5 comments about The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Modern Library Series).

1. Perhaps the best feature of Jane Jacob's writing is her often understated wit and sarcasm. Pow! She let's a zinger go where you were expecting her to obligatorily remain severe and staid. Her style is extremely accessible and while she is not the first to speak of urbanism, I do believe she could be considered the powder keg for the latter half of the 20th century, rousing others to action and study. It is a shame Jacobs and Mumford did not have an interview session of the likes of Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley, instead we will have to refer back to the sparring on the the page



2. I was introduced to this book in about 1970 by a girl who'd completed an M.A. on England's first council estate. Both she, and this book, impressed me. I now have, thanks to Amazon, a plump 'Modern Library' Edition, thicker but of similar dimensions to that paperback. It was first published in 1961 as a single volume; but 'portions' were published before this. So this dates to the late 1950s/ 1960.
   
   Jacobs was not popular with architects; I had an architect's journal of the relevant date which snipes at her.
   
   What suddenly occurred to me and causes me puzzlement now is the fact that some towns known to me, in England - e.g. Reading, Blackburn, Bristol I think, parts of London - had their Victorian guts removed AFTER 1960 - typically in the 1970s. (Test yourself here: if you're old enough, and took an interest, when did rebuilding take place? If not, check the history of a town known to you. And I was struck by the fact that nothing at all, not one thing, remained of Atlanta, Georgia, from the 19th century). Suggesting, or proving, that she was ignored, or at least that greater powers defeated her.
   
   IF Jane Jacobs was so influential, how come a lot of what she preached against, took place long after her book? Let me suggest a possibility: maybe Jane Jacobs knew perfectly well - after all, her husband was an architect - that fortunes could be made by demolishing old housing and filling the land with apartments, malls, and the rest. Nothing mysterious about that. And trams, trains, buses, transit schemes could be elbowed out in favour of more profitable private transport. Why not write about this, and how, in her view, cities could be remodelled or developed or left or improved in optimum ways? In fact this book is descriptive, but low on analysis. Compare Chomsky: he wrote on the Vietnam War. How many American generals or airforce people were condemned as war criminals? What actually happened? The answer is - nothing. Even utter ***^ like Kissinger gets kid glove treatment. Maybe Jane Jacobs is in the same mode as regards towns? Could she have been a decoy, an irrelevance, trotted out to pretend something is being done, peoples' deep concerns are being addressed? Someone, please, show I'm wrong.



3. In spite of the modest shortcomings that have emerged with age, I still have a deep and abiding fondness for this book... after all, it is what decided me on a career change into urban planning. And unlike much of the specialist literature that I've had to read since then, this book is thrilling, passionate, accessible, and inspiring.
   
   For me, at a certain point -- probably about 2/3rds of the way through Death and Life -- Jacobs seems to start to repeat herself a bit, but many of her insights as to what creates vibrant neighbourhoods and vibrant cities remain as applicable today as they were when she was feuding with Robert Moses over the future of the West Village. This book should be required reading for all planners, highway engineers, and developers; many neighbourhood associations would also probably be the better for having a copy to hand.
   
   But Jacobs' greatest strength, I believe, is that she combines great insight with clear prose that is devoid of the 'fancy' specialist terminology that practicing planners and academics use to talk about the forces driving change in neighbourhoods, towns, and metropolises. Anyone can read this book, and everyone should.



4. My son is a college senior who is taking a seminar class in urban studies. He was born in Manhattan so it was not a surprise that he should develop an interest in the subject. While I was purchasing another 'leisure read' to send to him, I saw this book as a suggested other possibility. It got very high marks in all the reviews and I thought it would be a great addition to his collection of books in this area. I was not wrong. He loved the book and when he brought it to class, his professor was delighted that he had a copy and called it "the classic for studies of cities". He has even introduced me to Jane Jacobs' work as he reads more and more of this book. I hope to read it from cover to cover when he brings it home from college later this year.



5. Jacobs argues masterfully against the popular assumption that urban density leads to slums and decay. Instead she describes how a dense concentration of people gives a city vitality and provides a built-in source of security through "eyes on the street". Throughout the book she discusses various ways to achieve this density and manage the vitality it brings, all the while challenging misconceptions about how cities work.

