Christine Boyer
1939
American architectural historian who analyses how the city remembers, and how much of that memory is stage set.
Boyer studied the rehabilitation of historic centres and heritage districts and found a pattern: the past that gets preserved is usually an edited, clean and marketable version, while contentious memory — industrial, working class, migrant — is demolished or silenced.
She also reconstructed the history of planning as a discipline, showing that the aspiration to order the city rationally was born tied to the will to discipline its inhabitants, not only to improve hygiene or traffic.
On Christine Boyer in this archive
- Urban history
City as Tool of Power Through Memory
A historic square keeps old facades, but their images now appear in shops, advertisements and screens.
Christine Boyer 3 min read - Urban history
Christine Boyer Collective Memory Urban Planning
Christine Boyer explores how collective memory shapes urban planning and city identity. Urban memory influences…
Christine Boyer 2 min read
