Review: Iconic Planned Communities and the Challenge of Change

ephemeral nature of most of the colonial artifacts examined in volume 1—inherently different in this from the actual Khmer monuments—cannot be forgotten in the evaluation of their cultural, artistic, and ideological significance. The nationalist iconization of Angkor Wat by Sihanouk and the Khmer Rouge is scrupulously examined in volume 2, even though Falser’s analysis is based on French-language documents that catered mainly to an international audience rather than a domestic one. The issue of the social memory of Angkor Wat possessed by Cambodian refugees in the 1990s is briefly addressed in a largely visual section (2:299–304). Overall, however, little is said about the social perception of Angkor Wat as an identitarian symbol in both colonial and postcolonial Cambodia among local intellectuals who expressed their views in the vernacular (the bibliography contains no sources in Khmer). The very scale of the book also poses a problem, given that reading it from start to end is no mean task. Further, its superior production unfortunately omitted muchneeded copyediting. The laborious prose, replete with jargon and repetitions as well as lexical blunders and syntactical aberrations (not to mention the abuse of French terms for which direct English equivalents exist), does not help the reader negotiate the book’s exceptional length. Even the chapter-by-chapter summaries in the “Findings and Conclusions” sections at the ends of both volumes are longwinded. Editing oversights include some glaring typos (e.g., “Camodia” in the title line of volume 2’s table of contents), inconsistent and often incorrect (according to predominant AngloAmerican editorial styles) italicization of the names of French organizations, and, conversely, a perplexing avoidance of italics in the titles of books and journals listed in the bibliography. To sum up, Falser’s Angkor Wat is unquestionably the fruit of much dedication and thorough field and archival research in Cambodia, Thailand, France, and Germany. Despite its flaws and intimidating length, it is a remarkable work of scholarship. Scholars interested in the politics of heritage, museology, and the global history of architecture, as well as the cultural history of Cambodia, will find much valuable information in this book, presuming they can afford a copy (the dimensions and copious illustrations justify the hefty list price, which is the same for the hardcover and electronic editions) and are determined enough to read it through. MAURIZIO PELEGGI National University of Singapore Note 1. Robert Hewison, The Heritage Industry: Britain in a Climate of Decline (London: Methuen, 1987). Mary Corbin Sies, Isabelle Gournay, and Robert Freestone, eds. Iconic Planned Communities and the Challenge of Change Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019, 544 pp., 22 color and 133 b/w illus. $49.95 (cloth), ISBN 9780812251142 Recent scholarship has significantly enriched our understanding of the transnational dissemination of the garden city idea in the twentieth century. Although Ebenezer Howard’s utopian vision of a self-governed egalitarian society based on a cooperative commonwealth never materialized, his conception of the garden city provided a useful blueprint for planning experiments by social reformers aiming to create ideal settlements where residents would enjoy good health, emotional wellbeing, and strong communal ties. Many of these early planned environments have since become classic studies in the planning literature, where stories of visionary schemes have been retold repeatedly and the achievements of particular communities reappraised. As research has continued to expand, lesser-known variants of the garden city in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East have begun to come to light. These examples offer new comparative perspectives on the adaptation and appropriation of modern planning in different geopolitical contexts, where it has been employed to achieve social goals and to serve specific political agendas.1 Although these studies have shed new light on the global histories of planning, less attention has been paid to the ongoing changes that threaten the legacies of planned communities in the present day. Iconic Planned Communities and the Challenge of Change is an important book that fills this gap. As editors Mary Corbin Sies, Isabelle Gournay, and Robert Freestone explain, their purpose is to explore the fortunes of iconic planned communities in the twenty-first century, as these communities have become increasingly vulnerable to pressures of growth, change, and decline. Another of their stated objectives is to stimulate debate on how best to preserve the spirit and practical value of the innovative planning that underlies these communities while also meeting the needs of new generations of inhabitants. The “iconic” communities referred to in the title are places whose physical environments are broadly recognized as a result of the widespread circulation of visual images encapsulating their design and social tenets. Although such images may be exaggerated for propaganda purposes, the editors argue that they may also play a central role in heritage protection and thereby enable these communities to extend their environmental, artistic, and social legacies. All contributors to this well-researched book are established scholars in the field. Using interdisciplinary perspectives, they present twenty-three planned communities of a variety of types across six continents, ranging from company towns to garden suburbs to mixed-use developments to new towns. Well-known cases include Letchworth, Welwyn, and Hampstead in Britain; Römerstadt in Germany; Tapiola in Finland; Colonel Light Gardens in Australia; and Riverside, Radburn, Greenbelt, and Sunnyside Gardens in the United States. Less widely known places include Menteng in Indonesia, Soweto in South Africa, Jardim América and Pacaembu in Brazil, Batovany-Partizánske in Slovakia, and Sabaudia and Garbatella in Italy. To facilitate discussion of common issues, the editors asked all of the contributors to address the strengths and weaknesses of their study sites, as well as the opportunities and threats the sites are currently experiencing in regard to conservation and continued viability. Notwithstanding their keen interest in preserving the planning legacies of the presented communities, the editors acknowledge the impossibility of formulating “one size fits all” principles to guide the preservation of these communities, given the significant differences among them in cultural traditions, regulatory frameworks, and BOOKS 239 historical trajectories. Nevertheless, based on their examination of the cases, they conclude that