Download or read book Built Design and the Rhetoric of Cities written by Kathleen M. Vandenberg and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2023-05-04 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Built Design and the Rhetoric of Cities, Kathleen M. Vandenberg explores how cities are imagined, designed, and constructed and analyzes the impact of built design on the movement, behavior, and experience of people in urban areas. Vandenberg argues that becoming attuned to the built environments of cities is critical to understanding and planning for how they might be reshaped to confront the challenges of this century, which include rapid urbanization, the global rise in slums, climate change, and increasing urban air pollution. With a focus on London, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and Washington, DC, this book invites readers to consider how the built environment influences mobility, the availability of green space, placemaking, and public memory. Street-level analysis is merged with a humanistic perspective that considers the impact of such urban elements as facades, cycle paths, sidewalks, lighting, trees, seating, parks, and monuments on the human experience of cities. By design, cities speak—this book offers an understanding of their rhetoric.
Download or read book Better By Design written by Paul L. Knox and published by Virginia Tech Publishing. This book was released on 2020-10 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The design professions—architecture, city planning, landscape architecture, and urban design—share a great deal in terms of intellectual antecedents, professional ideals, and praxis. In particular, they share a commitment to creating better cities—whether at the scale of buildings, neighborhoods, or city-regions. But who decides what constitutes a “good” city, and how should such an ideal be implemented? In Better by Design? Paul Knox explores the intellectual roots of the design professions, showing how architects, planners, and other designers have traditionally interpreted their roles and implemented their ideas in cities across North America and the UK. Drawing on his long record of research and award-winning publications on the social production of the built environment, Knox offers a critical appraisal of their ultimate effectiveness in achieving the goal of creating and sustaining good cities.
Download or read book A City Is Not a Computer written by Shannon Mattern and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-08-10 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bold reassessment of "smart cities" that reveals what is lost when we conceive of our urban spaces as computers Computational models of urbanism—smart cities that use data-driven planning and algorithmic administration—promise to deliver new urban efficiencies and conveniences. Yet these models limit our understanding of what we can know about a city. A City Is Not a Computer reveals how cities encompass myriad forms of local and indigenous intelligences and knowledge institutions, arguing that these resources are a vital supplement and corrective to increasingly prevalent algorithmic models. Shannon Mattern begins by examining the ethical and ontological implications of urban technologies and computational models, discussing how they shape and in many cases profoundly limit our engagement with cities. She looks at the methods and underlying assumptions of data-driven urbanism, and demonstrates how the "city-as-computer" metaphor, which undergirds much of today's urban policy and design, reduces place-based knowledge to information processing. Mattern then imagines how we might sustain institutions and infrastructures that constitute more diverse, open, inclusive urban forms. She shows how the public library functions as a steward of urban intelligence, and describes the scales of upkeep needed to sustain a city's many moving parts, from spinning hard drives to bridge repairs. Incorporating insights from urban studies, data science, and media and information studies, A City Is Not a Computer offers a visionary new approach to urban planning and design.
Download or read book Design of Cities written by Edmund N. Bacon and published by Penguin Putnam. This book was released on 1974 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The major contemporary work on urban design . . . Splendidly presented, filled with thoughtful and brilliant intuitive insights." -The New Republic In a brilliant synthesis of words and pictures, Edmund N. Bacon relates historical examples to modern principles of urban planning. He vividly demonstrates how the work of great architects and planners of the past can influence subsequent development and be continued by later generations. By illuminating the historical background of urban design, Bacon also shows us the fundamental forces and considerations that determine the form of a great city. Perhaps the most significant of these are simultaneous movement systems-the paths of pedestrian and vehicular traffic, public and private transportation-that serve as the dominant organizing force, and Bacon looks at movement systems in cities such as London, Rome, and New York. He also stresses the importance of designing open space as well as architectural mass and discusses the impact of space, color, and perspective on the city-dweller. That the centers of cities should and can be pleasant places in which to live, work, and relax is illustrated by such examples as Rotterdam and Stockholm.
