No comments about Ecopolis: Architecture and Cities for a Changing Climate (Future City).

1 comments about On the Art of Designing Cities: Selected Essays of Elbert Peets.

1. Wow, I never thought this would see a reprint! New Urbanists describe the problems of Modernist urban non-planning with hindsight; Peets saw it all coming. To get a full picture of classicism in early-to-mid 20th-century America, buy this along with "The Architecture of Humanism: A Study in the History of Taste" by Geoffrey Scott.

No comments about Stockholm: A Testbed for Urban Planning (Planning, History and Environment Series).

No comments about The urban design studio: A unique educational process results in a viable public service (1975-76 Ball State University faculty lecture series).

No comments about Decks, Patios, Terraces, Etc.: A Revision of a 273.

No comments about Orthogonal Town Planning in Antiquity.

1 comments about Visionary Clients for New Architecture.

1. I really liked this book. Rather than being your standard coffee table oversized hardcover (which is a lot of what you find these days about architecture) this book presents a serious and fascinating discussion about architecture and the modern world. Their new approach, looking at three clients, puts the architects in a new light, offering greater depth and understanding of what it takes to build a modern monument. Anyone with a more than cursory interest in architecture would certainly enjoy and learn from this book.

2 comments about Urban Geography: A Global Perspective.

1. They said that it was the second edition and it's not. I bought the book and probably I'll have to buy the newest edition.



2. This book surveys major ideas in comparative Urban Geography. It is not a fun read, but it is chock full of useful information presented in text, chart and table forms. For those of us studying international relations or geography it is a useful resource with information that can undergird our research and writing in any number of areas that deal with cities throughout the world.

1 comments about The Renaissance City.

1. Giulio Argan's work is "concerned only with the those urbanistic factors which in Italy, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries brought about a transformation of the medieval city" (pg 9). He examines how the rise of Humanistic culture shaped a new conception of the historical and political values of the city. Medieval cities lacked a wide range of political functions, the streets were narrow, and monuments were secondary and rarely planned around. This changed drastically in the Renaissance when divisions began to be made within the city for housing, public affairs, and productive activity. This occurred by 1) opening up streets 2) addition of new sections of the city 3) erection of monuments that were to affect the development of structures in new areas. Also, the advent of new military tactics and advances in cannons and the science of cannonading turned many towns into new cities as bulwarks for the most important cities. For example, a ring of new cities were constructed inland to protect a land invasion of Venice.
   
   By far the most interesting (to me) part of this long essay was his look at the rise of architectural treatises, which were another advent of the Renaissance. Many of these treatises influenced by Vitruvius, such as Leon Battista Alberti's 'De re aedificatoria' had the idealistic aim to try to bring about the rebirth of the ancient city. Single buildings became an element in a natural urban context subordinate to the norms of symmetry, perspective, and proportion. Argan also looks at idealized cities of Francesco Sforza and how many of these Renaissance ideals were applied to existing cities, such as Rome, Pienza, etc.
   
   Although this is only an extended essay, half the pages are wonderful photographs, plans, diagrams, etc all connected by number with the essay, which greatly help reader comprehension. This is a brief read that fulfills Argan's stated thesis comprehensibly and perhaps most importantly, inspires further research and reading.

No comments about Shanghai Transforming.