René Boomkens

Een drempelwereld
Moderne ervaring en stedelijke openbaarheid

Design: Joseph Plateau, Illustrated (b/w), paperback, 448 pp.
Text in Dutch (English summary), ISBN 90-5662-094, € 29.50 OUT OF PRINT

The theme of this publication is the contemporary significance of the city and urban culture as a crucial element or central motive force in modern society and the continuing process of modernisation. This significance is more controversial than ever, which more than ever before raises the question of the roles of the disciplines involved in the city, urban design, architecture and planning. Is the modern city a thing of the past or is there a future for it?

The book links discussions on modernity and urban culture with contemporary urban problems, combining a variety of disciplinary approaches to the city and drawing attention to the one-sidedness of disciplines.

Boomkens' renewed conceptualisation of the modernity and modernism and the way they relate to the modern city and urban culture is based on a reconstruction of Walter Benjamin's concept of modern experience and on his commentary on the modernistic avant-garde, in particular in the field of architecture and urban design.