the quality of the original planning is the most important factor in a community’s ability to retain its distinctive features and livability and achieve longterm viability. To support this point, the editors invoke the concept of “critical resilience,” which involves community stakeholders assuming an active role in decision-making processes. They posit that such grassroots planning efforts are crucial not only for preserving the distinctive heritage of the past but also for ensuring equity, cultural diversity, and affordability of housing, as well as other amenities essential to social sustainability. Referring to Greenbelt as an example, the editors highlight how this New Deal–era community’s tradition of civic activism and volunteerism has contributed to its sustained success, preserving the town’s original planning rationale despite the legislative inadequacies that have accompanied its continued growth. While Greenbelt’s success story attests to the town’s resilience through its connection with a diverse activist culture, such a framework is harder to apply to discussions of the fortunes of other planned communities that emerged under very different historical circumstances. Indeed, the use of the term resilience, like the term community, may illuminate but at the same time also prevent a more critical reflection on some of the tensions inherent in these developments. As critics of New Urbanism have pointed out, despite the emphasis of New Urbanist communities on the importance of promoting diversity and community bonds, in reality many of these communities tend to be exclusive, marginalizing groups with cultural beliefs, values, and norms that differ from those of the majority.2 This is not to say that the contributors to this book are unaware of these dynamics. In fact, several chapters connect community histories to issues of social injustice, such as Angel David Nieves’s account of Soweto as a “black garden city” (291) in the apartheid era and Sandra Annunziata’s critique of the gentrification of Garbatella. But the discussion of resilience and sustainability would have been more robust and meaningful if the editors had introduced a framing question explicitly addressing the entwined 240 JSAH | 80.2 | JUNE 2021 relationships among race, class, and the making of communities across the cases presented, particularly those of elite enclaves such as Uplands, Seaside, Menteng, Jardim América, and Pacaembu—just to name a few. Likewise, such considerations are critical for meeting the challenges of heritage preservation, one of which involves thinking about who ultimately benefits. While iconicity is a key thread of the book, the contributors could have done more to address the shaping of collective memories and how the sense of historicity has shifted over time in different planned communities. Isabelle Gournay’s chapter on visual representations at the end of the volume elucidates how planners, authorities, and community members have long harnessed the symbolic power of iconic images to promote their causes. But given the rich histories that the chapters evoke, it would be interesting to inquire further about how the ongoing presence of iconic markers has (re)constructed relations with the past, and to explore how such processes unfold in places with different social and political histories. Intriguing examples include Sabaudia, where recent efforts to uncouple the community’s rural origins from its past under Italy’s Fascist regime led to new interpretations highlighting the artistic and cultural contexts of the site as a version of modernism that resonates with contemporary urban values. Attempts to reconcile complex and difficult histories can also be seen in Menteng, where hybrid “Indisch architecture” represents the advent of a modernizing colonial society uncomfortable with typical colonizing practices. Indeed, such reinterpretations are much more than intellectual exercises—they are part and parcel of heritage preservation practices that can potentially enable better comprehension of the contested ideals and identities ascribed to iconic built environments. Taken in its entirety, this book is undoubtedly an important contribution to the field. The diversity of its case studies, all excellently written, makes it a valuable resource for scholars studying planned communities and historic preservation, as well as for anyone interested in the history of architecture and planning, preservation, community development, and heritage studies. CECILIA L . CHU University of Hong Kong Notes 1. For example, see Liora Bigon and Yossi Katz, eds., Garden Cities and Colonial Planning: Transnationality and Urban Ideas in Africa and Palestine (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2014); Robert Home, “Town Planning and Garden Cities in the British Colonial Empire 1910–1940,” Planning Perspectives 5, no. 1 (1990), 23–37; Stephen V. Ward, ed., The Garden City: Past, Present and Future (London: Spon Press, 1992). 2. For example, see Denise D. Hall, “Community in the New Urbanism,” Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review 9, no. 2 (1998), 23–36. Daniel P. Gregory The New Farm: Contemporary Rural Architecture New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2020, 192 pp., 150 color illus. $45 (cloth), ISBN 9781616898144 Although Daniel P. Gregory’s The New Farm was slated for publication long before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, I have encountered no book that better evokes the longings so many of us have felt under lockdown: for fresh air, real solitude, and uncluttered and intentional spaces to inhabit. Enjoyed in the crowded confines of a suburban home office amid interruptions from family and pets, the book presents a seductive vision of modern farm life, of agrarian simplicity sheltered and structured by buildings whose modern lines are tempered with reassuring vernacular precedents. In the course of a thematic introduction and sixteen lushly illustrated case studies, Gregory presents an argument for a new organic style that architecturally materializes the literal translation of agriculture as “care of the soil” (14). Gregory’s prose, honed to a rhythm of cozy familiarity at Sunset magazine, is approachable and amiable, inviting the reader to ride shotgun on a rambling road trip across rural North America, Europe, and Australia. Among the people whose stories animate these places are a nurse anesthetist turned poultry farmer, a “tech-preneur” whose lavender fields are harvested by university student “ambassadors,” a thirdgeneration Utah farmer with a penchant for hydroponics, and heiress/feminist/ philanthropist Abby Rockefeller (who also contributes the foreword). The introduction establishes Gregory’s curatorial intentions as both aesthetic and