City and town planning: architectural aspects Books

Book SynopsisSchinkel ‘in Athens’: Meta-Narratives of 19th-Century City Planning proposes a fresh appraisal of Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s urban design legacy and his involvement in the design of modern Athens in the 1830s. From the 1830s onwards, the incompatibility between Schinkel’s position as a civil servant and his vocation as a scholar inspired by Fichte led him along a transcendental path of life. Transcendentalism set its own terms and conditions under which Schinkel’s project of a palace atop the Acropolis of Athens (1834) might be understood. The ‘contextual analysis’ of Schinkel’s work in this book challenges the view of this proposal as a utopian scheme, detached from the realities of nineteenth-century Greece. On the other hand, the first plan of Athens, supposedly the work of two of his former Bauakademie students, ratified a year earlier, in 1833, proposed the location of the royal residence in the new town at a few hundred metres north of the Acropolis. But, though the two options for Otto’s palace were topographically dissimilar they did retain a common strong, topological significance – which, along with other factors analysed in this book, provides ample evidence for re-thinking the authorship of the new plan of the capital city of Greece. Schinkel ‘in Athens’, by all means!Table of ContentsPreface ; On the Narrative and the Meta-narrative ; On the nature of ‘Biography’ ; Karl Friedrich Schinkel ; George Christian Gropius ; Eduard Schaubert, Stamatios Kleanthes and ‘their’ plan of Athens ; Introduction (A) ; Back to Euclide’s Elements of Geometry ; The north-south and east-west axes anchoring the plan ; The over-estimated Propylaia and the under-estimated Library of Hadrian in reading the 1833 plan ; A new plan or an extension plan for the old town? ; An Urban Interlude on 17th-19th c. European Extension Plans ; Introduction (B) ; The Roman paradigm ; Eclectic relations between the Athens plan and Schinkel’s architecture and urban design (1) ; Eclectic relations between the Athens plan and Schinkel’s architecture and urban design (2) ; Act One (in Two Scenes) ; Close encounters in Athens, Rome and Berlin ; Act Two (in Two Scenes) ; The meta-narrative approach to the authorship of the 1833 new Athens plan ; Act Three (in Four Scenes) ; Urban design in and outside Berlin – philosophical views on social priorities ; Act Four (in Six Scenes) ; Transcendental life ; Epilogue ; Bibliography ; Index

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Book SynopsisAfter the end of the Second World War, migrants were critical to the spatial making of modern Australia. Major federally funded industries driving postwar nation-building programs depended on the employment of large numbers of people who had been displaced by the war. Directed to remote, rural and urban industrial sites, migrant labor and resettlement altered the nation's physical landscape, providing Australia with its contemporary economic base. While the immigrant contribution to nation-building in cultural terms is well-known, its everyday spatial, architectural and landscape transformations remain unexamined. This book aims to bring to the foreground postwar industry and immigration to comprehensively document a uniquely Australian shaping of the built environment.

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Book SynopsisIt is well known that we are living in a time of demographic shift to an ageing society, yet our responses to this are still uneven and often spring from dated assumptions and images of older people. The significance of place in all our lives, but particularly in the lives of older people, puts responsibility on planners and other place-makers to challenge ideas about later life by developing practices of involvement that put older people's voices at the core of planning responses. This book introduces planners to dominant ideas about ageing and how these have influenced the responses of place-makers, considering how the demographic shift may be a catalyst for new thinking in place-making. It is not so much about planning for old people, but about how an ageing population changes all aspects of our lives. The book introduces useful concepts such as the 20-minute neighbourhood and the everyday-life framework; explains the age-friendly movement; and questions to what extent it helps cities respond to change. Comparing international case studies, it explores the critical role of housing and the possible use of land allocation to encourage developers to think about better and more housing options for later life. Other aspects covered include the importance of mobility and the role of good urban design; planning as part of preventative care; and bringing together green and ageing/disability agendas.Table of ContentsPART I: THE CONTEXT FOR PLANNING FOR ACCESSIBILITY; Chapter 1: Urban Transport and Accessibility; Chapter 2: Travel Behaviour and Accessibility; Chapter 3: Measuring Accessibility; PART II: THE NEIGHBOURHOOD; Chapter 4: Urban Layouts and Local Streets; Chapter 5: Measuring Accessibility: Walkability and Bikeability; Chapter 6: Governance at the Local Level; PART III: THE TOWN CENTRE OR ACTIVITY CENTRE SCALE; Chapter 7: Town Centres, Activity Centres and Public Transport; Chapter 8: Measuring Accessibility: Public Transport Networks; Chapter 9: Governance Between Different Tiers of Government; PART IV: THE CITY SCALE; Chapter 10: Transport Networks; Chapter 1 1: Measuring Accessibility: Cars and Public Transport; Chapter 12: Governance: Integration Rather than Coordination

