Best of
Urban-Planning

2008

The Endless City


Ricky Burdett - 2008
    It includes a wealth of material that has emerged from a sequence of six conferences held by influential figures in the field of urban development and its related disciplines, and examines the requisite tools for creating a thriving modern city. The book has been edited by Ricky Burdett and Deyan Sudjic in collaboration with one of the most important educational institutions in this field, the London School of Economics, which assures that the information and data provided is reliable, accurate and informed. Taking 6 key cities as its focal point: New York, Shanghai, London, Mexico City, Johannesburg and Berlin, The Endless City discusses in depth not only the infrastructure and architectural expansion necessary for continuous urban growth, but also the social and economic factors that are critical to urban development in the 21st century. Clearly organised into separate sections for each city, the book will have a strong visual impact and make detailed scholarly research straightforward and manageable. Images of each city will complement the discussions and enrich the discussion presented in the text.With contributions by experts in urban development, this book will appeal to architects, city planners, economists, students, politicians and anyone with an interest in the future of our cities.

Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City


Peter D. Norton - 2008
    By 1930, most streets were primarily a motor thoroughfares where children did not belong and where pedestrians were condemned as "jaywalkers." In Fighting Traffic, Peter Norton argues that to accommodate automobiles, the American city required not only a physical change but also a social one: before the city could be reconstructed for the sake of motorists, its streets had to be socially reconstructed as places where motorists belonged. It was not an evolution, he writes, but a bloody and sometimes violent revolution. Norton describes how street users struggled to define and redefine what streets were for. He examines developments in the crucial transitional years from the 1910s to the 1930s, uncovering a broad anti-automobile campaign that reviled motorists as "road hogs" or "speed demons" and cars as "juggernauts" or "death cars." He considers the perspectives of all users--pedestrians, police (who had to become "traffic cops"), street railways, downtown businesses, traffic engineers (who often saw cars as the problem, not the solution), and automobile promoters. He finds that pedestrians and parents campaigned in moral terms, fighting for "justice." Cities and downtown businesses tried to regulate traffic in the name of "efficiency." Automotive interest groups, meanwhile, legitimized their claim to the streets by invoking "freedom"--a rhetorical stance of particular power in the United States. Fighting Traffic offers a new look at both the origins of the automotive city in America and how social groups shape technological change.Peter D. Norton is Assistant Professor in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society at the University of Virginia.

The Infrastructural City: Networked Ecologies in Los Angeles


Kazys Varnelis - 2008
    Infrastructure has ceased to support architecture's plans for the city. This provocative collection looks at infrastructure as a way of mapping residents' place in the city, remaining optimistic about the role of architecture to affect change.

Nurturing Dreams: Collected Essays on Architecture and the City


Fumihiko Maki - 2008
    Influenced by post-Bauhaus internationalism, sympathetic to the radical urban architectural vision of Team X, and a participant in the avant-garde movement Metabolism, Maki has been at the forefront of his profession for decades. This collection of essays documents the evolution of architectural modernism and Maki's own fifty-year intellectual journey during a critical period of architectural and urban history.Maki's treatment of his two overarching themes -- the contemporary city and modernist architecture -- demonstrates strong (and sometimes unexpected) linkages between urban theory and architectural practice. Images and commentary on three of Maki's own works demonstrate the connection between his writing and his designs. Moving through the successive waves of modernism, postmodernism, neomodernism, and other isms, these essays reflect how several generations of architectural thought and expression have been resolved within one career.

Branding New York: How a City in Crisis Was Sold to the World


Miriam Greenberg - 2008
    Greenberg addresses the role of "image" in urban history, showing who produces brands and how, and demonstrates the enormous consequences of branding. She shows that the branding of New York was not simply a marketing tool; rather it was a political strategy meant to legitimatize market-based solutions over social objectives.

Intersection


Marci Nelligan - 2008
    Essays. Urban Studies. INTERSECTION is the first volume in a series called ChainLinks, a spinoff project of the journal Chain edited by Jena Osman and Juliana Spahr. The goal of this new series is to produce books that might change people's minds, might agitate for (thought) reform, might shift perspectives. This project also continues Chain's desire to provide space for work that slips through genre cracks and falls outside of disciplinary boundaries. INTERSECTION is a collection of essays concerning sidewalks and public spaces in contemporary society by Jane Jacobs, Claire Potter, William Pope.L, Mitchell Duneier, Melissa Ngo, and includes a photo essay by Paul Madonna on stencil art on the sidewalks of San Francisco's Mission District.

Form-Based Codes: A Guide for Planners, Urban Designers, Municipalities, and Developers


Daniel G. Parolek - 2008
    Reading it and putting it to practice is an excellent point of departure for individuals and municipalities to safeguard and to grow their communities. - From the Foreword by noted architect and urbanist Stefanos Polyzoides Form-Based Codes are the latest evolutionary step in the practice of development and land-use regulation. A growing alternative to conventional zoning laws, Form-Based Codes go beyond land use to address not just the physical form of buildings but also surrounding streets, blocks, and public spaces in order to create, protect, and revitalize sustainable communities. Written by three recognized leaders in the field of New Urbanism, including an urban planner and an architect, this book is the first to address this subject comprehensively. After defining Form-Based Codes and explaining why they are a necessary alternative to conventional zoning regulations, the authors detail the various components of Form-Based Codes and then go step by step through the process of creating and implementing them. Finally, a series of case studies illustrates best practice applications of Form-Based Coding at various scales from county-wide to site specific, and various project types from city-wide development code replacement to the preservation or evolution of downtowns. This timely and accessible text features: * More than 200 clear illustrations of Form-Based Codes * Studies of real-world applications of Form-Based Coding by leading planners, urban designers, and architects Form-Based Codes is a must-read for today's urban designers, urban planners, architects, and anyone with a vested interest in utilizing the latest regulatory tool to help create compact, walkable, and sustainable communities.

