BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) IN ARCHITECTURE

THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM

(ARC61303)
SYNOPSIS: REACTION PAPER (MARCH 2018)
Name: Wong Cho Mun ID No.: 0322723
Lecturer: Mr. Nicholas Ng Tutorial Time: 10am
Reader/Text Title: Urbanism as a Way of life Synopsis No: text 1 (set B)
Author: Louis Wirth

“Urbanism is a way of life” by Louis Wirth explains his idea of urbanism. He defines urbanism as a
sociologically significant definition of the city into three key characteristics. The characteristics are population
size, social heterogeneity and population density. There are sharp personality differences between urban and
rural people and between nature based and machine-based style of living. City people are more socially
tolerant than rural people because there is merely adaption to the experience of living in large, dense, socially
diverse urban environment.

I agree on Wirth argument that the increase of urban population will bring impact to the urban society. The
greater the number of individuals participating in a process of interaction, the greater is the potential
differentiation between them. As the population in a city increase, the diversity of different individuals
increases which causes different variety of social classes. This results in the imbalance and complexity of
social and order which might lead to high tendency competition among social group. Therefore, I could not
agree more on the aftermath that it brings to a city and in my opinion, balance is always the best for enhancing
the urbanism concept in urban life. Wirth also state that an individual is bound to join the others of similar
interest into an organized group to obtain his ends. This shows that common interest within different
individuals able to bring them together in a society to meet their needs. Therefore, individuals are able to bring
them together in a society to meet their needs and individuals plan an important role in forming social
relationships and maintaining the social order of the society.

After reading Wirth’s Urbanism concepts, I am agreed with the urban life style that happening among us, and
I hope this situation can keep it up so that we no need to adjust ourselves for a diversified culture and
environment to be able to get on track with the hustle and bustle of life in the city.

Word Count: 328 Mark Grade

Assessed by: Mr. Nicholas Ng Date Page No. 1