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Book Synopsisurality Re-imagined is divided into four loosely-themed sections: Villagers, Farmers, Wanderers, and Wild Things. Each comprises five or six diverse chapters of varied length. In the Villagers section rural communities are considered as assemblages and spaces of vernacularity, as dark settings for TV dramas, new wave photography, and as sites for community arts projects. The Farmers section critically re-invigorates the historical fascination with peasantry and farming in the arts, through essays, painting, and photography that collectively place the agency of the artist under as much scrutiny as images of agricultural space and people. Stereotypically, the word 'Wanderers' conjures images of gypsy caravans, or country ramblers, but in this section the term is stretched to include not only the traditional migrations of reindeer herds, but also that of the motorway driver, and migrations of cultural forms too, such as that of hip-hop from the clubs of New York to the fields of rural Devon. In the essays and images in the Wild Things section the wilderness emerges as a highly contested cultural terrain, far from any state of purity, as it manifests itself in the behaviours of people, flora, and fauna in cultivated and uncultivated landscapes and parks.Trade Review"This sparkling collection of essays, photographs, artwork, creative writing and meditations represents a sustained exploration of and contribution to cultures of the countryside and the liminal spaces of the non-urban. Through it we see the contemporary rural in cultural glimpses and social practices, as we seek to make sense of our desire to escape to or from its diminishing scope. It will be of fascination to today's pastoralists and re-wilders, but it should absolutely be read too by cool artists of the city, urban designers and policy-makers alike, indeed by anyone curious about life and culture in 21st-century landscapes."--George McKay "The writers, designers and artists assembled in Rurality Re-imagined ask us to take seriously the neglected countryside, but not to simply assume that neglect and re-present familiar ideas and ideals of the rural as local in opposition to the urban as global. Through collectively reflecting on their own imaginings, experiences and thinking about rurality, and with a suitably diverse set of case studies, the contributors truly open up rural space for readers. The book's four-fold structure takes us from rural communities and farming practices to rural mobilities and the contested 'wildness' of the countryside. Individual chapters read TV drama, rural tradition, haystacks, hip hop, Leylandii and cruising - and much more besides. Rurality Re-imagined challenges all of us in the 'space design disciplines' (and those beyond, too) to look anew at the rural as a spatial and cultural category, as a representational repertoire, and as lived experience. It is a landmark publication in an emerging 'new rural studies' no longer either romanticized as idyll or written off as backwater, the rural here truly is reimagined in the age of the global village."--David Bell

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Book SynopsisA disparate but exuberant group of scholars are brought together in Savannah by an eminent professor to explore and debate the history and characteristics of the city and its implications for a twenty-first century urbanism. This narrative represents a forceful and humorous interplay between formal discussion, informal interludes, irreverent comments, and less than academic relationships. Its serious purpose is to identify the urban challenges facing America in terms of containing and consolidating growth within livable communities. However like all such participatory events it is also an opportunity for informal personal agendas set against a backdrop of real life events. The text is interspersed with 90 drawings of Savannah, illustrating its unique and multilayered identity as a potential urban paradigm for the future.

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Book SynopsisA story of the ’70s: when six New York ex-gangsters met Buckminster Fuller and built a geodesic dome In 1970 a meeting took place in an empty loft on the Lower East Side of Manhattan between R. Buckminster Fuller, the revolutionary architect and inventor of the geodesic dome, and six ex-gang members who called themselves “CHARAS.” After a few hours, they found themselves having an earnest and important conversation, and the young men of CHARAS decided to begin implementing Bucky’s ideas. They wanted to create a program that would develop a sense of community autonomy, reclaim public space and give their lives a newfound sense of purpose. Following a period of intensive study of solid geometry, spherical trigonometry and principles of dome building, all led by Michael Ben-Eli, CHARAS constructed a geodesic dome on a vacant lot in the shadow of the Manhattan Bridge. Originally published in 1973 and now published in an expanded edition, Charas: The Improbable Dome Builders is an intimate portrait in pictures and words of these dynamic young men and their community. The first half chronicles the trials and tribulations of building the dome, their intensive training, search for funding, accidental fires, holiday potlucks and Bucky visiting to see their incredible work. The second half contains interviews with the members of CHARAS and their friends, sharing personal stories of their time on the streets, as gang leaders, drug addicts, serving time in prison and finding a new sense of self and community through the applied philosophies of Buckminster Fuller. This edition also includes a new interview with Michael Ben-Eli looking back on the project four decades later.Trade ReviewThe premise of Syeus Mottel’s delightful, disorienting CHARAS: The Improbable Dome Builders is the stuff of retro-futurist fantasy. * Artforum *

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Book SynopsisThe central hypothesis behind the book concerns the capacity of urban as well as territorial design, of the "project" in the sense of design activity on multiple scales, to produce knowledge. The volume discusses research conducted with design tools and operations, crossing physical and conceptual territories, related to a set of direct design explorations, and to the concept of "research by design." This idea of the project contains, manipulates and produces concepts and forms of concrete action in space, involving interpretation, abstraction and – at times – generalization. It describes and reveals processes of individualization, recognizes situations and allows possibilities to emerge. The project images the future and takes its impact on thinking about the city as the basis for the production of an original form of knowledge. Reflection on the epistemological statutes of the design project, in the wake of the crisis of expert knowledge and in a period of progressive marginalization and simplification of the practice of the architect and of the urban designer, is now fundamental for the rethinking of design’s social role, and to formulate a fresh, new, critical vision of the world.Table of ContentsPart I. Territories of the Conceptual Chapter 1: Rethinking Urbanism Territory 1: The design of Isotropy Chapter 2: The concepts used by urbanists (section one) Chapter 3: The concepts used by urbanists (section two) Territory 2: Conceptual shifts Part II. Territories of Description Chapter 1: New Territories: A Meta-description Territory 3: The porous city Chapter 2: The project as description: images Chapter 3: Projects that describe Territory 4: Elementary Landscapes Part III: Territories of the future Chapter 1: "The future is back" Territory 5: Scenarios of dispersion Chapter 2: A phenomenology of time Territory 6: Paleochannels of history Chapter 3: Images of the future Territory 7: Scenarios for living together Conclusions: "This is how we want to live"

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Book SynopsisEbenezer Howard veröffentlicht 1902 sein Werk Garden Cities of Tomorrow, seine Ideen haben maßgeblich dazu beigetragen, der Bewegung für einen modernen Städtebau Richtung und Ziel zu geben. Sechs Jahrzehnte nach Erscheinen der ersten Ausgabe ergänzte Julius Posener diesen Klassiker der Stadtplanungstheorie um die erstmals 1945 erschienen Essays von Lewis Mumford und Frederic J. Osborn zu einem Streitgespräch der späten sechziger Jahre über die Gestalt der Stadt. Die vorliegende Neuauflage spannt den Bogen ins 21. Jahrhundert und erweitert die Ausgabe von 1968 um ein Vorwort von Carl Fingerhuth.

