The False Problem of Urbane Design

Abstract

Urbane design concerns itself with promoting thequalities associated with the urban – dynamism, transversal networks, etc. – in places where these do not(yet) exist. Urbane design can be considered a neoliberal off-shoot of ‘urban curating’ and other contemporary forms of extending architectural practice intothe social realm. The urbane designer is the creativemanager of the creative city, whose specific task isanimating or activating urban space.Arguing that architectural theory needs to interrogateurbane design beyond the traditional confines of architectural theory, this article addresses three different aspects of urbane design in relation to the mixeduse flagship development Studio in Malmo, Sweden.This article makes the case that urbane design playsan important part of neoliberalism’s attempt to portray itself as spontaneous, un-hierarchical and ‘natural’ and calls for a return to the underlying problemsrather than focusing solely on their solutions. It isargued that this is a central task for a critical architectural theory at present.