Smooth City: Against Urban Perfection, Towards Collective Alternatives

by René Boer

In cities around the world a new urban condition is spreading rapidly, characterized by ever-increasing levels of ‘perfection’, efficiency, control, and the active eradication of any aberration or alternative. In the smooth city, urban space is sanitized and urban life is compressed into a seamless experience. While the need for safe, clean, and well-functioning urban environments is clear, the rise of the smooth city undermines the democratic nature and emancipatory potential of cities as it leaves almost no space for anything that is experimental or incompatible with dominant norms. Smooth City offers a critical analysis of the origins, characteristics, and consequences of the smooth city, while also offering a starting point to challenge the obsession with perfection and instead collectively work towards porosity in the urban realm.

René Boer (1986) works as a critic, curator and organizer in and beyond the fields of architecture, design, heritage and the arts. In his practice he articulates new perspectives on spatial conditions and facilitates fertile ground for imagining and materialising alternatives. He is a founding partner of Loom - practice for cultural transformation, part of the transnational platform Failed Architecture and affiliated with various urban social movements as well as art, architecture and design schools in Amsterdam and beyond.

Genres: Urban, Cities, Urbanism, Architecture, Urban Planning

271 pages, Paperback

Published October 3, 2023

Reviews

[Nate D · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the the paradoxical "improvement" of the city, overdesigned and streamlined mainly to improve the flow of capital, albeit usually in one direction and at the expense of the heterogeneity and unpredictability that makes the city classically a space of possibility. There's lots in here that's pretty obvious to anyone living in New York over the past two decades (or so many other cities in the world, the point is very much that this is not a local phenomenon), but also many valuable case studies and specific insights. This was published by an art press and exists in that arena of theory where you might expect some of this to have turned up in e-flux, though perhaps leaning a little more concretely in the spheres of architecture and urban design. It's enlivened by collages from a collaborating artist that appear in short bursts of concentrated concept, and which are probably the most unsubtle part without really take the ideas beyond the surface, but I'm never going to complain about the interleaving of essay with art.

[Kris Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

actually finished it this time!! draws connections and explains stuff so well, and a good literature review of academics considering this sort of stuff. i wish there was more example of porosity but perhaps i need to find them myself

[daaltena · Rating 2 out of 5]

Te herhalend, geeft de structurele redenen niet goed weer en schrijft een symptoombestrijding voor die niet helemaal erkentelijk is voor de huidige stand van zaken in grote steden. Zo is het allemaal een ‘smooth city’ (ultieme voorbeelden: een straat in Amsterdam, een buurt in Londen, de nieuwe hoofdstad van Caïro), het overstijgende concept wat gemunt is door de auteur en die volgens de tekst in de literatuur al vele malen is gemanifesteerd in velerlei ombuigingen van het woord ’smooth’. De auteurs die genoemd worden zijn voor het grootste deel redelijk bekende namen in de stadsgeografie, en wat zij hebben geschreven lijken mijns inziens - oppervlakkig bekeken - stuk voor stuk interessanter dan wat de synthese moest voorstellen in dit boek. De schrijfstijl is simpel en weinig illustrerend. De romantisering van het ‘negatieve’ (mogelijk negatieve ervaringen in een stad die ‘erbij horen’) wordt expliciet niet nagejaagd, en dit moet altijd na de romantisering geplaatst worden, zodat we weten dat dit absoluut niet het geval is, ook al is dat wel net gedaan, maar goed. Als de polemiek sterker aanwezig was geweest zou het het betoog meer een eigen smaak hebben gegeven, een die zo’n tekst misschien wel overtuigender had gemaakt. Gelukkig hoeft eigen theorie alleen maar te rusten op één brede term die zo breed is dat alles wat negatief be-/geschreven wordt over de huidige ontwikkelingen van de stad kan herbergen.

Al met al een prima boek voor diegene die meer willen weten over waarom grote steden als Amsterdam, Londen, Rome, et cetera steeds meer op elkaar gaan lijken en wat we moeten doen om de strijd niet te verliezen. Queer your space and stimulate porosity. Geloof niet al het negatieve wat je hier leest, daarvoor heb je de citaten zelf nodig! 🥸 Algoeds.

[Jara Larissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Op aanraden (en geleend) van Lynn! Het boek is heel toegankelijk, leest makkelijk weg en is daarnaast visueel goed vormgegeven.
Ik zit zelf al veel in de sociale theorieën dus af en toe vond ik het een beetje saai of herhaaldelijk, of gewoon niet vernieuwend. Maar ik vind het ook altijd leuk of iig goed om iemand mijn ideeën of ervaringen te zien ontkrachten of bevestigen/onderbouwen en René doet dat op een hele kritische manier. Mocht je veel vinden van Amsterdam en de kant die het opgaat en interesse hebben in dit soort theorieën en thema’s; zeker een aanrader!