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Book SynopsisCandide 13 results of a joint effort of scholars, researchers and students who address the theme of “Experimental Architecture and Material Culture” from different perspectives. The issue reports on the outcomes of a transnational cooperation between the RWTH Aachen University (Department of Architecture) and the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (Department of Architecture and Planning). It gives voice to students and researchers who, traveling in Germany and India, have stored up intercultural experiences of intellectual and human growth. The issue features also scholarly contributions on experimental architecture, design-build procedures, and sustainable construction.

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Book SynopsisA decade of historical renovations and urban revitalization from a Mexico City developer Real-estate developer ReUrbano has worked for over 10 years on rebuilding and revitalizing buildings and neighborhoods across Mexico, with a particular focus on central Mexico City. Aiming to reinvigorate historical neighborhoods, they work with renowned architectural firms such as Cadaval & Sola-Morales to preserve a building’s structural and aesthetic integrity, while keeping the focus on equitable and sustainable growth. In this way, ReUrbano is able to maintain the “heritage blueprint” of the city while bringing new life to its individual buildings. This publication reviews the past decade of ReUrbano’s work, tracing the firm’s process, from planning to securing investments to the ultimate development of their urban projects. Fully illustrated throughout, the book chronicles a number of completed projects as well as the issues faced by the firm in their 10 years of operation.

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Book SynopsisIndustrial archeologists study towns and landscapes created over the past several centuries that were planned to integrate home and work. This ground-breaking book features architectural case studies of company towns in 48 locations - workers' villages, mill towns, mining towns, cité ouvrières, bruk städer, colonias industriales, villaggi operai - many of which are UNESCO World Heritage sites. Extensive illustrations and images document the ways in which architectural experiments responded to the entrepreneurial initiatives that were the basis of these communities. The authors, two esteemed professors whose work focuses on the conservation of industrial heritage, examine the role of architectural and urban culture in creating the identity of these unique towns, and the consequences of their abandonment.

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Book SynopsisThe book compares different approaches to urban development in Singapore and Seoul over the past decades, by focusing on community participation in the transformation of neighbourhoods and its impact on the built environment and communal life. Singapore and Seoul are known for their rapid economic growth and urbanisation under a strong control of developmental state in the past. However, these cities are at a critical crossroads of societal transformation, where participatory and community-based urban development is gaining importance. This new approach can be seen as a result of a changing relationship between the state and civil society, where an emerging partnership between both aims to overcome the limitations of earlier urban development. The book draws attention to the possibilities and challenges that these cities face while moving towards a more inclusive and socially sustainable post-developmental urbanisation. By applying a comparative perspective to understand the evolving urban paradigms in Singapore and Seoul, this unique and timely book offers insights for scholars, professionals and students interested in contemporary Asian urbanisation and its future trajectories.Table of ContentsIntroduction.- City and the developmental state.- Neoliberalization and neo-developmental city.- Emerging community-based urban development.- Conclusion: Towards community-driven urban development (what we learned).

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Book SynopsisThis book uses the concept of the region to introduce traditional Chinese villages in ten typical areas. Most of the villages have been included in the World Cultural Heritage List or the Tentative List and reflect the diversity of rural and traditional life. Richly illustrated with pictures of architectural decorations, dwellings, day-to-day country life and aerial views of settlements, it not only enhances readers’ knowledge of China’s traditional architectural culture but also provides inspiration for architectural creation. It is a valuable resource for graduate students, lecturers and researchers in the field of traditional villages, heritage conservation and Chinese architectural culture.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Diverse Cultures, Villages and Architecture.- Happy Families in Heavenly Dwellings, Huizhou Merchant Villages in Southern Anhui.- Lofty Buildings Towering East and West, Kaiping Watchtower Villages in Central and Southern Guangdong.- Round and Square Buildings and Five-phoenix Mansions, Ancient Villages in Southwestern Fujian.- Drum Towers against Mountains and over Waters, Ancient Dong Villages in Southeastern Guizhou.- Stilt Houses on Top of Leigong Mountain, Ancient Miao Villages in Southeastern Guizhou.- Watchtowers over Gorges, Qiang and Tibetan Villages in Western Sichuan.- Deep Merchant Courtyards, Traditional Villages in Central Shanxi.- Dwellings for All Walks of Life, Villages on Middle Reaches of Qinhe River in Shanxi and Henan.- Hakka Weilong Houses among Green Mountains and Waters, Traditional Meizhou Villages in Guangdong.- Fresh and Diverse Local Life, Ancient Naxi Villages in Yunnan.

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Book SynopsisThe book uses the experience of the Great East Japan Earthquake 2011 to realise community relocation with human rights and ethics around the world. This book has been written with an emphasis on the following two objectives. The primary objective is to explore practical planning theory. To carry out planned community relocation, it is imperative to fully understand the (a) background and process of community relocation, and (b) the resulting impact on people''s lives. Based on the problems or opportunities identified, we aim to propose practical knowledge and methods for social implementation to be used during the preparation of future development plans for community relocation. The other objective is the consideration of planning theory based on the different contexts in which community relocation takes place.

