City forms

Manhattan at night

Plato would not have denied that there were many different social and political patterns for cities, since he acknowledged them even as he fought against them. His pattern, though, was to have impersonal and necessary backing. How many planners still seek that necessary Form? TheIdea of The City.

Maybe there are no Cities to plan any more.

Our agglomerations resist single forms. They reuse, they multiply.

Wright wanted to disperse the city, but not into a formless sprawl.

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• [Nearby: The new city is everywhere -- New epochs seen in old forms -- Wright's density ]