5 comments about A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction (Center for Environmental Structure Series).

1. Sorry, but if you think that women and men are integrated, connected, rational beings in touch with nature and themselves, you're hiding your head in the sand! And this is supposed to be revolutionary? This book and its predecessor MAINTAIN THE STAUS QUO.
   The primary conditions of modernity are alienation from nature, from the rest of humanity, and from the self, as described by Kafka, Camus, etc.. Architects are notoriously money-hungry business people who don't give a damn about the human condition, Christopher Alexander and company not excluded; they are simply part of the apparati of power that keeps human beings in line. Unfortunately, the post-modern philosophy I've read doesn't rescue us from these conditions, although it purports to rationalize them, and offer a way out. A Thousand Plateaus, The Society of the Spectacle, Foucault, etc.. You want to be a new-age drone? Read this book, and bury your head in the sand. Otherwise, think for yourself and formulate your own revolutionary sociological and architectural ideas!



2. This book was recommended to me by one of my professors in college, and it is a really good guide for what certain parts of buildings (courtyards, types of rooms) as well as cities do. I found it particularly helpful in deciding how to improve my designs from some of the book's suggestions. Really a great book.



3. This book provided very valuable insight into the type of home that we wanted to build. We ultimately bought a home that we did not design, but this book helped us to develop values that would assist us in finding a home that would nurture us and our environment.



4. Lent it to a client and of course, never got it back. Bought it originally back in college. Everyone in the design field should be required to read this book.



5. This classic architecture work contains abundant wisdom and practical direction for living for every thinking person. I first read it nearly thirty years ago and used its principles to create a garden that delights to this day. When I found it again, I was eager to read the parts I had skipped over the first time. To my sorrow, the book is no longer relevant to the way most people now live. There is barely any nod to electronic communication or entertainment. If you want to be overwhelmed by how much we have lost, or changed, since this was written, I highly recommend it. I hope that, as with other lost arts, a new generation will be fascinated by the old ways people used to live, and will adopt the good and reinvent human spaces. Big box stores, super highways, multiplex cinemas, malls, security-driven barriers and other structures such as looping airport approaches and chaotic store layout, fractured product placement in retail outlets: all were not thought of in this work. The serenity of the human soul was the overriding value. It is easy to see the world today is organized more like a bandit's trap than a serene living arena. Definitely a deep and thought-provoking read.

5 comments about Cities of Tomorrow: An Intellectual History of Urban Planning and Design in the Twentieth Century.

1. Peter Hall (Professor of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley) has written many books on urban planning, and this 1988 book is a wonderful summary and history of various progressive "new cities" movements from 1880 to the present.
   
   Hall includes chapters on such subjects as "Cities of Imagination," "Reactions to the Nineteenth-Century Slum City," "The Garden City Solution," "The Birth of Regional Planning," "The City Beautiful Movement," "The Corbusian Radiant City," "The Automobile Suburb," and more.
   
   He begins by noting that "The really striking point is that many, though by no means all, of the early visions of the planning movement stemmed from the anarchist movement, which flourished in the last decades of the nineteenth century and the first years of the twentieth."
   
   Hall opines that "despite doughty competition, Ebenezer Howard (inventor of the "Garden City" concept) is the most important single character in this entire tale." He also observes that "The Stein-Wright Radburn cities are unquestionably the most important American contribution to the garden-city tradition. True, on strict criteria, like their European counterparts they fail to qualify; all three are now long since submerged in the general sprawl of suburbia, and to seek them out on the ground demands a good map and some degree of determination. But as garden suburbs, they mark perhaps the most significant advance in design beyond the standards set by Unwin and Parker."
   
   Despite his enthusiasm, Hall is capable of objectivity: "the new towns are self-evidently good places to live and above all to grow up in; they do exist in harmony with their surrounding countryside and the sheer mindless ugliness of the worst of the old sprawl has been eliminated. But it is not quite as rich and worthy and high-minded as they hoped: a good life, but not a new civilization."
   
