Building Urban Identities

The focus of the book is on urban identity, which is becoming an important issue as a result of a range of global, economy-driven changes that cities are facing today. Frankfurt and Rotterdam are selected for analysis and comparison. Both of these cities lost most of their historical identities during the war destructions and post-war renewal, challenging the traditionalism-based viewpoints regarding the importance of heritage and tourism in positioning on a global competitive stage. Besides from the revival of the past- and tradition-oriented trends for strengthening local identity, the research also deals with the new means of urban identity building and alternatives in contemporary architecture innovative design, as a means of promoting prosperity and enchancing visibility in the highly competitive arena of global cites. The book was created as a result of research undertaken for the doctoral dissertation titled “Urban Identity in Change—a Comparison Between Frankfurt and Rotterdam”, which was awarded the best disseration of the Faculty of Architecture (TU Darmstadt) for the year 2014.