Dr Simin Davoudi (Newcastle University)
'Urban Planning and Visionary Idealism'

This presentation provides an overview of the different models of planned cities and discusses some of the most influential ones such as the garden city, the functional city, the monumental city and the eco city.
The core argument is that although visionary idealism often presents the best of urban planning, when it is stripped of its social context and devoid of democratic processes, its blank canvas approach can have dire social and spatial consequences.

Presented at the conference:
'Urban Planning and Civic Design in Modern Iran' - 18th November 2017