Almere, first an overflow suburb of Amsterdam, underwent its first phase of construction in the southwest corner of Southern Flevoland in 1968. The city was conceived as a form of decentralized urbanism to solve regional problems in Amsterdam including rapid population growth, suburbanization, and traffic congestion...
Brasilia was designed in the late 1950’s as the new administrative center of the federal government and planned to encourage settlement in the interior territories of Brazil.
Oscar Niemeyer, chief architect for public buildings, organized a design competition in 1957 that was won by the planner Lucio Costa based on rough sketches...
In 1947 Punjab Province was divided into East & West Punjab in the partitioning of the area between India and Pakistan. During this time Albert Meyer and Matthew Nowicki were working together to plan the new capital of Punjab.
It was important that the city be placed in a new location to start fresh, not just removed from their post-colonial ties, but also divorced from past Indian ways in order to focus solely on the future...
Gaborone was named for Chief Gaborone who led his tribe from the Magaliesberg around 1880.
The region was placed under British protectorate status in 1885 and remained so until Botswana gained independence in 1966. Gaborone, a post-colonial city, was planned in its location on state land allowing easier manipulation of the land near a water source...
Las Vegas, located in the middle of the Mojave desert in Nevada, USA, was born in 1905 as a convenient railway hub and repair location between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City.
However, in 1959, changes in gaming regulation lead to a new birth for the city...
Shenzhen ["shen" means "deep" and "zhen" means "drains"] developed as a fishing village patterned with deep drains in the 17th century.
The area remained a village until China’s Open Door Policy was developed in 1978...
This project examines how each city’s core vision – including architectural, economic, and industrial goals – has impacted its path of development, infrastructure, and contemporary culture. The findings will offer a “report card,” for each city, which will shed light on the similarities and differences among the six in their approaches to urban planning and development, and their progress in achieving their metropolitan goals and self-image.
With Urbanization on the rise, cities around the world are creating and re-creating themselves to accommodate the influx of urban immigrants, and achieve their visions for the twenty-first century. “6 Under 60” explores six planned cities that have developed since the middle of the twentieth century: Almere (Netherlands, 1976); Brasilia (Brazil, 1960); Chandigarh (India, 1953); Gaborone (Botswana, 1964); Las Vegas (U.S., since 1960, after new gaming regulations); and Shenzhen (China, 1979).