Favorite footnotes – part 4

One thing I enjoy about footnotes is that they can serve to deliberate on certain topics beyond the scope of the book they are included in. As an urbanist, this refers to all terminology in use to describe the city, the urban way of life, the architecture as its facilitator, as well as the open and public space of cities. This is also the case in the footnote on page 83 of "Bavarity". The chapter on "Space for Housing" it is featured in deals with the housing crisis in cities and how to solve it. For this purpose, a basic understanding and differentiation of cities in history is foundational:

"As Hassenpflug (2006) states, the synecism of the historic European city can be understood as cooperative settlement of long distance traders, merchants and craftspeople (p. 41) with the aim of forming a fraternity based on self-rule and the avoidance of a central authority. This notion is typical to European urban culture and the way it avoids central authority. This clearly sets it apart from the agrarian, land ownership-based synecism from which the city of antiquity – Athens, Rome – emerged" (ibid)."

The source used for this footnote is a standard work of urbanism. I refer to it time and again: Hassenpflug, D. (2006). Reflexive Urbanistik. Reden und Aufsätze zur europäischen Stadt. Verlag der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.

"Bavarity – Coping with Crisis in the Space of Building Culture" is available from Springer Spektrum and all booksellers.