   This book will be of considerable interest to persons interested in urban planning, the New Urbanism, Garden Cities, Ecocities, Village Homes, etc.



2. This book is just a bunch of papers about planning history gathered together. Even worse, it talks only about american and english cities, what is only a fraction of it could be.



3. You should read this book with the book "Twentieth Century Architecture" and it will give you more clear impression.



4. A reference classic to approach with a critical eye the history of urban planning. Probably what Peter Hall is most recognized for...



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5 comments about The Image of the City.

1. Great book full of information but a little too old as far as planning ideologies but still great book to read.



2. I'm about a quarter of the way through this book now and it's a very interesting read. Though by now it's a bit dated (published in 1960), and it's not as well-known as Jacobs' 'Death and Life,' it's a relatively short and simple read that can add to one's knowledge of the city. From a planner's perspective, this is a good qualitative research work that relates many lessons about aesthetics and efficient layouts of some famous US cities. They are the kinds of lessons that don't perish over time. For anyone who's into city planning, this is a good reference.



3. My teacher suggested that we buy this book while I was in an Urban Planning class and I am very happy I listened to him. He often referred to this book as the "Bible of Urban Planning" and I see why. Kevin Lynch created a precedent over 50 years ago and his ways are still being practiced today. The fact that, as I said, the book was written over 50 years ago and it is still extremely credible speaks volumes for how advanced his thinking was. Cities from Boston to Los Angeles are designed based off of the ideas mentioned in this book. For the final project in this class I was required, with my partners, to redesign an urban area using what my teacher called "Lynch-ese," referring to the architectural language described by Kevin Lynch. I firmly believe that this book is a must read for anyone remotely interested in urban development and design. In my case it helped open up a new window for me and allowed me to learn an aspect of architecture I never really researched before. Since this class and reading this book I've found myself loving being able to study the urban aspects of areas and figuring out how Kevin Lynch's ideas are shown in a particular space. After my positive experience with this book I don't know how anyone can possibly have anything negative about Kevin Lynch's "The Image of the City."



4. After all these years, still a definitive work on conceptualizing the urban fabric. Well before New Urbanism, Lynch had defined nodes, edges, terminated vistas, etc....the essentials of city making. The writing is concise, and the book short and accessible for the layperson. It is an introductory and seminal work, for anyone contemplating a career as an architect, urban designer, or planner.



5. Reading Kevin Lynch is like getting a new pair of glasses. Nothing has actually changed in your surroundings, but you see things differently. Legibility, or readability, is an important part of navigating the city landscape. To study this "we must consider not just the city as a thing in itself, but the city being perceived by its inhabitants" (Lynch 3).
   
   The city is a constantly growing experience. As you move through a city you are experiencing things in an expanding way. "At every instant, there is more than the eye can see, more than the ear can hear, a setting or a view waiting to be explored. Nothing is experienced by itself, but always in relation to its surroundings, the sequences of events leading up to it, the memory of past experiences"(Lynch 1). There is always something more to add to how you experience the city. These memories and experiences of a city become meaningful to the people who live there. To Lynch, visual quality of a city and the mental images associated with it are of upmost importance when studying the urban landscape.
   
   A city can be considered a very important and powerful symbol of a society. In The Image of the City Lynch explores the cities of Boston, Jersey City and Los Angeles revealing the knowledge of the inhabitants and how they view their city. When asked to describe a city, any person would say that a city is a collection of "streets, buildings, sidewalks, bridges," but Lynch prefers to describe the city as a interrelated connection of paths, edges, districts, nodes and landmarks. Paths are the channels through which the observer moves and that constitute the predominant element in their image, whereas edges are linear elements that are not paths- they are lateral references, sometimes boundaries. Districts, nodes and landmarks are also prominent parts of a city. Districts are sections of the city that a person "enters" and that have identifying characteristics. Nodes are points within the city that can be used as destinations or points of interest, such as transit stations. Landmarks serve the same purpose as nodes; however, they are physical objects, where nodes can be plazas, intersections or park spaces.
   