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Book SynopsisAn unprecedented look at the central role one man played in the transformation of New York City

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Book SynopsisFor more than a century, municipal socialism has fired the imaginations of workers fighting to make cities livable and democratic. At every turn propertied elites challenged their right to govern.Prominent US labor historian, Shelton Stromquist, offers the first global account of the origins of this new trans-local socialist politics. He explains how and why cities after 1890 became crucibles for municipal socialism. Drawing on the colorful stories of local activists and their social-democratic movements in cities as diverse as Broken Hill, Christchurch, Malmö, Bradford, Stuttgart, Vienna, and Hamilton, OH, the book shows how this new urban politics arose.Long governed by propertied elites, cities in the nineteenth century were transformed by mass migration and industrialization that tore apart their physical and social fabric. Amidst massive strikes and faced with epidemic disease, fouled streets, unsafe water, decrepit housing, and with little economic security and few public amenities, urban workers invented a local politics that promised to democratize cities they might themselves govern and reclaim the wealth they created. This new politics challenged the class power of urban elites as well as the centralizing tendencies of national social-democratic movements. Municipal socialist ideas have continued to inspire activists in their fight for the right of cities to govern themselves.Trade ReviewThe culmination of Stromquist's lifetime of impressive scholarship on rank-and-file workers and socialist movements, Claiming the City? arrives right on time as we explore the possibilities of transformation at the municipal scale. Astonishingly sweeping in its range of fine-grained case studies, the book teems with comparative insights while it traces transnational connections established by a mobile working class and internationalist commitments. -- David Roediger teaches American Studies at University of Kansas. His books include The Sinking Middle Class?I'm sure that Shelton Stromquist's monumental book will have a lasting impact. It is an inspiring work by a historian of great stature on a very important, but much neglected, topic; it will certainly resonate throughout discussions of history and socialist politics. -- Marcel van der Linden, International Institute of Social HistoryThis magisterial account of socialist and labor activism at the local level sweeps ambitiously across Europe, the US, Australia, and New Zealand. Shelton Stromquist eloquently unearths a global movement of "internationalism from below" that transformed cities and, as well, reshaped national and global. politics. Claiming the City is a magnificent achievement that vividly demonstrates the value of global labor history. -- Julie Greene, Professor of History, University of Maryland at College Park

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Book SynopsisWhat transformative effects does a multimillion-dollar industry have on those who work within it?The Industrial Ephemeralpresents the untold stories of the people, politics, and production chains behind architecture, real estate, and construction in areas surrounding New Delhi, India. The personal histories of those in India's large laboring classes are brought to life as Namita Vijay Dharia discusses the aggressive environmental and ecological metamorphosis of the region in the twenty-first century. Urban planning and architecture are messy processes that intertwine migratory pathways, corruption politics, labor struggle, ecological transformations, and technological development. Rampant construction activity produces an atmosphere of ephemerality in urban regions, creating an aesthetic condition that supports industrial political economy. Dharia's brilliant analysis of the sensibilities and experiences of work lends visibility to the struggle of workers in an era of growing urban ineTable of ContentsContents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Note on Anonymity Introduction: An Asynchronous Time Line 1. Ephemeral Infrastructures 2. The Financial Sublime 3. Drawing Fantasies 4. The Industry of Sound 5. Inside the Pit 6. Concrete Love Conclusion: Inquilab Zindabad (Long Live Revolution) Appendix Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisShaking Up the City critically examines many of the concepts and categories within mainstream urban studies that serve dubious policy agendas. Through a combination of theory and empirical evidence, Tom Slater shakes up mainstream urban studies in a concise and pointed fashion by turning on its head much of the prevailing wisdom in the field. To this end, he explores the themes of data-driven innovation, urban resilience, gentrification, displacement and rent control, neighborhood effects, territorial stigmatization, and ethnoracial segregation. With important contributions to ongoing debates in sociology, geography, urban planning, and public policy, this book engages closely with struggles for land rights and housing justice to offer numerous insights for scholarship and political action to guard against the spread of an urbanism rooted in vested interest. Trade Review"Slater’s broad approach and global lens grant this book great potential to help scholars, especially younger ones, to rethink the logic behind research questions and approaches." * Ethnic and Racial Studies *"Sitting down with Shaking Up the City: Ignorance, Inequality, and the Urban Question is like pulling up a chair with Tom Slater to talk about the state of play of urban studies. . . .Yet the highlight of this work is the intellectual contribution, which I see as holding the idea of epistemology – that is, the production of knowledge – and the idea of agnotology – that is, the production of ignorance – in tension with each other." * Urban Studies *"Shaking Up the City sets a new direction of critical urban geography." * Antipode *"Slater offers important insight for urban scholars and practitioners by showing how ideology, politics, and institutional arrangements interact to narrow urban policy choice sets." * Journal of the American Planning Association *"A detailed and very well-written account of several important concepts in critical urban theory." * Housing Studies *

