Urban Avant-Gardes - Art, Architecture and Change (Hardcover, New Ed)

Environmentalists, whether engaged in direct action or creating new models of sustainable industry and settlement, propose radical changes in the values and organization of society. "Urban Avant-Gardes" explores whether new practices in the arts and architecture can reshape values and in turn create a new consciousness, from which a more sustainable society can emerge. The first section contextualises the practices of art and architecture through reference to cultural and environmentalist debates in the late 20th century. It specifically considers past notions of an avant-garde in art and architecture; the politics and cultures of environmentalism in the late 20th century; the question of locality in a context of globalization; and the problem of how a new society or consciousness comes into being. Section II illustrates these frameworks by providing examples from the US, Europe and Australia, mainly in cities with initiatives between art, architecture, ecology and movements for democratic change, which might constitute a green avant-garde. The final section draws together the commonalities and differences between the examples and looks to the future, asking how patterns of settlem