from the case described here, changes to the entire city, and local changes, which may also pose a threat to climate and environmental protection [93,101,104].

3.7. Threats in City Development

The 20th century brought both strengths and weaknesses to the potential of urban development [1,2,3,4,5,6]. The expansion of technology has allowed for different types of temporal savings (and the evolution of communication), but has also emphasized threats linked with the overarching negative aspects of these structures, which have a direct impact on individuals and entire communities. The massive growth of cities at that time was related to a number of basic factors. They included [35]:

• The reduction of the traditional bond of people to the land, partial resignation and transformation of the farming policy in accordance with industrial development, with simultaneous village depopulation;

• The inhibition and gradual fall of industry that flourished in the 19th and in the beginning of the 20th century;

• A complete change of the system and usage of the means of transport, with bicycle maintenance as one of the most crucial transport methods in cities, the development of public communication, an increase of the number of vehicles in cities;

• The change of global policy, movement away from the rules of colonialism, global economic policy;

• An IT and telecommunication revolution in information and knowledge exchange.

Reports on urban conditions draw attention to the problem of pollution, insufficient resources, irrational production and consumption rules, and the alarming increase of the number of city residents. The presently shaped world economy, linked with huge civilization development and IT and communication evolution, is not always capable of solving the problems of modern cities, as exemplified by the deep social and economic stratifications that are evident in some large cities [30,92]. The main reasons for the urban crises in cities lie in these activities. They may be subdivided into several groups:

• Reasons related to environmental and climatic policies: the waste of resources, atmospheric pollution, the impoverishment of ecological systems in cities, the insufficient protection of environmental elements, coupled with the steady expansion of urbanized areas, the diminishing of farmlands and the lack of forest protections;

• Infrastructural problems: often insufficient water supplies, incorrect sewage systems coupled with continuously rising energy demands;

• Functional problems: the non-adjusting of function to genuine necessity, the decreasing quality of land usage;

• Transport problems: increasing urbanization related to the rising demand for transportation and communication systems;

• Social problems: crime, unemployment, increasing non-tolerance to everything that is different, diminishing intergenerational, gender and ethnic acceptance, social stratification [30];

• Identity problems: the attenuation of the downtown role with simultaneous periphery development, the reduction of authenticity and space theming leading to a disappearance of urban identify;

• Structural problems: a common lack of comprehensive legal regulations in developmental policy planning, causing a distinctiveness decrease in the structural proportions of urban space and the uncontrolled spread of suburban areas; the urban sprawl phenomenon [31].

Despite these issues, the World Congresses taking place in 1996–2002 and devoted to cities suggest that the development process may be managed so that city development is sustainable in terms of culture, environment, and community. Experts see hope in educational progress, knowledge, and information exchange on a global scale, with appropriate management and economic growth [102]. Contemporary forms repeated in contemporary cities include [31]:

• Traditional business cores: developed around crucial parts of the city with the most important identity and with significant economic functions (City of London, Chatelet in Paris, Marunouchi/Otemachi in Tokyo);

• Secondary business cores: with residential–business offerings and rich cultural programs (the West End in New York, Midtown in London, XVI district in Paris), usually developed in the beginning of the 20th century;

• Inner edge cities: developed since the 1960s, spaces with a concentration of business and entertainment functions (La Defence in Paris, Potsdam Square in Berlin);

• Outer edge cities: located along main exit axes or leading to airports, with dispersed developments with residential–service functions (Okęcie in Warsaw, Zuid in Amsterdam);

• Outermost edge cities: estates of low-density residential development with basic services, and also huge shopping malls located near the city boundaries (Marki near Warsaw, Omiya near Saitama);

• Specialized concentrations of activity: usually artificial structures related to thematic parks, arenas, and exhibition and conference centres (Disneyland near Paris, Greenwich Dome near London).

