City Planning and Modern Architecture Manfredo Tafuri, Marshall Berman and Jane Jacobs

According to Tarufi, the rise of modern architecture is connected with the rise in capitalist values which took place during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In fact, Tarufi believes that the relationship between building and production allowed the architectural profession to become one the first fully commercialized institutions in the world (48). This view is expressed in Tarufi's book Architecture and Utopia, which was originally published in 1973. Tarufi is an Italian with a Marxist point of view, and both these factors influence his outlook on the situation. In particular, Tarufi's Marxism causes him to denounce the problems of the free enterprise system and to favor the socialist ideals of equal distribution. His thesis is that the rise of capitalism had a negative impact on city planning as well as on the subsequent development of architectural styles. In Tarufi's view, the dog-eat-dog world of capitalism has detracted from the utopian ideals which existed in architectural theories during the nineteenth century. The relevance of Tarufi's viwpoint is that it reflects a Marxist approach to the problems of modern cities. Although there are problems with this approach, it non

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arly 1960s; Tafuri is an Italian Marxist writing in the early 1970s; and Berman is a New York professor writing in the early 1980s. These different points of reference have a strong impact on the specific concerns that each author expresses. In this regard, it can be seen that Tafuri, Berman and Jacobs each have causes that they favor as well as causes that they are opposed to. Tarufi, for example, is a champion of the socialist perspective on life. As a result, he is highly critical of the various problems that he perceives within the capitalist system. In particular, Tarufi sees capitalism as going against the utopian dreams of nineteenth century architecture. Unfortunately, this type of thinking shows that Tarufi is living in the past. He seems bitter at the fact that the Marxist ideals of the past did not transform the world to match his own personal vision for the present. In addition to his retroactive thinking, Tarufi has an obsession with Marxist ideals which gives him an impractical slant on current affairs. Thus, instead of crying over the loss of past utopias, it is more meaningful to simply accept conditions the way they are and to seek to improve those conditions on that basis alone. Tarufi also seems to b
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Approximate Word count = 1956
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)