The Dialogue Between the Prince, the Architect and the Philosopher

Text: Ferenc Hörcher

The discourse tells us the legend of ever growing cities. But are small and medum-size towns sentenced actually to death by development which is supposed to be determined historically? In the article below I am trying to phrase the praise of small towns with the help of a prince, an architect and a Philosopher. Human nature defines the desired dimensions, the appropriate scales of our towns and cities. This rule has been valid in the historical past and prevails not only in the present but also in the future. The growth of towns has been hindered for a long time by social organization, economies and finally technologies. After World War II brutal interventions of unprecedented scales directed by the states have disrupted the historical fabric of European cities – which had been more authoritarian than those by Count Haussmann in Paris –, and there was also a population boom that rendered cities impossible to tackle in both the east and the west.