Browsing by Author "Marshall, James Lawrence"

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    Evolving priorities in architecture and urban design: a survey of world's fairs
    (1971) Marshall, James Lawrence; Papademetriou, Peter C.
    The world's fair or international exposition of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries represents an interesting area in the context of large scale building enterprises. The fair in a sense has come to symbolize the best and the worse of a period in terms of design and usually is developed on a grand scale that cannot be ignored. By analyzing different scales and types of built form, professionals can begin to develop a sound approach to design based on the possibilities and contributions that these complexes have to offer to large scale There are certain inherent characteristics particular to fairs that have potential "feed-forward" value for architecture and planning, but for our purposes they should be tahen in an evolutionary, comparative way, as indicators of professional attitudes towards organization of the built environment, As such, these fairs* illustrate "evolving priorities" towards problems of the impact of the accelerated urbanization. The can be no direct comparisons of fairs and cities, although in the design and planning of a fair many problems that face the planner or the urban environment must be tackled and solved to make an amenable place for people, Essentially there are certain aspects of fairs that have far ranging significance beyond mere amusement and entertainment. The world's fair is a phenomenon of planning and design that is unique in many respects; it is both real and fantasy and it is both permanent and temporary. It is because of this complex nature of the fair as a cultUral institution that I have chosen to ifivestigate it as a significant feature of the designed environment based on an act of will to be executea at a point in time without the usual restraints of everyday building.