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

heel goed boek voor degene die willen instappen in dit soort theorieën/ideeën!! ik had heel graag gezien dat theorieën zoals die van Pablo Sendra meer ruimte zouden krijgen naast een korte omschrijving, maar ik snap dat dat niet te doen was in zo’n boek. Het grafische ontwerp van dit boek en de smoothscapes zijn echt heel goed dus overall een dikke slay!

[Lexi B. Kinman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy the concept of a 'smooth city'.... will be ruminating .....

[suus · Rating 4 out of 5]

hele interessante take!! soms beetje herhalend maar overall goed onderbouwd

[Shenna McClean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super interesting take on how our cities are designed and everything that is wrong with the way we currently design them. Made me think

[Isabel Ozkan Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compelling package which braids together urban trends in architecture (design, materials, shapes), planning (movement, patterns, space), and culture (behavior, preferences, ideals) even if the observations themselves were clear enough to those paying attention. Boer was overly concerned with refining new and more pristine versions of already-established definitions so the meat was fresher in conversation than through text.

My favorite section concerned the "violence of positivity" which occurs as an

overachievement, overproduction, overcommunication, hyper attention and hyperactivity... [and] eliminates all kinds of constructive forms of 'negativity' such as hesitations, interruptions, constraints, and thresholds, which are all essential building blocks in the organization of human life.

Urban smoothness is violent positivity scaled. Boer argues that the optimized, suburbanized, globalized organization of the city is expressed through phenomena like the environs of New Cairo, the over-collection of useless personal data on phones and watches and rings, and bubble tea. A lot of we mourn as urban dwellers is urbanity: imperfection, friction, difficulty, inconvenience, awkward conversation, grievances. Or as declared by the Savage in Brave New World: "I am claiming the right to be unhappy." Urban designers then might follow with principles of impermanence and informality: fewer scripts, less perfection, more porosity.

[Patrick J-O'B · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF.

Nonsense. Only tolerated for "political" reasons. Like literary people, architecture critics need to learn another discipline before they start trying to make testable claims about society and the world. The zine aspect is fun, but this is really just a pamphlet padded out with lazy word salads of postdoc-verso books-vibes based "criticality".

[Grant Saacks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very impressive book! Written in a rigorous academic format it explains the various underlying issues of the modern city and its desire for perfection. It provides context, history and offers solutions and predictions for the future. Unfortunately the description of the problem is far more graspable than the proposed solutions which are not that empowering/compelling. But that just is what it is, it is a complicated problem. What the book does best is it is comprehensive in its explanation of the pernicious mechanisms that commodifies the city, excludes people, sets a self monitored norm of behaviour etc. I learnt so much here and it has given me an explanation for the way I feel about the semi dystopian development of the city we see today.

[Amanda C · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the 1950s on, “the middle class abandoned the complexity of the city and opted for the order, moral clarity, and cleanliness of the newly built suburbs.” But now, “many parts of society are being reorganized around the principle of convenience, which smoothens any potential friction, unclarity, or discomfort people might encounter in going about their lives.” “In a smooth city, it is increasingly rare to encounter a contrast that tickles the mind, let alone in its eccentricity or extremity a contrast that inspires or opens up a space for contesting the smooth city’s present hegemony” “the contemporary urbanite is increasingly reduced to the role of passive spectator and a consumer of spectacle,” and robbed of the possibility of becoming.

Loved this read. And - pictures!

[James Critchley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Whilst I agree with elements of this book, such as imposing rent controls so people are not priced out of their own cities, an increase in public spaces to ensure everyone has somewhere they feel fulfilment from, my issue with it was that it said so much whilst saying very little at the same time. It abstracted what it was arguing so much that its usefulness was minimal.

[kaitelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book aligned with the premise of my undergrad arch thesis quite well—wish I had this as a reference then, because although I found the concepts and writing very clear and thought provoking, the citations were where I found the most gold. I could see this being a very digestible book for people without architecture/urban planning backgrounds.

[Ana Otelea · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid outlook on the neo liberal urban condition, at times too focused on establishing its own vocabulary. The grass-roots alternatives it offers are anecdotal and it’s hard to imagine they could translate into a larger scale movement.

[Annie Tate Cockrum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting perspective about urban planning albeit a little repetitive at times.