__NOTOC__ Unitary urbanism (UU) was the critique of ''

status quo is a Latin phrase meaning the existing state of affairs, particularly with regard to social, economic, legal, environmental, political, religious, scientific or military issues. In the sociological sense, the ''status quo'' refers to the curren ...

'' "

urbanism Urbanism is the study of how inhabitants of urban areas, such as towns and cities, interact with the built environment. It is a direct component of disciplines such as urban planning, a profession focusing on the design and management of urban ...

", employed by the

Letterist International The Letterist International (LI) was a Paris-based collective of radical artists and cultural theorists between 1952 and 1957. It was created by Guy Debord and Gil J. Wolman rejoined by Jean-Louis Brau and Serge Berna as a schism from Isidor ...

and then further developed by the

Situationist International The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution ...

between 1953 and 1960. The praxis originates from the Lettrist technique of hypergraphics which was applied to architecture by the Lettrist International (LI). The UU critique of

was further developed in the 1950s by the LI, and consists of a range of practices that include, but are not limited to: * Situation *

Dérive The ''dérive'' (, "drift") is an unplanned journey through a landscape, usually city, urban, in which participants stop focusing on their everyday relations to their social environment. Developed by members of the Letterist International, it ...

Psychogeography Psychogeography is the exploration of urban environments that emphasizes interpersonal connections to places and arbitrary routes. It was developed by members of the Letterist International and Situationist International, which were revolutionar ...

Détournement A détournement (), meaning "rerouting, hijacking" in French, is a technique developed in the 1950s by the Letterist International, and later adapted by the Situationist International (SI),'' Report on the Construction of Situations'' (1957) t ...

* Industrial painting *

Revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

The critical practice continued to be developed by the Situationists and others. It was largely abandoned for the Debordian theory of the

spectacle In general, spectacle refers to an event that is memorable for the appearance it creates. Derived in Middle English from c. 1340 as "specially prepared or arranged display" it was borrowed from Old French ''spectacle'', itself a reflection of the ...

after the

Second Situationist International The Second Situationist International were a small group of situationists (the "Nashists") who broke away from the Situationist International (SI). Jørgen Nash identifies the first manifestation of the group as a leaflet signed by himself along ...

and Situationist Antinational were formed. One of the few groups openly practicing unitary urbanism today is evoL PsychogeogrAphix in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Unitary urbanism was announced as a very specific praxis at the

Alba ''Alba'' ( , ) is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is also, in English-language historiography, used to refer to the polity of Picts and Scots united in the ninth century as the Kingdom of Alba, until it developed into the Kingd ...

platform between the Lettrist International and the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus. In his Address to the Alba Conference in September 1956, the Lettrist International Delegate Gil J. Wolman said: "A unitary urbanism—the synthesis of art and technology that we call for—must be constructed according to certain new values of life, values which now need to be distinguished and disseminated." This mode of urban practice was also called for in a tract distributed during a demonstration by Lettrists in

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

in December 1956.

Constant Nieuwenhuys Constant Anton Nieuwenhuys (21 July 1920 – 1 August 2005), better known as Constant, was a Dutch painter, sculptor, graphic artist, author and musician. Early period Constant was born in Amsterdam on 21 July 1920 as the first son of Pieter N ...

and

Guy Debord Guy-Ernest Debord (; ; 28 December 1931 – 30 November 1994) was a French Marxist theorist, philosopher, filmmaker, critic of work, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situat ...

disagreed about the praxis: Nieuwenhuys focused on structure, while Debord on content. Together, they issued the designation "the complex, ongoing activity which consciously recreates

man A man is an adult male human. Before adulthood, a male child or adolescent is referred to as a boy. Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromosome from the f ...

's environment according to the most advanced conceptions in every domain". The disagreement led to Nieuwenhuys' split from the SI in 1960. Unitary urbanism, one of the major early Situationist concerns, stands on two tenets: * The rejection of the

Euclid Euclid (; ; BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician active as a geometer and logician. Considered the "father of geometry", he is chiefly known for the '' Elements'' treatise, which established the foundations of geometry that largely domina ...

ean, overly functional, urban architectural design, and * The rejection of the detachment of art from its surroundings. In the UU ideal, structural and artistic elements of humanity's metropolitan surroundings are blended into such grey area that one cannot identify where function ends and play begins. The resulting

society A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. ...

, while it caters to fundamental needs, does so in an atmosphere of continual exploration, leisure, and stimulating ambience.

Unitary urbanists

* Piero Simondo * Providence Initiative for Psychogeographic Studies *

Psy-Geo-Conflux Psy-Geo-Conflux (better known as Conflux) is an annual New York City festival dedicated to psychogeography, where visual, performance and sound artists, writers, urban adventurers, researchers and the public gather for four days to explore the phys ...

* The Workshop for Non-Linear Architecture

Quotes

References

External links

History of Unitary Urbanism and Psychogeography at the Turn of the Sixties
{{DEFAULTSORT:Unitary Urbanism Situationist International Psychogeography Urban planning