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15 Best books for Urban Planning and Design
1. The Death and Life of Great American Cities
The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs (1961) A classic since its publication in 1961, this book is the definitive statement on American cities: what makes them safe, how they function, and why all too many official attempts at saving them have failed. The New York Times writes: “Perhaps the most influential single work in the history of town planning.”
2. The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects
The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects by Lewis Mumford (1972) A history of the forms and functions of the city throughout the ages, and a prophecy for the future of cities and urban life. The City in History was awarded the National Book Award in 1962
3. The Image of the City by Kevin Lynch (1960)
What does the city’s form actually mean to the people who live there? What can the city planner do to make the city’s image more vivid and memorable to the city dweller? To answer these questions, Mr. Lynch, supported by studies of Los Angeles, Boston, and Jersey City, formulates a new criterion — imageability — and shows its potential value as a guide for the building and rebuilding of cities with his book The image of the City.
4. Where We Want to Live: Reclaiming Infrastructure for a New Generation of Cities – Ryan Gravel
Published in early 2016, this new book Where We Want to Live: Reclaiming Infrastructure for a New Generation of Cities – Ryan Gravel elaborates on the timely topic of revitalizing infrastructure systems to bring new life into our cities and make them places that we really want to live. Drawing from his experience with the Atlanta Beltline, Gravel contends that the revolution we are experiencing in new and repurposed transit systems is comparable to that generated by the automobile. Take a ride with Gravel in this book and see how infrastructure can lead to successful urban regeneration.
5. The Garden Cities of Tomorrow – Ebenezer Howard
In 1898, English land reformer Ebenezer Howard spearheaded the Garden City movement in town planning with his publication of Tomorrow – A Peaceful Path to Real Reform. Later editions were released under the more commonly known title, Garden Cities of Tomorrow. His work has been hailed as the single most influential contribution to modern urban planning, and critics have noted that it has transformed the way we think about cities entirely. Get a glimpse of history as you read about Howard’s progressive vision for an ideal town, which was created as a counterpoint to the overcrowded English slums and tenements of his day.
6. The City of Tomorrow: Sensors, Networks, Hackers, and the Future of Urban Life – Carlo Ratti and Matthew Claudel
Clearly alluding to Ebenezer Howard’s peceeding title, Ratti and Claudel’s new book was published in early 2016. While I personally have not had the chance to finish reading this book yet, it is an intriguing and timely topic that addresses the intersection of the city and technology. The authors assert that our cities are at a moment of pivotal change as digital systems become integrated at multiple levels, transforming urban life. This book The City of Tomorrow: Sensors, Networks, Hackers, and the Future of Urban Life – Carlo Ratti and Matthew Claudel provides a fascinating and optimistic perspective of how urban systems may be designed and organized in the not-too-distant future
7. Happy City: Transforming our lives through Urban Design
Happy City was published in 2013 and seeks to answer the question of how cities can generate positive qualities for their residents. By combining the science of happiness with urban design, Montgomery proposes a uniquely positive vision for the future of our cities. Montgomery’s journalistic style creates an exciting read as he delves into psychology, neuroscience, and his own urban experiments
8. The Landscape Urbanism Reader
Landscape urbanism is one of the most important concepts to emerge in urban design in the past decade, and its champion is Charles Waldheim. The Landscape Urbanism Reader is a compendium of articles by the who’s-who of contemporary landscape architecture. The book’s articles draw in the reader with intriguing titles such as, “Terra Fluxus,” “Drosscape,” and “Synthetic Surfaces.” This book is essential for anyone who wants to obtain an in-depth understanding of what landscape urbanism really is.
9. Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time – Jeff Speck
Walkable City is an easily accessible book, published in 2012, that provides practical guidelines on how to create vibrant downtown life within our cities. Not unsurprisingly, Speck uses the principle of walkability to gauge the success of our urban spaces. The process of creating walkable cities is broken down into ten easy steps (to use Speck’s pun), ranging from “putting cars in their place” to “picking your winners.” For anyone who is interested in the timely topic of creating livable cities, Speck’s book is a must-read.
10. Design of Cities
First published in 1967, Design of Cities is a classic text that is a tour-de-force of historic city making. Using examples from throughout the world, Bacon demonstrates how myriad decisions lead to the generation of urban forms. By looking back into history, we can learn from both its mistakes and successes to sculpt and create thriving cities today. With numerous hand-drawn diagrams and photos, Design of Cities is fundamental to understanding the framework of city form .
