Multiple City reflects on current urban development against the background of urban concepts over the past 100 years. It is possible to trace the history of multiple manifestations, parallel strategies and diametrical developments. Urban concepts and urbanist discourse enjoy temporary booms, but leave behind enduring evidence. Today, a wide range of phenomena, interpretations and debates exist in conjunction. This publication documents 16 important topics of urban development on the basis of texts, up-to-date photographs and historical planning material. Well-known authors adopt standpoints on current urban developments in 32 essays. It becomes possible to experience urban development as an exciting discourse that involves us all.
The exhibition presents sixteen urbanistic terms, examining their transformation up to the present: From the 'garden city' at the beginning of the 20th century via the city landscape concepts of the early post-war period to today’s 'urban landscapes' and from the 'new towns' of the 1960s to the current establishments of cities in China and the United Arab Emirates; from the leading ideas of a 'mobile city' to the 'Telepolis' of a digital era and from the 'pleasure city' of a global consumer landscape to the strategy of branding, the city as a trademark. New phenomena appear which, at the same time, can be a product of traditional strategies. These phenomena are heterogeneous, there is neither one manifestation nor one strategy in dealing with the city of today: Multiple City.
The catalogue is published parallel to the exhibition Multiple City. Urban Concepts 1908/2008, Pinakothek der Moderne Munchen, 4th December 2008 - 1 March 2009. Exhibition and publication are jointly produced by Architekturmuseum TU Munchen and Lehrstuhl fur Stadtebau und Regionalplanung TU Munchen. The exhibition as well as its accompanying catalogue are to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Department for Urban and Regional Planning at the TU München.