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Book SynopsisA rural borderland just forty years ago, today Shenzhen is a city of twenty million and a technology hub. This success is attributed to its status as a Special Economic Zone, but no other SEZs compare. Juan Du looks to the past to understand why. It turns out that Shenzhen is no prefab “instant city,” but a place influenced by deep local history.Trade ReviewA major contribution to understanding a fascinating city. -- Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom * Wall Street Journal *Tell[s] the story from the ground up of Shenzhen, the southern city just across the border from Hong Kong that symbolizes like no other China’s economic success…Du aims to break through the clichés that have dominated so many accounts of Shenzhen…By rooting her story in the ‘countless individuals’ who defined the city, she argues that Shenzhen is much more than a top-down exercise in building a modern metropolis. * Financial Times *Shenzhen, the fastest growing city on earth, has been globally acknowledged as the test tube for modern China. In The Shenzhen Experiment, Juan Du deftly uncovers the secrets of the city famous for its unprecedented economic development and social mobility. -- Ole Bouman, Founding Director of Design Society, ShenzhenIn stark contrast to conventional, flattened accounts of this vast Chinese city, Juan Du has given us an architect's magical encounter with a place that we cannot quite see with our eyes, but can experience in fragments. I love this account of Shenzhen. -- Saskia Sassen, author of Expulsions: Brutality and Complexity in the Global EconomyAs urban planner Juan Du shows in this deep dive of a history, the ‘instant city’ narrative is a myth. Sweeping aside slick origin stories, Du reveals a reality in which Shenzhen’s prosperity is driven by oyster fishers, vibrant night markets and the aspirations of millions, not just by the policymakers of Beijing. * Nature *Endeavors to move beyond the caricature of Shenzhen as a historyless tabula rasa…The area which would become ‘Shenzhen’ was a well-populated and culturally rich landscape, and its history is here outlined in detail…Provides a nuanced and detailed historical grounding, drawing on a diverse range of sources and primary research. Blending the personal and the historical, it is an outstanding primer on the fascinating fortunes of a city which will only grow in national and global significance over the course of the next decade. -- Jonathan Chatwin * Asian Review of Books *This is a remarkable book on a remarkable subject…Will delight both a general audience curious about China’s rise, and China Hands looking for greater depth and insights into how Shenzhen fits into (and illuminates) a bigger story of modern political, economic, and social development. -- George Baily * Asian Affairs *Explores the blurry history of the city, beginning with its farmers and oyster fishermen…An important story for architects and planners everywhere facing the excitement as well as perils of rapid urbanization and industrialization. * Architect’s Newspaper *Du offers straight, rich, descriptive planning history, whose mastery of Chinese sources and multilayered development makes it an invaluable resource for general use by students and scholars…An authoritative study…Anchored at human scale by the stories of oysters or nail houses, yet adroitly explaining policy debates and innovations on a national scale, this book deserves a wide readership and engagement. -- Gary W. McDonogh * City & Society *A rich history of China’s famous ‘instant city,’ which may not be so instant after all. Juan Du takes us on an informative and unexpected journey through a major metropolis. -- Yung Ho Chang, Principal of Atelier FCJZ, BeijingThis remarkable exploration of modern China reveals the humanity hidden in the shadows of international finance and globalized architecture. It is the extraordinary story of ordinary lives surviving and thriving in one of China’s most dynamic cities. -- Austin Williams, author of China’s Urban Revolution and New Chinese Architecture: Twenty Women Building the FutureEqually instructive and highly readable…Du aims to dispel a powerful, multilayered myth at the heart of most ‘rise of China’ narratives on the recent past…Du effectively demonstrates that Shenzhen’s stunning development is not simply the result of state-led SEZ policies but has been facilitated by specific local conditions and a multitude of different actors over a long period. -- Susanne Stein * Technology and Culture *An actual history, as opposed to the usual blah-blah-blah you find in so many China books. The author has a background in architecture and urban planning, and stresses the import of the Pearl River Delta before Deng’s reforms (Shenzhen wasn’t just a run-down fishing village), decentralization in Chinese reforms, and fits and starts in the city’s post-reform history. Anyone who reads books on China should consider this one. -- Tyler Cowen * Marginal Revolution *

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Book SynopsisA major new history of Brooklyn, told through its landscapes, buildings, and the people who made them, from the early 17th century to today.Trade Review"Winner of the PROSE Award in Architecture and Urban Planning, Association of American Publishers""Finalist with Special Recognition for the Brendan Gill Prize, Municipal Art Society of New York""Finalist for the On the Brinck Book Awards, The University of New Mexico""Mr. Campanella . . . aims to give an account of ‘the Brooklyn unknown, overlooked and unheralded—the quotidian city taken for granted or long ago blotted out by time and tide.’ He succeeds admirably . . . Brooklyn: The Once and Future City is a nuanced portrait of a diverse group of communities. Genteel farmland, then a byword for urban blight, and now the apotheosis of hipsterdom and gentrification—Brooklyn has seen it all. Mr. Campanella, a native Brooklynite himself, brings both love and scholarship to his writing, revealing the true spirt of this fractured land." * The Economist *"Say the name Brooklyn these days, and many people think of Jay-Z or Barclays Center or, most often, skyrocketing real estate prices fueled by gentrification. But for 500 years now, Brooklyn has charted a rich history unique in the American experience. In Brooklyn: The Once and Future City, Thomas J. Campanella . . . has produced a meticulously researched and information-filled chronicle of a place that, in its own way, defines New York City."---Paul Alexander, Washington Post"An ambitious and accomplished book . . . . For lovers of history and of the city, this book is a dream. It feels like a book that Campanella was born to write."---Nick Ripatrazone, The Millions"Campanella’s book does a masterful job of showing how individual egos or ill-planned decisions of long ago set the stage for the city we know today."---Larry Getlen, New York Post"A lively biography of New York's second borough. . . . Teeming with information, this is a must-read for fans of urban history." * Kirkus Reviews *"A fascinating and well-written exploration."---Norman Oder, Curbed"Brooklyn’s history . . . is as specific and varied as its inhabitants. A single block can contain centuries’ worth of information, memories and relics left by heroes and villains alike. The prospect of writing a history of such a multilayered city must have been daunting even for as qualified a fourth-generation Brooklynite as Thomas J. Campanella. . . . Thankfully, Campanella takes a practical approach: Instead of attempting a chronology that traces themes or communities through the decades and centuries, he treats each chapter as a self-contained deep dive into a particular part of the borough, describing how that place came to be. . . . Illuminating."---Emily Gould, New York Times Book Review"Campanella . . . limns Brooklyn’s multiple identities and the tensions over what the borough was, and to whom . . . a fascinating chronicle."---Katrina Gulliver, New Criterion"Campanella's magisterial history . . . [is] always approachable and takes readers to the heart and soul of “the King’s County”."---Liz Thomson, Arts Desk"Every writer knows that there's inherent drama in an underdog story. Brooklyn is the ultimate urban underdog. Brooklyn native Campanella celebrates the onetime city, now-borough's astonishingly rich history, characterized by diversity, immigration, industrialization, decline, and now rebirth . . . vibrant and relevant."---Josh Stephens & James Brasuell, Planetizen"Campanella is always enlightening and remains critical throughout, with class and racial politics never far from the surface."---Darran Anderson, History Today"[Thomas Campanella’s Brooklyn is] not only the best history of Brooklyn, it’s one of the most entertaining works published this year, suffuse with fantastic tales of the achievements, iniquities, and dreams of its famous neighbor."---Anthony Paletta, American Conservative