   "A distinctive and legible environment not only offers security but also heightens the potential depth and intensity of human experience"(Lynch 5). An environmental image links person to place and gives a sense or emotional security. An environmental image is made up of three components- identity, structure and meaning. First, you must identify the object, then determine the spatial or pattern relation, and assign an emotional value about it.
   
   The importance that you place on a landscape or place is called an environmental image. Lynch ascertains that there are two aspects of an environmental image, what is distinct within the environment, and what the observer thinks and what meaning they associate with their surroundings. "People observe the city while moving through it, and along these paths the other environmental elements are arranged and related" (Lynch 47). Lynch discovered through surveys and interviews from these cities that people tend to adapt to their surroundings, and formulate patterns and identity from what they see and experience every day. People place a significant amount of importance on their personal environmental images, and this can influence their reactions to changes.
   
   
   As planners "we are continuously engaged in the attempt to organize our surroundings, to structure and identify them" (Lynch 90). In designing cities it is always important to acknowledge the importance of legibility and an environmental image. "When reshaping cities it should be possible to give them a form which facilitates these organizing efforts rather than frustrates them" (Lynch 90).

5 comments about Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan.

1. I read this book on the train, to and from work. I'm an architect in NYC, so it seemed like a perfect place to read this book. There are some interesting case studies that lead to an interesting comparison of Le Corbusier and Salvidor Dali with their respect to architecture. Oddly enough, I end up liking Dali as an architect more than Le Corbusier.



2. The author presents in concise fashion his own version of New York City's urban development history.
   
   One may or may not be convinced by his thesis that there is a specific New York City psyche that is reflected over time in a wide variety of constructions.
   
   But one can only be enthralled by his intimate knowledge of the City and of projects ranging from Coney Island to the Empire State Building to the 1964 World Fair.
   
   The surprising and at times bizarre illustrations add to the incredibly rich text. They include for instance a vintage photograph of famous architects actually costumed as their own creations: the Fuller Building, the Waldorf-Astoria, the Squibb Building, the Chrysler Building, etc.
   
   Written over 30 years ago and thus also a reflection of the 1970's, this work is definitely a classic well worth reading today for anyone interested in New York or in cities in general.



3. While "Delirious" has its fair share of archispeak, Mr. Koolhaas pulls off an intelligent, fun and thought-provoking take on the early 20th century building culture of New York.
   
   One of the quirkier (and frankly, awesome/bravadoish) aspects of "Delirious" is Mr. Koolhaas's analysis of Coney Island: an "incubator for Manhattan's incipient themes." As a reader, one initially questions the inclusion of such a trashy place in such a lofty manifesto. However, as the chapter progresses, you start to see Mr. Koolhaas's iconoclastic brilliance. He pays an amazing homage to "the laboratory" that was Coney Island, illuminating the vital role it played in the building philosophies that would emerge later in Manhattan.
   
   Scattered throughout "Delirious," also, are compelling supporting images that Mr. Koolhaas clearly spent a lot of time digging up. In fact, flipping through the book for the images alone makes for a near-equivalent, and fun, learning experience.
   
   However, unlike his tasteful use of images, Mr. Koolhaaas's flamboyant use of scholarly English makes his writing difficult to digest at times:
   
   "It is probably inevitable that a doctrine based on the continual simulation of pragmatism, on a self-imposed amnesia that allows the continuous reenactment of the same subconscious themes in ever new reincarnations and on inarticulateness systematically cultivated in order to operate more effectively..."
   
   Given Mr. Koolhaas's journalism background (and assumed mastery of writing), I suspect he made the conscious decision to remain somewhat inaccessible to preserve his "lofty" image. While such a decision may be understandable, his brilliance as a writer often gets overshadowed by the sheer irritation of trying to understand him.
   
   Ultimately, "Delirious" proves itself to be a very intelligent synopsis---just as delirious and congested the themes Mr. Koolhaas puts forth. For the most part, it's a pleasure to read, and it also reflects the exhaustive research on Mr. Koolhaas's end. Much like Mr. Koolhaas's buildings, "Delirious" is on the cusp of being as grand as it intends to be.



