| Cities Design and Evolution Contributor(s): Marshall, Stephen (Author) |
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ISBN: 0415423295 ISBN-13: 9780415423298 Publisher: Routledge OUR PRICE: $118.75 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: July 2008 Annotation: This innovative book explores an alternative interpretation of the town or city not as an overall fixed design product, but as an evolutionary entity, a product of open-ended adaptive change over time. In doing so the book considers the nature of what a city is' - and how therefore it might be designable' - particularly through consideration of organic and architectural analogies . While centrally grounded in the field of urban design, it is eclectic in drawing from a variety of design, policy and scientific disciplines. In doing so, the book weaves together philosophies from Leviathan to Le Corbusier, geometries from fractals to ziggurats, and design processes from grand visions to street-level codes. The book provides novel insights and understanding of interest to those in the urban design related professions, as well as to a wider audience, from those interested in the history of urbanism to current developments in complex systems, from the scale of buildings to cities. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Architecture | Urban & Land Use Planning - Architecture | Landscape - Social Science | Human Geography |
| Dewey: 711.4 |
| LCCN: 2007021591 |
| Physical Information: 0.7" H x 8.2" W x 8.2" (1.60 lbs) 346 pages |
| Themes: - Demographic Orientation - Urban |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Why does modern planning sometimes create urban environments that are less attractive and functional than the 'organic urbanism' of traditional cities? Cities Design and Evolution takes up the challenge of this question, investigating 'how cities are put together', both in the sense of how the parts are organized in relation to the whole, and how they are created or evolve over time. Cities Design and Evolution offers an engaging and original narrative that interprets planning philosophies from Modernism to New Urbanism, organic theories from Patrick Geddes to Le Corbusier, and evolutionary thinking from Charles Darwin to Richard Dawkins. The book develops a new evolutionary perspective that recognizes both the 'designed' and 'organic' nature of cities, and provides a rationale and impetus for fresh approaches to urban planning and design. In what is the first book to significantly apply modern evolutionary thinking to urbanism, Cities Design and Evolution promises to stimulate thought, debate and action concerning the nature of cities and future urban planning. The book should appeal to all who are interested in cities, in design and in evolution. |