Tales of cities

Two exhibitions celebrating cities and their transformation at a particular time are taking place on either side of the Channel. Their objectives, the exhibits and the formats could not be more different and yet in some ways one is the reflection of the other. At the Tate Modern in London, nine cities are meant to represent the best of the 20th Century: each one is taken at the point when, according to the curators, that city offered something special. Gratifyingly, in each case there is a section on architecture which involves not just buildings, but also the public realm and the cultural climate that produced it. In Paris at the Pavillon de l'Arsenal, recent major projects in the fifteen capitals of the European Union are shown explaining the priorities and the policies behind the schemes.

The best examples from Vienna, Moscow, Paris or Rio shown in Century Cities display imagination, enthusiasm and boldness to respond to the problems of the time. Their creators were part of the utopian modernist movement which saw urbanism as one of the tools to achieve a better society. Unfortunately - for a variety of reasons - the results were more often than not very far from achieving their objectives. Hence the presence of even worse problems today and the need for major restructuring and minor surgery displayed in Panoramas Européens where again imagination and boldness are in evidence. The question that this exhibition raises, is will these schemes succeed better than the previous ones?.

When at last action on urban design is taking place, we should be wary of getting carried away by our current enthusiasm and end up repeating past mistakes or making new ones. It is fundamental to have reliable information and research in order to predict as far as possible the consequences of current projects. The section on Research introduced in UDQ last year aims at encouraging and disseminating such research. The recently published report on the Value of Urban Design indicates that a lot more needs to be done.