culture and the city The Ideal City Photo 1 (text) “Despina can be reached in two ways: by ship or by camel. The city displays one face to the traveler arriving overland and a different one to him who arrives by sea. When the camel driver sees, at the horizon of the tableland, the pinnacles of the skyscrapers come into view, the radar antennae, the white and red wind-socks flapping, the chimneys belching smoke, he thinks of a ship; he knows it is a city, but he thinks of it as a vessel that will take him away from the desert, a windjammer about to cast off, with the breeze already swelling the sails, not yet unfurled, or a steamboat with its boiler vibrating in the iron keel; and he thinks of all the ports, the foreign merchandise the cranes unload on the docks, the taverns where crews of different flags break bottles over one another’s heads, the lighted, ground-floor windows, each with a woman combing her hair. In the coastline’s haze, the sailor discerns the form of a camel’s withers, an embroidered saddle with glittering fringe between two spotted humps, advancing and swaying; he knows it is a city, but he thinks of it as a camel from whose pack hang wine-skins and bags of candied fruit, date wine, tobacco leaves, and already he sees himself at the head of a long caravan taking him away from the desert of the sea, toward oases of fresh water in the palm trees’ jagged shade, toward palaces of thick, whitewashed walls, tiled courts where girls are dancing barefoot, moving their arms, half-hidden by their veils, and half-revealed. Each city receives its form from the desert it opposes; and so the camel driver and the sailor see Despina, a border city between two deserts.” (Italo Calvino, Invisibles Cities, 1972)
Transcript
culture and the city The Ideal City Photo 1 (text)
“Despina can be reached in two ways: by ship or by camel. The city displays one face to the traveler arriving overland and a different one to him who arrives by sea. When the camel driver sees, at the horizon of the tableland, the pinnacles of the skyscrapers come into view, the radar antennae, the white and red wind-socks flapping, the chimneys belching smoke, he thinks of a ship; he knows it is a city, but he thinks of it as a vessel that will take him away from the desert, a windjammer about to cast off, with the breeze already swelling the sails, not yet unfurled, or a steamboat with its boiler vibrating in the iron keel; and he thinks of all the ports, the foreign merchandise the cranes unload on the docks, the taverns where crews of different flags break bottles over one another’s heads, the lighted, ground-floor windows, each with a woman combing her hair.
In the coastline’s haze, the sailor discerns the form of a camel’s withers, an embroidered saddle with glittering fringe between two spotted humps, advancing and swaying; he knows it is a city, but he thinks of it as a camel from whose pack hang wine-skins and bags of candied fruit, date wine, tobacco leaves, and already he sees himself at the head of a long caravan taking him away from the desert of the sea, toward oases of fresh water in the palm trees’ jagged shade, toward palaces of thick, whitewashed walls, tiled courts where girls are dancing barefoot, moving their arms, half-hidden by their veils, and half-revealed.
Each city receives its form from the desert it opposes; and so the camel driver and the sailor see Despina, a border city between two deserts.”
(Italo Calvino, Invisibles Cities, 1972)
Live Music Capital of the World® AUSTIN culture and the City Entertainment City Photo 1 http://www.travelmamas.com/wordpress/tag/austin/
Shibuya District TOKYO culture and the City Entertainment City Photo 2 http://www.sharewonders.com/the-district-of-shibuya-in-tokyo/
Saadiyat Island (Development Model) ABU DABHI
culture and the City The Iconic City Photo 1 http://www.constructionweekonline.com/article-16105-saadiyat-island-labour-conditions-improving--hrw/#.UMdE0YM0v_0
West Kowloon Cultural District (Conceptual Plan Option Exhibition City Park Foster & Partners) HONG KONG culture and the City The Iconic City Photo 2 http://www.panoramio.com/photo/40810596
Olympics Games 2012 LONDON
culture and the city The Event City http://www.theobserver.ca/2012/07/26/anxiety-reigns-in-london-on-eve-of-games
“Acqua alta” , Piazza S. Marco VENICE culture and the city The Heritage City http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Acqua_alta_in_Piazza_San_Marco-original.jpg
Bansky, 2011, Canary Wharf LONDON culture and the city The Creative City Photo 1 http://streetartlondon.co.uk/blog/2011/12/12/banksy-out-stock/
Stay Free! Magazine, 2005 NEW YORK culture and the city The Creative City Photo 2 http://theskillman.blogspot.de/2008_06_01_archive.html
Favela de Paraisópolis, Sao Paulo Culture and the City The Multicultural City Photo 1 http://www.escoladopovo.org/a-primeira-favela-do-brasil-que-vai-erradicar-o-analfabetismo/
Balat, Greek and Jewish Quarter ISTANBUL culture and the City The Multicultural City Photo 2 http://www.visit2istanbul.com/istanbul-balat/
Pixadores SAO PAULO culture and the city The Subaltern City Photo 1 http://loumanolit.canalblog.com/archives/2010/09/23/19034567.html
Pixadores S. PAULO
Pottery Production, Dharavi slum, MUMBAI culture and the City -The Subaltern City Photo 2 by Heike Leiacker (she is a student of mine)