11. Design with Nature
The number one spot has to go to Design with Nature by Ian McHarg. In 1969, McHarg published his seminal book, which challenged landscape architects to utilize the ecosystem as the foundation of urban design. Out of this book, the field of ecological planning and design was borne. Reading (or re-reading) this book will rekindle your desire to design and create a better world for both human- and non-humankind.
12. Good City Form
Good City Form by Kevin Lynch (1995) Lynch looks at connections between human values and the physical forms of cities, sets requirements for a normative theory of city form, reviews earlier physical images of what utopian communities might be, sees what is to be learned from hellish images, and helps us place city forms into one or another of three theoretic constructs; cosmic or ceremonial centers, the machine city, and the city as an organism
13. A Pattern Language
A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, and Murray Silverstein (1976) “Here’s how to design or redesign any space you’re living or working in — from metropolis to room. Consider what you want to happen in the space, and then page through this book. Its radically conservative observations will spark, enhance, organize your best ideas, and a wondrous home, workplace, town will result” —San Francisco Chronicle. This handbook is designed for the layperson and aims to present a language which people can use to express themselves in their own communities or homes
14. Great Streets
Great Streets by Allan B. Jacobs (1995) Which are the world’s best streets, and what are the physical, designable characteristics that make them great? To answer these questions, Allan Jacobs has surveyed street users and design professionals and has studied a wide array of street types and urban spaces around the world. With more than 200 illustrations, all prepared by the author, along with analysis and statistics, Great Streets offers a wealth of information on street dimensions, plans, sections, and patterns of use, all systematically compared
15. The Urban Villagers
The Urban Villagers by Herbert J. Gans (l962, updated 1982) A report of a participant-observation study of an inner-city Boston neighborhood called the West End and, in particular, of the native-born Americans of Italian parentage who lived there with other ethnic groups
Forty More classic texts in urban design by A.R. Cuthbert
- Community and Privacy – Chermayeff and Alexander (1960)
- Image of the City – Lynch (1960)
- The City in History – Mumford (1961)
- The Death and Life of Great American Cities – Jacobs (1961)
- Townscape – Cullen (1961)
- Cities – Halprin (1963)
- Traffic in Towns – Buchanan (1963)
- The urban place and the nonplace urban realm – Webber (1964)
- Architecture without Architects – Rudofsky (1964)
- Urban Design; Architecture of Towns and Cities. – Spriergen (1965)
- The Design of Cities – Bacon (1967)
- Design with Nature – McHarg (1969)
- Streets for People – Rudofsky (1969)
- Personal Space – Sommer (1969)
- The RSVP Cycles – Halprin (1969)
- Environmental Psychology – Proshansky et al (1970)
- Site Planning – Lynch (1971)
- Defensible Space – Newman (1973)
- The Architecture of Four Ecologies – Banham (1973)’
- The Geometry of Environment – March and Steadman (1971)
- Human aspects of Urban Form – Rapoport (1977)
- Learning from Las Vegas – Venturi et al (1977)
- The Pattern Language – Alexander (1977)
- Collage City – Rowe and Koetter (1979)
- Genius Loci – Norberg-Schultz (1979)
- Urban Space – Krier (1979)
- A Theory of Good City Form – Lynch (1981)
- An Introduction to Urban Design – Barnett (1982)
- The Social Logic of Space – Hillier and Hanson (1984)
- Finding Lost Space – Trancik (1986)
- A New Theory of Urban Design – Alexander (1987)
- Emerging Concepts in Urban Space Design – Broadbent (1990)
- The New Urbanism – Katz (1994)
- Urban Design : The American Experience – Lang (1994)
- Space is the Machine – Hillier (1996)
- Postmodern Urbanism – Ellin (1996)
- Life Between Buildings – Gehl (1987)
- Design of Urban Space – Madanipour (1996)
- Framing Places – Dovey (1999)
- The Evolution of American Urban Design – Gosling (2002)
Source: Urban design: requiem for an era – review and critique of the last 50 years Alexander R. Cuthbert
Program: Urban Design
Publisher: Urban Design Lab
Year: 2022
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