4. through the exhaustive historiography of the phases of congestion coney island brought to manhattan, koolhaas provides a rather cynical view of the Grid as being an ulimatley neutral zoning system of constraining ideas that represent the continual decline of a phantastically realistic civilization, represented as mutated symbols of architecture in the "void" of repeated "pregnancies."
   
   it's really well written. funny. uses, like above, a somewhat inefficient vocabulary but remains in the same vein throughout. it is also a graphic design hubris consuming every page, even the left-justified text, showing off koolhaas's interpretation of the importance to combine scholarship and marketing.
   
   buy it. it's a very good book.



5. A very inventive concept of New York's "culture of congestion" and how people are affected by the architecture they create. It is heavily researched and exhaustive, and after pretty much the third page I agreed with his concept of NY being "totally fabricated by man". What could of been a fascinating article becomes a spastic, heavy-handed read with a sledgehammer effect to your brain. (However,for those of us reading it for school, there are plenty of pictures that fill up the almost devastatingly vast 300+pages quickly.) It will scramble your brain with its thousands of nearly bumper-stickerish statements ("It hides life." "The Mountain MUST become architecture.") written with pretentious glee. However, I believe an independent scientific study has concluded that when pretending to read this book on the train people around you will assume your IQ is 40% higher than truth.

2 comments about Readings in Planning Theory (Studies in Urban and Social Change).

1. The autors present a superb choice of classical texts on the field of urban planning. I recommend it to all of those who want a good reference on some of the most important ideas that have shaped this field until now.



2. This book is a very good beginning for a student interested in urban and regional planning. The selections are great, one example is the classic article from Lindblom "The science of muddling through", with several arguments in favor to 'incrementalism'. Another classic is Davidoff's "Advocacy and pluralism in planning", and the text from Beauregard, Krumholz, Healy and Harvey.

5 comments about The Smart Growth Manual.

1. This book is a wonderful handbook for anyone interested in sustainability, regional planning, town planning, urban design and architecture. It is an easy reference for all levels of urbanists from the citizen to the certified planner to the public official. This is an essential manual for students to better understand the basic principles of Smart Growth, New Urbanism and sustainability. Great layout and images, including diagrams, photographs and illustrations.



2. If you want an argument for smart growth, or an elaborate explanation of individual issues, this book is not the place to go. But if you just want a short checklist of factors to measure a place or proposed development against, this book is excellent. I also liked the use of photographs to show what the authors were thinking. And despite its brevity, this book is sometimes surprisingly nuanced: rather than completely condemning curvy streets, it draws a distinction between mild curves designed to affect vistas (good) and the utterly disorienting curvilinear streets of late 20th-c. suburbs (bad).
   
   I do think parts of this book are a bit too invested in environmentalist fantasies - for example, the idea that the world is running out of oil, thus requiring a return to a semi-agricultural economy. But even if these fears turn out to be meritless a decade or two from now, 95 percent of this book will still be on target.



3. Duany and company are architects so their focus on design is highly useful. Echoing other on-the-ball reviewers here, the book is very well organized, easy to follow and leads directly to application.
   
   If the authors ever read customer comments, I would like to suggest the following should the book be updated:
   
   1. Our country's population is growing, but it also aging. Over the next 20 years, the aging of the population may be more significant to planners than "just" growth (which is inevitable, despite the silly claims of other reviewers). There has to be a "Smart Aging" perspective this country needs to adopt because older Americans have different needs--not lesser needs, different needs that should be addressed.
   
   2. Include a section on the behavioral side of Smart Growth--while a necessary component of getting people out of their cars, design by itself is insufficient to get people out of their cars. What incentives, what kind of education and outreach needs to take place for the public and, perhaps most importantly, elected officials. Most local officials aren't particularly brave. They need help.



