City Notes — Reading the City

Dada City (Zürich)

Sometimes, a peculiar historic circumstance turns a city into an outsized point of convergence.

UrbanismGabriel FeldMay 1, 2019Zurich, Switzerland, EuropeComment

The Bridges of Königsberg (Urban Math)

How many examples of bridges that inspired mathematicians can you think of?

UrbanismGabriel FeldMay 1, 2019Kaliningrad, Russia, EuropeComment

Urban Figures (Istanbul)

Often, travelers arriving to Istanbul have depicted a city of hills, domes and minarets. Instead, when the legendary French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson visited Istanbul in 1964, he chose to point his camera deep into the life of the street.

UrbanismGabriel FeldMay 1, 2019Istanbul, Turkey, Asia, EuropeComment

Urban Figures (Lisbon)

In response to these steep slopes, Lisbon developed a number of ingenious and rather extraordinary forms of transportation, including several funiculars and elevators.

UrbanismGabriel FeldMay 1, 2019Lisbon, Portugal, EuropeComment

The City at Night (Buenos Aires)

As far as I know, Horacio Coppola was the only Argentinean student at the Bauhaus.

UrbanismGabriel FeldMay 1, 2019Buenos Aires, Argentina, South AmericaComment

The City at Night (Vienna)

In the earlier part of the 20th century, most if not all night views of the city were an expression of modernity, literally the bright side of modernity.

UrbanismGabriel FeldMay 1, 2019Vienna, Austria, EuropeComment

The City at Night (New York)

But he was much more than a crime photographer. He captured in his images the whole urban drama of a moment.

UrbanismGabriel FeldMay 1, 2019New York City, USA, North AmericaComment

The City at Night (Beijing)

In the last few years astronauts at the International Space Station have been producing an extraordinary collection of images showing large cities at night.

UrbanismGabriel FeldMay 1, 2019Beijing, China, AsiaComment

The City at Night (Istanbul)

How do you draw the map of the city at night?

UrbanismGabriel FeldMay 1, 2019Istanbul, Turkey, Asia, EuropeComment

The City at Night (Venice)

The paintings depict two of just a handful of local festivities held specifically at night.

UrbanismGabriel FeldMay 1, 2019Venice, Italy, EuropeComment

The City at Night (Cairo)

If you look at a map of Cairo from the second half of the 19th century you'll easily recognized the Ezbekiya Gardens, a large rectangle with chamfered corners to the northwest.

UrbanismGabriel FeldMay 1, 2019Cairo, Egypt, Africa, Middle EastComment

Paris in Cairo?

I'm not sure if Place des Vosges inaugurated the practice of carving urban space out of existing urban fabric, but the experience of Paris had certainly an enormous impact throughout the world.

UrbanismGabriel FeldMay 1, 2019Paris, Cairo, France, Egypt, Europe, AfricaComment

The City at Night (Havana)

Before the triumph of Castro's revolution in 1958, the night of Havana was the stuff of legend and fantasy.

UrbanismGabriel FeldMay 1, 2019Havana, Cuba, North AmericaComment

The City at Night (Mumbai)

Midway through "Night in Bombay"--the wonderful and quaintly risqué 1940 novel by Louis Bromfield--the story takes a brief rest, just enough to let the three main characters have a quiet dinner together.

UrbanismGabriel FeldMay 1, 2019Mumbai, India, AsiaComment

The City at Night (Lisbon)

It should not be difficult to imagine the sound of the night along the narrow streets climbing up the hills from the downtown Baixa.

UrbanismGabriel FeldMay 1, 2019Lisbon, Portugal, EuropeComment

Urban Bestiary (8)

West Lake is Hangzhou's defining urban element, both physically and culturally.

UrbanismGabriel FeldMay 1, 2019Hangzhou, China, AsiaComment

Urban Bestiary (7)

During the more than four centuries of Moorish domination (AD 714 to 1147,) Lisbon was variously known as Luxbona, Lixbuna, Ulixbone and Olissibona, names that eventually morphed into the Portuguese Lisboa.

UrbanismGabriel FeldMay 1, 2019Lisbon, Portugal, EuropeComment

Urban Bestiary (6)

For the 1925 Exposition International des Arts Décoratives he set out to build, literally, a house for his vision of the city.

UrbanismGabriel FeldMay 1, 2019ArchitectureComment

The Vienna of Wittgenstein's Nephew

His eccentric character not only has to complete an elaborate cafe circuit in about six hours, but also go back home after each stop and change clothes.

UrbanismGabriel FeldMay 1, 2019Vienna, Austria, EuropeComment

Roma: Via dell’Arco della Ciambella

If you look carefully behind the front of the buildings along the street, you will notice that they are part of a single circular wall, the remnants of the central drum of Rome’s first Thermae, the Baths of Agrippa.

UrbanismGabriel FeldMay 1, 2019Rome, Italy, EuropeComment