Mimicry in design: the urban form of development

Maria Francesca Piazzoni and Tridib Banerjee

Journal of Urban Design, 2018, vol. 23, issue 4, 482-498

Abstract: This paper investigates the diffusion of Western-like built environments in rapidly urbanizing regions. It draws from Marshall Berman’s seminal treatise on modernity, which uses Goethe’s Faust as a metaphor. In the Chinese context, Berman’s analogy understands Faust as the consumer who craves the Western city. A further structural approach is suggested, in which Faust is also the State that encourages mimicry by pursuing fast development and creating artificial market dynamics. The Faustian metaphor thus explains the spread of simulacrascapes, which limits local inventiveness, participation and expertise. The conclusions of this paper recommend an endogenous approach to the design of urban form.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13574809.2017.1383151 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:cjudxx:v:23:y:2018:i:4:p:482-498

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/cjud20

DOI: 10.1080/13574809.2017.1383151

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Urban Design is currently edited by Professor Taner Oc, Professor Michael Southworth, Professor Matthew Carmona and Dr Elisabete Cidre

More articles in Journal of Urban Design from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().