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Book SynopsisRoma Traversata analyzes pathways to decipher the complexity of Rome''s urban layout. Nearly all of the prehistoric country paths converging on what was to become the Roman Forum (the ancient city center) are still traceable in the modern city. To these were added other major streets in ancient times. Additional Medieval and Renaissance streets developed the city further as its center shifted from the Forum toward the Vatican. Some of these provided the framework for Rome''s late 19th century urban development. Ceen follows nine routes: three prehistoric, three ancient, and three post-classical pathways through the city, showing us that streets are not merely the space left over between buildings but have a formal character of their own and even determine certain aspects of buildings. Rather than insisting upon the greater importance of streets over buildings, Ceen studies the interactions between buildings and public space, something he describes as urbaTable of ContentsI. INTRODUCTION 1. Pathways 2. Maps II. IDENTITY OF THE STREET 1. A Counter-theory to the Street as "Leftover Space" 2. Street Types 3. Street Theory III. URBAN RECIPROCITY: STREET-BUILDING INTERACTIONS 1. Borgo Nuovo 2. Palazzo della Cancelleria Area 3. Palazzo Massimo Area 4. Palazzo Farnese 5. Via Capitolina and the Campidoglio 6. Palazzo Borghese IV. PATHWAYS 1. Pathway Precedents 2. Nine Historic Pathways through Rome V. VIA AURELIA VETUS VI. VIA SALARIA VETUS VII. VIA SUBURRANA VIII. VIA DELLE SETTE SALE IX. MAIOR VIA ARENULAE X. VIA RECTA XI. VIA PAPALE XII. VIA PEREGRINORUM XIII. VIA TRINITATIS XIV. EPILOGUE: ROMA RITROVATA

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Book SynopsisFor forty years, as New York’s Lower East Side went from disinvested to gentrified, residents lived with a wound at the heart of the neighborhood, a wasteland of vacant lots known as the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA). Most of the buildings on the fourteen-square-block area were condemned in 1967, displacing thousands of low-income people of color with the promise that they would soon return to new housing—housing that never came. Over decades, efforts to keep out affordable housing sparked deep-rooted enmity and stalled development, making SPURA a dramatic study of failed urban renewal, as well as a microcosm epitomizing the greatest challenges faced by American cities since World War II. Artist and urban scholar Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani was invited to enter this tense community to support a new approach to planning, which she accepted using collaboration, community organizing, public history, and public art. Having engaged her students at The New School in a multi-year collaboration with community activists, the exhibitions and guided tours of her Layered SPURA project provided crucial new opportunities for dialogue about the past, present, and future of the neighborhood. Simultaneously revealing the incredible stories of community and activism at SPURA, and shedding light on the importance of collaborative creative public projects, Contested City bridges art, design, community activism, and urban history. This is a book for artists, planners, scholars, teachers, cultural institutions, and all those who seek to collaborate in new ways with communities.

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Book SynopsisUseful and inspiring cases illustrate participatory placemaking practices and strategies. How Spaces Become Places tells stories of place makers who respond to daunting challenges of affordable housing, racial violence, and immigration, as well as community building, arts development, safe streets, and coalition-building. The book's thirteen contributors share their personal experiences tackling complex and contentious situations in cities ranging from Brooklyn to Los Angeles and from Paris to Detroit. These activists and architects, artists and planners, mediators and gardeners transform ordinary spaces into extraordinary places. These place makers recount working alongside initially suspicious residents to reclaim and enrich the communities in which they live. Readers will learn how place makers listen and learn, diagnose local problems, convene stakeholders, build trust, and invent solutions together. They will find instructive examples of work they can do within their own communities. In the aftermath of the pandemic and the murder of George Floyd, the editor argues, these accessible practice stories are more important than ever.Trade ReviewFor planners and urban designers, residents, and community organizers, this is simply the best text available for understanding how to create more just, beautiful, convivial, and safe places. And Forester’s eloquent afterword on the relevance of these stories in the time of pandemic and white supremacy is essential reading. This book is a gift of hope and possibility, revealing how the participatory art and craft of placemaking can be a small laboratory for democracy. -- Leonie Sandercock, Professor in Community Planning, School of Community & Regional Planning, University of British ColumbiaJohn Forester’s new book is a riveting account of the art of place-making. Awesome teaching material, offering deep insights to students, scholars, and practitioners in the field of urban planning. -- Benjamin Davy, former President of the Association of European Schools of PlanningThe best of John Forester’s outstanding body of work. The stories are honest expressions of how expert knowledge and local knowledge commingle, mutually reinforce, and interrogate meanings and the physical world. Each accounting demonstrates how placemaking practices create meaningful relationships between and among people in places they have come to love. -- Lynda H. Schneekloth and Robert Shibley, University at Buffalo, co-authors of Placemaking: The Art and Practice of Building CommunitiesThis well-compiled volume reflects the enormous challenges that planners, seeking to be place makers, have to face and address in times of globalization, digitalization, climate change, and populism. -- Klaus R. Kunzmann, Professor Emeritus, TU Dortmund, Germany, and founding president of the Association of European Schools of PlanningHow Spaces Become Places captures the extraordinary power of seemingly ordinary actions through which artists, designers, planners, and community organizers overcome challenges, uncover possibilities, and in the process transform places and politics. John Forester has demonstrated once again the importance of doing, listening, and storytelling. -- Jeffrey Hou, Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of Washington, and editor of Insurgent Public Space and Transcultural CitiesA wealth of inspiring experience from practitioners of participatory democracy. Bright lights in a dark time, these stories illuminate paths to creating places that are memorable, beloved, and just. -- Anne Whiston Spirn, author of The Granite Garden and The Language of Landscape

