This document discusses the concepts of the "flat" and the "knurled" in the context of city reconstruction following disasters. It explores these concepts through the philosophical work of Gilles Deleuze and examples of city rebuilding after earthquakes. Reconstruction can either flatten a city by imposing a new geometric order, or knurl a city by allowing organic regrowth, as seen in examples of Lisbon and London following earthquakes. Political forces often influenced reconstruction to flatten cities for control, rather than allow natural knurling.

1. THE FLAT AND THE
KNURLED SPACE IN
THE RECONSTRUCTION
OF CITIES
Maria BOSTENARU DAN

2. Overview
 Introduction
 The philosophical base
 The settlement
 The reconstruction of towns for reason of
different concepts
 The reconstruction after an earthquake
 Reconstruction after the old model
 Conclusions

3. Introduction
 Philosopher Deleuze
 Opposed concepts
 Flat
 Knurled
 Different models: technological, maritime,
musical, physical, aesthetical, ludical,
noological
 Ex. maritime (nomad – sedentary)
 Relationship settlement – urban planing –
politics – the knurling

4. The philosophical base
 Work from 1980
 Maritime model
 The town is the knurled place by excellence
 Agriculture: invention of the town
 Grafitti – escapes control

5. The settlement
 Three Little Pigs – story
 The straw house is that of the nomad, the
timber one of the semi-nomad and the stone
one of the sedentary
 Sustainability becomes a value

6. The reconstruction of towns for reason
of different concepts
 Alexandru Sandu
 Urban organism – urban force – the knurling
forces to act
 Urban activity – human mobile
 Every activity has a parcours until it finds its
own place
 Knurling supposes a flat place to knurl

7. The reconstruction of towns for reason
of different concepts
 Functionalism
 Another order of the town as the traditional
 Le Corbusier
 Plan Voisin – Paris
 Criticism by French politicians

8. The reconstruction of towns for reason
of different concepts
 Socialist architecture
 ? Postmodern
 Bucharest
 Ceauşescu – Victoria Socialismului Boulevard
 Great scale demolitions after the 1977 Vrancea
earthquake

9. Victoria Socialismului boulevard
Bucharest, Romania
The reconstruction of towns for reason of
different concepts

10. The reconstruction of towns for reason
of different concepts
 Ceauşescu demolitions
 The remaining places are still flat, no knurling
has succeeded (see Izvor Park – vegetation
did not grow)
 Bucharest 2000 competition tried to produce a
knurling – different one of the Bucharest
garden city type

11. Izvor Park
Bucharest, Romania
The reconstruction of towns for reason of
different concepts

12. Landscape proposal for Izvor Park, Bucharest
The reconstruction of towns for reason of
different concepts

13. Landscape proposal for Izvor Park, Bucharest
The reconstruction of towns for reason of
different concepts

14. The reconstruction of towns for reason
of different concepts
 Knurling in Bucharest in the interwar time
 North-South boulevard
 Due to gardens, minimal interventions were
necessary
 Athens Charter but not functionalism
 The block of flats was introduced
 Fight for space
 Vulnerability to earthquakes

15. North-South boulevard in Bucharest
The reconstruction of towns for reason of different
concepts

16. North-South boulevard in Bucharest
The reconstruction of towns for reason of different
concepts

17. The reconstruction after an earthquake
 The earthquake is a force flattening a knurled
town
 It is a force of nature escaping control
 Numerous towns flattened by earthquakes and
reconstructed
 Deliberate urban plans for reconstruction known
in more recent history
 Earthquakes destroy the sedentary space, but,
although it proves that it was constructed in a
dangerous zone, it is built again in that zone or
close to it
 Local seismic culture

18. The reconstruction after an earthquake
 Baixa in Lisbon
 1755 earthquake
 Baroque
 The earthquake destroyed the medieval tissue
(Alfama)
 Marques de Pombal

19. Aerial view of the Baixa district in Lisbon
The reconstruction after an earthquake

20. View from Alfama district, Lisbon
The reconstruction after an earthquake

21. The reconstruction after an earthquake
 Ljubljana, Slovenia
 1895 earthquake
 Afterwards spread of the Art Nouveau Style
 Slovenia belonged to the Austro-Hungarian
Empire
 Viennaise urban planers invited (Camillo Sitte,
Max Fabiani), but the choice felt for Slovene, for
political reasons
 Jože Plečnik, the national Slovene architect,
elaborated a plan of Ljubljana in 1929

22. Triple Bridge in Ljubljana with emblematic Art Nouveau building
The reconstruction after an earthquake

23. Building by Joze Plecnik with Art Nouveau features
The reconstruction after an earthquake

24. The reconstruction after an earthquake
 Bucharest 1977
 The earthquake used as a pretext
 Link: today people are suspicious to move in
frame of retrofit measures as they fear loosing
property

25. Reconstruction after the old model
 London 1666
 Unclarities in the property regime
 If the designed plan would have been applied,
London would have rivaled with Paris as
Baroque city
 After WWII – centres reconstructed on the old
model and to respond to housing needs
satellite towns were created

26. Conclusions
 Occidental society – sedentary society since
hundreds of years
 Flattening tendencies appear in the town
 Preoccupation of Gilles Deleuze, French
philosopher
 Bottom-up (ex. graffiti) and top-down flattening
(political)
 Political forces influenced also the
reconstruction after catastrophes

27. Conclusions
 The new knurling imposed by political power
makes cities differ of those organically grown
(fractals, Cosmin Chirvasie
http://myriammahiques.blogspot.com/2010/02/intro
) namely through geometric rules
 At the end of the 20th
century it is put into
discussion to reconstruct functionalist cities in
traditional way

28. Acknowledgements
 The support of the Marie Curie Reintegration
Grant, contract number MERG-CT-2007-
200636, run time 2007-2010, from the European
Commission for performing this research is
gratefully acknowledged.
 The support of the COST action TU0801
“Semantic enrichment of 3D city models for
sustainable urban development” for attending
the conference and presenting this work in Faro,
Portugal, is gratefully acknowledged as well.

29. Questions?
Thank you!