New Urbanism and Beyond: Designing Cities for the Future | 
 enlarge | Creator: Tigran Haas
Publisher: Rizzoli
Category: Book
List Price: $50.00
Buy New: $31.22
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 128828
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 350
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.7
Dimensions (in): 11.2 x 8.8 x 1.2
ISBN: 0847831116
Dewey Decimal Number: 711.4
EAN: 9780847831111
ASIN: 0847831116
Publication Date: April 29, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW
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Product Description
Best defined as the art of shaping the built environment, urban design seeks to understand and analyze the variety of forces—social, economic, cultural, legal, ecological, and aesthetic—that affect how we live. The complex challenges facing cities today—scarcity of resources, growing economic divisions, and rampant sprawl, among others—are forcing a reconsideration of urban design. New Urbanism, a leading movement within urban design, advocates a return to small-town urban forms: human-scale, pedestrian-friendly streets, a reinvigoration of cities, and a stop to suburban sprawl. This new volume, drawing on a conference and debates at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, comprehensively examines New Urbanism today and speculates about it’s future. With contributions from Christopher Alexander, Leon Krier, Peter Hall, Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Jeff Speck, William McDonough, Peter Calthorpe, Jan Gehl, Lars Lerup, Edward Soja, and Saskia Sassen, among others, New Urbanism and Beyond is both a comprehensive primer on urban design and a provocation for practitioners, historians, and citizens everywhere.
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| Customer Reviews:
An outstanding compendium of "some of the brightest urban minds of today" (Manuel Castells) May 17, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book, which brings together an impressive array of 67 leading thinkers in urbanism today, is likely to become a classic resource for students, instructors, professionals, policymakers, activists, and anyone who is fascinated with cities and their future. It is also a rewarding treasury of ideas, drawings, photographs and case study information, offering a delightful browse or more careful study.
The book, an outgrowth of a 2004 conference at the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, presents a provocative range of thought from many of the most legendary thinkers of the last half-century on cities, architecture and urbanism, including Christopher Alexander, Bill Hillier, Peter Hall, Leon Krier, Jan Gehl and many others. Its specific focus is the movement of New Urbanism, and key founders present their case here (Peter Calthorpe, Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk et al). Critics also have their say (Edward Soja, Ayssar Arida et al) with additional thoughtful analysis from many in between (Emily Talen, Christopher Alexander et al).
The discussion goes far deeper than the usual stereotyped discussions that often pass for informed debate about a movement that Herbert Muschamp of the New York Times called "the most important phenomenon to emerge in American architecture in the post-Cold War era" - in large part because it challenges the view that architects are "incapable of collective action." Editor Tigran Haas argues here that that importance is now global, and therefore it's even more important to understand and to discuss its merits and shortcomings in a more incisive way.
Moreover, the book's scope does indeed go far "beyond" the professional movement of New Urbanism per se, taking into account broader contemporary issues in sociology (Robert Putnam, Ray Oldenburg, David Brain), economics (Robert Gibbs, Christopher Leinberger), ecology (Tim Beatley, William McDonough), engineering and street design (Allan Jacobs, Rich Hall) transit-oriented development (Robert Cervero), complexity and connectivity (Michael Batty, Bill Hillier), gloablization and sprawl (Richard Florida, Dolores Hayden) and much, much more.
Editor and conference leader Tigran Hass argues that the New Urbanism, thanks to its inter-disciplinary nature, offers a very useful lens with which to examine these broader issues. As he puts it in the introduction, "This is not an anticipatory work, a book of dreams, or a nostrum for the future design of cities and our communities; it is simply a solidly grounded collection of ideas and thoughts addressing our urban condition (and beyond) written by an exceptional group of individuals never before assembled in one place."
[Disclaimer: The reviewer is one of the 67 authors featured in this work. But the above remarks may be applied solely to the other 66!]
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