Creative Cultural Knowledge Cities: Perspectives and Planning Strategies

摘要

Urban change 'belongs' to the city. Transformations are as essential to cities as learning is to human beings. To maintain or improve their positions in the world cities must adapt to changing circumstances. Although these changes are continuous, over time we may discern certain major shifts from one type of city to another. Looking back over history we can see how pre-industrial cities existed as compact settlements: some of them self-sufficient, incorporating basic agricultural functions and technical skills to survive; others, the domains of cultural and religious elites, developed to serve their needs; and again others developed as early trade centres. Going forward in time, we see a clean break in the development of cities with the coming of the Industrial Revolution. Many became centres of manufacturing, their development determined by the availability of technical skills, the presence of entrepreneurs, availability of raw materials and of coal as a source of energy, and the means of importing missing elements and exporting finished products.