4. The first sentence of this book reads "Growth is Inevitable." Read Better not Bigger, by Eben Fodor, which WITH data clearly explains that growth is NOT inevitable. Many nationwide studies say the same. The inevitability of growth is what the growth industry would like us to believe, even with a declining population and a dwindling amount of land. This is a big industry (engineers, contractors, builders, realtors, architects, land use lawyers, surveyors, masons, landscapers and they ALL need us to believe as does this book that growth is inevitable. The new coinage "Smart Growth" is not always so smart. Time to improve what we have, use existing architecture, live in smaller homes and even share our homes as we become empty nesters. The other myth is that growth reduces our taxes. Anybody's taxes going down? When will we and "they" wake up and smell the coffee. As much fun as it has been we can't grow forever. The earth is only so big and air, land and water are not limitless. Like with the economic turndown, we are going to face that we may not have us much in the future. If we build on every parcel of land we won't have any left for recreation and trees are what absorb all the poisons and give us oxygen. Hmmmm, if I have a choice between a five bedroom house or breathing??? Let me think.



5. This book's laudable objective is to present, very specifically, how smart growth can actually be implemented. A considerable number of elements are presented, some very detailed, in fact similar to building standards, others very general that would be difficult to apply as such. The book is structured in four sections: regions, neighbourhoods, streets and buildings. Strangely for a work with a pro-urban standpoint, downtowns are not treated as such, although passing references are made here and there.
   
   Odd editorial choices were made with respect to the book's production. First, doubtlessly to project a green image, the fibre-packed paper used is very obviously recycled _ as was current when recycling first was introduced decades ago. This leads to a very poor printing quality of the colour photographs _ which are perhaps not all that artistic and telling in the first place. Second, the book is pocket-size, presumably so that it can be easily carried to meetings. This of course restricts importantly the space available for text. As each item is covered on a single page and each is illustrated with a photograph, needless to say that content is not very elaborate. Third, pages are not numbered, most likely to avoid confusion with the hierarchy of the items presented (1.1, 1.2, etc.). This actually makes consulting the book a bit confusing as these section numbers are not written on the right-hand page corners.
   
   At the end of the book, several pages are devoted to listing the addresses of various local groups devoted to the promotion of smart growth in the United States. This list, of course, is liable to being quickly outdated. So, why not refer to a single Web site?
   
   Actually, why not replace the whole book with a Web site where references to other sources could be liberally provided? With BlackBerries and iPhones, its portability would not be reduced and it could constantly be improved and updated.

5 comments about Design of Cities: Revised Edition (Penguin Books).

1. In this classic text on city design Edmund Bacon explains the elements of the new urbanism. I teach architecture and use this text as reference to explain a brief history of urban form and as a model for urban design concepts and drawings because many of its chapters are beautifully illustrated with refined and thoughtful conceptual diagrams that are rich examples for anyone who wants to understand how to design the urban dimension.



2. What is a space?
   How is made of?
   What is architecture?
   
   "Design of Cities" is an excellent book about perception, space and architecture.



3. Design of Cities is a classic of Bacon in the study of the urban form. The new tendences in urbanism forget many times same of the principal conditions of the place. Bacon in a very simple and sensitive way offers us the keys of a original and elemental way. Writing in the sixties is current also today.



4. This book is an excellent introduction to the nature of urban design.
   
   It illustrates, in a concise and simple way, most of the major interventions in urban design beginning with early settlements, and finishing with modern cities. E.G the route to the Acropolis, the extension of the garden of Versailles, the reorientation of Georgian London.
   
   Every point is explained clearly using great plans, sections and photographs.
   
   The book features many references to the conceptual sketches of artist Paul Klee, which Bacon uses as comparisons for urban concepts.
   
   This book had a very positive effect on my understanding of architecture and urban design, and i would recommend it to anyone interested in the field.
   
   Bear in mind that it is not a standard history book. It is more light-hearted but that is why i enjoyed it so much.



5. A very informative and well designed book. I am currently a grad. student in architecture and the ideas presented in this book are very intriguing. It takes a very practical approach to urban design. If this book were coupled with Jane Jacob's The Death and Life of Great American Cities, one could get two different but relevant viewpoints regarding this very important debate, especially in the wake of Modernism.

5 comments about Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream.

1. Suburban Nation is great book to learn about how America's suburban design is choking out time, environment, and pockets. Unlike a lot of books that define problems, it actually contains working solutions and alternatives. Highly, highly recommended reading if you want to be a more educated citizen.