4. Conclusions

The modern city is subject to transformation. Both social and spatial issues are in crisis in relation to how space perception and interactions between residents in the urbanized structure are changing. Zygmunt Bauman points to the diversity of triggers, which cause there to be too many options in the choosing of individual tracks. This variety is so overwhelming that the term “freedom of choice” becomes uncomfortable in this aspect, rather being a never-ending torment [105]. The multiplicity of choices overwhelms and isolates. The issue seems similar to the crisis of spatial development in contemporary cites, which have to cope with the burden of misguided historical design decisions, and are not capable of finding consistent solutions for the development of their morphology. In this context, Rewers draws attention to the term alien as an individual and a behaviour pattern in the urban community [106]. The contemporary city resident living in it is usually always ‘beyond’, in his individual virtual world. Although physically existing in urban space, he draws his attention to the virtual world. Only when commuting, he has to build on basic spatial information, in each situation existing in a different world. Interestingly, the flâneur archetype disappears; residents no longer want to stroll and admire the surrounding space [106] as they are attracted by a much larger and more interesting world of virtual transfer. It is worth inquiring if being in such reality, the city resident further requires an attractive space, concentrating only on its functions with reference to his demands. In such a concept, space attractiveness begins to become a type of nostalgia. Objectively, it is located mainly in the historical, oldest part of the city. It is a memory of former behaviour and previous demands, and increasingly refers to history. Such a process is referred to as mediated experience by Anthony Giddens, i.e., the inclusion of temporally and spatially distant events into the area of sensual experience [107]. He draws attention to the deterritorialization of traditional forms of space identity, which is directly linked with Radicalism, theming processes, and the ‘Black Swan’ phenomenon. Similarly, in individual consciousness he notes that by allowing for multiple choice options, contemporary modernity mechanisms attenuate the individual ‘self’ through widely accepted behaviour and consumption patterns. This causes humans to start to behave slightly differently in space, more predictably, and also to differently identify the surrounding space [84]. This does not mean, however, that cities are not needed any more. Urbanity remains a desirable experience, but its range changes. Ewa Rewers considers that, despite the virtualization of everyday life, experiencing physical space and places is still indispensable for identification purposes [106]. There is still a high demand for taking root and visual orientation in the here and now. There are still concrete conditions related to functioning and commuting, which cause us to need direct identification with the surrounding world. However, the trend of change has already been set; it appears that we will continue aiming at a more intense virtualization of our world and part of the purely physical barriers will be crossed. Cities of the future may start to gravitate towards pure emotion, elasticity and space imagining. It may turn out that the vision of Yoneji Masuda in 1972, that the civilization that we are constructing when approaching the 21st century will not be a material civilization, symbolized by huge constructions, but will be a civilization of information […] based on invisible systems, the forces hidden in miniaturized elements, and the power of human brain, is true [25].

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

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Data Availability Statement

Not applicable.

Conflicts of Interest

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures and Tables

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Figure 1. The city phenomenon as a landscape in a historical approach.

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Figure 2. Letchworth Garden City. The city plan is based on the ideas of Ebenezer Howard.

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Figure 3. The main square in the design of Germania by Albert Speer.

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Figure 4. “White City” by Daniel Burnham.

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Figure 5. A sketch of the idea of La Voisin by Le Corbusier in relation to historical Paris.

Table 1

Trends in city development related to Sentimentalism.

Achievements	Threats
Increased role of green areas and their significant impact on the structure of cities.	Sprawl of the urban space through the scattered development of the suburbs.
Aeration wedges in cities.	The emergence of the phenomenon of space theming.
Communication as the basis ofthe city structure.	Development of the city in isolation fromhistorical structures.

Table 2

Trends in city development related to Monumentalism.

Achievements	Threats
Restoring the dominant role of the city.	Overscaled buildings, gigantism, pomposity in cities.
Attempts at introducing cohesion of the urban and landscape structure in cities.	Failure to respect the context when designing commercial and high-rise facilities.
	Commercialization of space.

Table 3

Trends in city development related to Radicalism.

Achievements	Threats
Green areas asimportant elements of urban structures	Monofunctional zoning in cities
	Scattering and chaos in the building structure
	Over scaled public spaces
	Priority transit transport in the development of cities
	Disappearance of neighborhood zones, no functional differentiation on a local scale
	Complete negation of the spatialand historical context in cities

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