Friday Funny: Blame the Architect, The Video

A lecture series explores the relation between city planning and urban violence. And who is to blame? The architect.

1 minute read

January 6, 2012, 2:00 PM PST

By Chris Steins @planetizen


Although first published on YouTube in April, 2011, this video is making the rounds among planners on the Internet.

Blame the Architect is a lecture series by professor Wouter Vanstiphout on the relation between city planning and urban violence, organized by the chair of Design as Politics at the Delft University of Technology.

In this first lecture, the general theme of the series is introduced. The interesting section begins at 10:05 in the video.

From Professor Vanstiphout's lecutre: "Let us examine the riots in the French cities [Les émeutes des banlieues de 2005] in the Autumn 2005. In the outskirts of Paris, riots started that spread... to the outskirts of nearly all French cities. It was a completely new thing. There was a kind of weird discovery that triggered an enormous... preconception... [about] the relationship among planning, crime, poverty, alienation. It turned out that without exception, all these riots happened in post-war modernest, high-rise, public housing complexes. You can image who got the blame... The architect."

Thanks to John Massengale

Tuesday, April 5, 2011 in Delft University of Technology

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Get top-rated, practical training

Concrete Brutalism building with slanted walls and light visible through an atrium.

What ‘The Brutalist’ Teaches Us About Modern Cities

How architecture and urban landscapes reflect the trauma and dysfunction of the post-war experience.

February 28, 2025 - Justin Hollander

Complete Street

‘Complete Streets’ Webpage Deleted in Federal Purge

Basic resources and information on building bike lanes and sidewalks, formerly housed on the government’s Complete Streets website, are now gone.

February 27, 2025 - Streetsblog USA

Green electric Volkswagen van against a beach backdrop.

The VW Bus is Back — Now as an Electric Minivan

Volkswagen’s ID. Buzz reimagines its iconic Bus as a fully electric minivan, blending retro design with modern technology, a 231-mile range, and practical versatility to offer a stylish yet functional EV for the future.

March 3, 2025 - ABC 7 Eyewitness News

View of mountains with large shrubs in foreground in Altadena, California.

Healing Through Parks: Altadena’s Path to Recovery After the Eaton Fire

In the wake of the Eaton Fire, Altadena is uniting to restore Loma Alta Park, creating a renewed space for recreation, community gathering, and resilience.

March 9 - Pasadena NOw

Aerial view of single-family homes with swimming pools in San Diego, California.

San Diego to Rescind Multi-Unit ADU Rule

The city wants to close a loophole that allowed developers to build apartment buildings on single-family lots as ADUs.

March 9 - Axios

Close-up of row of electric cars plugged into chargers at outdoor station.

Electric Vehicles for All? Study Finds Disparities in Access and Incentives

A new UCLA study finds that while California has made progress in electric vehicle adoption, disadvantaged communities remain underserved in EV incentives, ownership, and charging access, requiring targeted policy changes to advance equity.

March 9 - UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation