Title: Reconceptualizing Mega Events and urban transformations in the twentieth century
Abstract: Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image sizeKeywords: Mega Eventsurban transformationinternational exhibitionsplanning Notes H. Preuss, Economics of the Olympic Games: Hosting the Games 1972–2000 (Sydney: Walla Press, 2000). From the Internationale Bauausstellung held in Berlin in 1984 to the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games. C.M. Hall, Hallmark Tourist Events. Impact, Management and Planning (New York: Halsted Press, 1992); L. Van den Berg, J. Van der Borg, and Van der Meer, Urban Turism. Performance and Strategies in Eight European Cities (London: Ashgate, 1995). On the contrast 'Expositions versus Olympic Games', see M. Roche, Mega-Events and Modernity: Olympics and Expos in the Growth of Global Culture (London: Routledge, 2000). Consider, for instance, the cases of London and Turin. See, within some of the most recent studies: J.R. Gold, M.M. Gold, Cities of Culture: Staging International Festivals and the Urban Agenda, 1851–2000 (Surrey: Ashgate, 2005); P. Greenhalgh, Ephemeral Vistas: The Exhibitions Universelles. Great Exhibitions and World's Fairs, 1851–1939 (Manchester: MUP, 1991). In the early twenty-first century, the proliferation of Mega Events in Spain marked the beginning of new policies using Great Events as catalyst elements for the local development. J.R. Gold, M.M. Gold, Olympic Cities: City Agendas, Planning and the World's Game, 1896–2012 (London, New York: Routledge, 2007); A. Jackson, Expo: international expositions 1851–2010, London, 2008; B. Chalkley, S.J. Essex, 'Urban Development Through Hosting International Events: A History of the Olympic Games', Planning Perspectives 14, no. 4 (1999): 369–94. J.E. Findling and K.D. Pelle, Historical Dictionary of World's Fairs and Expositions (Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press, 1990). A different and quite exceptional perspective is adopted by A. Corbin, ed., L'Avènement des loisirs (1850–1960) (Paris: Flammarion, 1995). Take for example, The '20th Century Great Events. Architecture, Planning and Urban Development' symposium, held at Politecnico of Milan in April 2009. The cases of Paris, Barcelona and Turin over the centuries provide excellent examples. On the subject see also, in this issue, Cânâ Bilsel and Halûk Zelef 'Mega Events in Istanbul from Henri Prost's master plan of 1937 to the twenty-first-century Olympic bids'. L. Aimone, C. Olmo, Le Esposizioni Universali 1851–1900 (Torino: Allemandi, 1990); P. Greenhalgh, Ephemeral Vistas: The Exhibitions Universelles. Great Exhibitions and World's Fairs, 1851–1939 (Manchester: MUP, 1991). See, for example J. Auerbach, The Great Exhibition of 1851: A Nation on Display (New York: Yale University Press, 1999); J.-C. Mabire, ed., L'Exposition universelle de 1900 (Paris: L'Harmattan, 2000); On the 1933 Chicago World's Fair see L.D. Schrenk, Building a Century of Progress: the architecture of Chicago's 1933–34 World's Fair (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007); C. Ganz, The 1933 Chicago World's Fair: Century of Progress (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2008). Focusing on the postwar years, see, for instance, the studies on Brussels Expo 58 and Turin Italia' 61: G. Pluvinage, ed., Expo 58: between utopia and reality, Brussels: 2008; R. Devos, M. De Kooning, Modern architecture at Expo 58, Brussels: 2006; C. Chiorino, S. Pace, M. Rosso, Italia '61, the Nation on Show (Turin: Allemandi, 2006). Also New York Fairs received a new attention recently: see, for example, R.S. Lawrence, End of the innocence: the 1964–1965 New York World's Fair (Syracuse: SUP, 2007). J. Rykwert, The Seduction of Place. The City in the Twenty-First Century (London: W & N, 2000). Turin provides a particularly interesting case between 1961 and 2006, from the organization of the Italia 61 Exhibition and the 2006 Winter Olympic Games. On the subject see A. De Magistris, 'Dopo i giochi del 2006. Uno sguardo alla Torino post-olimpica', Casabella 755 (2007): 4–13. The same approach could be adopted for the analysis of the cases of Barcelona (from the 1992 Olympic Games to the 2004 Forum) and Genoa (from 1992 Expo to the European Capital of Culture in 2004). Several examples could be examined, such as the Paris Exhibition of 1937, the Rome 'E42', the 1940 Exposição do Mundo Português in Lisbon, the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games and the 1939 New York World's Fair. On the ideology of Great Events during the Thirties see, with respect to the Italian cities, M.S. Stone, The Patron State. Culture & Politics in Fascist Italy (Princeton: PU Press, 1998). On the relationships between Cold War and Great Events see R.H. Haddow, Pavilions of Plenty: Exhibiting American Culture Abroad in the 1950s (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997); J. Masey, C.L. Morgan, Cold War Confrontations. US Exhibitions and Their Role in the Cultural Cold War (Berlin: Lars Muller Publishers, 2008). See also Rjazancev, Iskusstvo sovetskogo vystavochnogo ansamblja, 1917–1970. /The Art of the Soviet Exhibition Complex, 1917–1970 (Moskva: Sovetskij Khudozhnik, 1976). C. Olmo, Architettura e Novecento (Turin: Donzelli, 2010), 45–55. The Centre Pompidou in Paris is widely acknowledged as the 'founding-father' of the architectures/events, while the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao has been considered as an outstanding example by recent historiography. N. Roseau, 'L'espace aérien et les formes contemporaines de la ville', in La Métropole des Infrastructures, XXe-XXIe siècles, ed. C. Prelorenzo, D. Rouillard (Paris: Picard, 2009), 82–98.
Publication Year: 2011
Publication Date: 2011-10-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 11
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