DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

The Urbanism Reader

Design, Technology, Culture and the Future of Cities

Stefan Al editor Tom Verebes editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Publishing:20th Feb '25

£90.00

This title is due to be published on 20th February, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

The Urbanism Reader cover

A collection of 45 classic and contemporary readings in urbanism for the architectural design student.

Positioning design at the center of the debate, The Urbanism Reader brings together classic and contemporary readings to help designers understand the complexities of cities and urban design in the 21st century.

The selection of readings presented here is uniquely tailored to a design perspective for architects and urban designers – balancing social issues in urbanism with a clear focus on foregrounding design as an instrument for change in cities, and examining the outcomes and challenges of recent design theories, design methods, and technologies in the built urban environment.

Covering today’s most urgent issues, 44 texts explore key topics in urbanism – from digital design technologies to smart cities, from the ongoing ecological crisis to public health and the impact of Covid-19, and from emergence and informality to economic inequity in global cities. Chapters cover cultural issues including diversity, indigenous knowledge, decolonization, social justice, and inclusion alongside technological developments, while a final chapter speculates on the future of urbanism through readings in AI, virtual reality, and the frontiers of current thinking in architecture and urban design.

The extracts are grouped by theme, each with an introduction to the historical contexts and guiding paradigms – helping design students, researchers, and professionals to make sense of the diverse field of theory and practice in the past, present, and future of global urbanism.

This reader brings coherence, a sense of continuity, and contemporary context to a particularly dense and conceptually challenging period of urban theory. It is an invaluable resource that balances summary, insight and original texts with exceptional clarity and finesse–I wish I’d had it to hand as a student. * Ingrid Schroder, Director of the Architectural Association, UK *
This is the collection of essays many of us have been waiting for: thematically organized, critically framed, bite-sized excerpts, global reach, well-known essays, writing gems that we’re glad to discover. The Urbanism Reader will stand as the compilation of urban thinking after modernism. * Dana Cuff, Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, University of California, Los Angeles, USA *

ISBN: 9781350377912

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

280 pages