3 The Journal of Architecture Volume 8 Spring 2003 © 2003 The Journal of Architecture 1360–2365 DOI: 10.1080/1360236032000068505 The banks of Frankfurt and the sustainable city Steven A. Moore and Ralf Brand School of Architecture, University of Texas, Austin, Texas, USA The purpose of this article is to understand better the political content of the now ubiqui- tous term, sustainable development. Perhaps the most elegant definition of sustainable development yet devised is that by planner Scott Campbell. His definition is illustrated by a simple equilateral triangle in which the competing demands of the three Es – environ- mental protection, economic development, and social equity – occupy the triangle’s corners. The three Es have been conceptually related by a public discourse associated with the environmental movement over the past thirty years. What is novel about Campbell’s contribution to this discourse is the triangulated structure of the three variables and his proposal that correspondingly, a series of three rational conflicts occupy the triangle’s sides. Campbell’s point is that sustainable development lies at the geometric centre of the triangle and can be achieved only by negotiating and thus balancing the dynamic conflicts that naturally exist between the networks of interest nested in each corner. 1 Although Campbell’s definition is extremely helpful, we will argue that it does not go quite far enough. Implicit in Campbell’s logic is the idea that sustainable development is a discursive mode of conflict resolution. Such an activity, we argue, is inherently democratic because it assumes that citizens in conflict will rationally resolve their disputes in public space. To develop further this hypothesis we rely on the description of Strong Democracy developed by the political philosopher, Benjamin Barber. 2 Barber argues that the history of Western liberal democracy is constituted of three dispositions – anarchism, realism, and minimalism. In this political taxonomy, each liberal disposition distinguishes itself by opting for alternative modes of conflict resolution: anarchists tend to deny the existence of conflict, realists tend to suppress it, and minimalists tend to tolerate it. This distinction will be further developed below. Introduction Our specific goal in this investigation is to relate Barber’s categories of liberal democracy to Camp- bell’s discursive model of sustainability. In a longer format we intend to investigate all three disposi- tions through case studies of three cities that exem- plify each historical tradition – Austin, Texas as a case of liberal-anarchism; Curitiba, Brazil as a case of liberal-realism; and Frankfurt, Germany as a case of liberal-minimalism. Each of these cities employs the rhetoric of sustainable development, but they do so with very different political objectives in mind. This article, however, will be limited to an empirical test of Frankfurt as a case of liberal minimalism. We will argue that the City of Frankfurt, and more specifically the Commerzbank tower constructed