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Book SynopsisTransportation planners, engineers, and policymakers in the US face the monumental task of righting the wrongs of their predecessors while charting the course for the next generation. This task requires empathy while pushing against forces in the industry that are resistant to change. How do you change a system that was never designed to be equitable? How do you change a system that continues to divide communities and cede to the automobile? In Inclusive Transportation: A Manifesto for Repairing Divided Communities, transportation expert Veronica O. Davis shines a light on the inequitable and often destructive practice of transportation planning and engineering. She calls for new thinking and more diverse leadership to create transportation networks that connect people to jobs, education, opportunities, and to each other. Inclusive Transportation is a vision for change and a new era of transportation planning. Davis explains why centring people in transportation decisions requires a great shift in how transportation planners and engineers are trained, how they communicate, the kind of data they collect, and how they work as professional teams. She examines what “equity” means for a transportation project, which is central to changing how we approach and solve problems to create something safer, better, and more useful for all people. Davis aims to disrupt the status quo of the transportation industry. She urges transportation professionals to reflect on past injustices and elevate current practice to do the hard work that results in more than an idea and a catchphrase. Inclusive Transportation is a call to action and a practical approach to reconnecting and shaping communities based on principles of justice and equity.Table of ContentsForeword by tamika l. butler Preface Introduction Chapter 1: Transportation is Personal Chapter 2: Equity is more than a Baseball Graphic Chapter 3: Should there be a War on Cars? Chapter 4: Power, Influence, and the Complexity of People Chapter 5: Bringing People and Planning Together Chapter 6: The Task Ahead: Where the Hard Work Continues Acknowledgments Notes About the Author

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Book SynopsisDesire lines are the paths that people create through regular usage. They appear where people repeatedly choose to walk and usually signify a route from A to B that’s quicker than the formal path provided. In most cases they indicate the mismatch between what local people want and what designers think people want. By employing some social research basics in the design development process, placemakers can work more meaningfully with local communities to meet their needs and aspirations. This is a practical guide to running public consultations, co-design and community engagement to help practitioners make the most of local knowledge and insight for the benefit of design. It offers guidance on managing community participation, and unapologetically aims to encourage designers to start thinking like social researchers when they undertake these programmes. It’s intended for placemakers - architects, urban designers, landscape architects, and other built environment professionals involved in the planning and design of public realm - who want to develop more people-centred, community-led design approaches. It’s also a valuable tool for students of these disciplines, both as guidance on projects involving primary fieldwork, and as general preparation for professional practice, where skills in working with local communities are increasingly important.Table of Contents1. Introduction2. Research essentials for community participation3. Observation4. Diary studiesA quick guide to qualitative data analysis5. Exhibitions and public meetings A quick guide to public events 6. Survey methods 7. Focus groups A quick guide to communications 8. Collaborative approaches A quick guide to reporting research 9­­­. Ethical and inclusive practice 10. Participants’ experiences

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Book SynopsisCities are under increased pressure to be resilient and resistant to the effects of climate change and rapid urbanisation. However, this idea has still not been fully integrated in to practice. This book presents a practical approach to masterplanning the city and its areas (existing and new) as urban environments for the 21st century, addressing the design of cities as complex adaptive systems.Table of ContentsPart I: Towards an Ecology of Urban Form 1. Design and Change: Reconciling the Paradox 2. From System Ecology to Urban Morphology Part II: Masterplanning for Change: The Design Approach 3. Towards a Design Agenda 4. The Design Approach 5. Towards the Resilient City

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD. A definitive classic, Lewis Mumford''s massive historical study brings together a wide array of evidence — from the earliest group habitats to medieval towns to the modern centers of commerce — to show how the urban form has changed throughout human civilization. Mumford explores the factors that made Greek cities uniques and offers a controversial view of the Roman city concept. He explains how the role of monasticism influenced Christian towns and how mercanitile capitalism shapes the modern city today. The City in History remains a powerfully influential work, one that has shaped the agendas of urban planners, sociologists, and social critics since its publication in the 1960s.

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Book SynopsisTypology, volume 2 of the new series 'Christ & Gantenbein Review', presents more than 150 buildings located in Rome, New York, Hong Kong and Buenos Aires that have been analysed by the chair of Emanuel Christ and Christoph Gantenbein at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. This selective and subjective inventory of metropolitan and essentially anonymous 20th-century building production provides a basis for urban project creation. In this new book, the buildings are documented with floor plans, axonometric projections, recent photographs and key information. The theoretical essay by Emanuel Christ and Christoph Gantenbein and four texts by other authors explain the interactions between the contexts, especially the governing urban rule sets and the buildings, and show the potential for the design of a contemporary urban architecture. Text in English and German

