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Unitary urbanism (UU) was the critique ofstatus quo "urbanism", employed by theLetterist International and then further developed by theSituationist International between 1953 and 1960.
Thepraxis originates from theLettrist technique ofhypergraphics which was applied to architecture by the Lettrist International (LI). The UU critique ofurbanism was further developed in the 1950s by the LI, and consists of a range of practices that include, but are not limited to:
The critical practice continued to be developed by the Situationists and others. It was largely abandoned for the Debordian theory of thespectacle after theSecond Situationist International andSituationist Antinational were formed. One of the few groups openly practicing unitary urbanism today isevoL PsychogeogrAphix inLondon.
Unitary urbanism was announced as a very specific praxis at theAlba platform between the Lettrist International and theInternational Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus. In his Address to the Alba Conference in September 1956, the Lettrist International DelegateGil J. Wolman said: "A unitary urbanism—the synthesis of art and technology that we call for—must be constructed according to certain new values of life, values which now need to be distinguished and disseminated."[1] This mode of urban practice was also called for in a tract distributed during a demonstration by Lettrists inTurin,Italy in December 1956.[2]
Constant Nieuwenhuys andGuy Debord disagreed about the praxis: Nieuwenhuys focused on structure, while Debord on content. Together, they issued the designation "the complex, ongoing activity which consciously recreatesman'senvironment according to the most advanced conceptions in every domain". The disagreement led to Nieuwenhuys' split from theSI in 1960.[3]
Unitary urbanism, one of the major early Situationist concerns,[4] stands on two tenets:
In the UU ideal, structural and artistic elements of humanity'smetropolitan surroundings are blended into suchgrey area that one cannot identify where function ends and play begins. The resultingsociety, while it caters to fundamental needs, does so in an atmosphere of continual exploration, leisure, and stimulating ambience.
Whatever prestige thebourgeoisie may today be willing to grant to fragmentary or deliberately retrograde artistic tentatives, creation can now be nothing less than a synthesis aiming at the construction of entire atmospheres and styles of life. ... A unitary urbanism—the synthesis we call for, incorporating arts and technologies—must be created in accordance with new values of life, values which we now need to distinguish and disseminate.
— George Williams,La plate-forme d’Alba; originally appeared in Potlatch: Information Bulletin of the Lettrist International #27 (Paris, 2 November 1956), quoting Gil J Wolman.