Download or read book The Form of Cities written by Alexander R. Cuthbert and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Form of Cities offers readers a considered theoretical introduction to the art of designing cities. Demonstrates that cities are replete with symbolic values, collective memory, association and conflict. Proposes a new theoretical understanding of urban design, based in political economy. Demonstrates different ways of conceptualising the city, whether through aesthetics or the prism of gender, for example. Written in an engaging and jargon-free style, but retains a sophisticated interpretative edge. Complements Designing Cities by the same author (Blackwell, 2003).
Download or read book City Sense and City Design written by Kevin Lynch and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1995-03-27 with total page 876 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kevin Lynch's books are the classic underpinnings of modern urban planning and design, yet they are only a part of his rich legacy of ideas about human purposes and values in built form. City Sense and City Design brings together Lynch's remaining work, including professional design and planning projects that show how he translated many of his ideas and theories into practice. An invaluable sourcebook of design knowledge, City Sense and City Design completes the record of one of the foremost environmental design theorists of our time and leads to a deeper understanding of his distinctively humanistic philosophy. The editors, both former students of Lynch, provide a cogent summary of his career and of the role he played in shaping and transforming the American urban design profession during the 1950s, the 1960s, and the 1970s. Each of the seven thematic groupings of writings and projects that follow begins with a short introduction explaining their content and their background. The essays in part I focus on the premises of Lynch's work: his novel reading of large-scale built environments and the notion that the design of an urban landscape should be as meaningful and intimate as the natural landscape. In part II, excerpts from Lynch's travel journals reveal his early ideas on how people perceive and interpret their surroundings—ideas that culminated in his seminal work, The Image of the City. This part of the book also presents Lynch's experiments with children and his assessment of environmental-perception research. The examples of both small-scale and large-scale analysis of visual form in part III are followed by three parts on city design. These include Lynch's more theoretical works on complex planning decisions involving both functional (spatial and structural organization) and normative (how the city works in human terms) approaches, articles discussing the principles that guided Lynch's teaching and practice of city design, and descriptions of Lynch's own projects in the Boston area and elsewhere. The book concludes with essays written late in Lynch's career, fantasy pieces describing utopias and offering new design freedoms and scenarios warning of horrifying "cacotopias."
Download or read book Conservation for Cities written by Robert I. McDonald and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2015-08-13 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers a comprehensive framework for maintaining and strengthening the supporting bonds between cities and nature through innovative infrastructure projects. After presenting a broad approach to incorporating natural infrastructure priorities into urban planning, the author focuses each following chapter on a specific ecosystem service
Download or read book Happy City Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design written by Charles Montgomery and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2013-11-12 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A globe-trotting, eye-opening exploration of how cities can—and do—make us happier people Charles Montgomery's Happy City will revolutionize the way we think about urban life. After decades of unchecked sprawl, more people than ever are moving back to the city. Dense urban living has been prescribed as a panacea for the environmental and resource crises of our time. But is it better or worse for our happiness? Are subways, sidewalks, and tower dwelling an improvement on the car-dependence of sprawl? The award-winning journalist Charles Montgomery finds answers to such questions at the intersection between urban design and the emerging science of happiness, and during an exhilarating journey through some of the world's most dynamic cities. He meets the visionary mayor who introduced a "sexy" lipstick-red bus to ease status anxiety in Bogotá; the architect who brought the lessons of medieval Tuscan hill towns to modern-day New York City; the activist who turned Paris's urban freeways into beaches; and an army of American suburbanites who have transformed their lives by hacking the design of their streets and neighborhoods. Full of rich historical detail and new insights from psychologists and Montgomery's own urban experiments, Happy City is an essential tool for understanding and improving our own communities. The message is as surprising as it is hopeful: by retrofitting our cities for happiness, we can tackle the urgent challenges of our age. The happy city, the green city, and the low-carbon city are the same place, and we can all help build it.
