Chapter : The City as Artifact - Spiro Kostof
Spiro Kostof, in his chapter “The City as Artifact ”(1992) , argues that urban form is a complex, cumulative process comprising many layers of history, meaning, context, and culture, and defines the urban process as bi-faceted, with both a literal procedural/legal aspect, and a reference to the changes that occur over time. He backs his thesis by highlighting the shortcomings of superficial perceptions of form, using examples such as the surprisingly forced nature of Siena’s city form, which was often misunderstood to be organic, and by comparing numerous grid patterns as functions of their appearance in contrast to their various independent socio-cultural, political and functional origins.The purpose of this extract is to shed light on the importance of a deeper understanding of history, form and process, in order to observe, learn and infer with a greater sense of authenticity. Kostof addresses the readers as “us” and establishes a sense of belonging while contrasting with the “form seeker” title given to what seems like the rest of the world that is satisfied with the apparent meaning of urban form and process.
What really interested me in this extract was the absolute clarity of thought when the author says “There is no quick, easy way to appropriate the past".It is so blunt that it instantly spawns a sense of inevitable guilt in any reader harboring the illusion of understanding history, context or identity. The author’s persistence, with serial examples that hammer the point home one after the other, almost overwhelms the mind. I have always been passionate about battling placelessness in Architecture and believe I want to protect the identity of places, people and cultures, but this makes me question whether I even know what I am trying to protect. However, it inspires me to dig deeper and strengthen my understanding of the very concept of what constitutes identity.
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