Reviews for Die Diktatur der Philanthropen

The average rating for Die Diktatur der Philanthropen based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-11-22 00:00:00 Normand Boucher I began reading this book because I'm about to enter Rice for a masters in architecture and this is one of the definitive books written by the current (although on his way out this summer) dean. I thought the first section was cleverly written and his description of the different aspects of the city and middle landscape was really interesting. It was in the third section, "Architecture Reconsidered" that I thought the book became less purposeful and uninteresting. He began to describe the different systems/movements/architectural devices used within and between buildings as in a catalog. Not only has this been done before numerous times, his was very incomplete and seemed as if only a reference to a series of objects he built for an exhibition. The fourth and last section gave me some more insight and I thought the ideas were made clear, but I don't think he was able to completely tackle the larger problem he set up. He spoke of the middle landscape with a new understanding of 'distance' and new relationships to nature. Although I think he is pointing in the right direction, I think the book focused too much on the city of Houston itself and had a lot of ideas that he mentioned briefly and then left without completing the open ended thought. Overall "After the City" was just not satisfying.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-01-09 00:00:00 David Jones Speaks about the various factors that affect the spatial arrangement of a city. According to the author, few of the factors playing a major role in the spatial arrangement of cities include- vitality, sense, fit, access, control, efficiency and justice. Cities could get arranged due to these factors or these factors could be observed as characteristics of the reason a settlement has grown. The author gives a convincing statement with several examples to state each of his points and although this book was written in a time and place different from now, it is seen to be applicable to cities and towns all around the world even in the 21st century. If you were to pick up any of the author's concepts/ observations and look around you - one is bound to find similar examples in today's world. Practical and structured work for city planning reference. We had to read this book and write an essay on a topic themed around the concept of this book for city planning course.