2. I agree with all the other 5 star reviews. Fabulous book. I've read others on sprawl and they were pretty lame. This one spells it out in so much depth. It's mind-blowing. And a very good argument.



3. This book has, and will continue to have, continuing validity as America seeks more sustainable solutions for its suburban culture. The post WW II suburban American pattern....the "American Dream" of the 20th Century....is based upon the notion of separating all uses from one another, and then connecting them by roads. It's an incredibly expensive, energy consumptive, desensitizing, and ultimately unsustainable way to live. It's a culture that's entrenched in voting patterns, politics, government, and in the development, building, and investment communities.
   
   The antidote is not fully covered here, but Duany is clear that it calls for nothing less than a complete re-commitment to traditional building patterns, of denser cities, and towns, and villages, and hamlets. It posits these as models for a happier, wiser, and more sustainable future. Today's American suburbs are neither urban enough, or rural enough. Planning and design solutions that enhance, instead of destroy, both the urban and the rural, will be requirements of the future.
   
   This book will have a permanent role in the understanding of where we have been, and where we are going. It's necessary, and even important reading, but it's not a blueprint for all planning issues. The comprehensive challenges, which we face, will also call for a revolution in thinking for agriculture, and for the natural environment....both, also in crisis....and both, not fully considered, in this book.



4. I am a college student, and as many people know college book prices are outrageous at the college's bookstore. Therefore to save a little money I go to Amazon to buy mine. I ordered my book appx a week before my class were to begin, and the same day I order another book from another carrier. I NEVER received my book that I ordered. I went back multiple times to make sure I put in all the correct information and I had. The other book that I ordered the same day came about a week later. The worst part of this scenerio, I had to borrow someone's book to complete my assignments and the class that this book was for has already finished using it, so even it if did come at some point it would be of no use to me. I wasted money and I will NEVER order from this carrier again.



5. New Urbanism is not for everyone - and there is much to critique about it - but this book goes beyond the designs of new urbanism and critically analyzes the built environment from post WWII developments to shining examples seen in so many US cities. You may hate suburbia or you just might love it, but many people often lack the necessary critical eye in assessing the components that go into making suburbia - to which this book gives great insight into.
   
   Many will definitely be left thinking about the welfare of our cities well after reading this book. This book does not criticize suburbs, however, it very critical of suburbia which are two different things that are often conflated.

1 comments about Ecological Urbanism.

1. Ecological Urbanism is a must-read book. Mohsen Mostafavi and Gareth Doherty weave together a comprehensive agenda of urban interventions, ideas, policies, and strategies from different geographic settings in order to build a powerful model and vision for a more ecological future. Drawing on this massive, solid effort and on well-grounded research, the editors provide a series of detailed key lessons from all corners of the world for building a future that is less dependent on diminishing resources and is more socially, economically, and ecologically sensitive. Based on the integration between different disciplines and fields--including architecture, planning, urban design, landscape architecture, and engineering--Ecological Urbanism explores different approaches and solutions that contribute to a more ecological and just world. As Sir Peter Medawar said, "If politics is the art of the possible, research is surely the art of the soluble."
   
   Scaling up is a significant aspect of this book since the vast majority of previous research and studies have focused on architectural and building scales. Only a handful of studies have focused on city and regional scales. Therefore, Ecological Urbanism addresses this gap, providing a collection of theories and practices that aim to articulate and advance design strategies, real solutions, and tactics that craft the foundation of the post-carbon city.
   
   Human beings need a revolution in urban problem solving. The fate of the entire earth is one of the most urgent matters confronting humankind today. It will affect each of us, as well as our children and our children's children. Faced with the pressures of global warming, rapid growth, congestion, water shortage, drought, population explosion, urban sprawl, and pollution, cities today need to use land, water, energy, and resources with ever-increasing efficiency. The ultimate role of Ecological Urbanism is, in fact, to be a revolutionary and compelling guidebook that provides a knowledge base for a more livable and sustainable future for current and future generations. As a reference book Ecological Urbanism is a must read for academics, practitioners, students, policymakers, officials, economists, socialists, environmentalists, and anyone else concerned with the health and well-being of our cities.