The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil


The Community Solution - 2008
    With imports of oil cut by more than half and food imports cut by 80 percent, people were desperate. This fascinating and empowering film shows how communities pulled together, created solutions, and ultimately thrived in spite of their decreased dependence on imported energy.In the context of global Peak Oil worries, Cuba is an inspiring vision of hope.The Community Solution is a nonprofit organization that designs and teaches low-energy solutions to the current unsustainable, fossil fuel–based, industrialized, and centralized way of living.

Light Imprint Handbook: Integrating Sustainability and Community Design


Thomas E. Low - 2008
    It employs New Urbanist principles to create compact, walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods. To this, it adds a tool box of techniques to manage stormwater and natural drainage-an ever present environmental challenge that plays a major role in shaping cities and towns. The Tools This little book lays out an array of Light Imprint tools, each shown in the context of an actual New Urbanist project. You will find more than sixty techniques for paving streets and walkways, channeling and storing water, and filtering surface runoff before release into the underground water table. The tools are useful in both new development and existing communities. Done thoughtfully, this seemingly mundane engineering work not only improves the environment, but also can make neighborhoods more beautiful and livable. The Transect Beware, not every tool will work in every situation. That is why we have organized them according to an idea borrowed from New Urbanism: the transect. What is the transect? Well, imagine a slice of land, extending from the most rural countryside to the heart of a skyscraper city. Here, on the opposite page, is a sketch. Look at it, and it is easy to begin to visualize how different approaches work best in particular areas. Hard-surface streets and sidewalks are essential in the heavily trafficked urban core, for instance, but a gravel lane might suffice in a rural district. By fitting the right tool to the right situation, it is possible to save money, improve environmental efficiency, and build in beauty. Who is this book for? Anyone who cares about neighborhoods including: Planners, Developers, Architects, Engineers, Public Officials, Investors, and Community Activists.

Wild City Nature Wonders Next Door


Ranjit Lal - 2008
    With the thoroughness of someone truly concerned, Ranjit Lal peeks into the Boles Of Old Trees And The Corners Of Buildings To Check On The Living conditions Of Owls and other birds who call these places home. At street crossings he watches the devout feed large congregations of birds and comments on the table manners of different species at these feeding frenzies. Spiders, Wasps And Other Insects, Birds And Animals Are Some Of The Protagonists Of The Essays In This Collection. Ranjit Finds, In Their Lives, New Worlds Waiting To Be Discovered. While Most Of The Action Is Set In And Around His Home In Delhi, There Are Delightful Profiles Of Places He Has Travelled In, One The Most Engaging Of Which Is The Well Meaning But Surreally Artificial Jurong Bird Park Of Singapore. In His Inimitable Style Ranjit Lal Gives Voice To Those Essential Members Of Urban Society Whom We Leave Behind Or Ignore. He Makes The Vital Point That For Us To Remain Healthy And Human, It Is Important To Ensure The Health And Well Being Of The Creatures We Live With.

Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems: Principles and Practices


Peter Newman - 2008
    The sources of the water they drink, the food they eat, and the energy they consume are all but invisible, often coming from other continents, and their waste ends up in places beyond their city boundaries.  Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems shows how cities and their residents can begin to reintegrate into their bioregional environment, and how cities themselves can be planned with nature’s organizing principles in mind. Taking cues from living systems for sustainability strategies, Newman and Jennings reassess urban design by exploring flows of energy, materials, and information, along with the interactions between human and non-human parts of the system.   Drawing on examples from all corners of the world, the authors explore natural patterns and processes that cities can emulate in order to move toward sustainability. Some cities have adopted simple strategies such as harvesting rainwater, greening roofs, and producing renewable energy. Others have created biodiversity parks for endangered species, community gardens that support a connection to their foodshed, and pedestrian-friendly spaces that encourage walking and cycling. A powerful model for urban redevelopment, Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems describes aspects of urban ecosystems from the visioning process to achieving economic security to fostering a sense of place.

Positive Development: From Vicious Circles to Virtuous Cycles Through Built Environment Design


Janis Birkeland - 2008
    With a different form of design, development itself can become a 'sustainability solution'. A cornerstone of this new paradigm is the eco-retrofitting of the vast urban fabric we already inhabit. The author presents a revolutionary new tool called SmartMode to achieve this end. This book challenges everyone working in or studying the areas of sustainable development, planning, architecture or the built environment to rethink their current ideas and practices.

Urban Design and the Bottom Line: Optimizing the Return on Perception


Dennis Jerke - 2008
    Using verifiable figures and drawing on professional experience, this argument for the "dividend" generated from high-quality, preinvestment design investigates the benefits and impact of good design upon all facets of an urban area—the community, businesses, employees, the general public, city officials, and the developer.

Century of the City: No Time To Lose


Neil R. Peirce - 2008
    

Temples of the Earthbound Gods: Stadiums in the Cultural Landscapes of Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires


Christopher Thomas Gaffney - 2008
    Tracing the history of football in Brazil and Argentina through colonial influences as well as indigenous ball courts in Mayan, Aztec, Zapotec, Mixtec, and Olmec societies, Christopher Gaffney's study spans both ancient and contemporary worlds, linking the development of stadiums to urbanization.