{"id":312485,"date":"2010-02-12T15:25:14","date_gmt":"2010-02-12T20:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dirt.asla.org\/?p=3851"},"modified":"2010-02-12T15:25:14","modified_gmt":"2010-02-12T20:25:14","slug":"urban-design-a-frame-of-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/312485","title":{"rendered":"Urban Design: A Frame of Mind?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nAlex Krieger and William S. Saunders recently\u00a0published “Urban Design<\/a>,” a 368-page collection of essays and discussions featuring prominent figures in city planning, architecture, and landscape architecture.\u00a0 Together, they trace the field as it “evolved less as a technical discipline than as a frame of mind shared by those of several disciplinary foundations.” The volumes take the reader through the history of urban design by offering a critical analysis of competing\u00a0theories and predicts future challenges posed by growing urban populations. Because the book features writings from multiple viewpoints, readers gain a well-rounded assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the differing schools of urban design theory.<\/p>\n

The book begins with excerpts from transcripts of the first Urban Design Conference held at Harvard University in 1956.\u00a0 This landmark conference, hosted by Jos\u00e9 Luis Sert<\/a>, marked the establishment of urban design as a distinct planning discipline, as it was here that the field\u2019s assumptions and ambitions were first discussed.\u00a0 The essays that follow help to contextualize and critique the emerging urban design\u00a0theories and illustrate the stark differences in opinions among those attending the conference.<\/p>\n

Subsequent essays discuss urban design as it has evolved from the 1956 conference to its present state.\u00a0 Because this field represents an overlap of so many disciplines \u2013 including city planning, architecture, landscape architecture, engineering, sociology, and politics \u2013 it has struggled to find its true identity as its focus has been pushed and pulled in many directions.\u00a0 Urban designers are faced with the task of creating a cohesive plan that balances a macro-focus of developing a cohesive, functional, navigable and economically healthy city while still maintaining a micro-focus on the beauty, livability, sustainability, and ecology of individual neighborhoods.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, for the first time in history, more than half of the world\u2019s population lives in an urban environment. “We are becoming an urban species to a degree unimaginable,\u201d and as a result urban designers will be confronted with more complex problems in the near future.\u00a0 The final collection of essays attempts to predict some of the daunting problems that are looming on the horizon, and challenges designers to “inventively confront the morphological, functional, and human needs of cities and their citizens.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Urban Design<\/a>” is a great starting point for readers looking to become familiar with urban design history and the development of design theory.\u00a0 For practitioners looking for a blueprint for designing an urban space, however, you probably want to look for another source, as this book does not focus on case studies or the practical steps that go into the process of designing and building a city.<\/p>\n

Contributors<\/strong>: Jonathan Barnett, Denise Scott Brown, Joan Busquets, Kenneth Greenberg, John Kaliski, Timothy Love, Fumihiko Maki, Richard Marshall, Eric Mumford, Michelle Provoost, Peter G. Rowe, Edward W. Soja, Richard M. Sommer, Michael Sorkin, Emily Talen, Marilyn Jordan Taylor, Wouter Vanstiphout, Charles Waldheim.<\/p>\n

Image credit:\u00a0ASLA 2009 Professional Honor Award. Teardrop Park, New York, NY. Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc., New York, NY<\/em><\/p>\n

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Alex Krieger and William S. Saunders recently\u00a0published “Urban Design,” a 368-page collection of essays and discussions featuring prominent figures in city planning, architecture, and landscape architecture.\u00a0 Together, they trace the field as it “evolved less as a technical discipline than as a frame of mind shared by those of several disciplinary foundations.” The volumes take […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-312485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}