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Book SynopsisWondering where to live in your later years? This strategic and thoughtful guide is aimed at anyone looking to determine the best place to call home during the second half of life. Place plays a significant but often unacknowledged role in health and happiness. The right place elevates personal well-being. It can help promote purpose, facilitate human connection, catalyze physical activity, support financial health, and inspire community engagement. Conversely, the wrong place can be detrimental to health, as the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted. In Right Place, Right Time, Ryan Frederick argues that where you live matters enormouslyespecially during the second half of your life. Frederick, the CEO of SmartLiving 360 and a recognized thought leader on the intersection of place and healthy aging, provides you with tools to evaluate your living situation, ensuring that you weigh all the necessary factors to make a sound decision that optimizes your current and future well-being. He exTrade ReviewFrederick's book could not be arriving at a more critical time...this topic is more important than ever.—Kerry Hannon, MarketWatchTable of ContentsForeword, by Paul IrvingAcknowledgmentsIntroduction. Why Place Matters in the Age of LongevityPart I. Are You in the Right Place for Now? Chapter 1. Place as a Key Component of Successful AgingChapter 2. Evaluating Whether You Are in the Right PlaceChapter 3. Moving from Aging in Place to Living in CommunityPart II. Where Is the Right Place for You?Chapter 4. Regions, States, and Metro AreasChapter 5. Neighborhood and CommunitiesPart III. What Is the Right Place for You?Chapter 6. Single-Family HousingChapter 7. ApartmentsChapter 8. Age-Restricted HousingChapter 9. Senior LivingChapter 10. Emerging Options, from Cohousing to Tiny HomesChapter 11. Living with or near FamilyPart IV. The Evolution of PlaceChapter 12. Place as a Hub for TechnologyChapter 13. Place as a Hub for HealthPart V. Taking ActionChapter 14. Making the Most of Your Current PlaceChapter 15. Selecting a New PlaceConclusion. Choosing the Right Place at the Right TimeAppendix: Personal DashboardsResourcesNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisThis book is an essential primer to help those involved in the planning process secure higher standards of urban design and the delivery of better places. The UK Government’s policy for design in the planning system is contained in the National Planning Policy Framework, with expanded guidance being provided in the Planning Practice Guidance (PPG). This book supports and extends the PPG by providing explanations and examples of design guidance with a range of advice and illustrated examples that are structured, accessible and reproducible. Written by a team of experts overseen by Urban Design London, together, the contributions combine knowledge and expertise to showcase an established, common and practical approach to delivering better urban spaces, not just in London but throughout the UK.Table of ContentsPrefacePart 1Chapter 1: What is Design?Chapter 2: The Characteristics of Well-designed PlacesChapter 3: Aspects of Development FormChapter 4: Legislation, Planning and Decision-makingChapter 5: Who is Involved?Chapter 6: Processes Related to DesignPart 2Chapter 7: Understanding Plans and DrawingsChapter 8: Small-scale DevelopmentChapter 9: HousingChapter 10: LandscapeChapter 11: Environmental IssuesChapter 12: Historic EnvironmentChapter 13: StreetsChapter 14: Public SpaceChapter 15: Tall BuildingsChapter 16: Town Centres and Transport InterchangesChapter 17: Town Extensions and Large-scale Schemes

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Book SynopsisRecent societal changes have brought about renewed interest from architects, town planners, housing officials and the public in terraces and townhouses.  The small footprint that this style of house occupies allows a sustainable high density approach to habitation, slowing sprawl and creating energy-efficient affordable living.Townhouses have been used for hundreds of years, and their evolution is covered from their inception right up to the present day.  With the changing demographics of buyers in mind, Avi Friedman details how the design of these houses can be adapted to keep-up with contemporary needs.Friedman uses a systematic approach to cover the many facets of townhouses from interior design and construction methods, to urban planning issues like adjusting to the site's natural conditions, street configurations and open spaces.  This approach creates a book which will be a valuable resource for those involved in the planning, design and creTrade Review"Friedman’s book deserves to be read by architecture students with an interest in low-rise housing. This also goes for housing policy researchers who are interested in low-rise housing in a somewhat denser form. For non-architects, this book provides insights in architects’ motives for specific design decisions and might therefore stimulate a better understanding and collaboration between architects and policy-makers." - Kees Dol, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, International Journal of Housing Policy"This book explores in details, using a systematic approach, the main elements of this style of housing. The book concluded with lessons learnt throughout this research, and demonstrates in ten wide ranging case studies how aspects of townhouses could be put into useful practice."— Lonaard, Issue 15, Volume 3, May 2013Table of Contents1. Terms and Motives 2. Roots and Evolution 3. Forms and Prototypes 4. Interiors 5. Construction Methods, Utilities & Resources 6. Siting a Project 7. Circulation and Parking 8. Open Spaces 9. Infill Housing 10. Projects

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Book SynopsisDynamic Patterns explores the role of patterns in designed landscapes. Patterns are inherently relational, and the search for and the creation of patterns are endemic to many scientific and artistic endeavors. Recent advances in optical tools, sensors, and computing have expanded our understanding of patterns as a link between natural and cultural realms. Looking beyond the surface manifestation of pattern, M'Closkey and VanDerSys delve into a multifaceted examination that explores new avenues for engagement with patterns using digital media. Examining the theoretical implications of pattern-making, they probe the potential of patterns to conjoin landscape's utilitarian and aesthetic functions. With full color throughout and over one hundred and twenty images, Dynamic Patterns utilizes work from a wide range of artists and designers to demonstrate how novel modes of visualization have facilitated new ways of seeing patterns and therefore oTable of ContentsForeword by James Corner, Preface, Introduction, 1. Topological Patterns, 2. Behavioral Patterns, 3. Ornamental Patterns, Afterword

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Book SynopsisThis book highlights radical urban transformation in eight cities spread across continental Europe. The point of departure, and the foundation of European urbanisation, is the Roman colonial town. In every case social dynamics guided the urban transitions in a traceable way, such that it has been possible to deduce the intellectual underpinnings of the contemporary built environments, as featured in these pages. Differing contexts of time and place show the overarching march of European history and related themes at the urban level. Fundamental changes are brought to light. Each story demonstrates a separate and fundamental transition, ranging from earlier collective configurations to the more institutionalised structures of later periods.

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