Download or read book Health and Community Design written by Lawrence Frank and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2003-05-23 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Health and Community Design is a comprehensive examination of how the built environment encourages or discourages physical activity, drawing together insights from a range of research on the relationships between urban form and public health. It provides important information about the factors that influence decisions about physical activity and modes of travel, and about how land use patterns can be changed to help overcome barriers to physical activity. Chapters examine: • the historical relationship between health and urban form in the United States • why urban and suburban development should be designed to promote moderate types of physical activity • the divergent needs and requirements of different groups of people and the role of those needs in setting policy • how different settings make it easier or more difficult to incorporate walking and bicycling into everyday activities A concluding chapter reviews the arguments presented and sketches a research agenda for the future.
Download or read book Till We Have Built Jerusalem written by Philip Bess and published by Intercollegiate Studies Institute. This book was released on 2006 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fresh arguments for traditional architecture and urbanism; Bess dissects the questionable intellectual assumptions of contemporary architecture. How modern societies find physical expression in contemporary suburban sprawl by considering the role of both the natural law tradition and communal religion in providing intellectual and spiritual depth to contemporary attempts to build new-and revive existing-traditional towns and cities.
Download or read book Design of Cities written by E.N. Bacon and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Cities Identity Through Architecture and Arts written by Yasser Mahgoub and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-11-28 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book covers a broad range of topics relating to architecture and urban design, such as the conservation of cities’ culture and identity through design and planning processes, various ideologies and approaches to achieving more sustainable cities while retaining their identities, and strategies to help cities advertise themselves on the global market. Every city has its own unique identity, which is revealed through its physical and visual form. It is seen through the eyes of its inhabitants and visitors, and is where their collective memories are shaped. In turn, these factors affect tourism, education, culture & economic prosperity, in addition to other aspects, making a city’s identity one of its main assets. Cities’ identities are constructed and developed over time and are constantly evolving physically, culturally and sociologically. This book explains how architecture and the arts can embody the historical, cultural and economic characteristics of the city. It also demonstrates how cities’ memories play a vital role in preserving their physical and nonphysical heritage. Furthermore, it examines the transformation of cities and urban cultures, and investigates the various new approaches developed in contemporary arts and architecture. Given its scope, the book is a valuable resource for a variety of readers, including students, educators, researchers and practitioners in the fields of city planning, urban design, architecture and the arts.
Download or read book Cities and Design written by Paul L. Knox and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-07-12 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cities, initially a product of the manufacturing era, have been thoroughly remade in the image of consumer society. Competitive spending among affluent households has intensified the importance of style and design at every scale and design professions have grown in size and importance, reflecting distinctive geographies and locating disproportionately in cities most intimately connected with global systems of key business services. Meanwhile, many observers still believe good design can make positive contributions to people’s lives. Cities and Design explores the complex relationships between design and urban environments. It traces the intellectual roots of urban design, presents a critical appraisal of the imprint and effectiveness of design professions in shaping urban environments, examines the role of design in the material culture of contemporary cities, and explores the complex linkages among designers, producers and distributors in contemporary cities, for example: fashion and graphic design in New York; architecture, fashion and publishing in London; furniture, industrial design, interior design and fashion in Milan; haute couture in Paris and so on. This book offers a distinctive social science perspective on the economic and cultural context of design in contemporary cities, presenting cities themselves as settings for design, design services and the ‘affect’ associated with design.
Download or read book Urban Design the Architecture of Towns and Cities written by Paul D. Spreiregen and published by . This book was released on 1981 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Elusive City written by Jonathan Barnett and published by HarperCollins Publishers. This book was released on 1986 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Encapsulates 500 years of urban planning. Barnett, an urban designer, is skeptical about the possibility of successful urban design, given the matrix of powerful social and economic forces within which the profession must operate. As a keen student of Jane Jacobs's Death and Life of Great American Cities , he is unafraid of the street, and he knows the pitfalls of unbridled idealism as well. This is neither a textbook nor a social and architectural history, but rather, uniquely, a survey of design strategies, pithy and provocative.
Download or read book Design of Cities written by Edmund N. Bacon and published by . This book was released on 1967 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The City written by James A. Clapp and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on 2012-11-01 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1984 by the Center for Urban Policy Research.
