Quantum City [Paperback]

Ayssar Arida (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0750650125 | ISBN-13: 978-0750650120 | Publication Date: June 12, 2002 | Edition: 1

Quantum City explores the metaphorical relationships between quantum theory, urban design and the concept of the city, with a very serious aim: to radically change the way the urban realm is both experienced and designed.

Using the terminology and themes of quantum theory and the 'new physics', the author draws the reader into an intriguing discussion of the principles, practices and operations of urbanism. This new language offers the missing interface between the different disciplines of the city, and promises to be a potent metaphor for the development of various theories for the 21st century city.
Challenging traditional approaches to the theory of cities, this thought-provoking book will be enjoyed by both design professionals and anyone interested in the city, its history and culture.

* Explains cutting edge theories; linking quantum physics with urban design
* The accessible and straightforward style allows you to develop your ideas about urban design
* International case studies make the book universally relevant

Editorial Reviews

Review

'The author uses the terminology and themes of quantum physics in order to provide an overview of urban design principles, operations, practices, principles and education. For the potential reader, there are number of possible areas of interest in this:
· General historic overview of development of cities,
· General historic overview of development of science,
· General introduction to quantum theory,
· Metaphorical relation of quantum theory to urban design.'
Iain Borden, The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL and judge for the President's Medals dissertation prizes, RIBA.

From the Publisher

The reader is invited to explore the 'Quantum City' and the ways in which it is set to make a significant contribution to the development of architectural theory. This is the first attempt at linking the concepts of quantum theory to the field of urban design, encouraging the urban designer and architect to look at the design of cities from a new perspective. It is an easy, enjoyable, non-technical read with a very serious aim: to change the way designers (and the public in general) look at the urban realm.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 257 pages
• Publisher: Architectural Press; 1 edition (June 12, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0750650125
• ISBN-13: 978-0750650120
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 7.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,868,960 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Arida goes Quantum, October 17, 2002

By 

Michael Stanton (Beirut) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Quantum City (Paperback)

In Quantum City, Ayssar Arida recalibrates analysis and possible action at an urban level based on his reading of quantum phenomena. By so doing he further elaborates and clarifies strategies for action as a designer and critic in relation to both individual architectural artifacts and the assemblies of objects and events that become cities. In an era when the predictable formats of urban design and planning no longer seem particularly relevant or effective, Arida joins others who are searching for more synthetic ways and means of urban description and thus of urban production. What distinguishes his discourse from other infrastructural, delirious, fuzzy, or post-structural reassessments of urban design, is the use of quantum relations. The interdependencies, but also the quirky shifts in significance, that this prevalent form of scientific thinking offers in the urban realm clearly have relevance to work on as complex and contradictory system as a city - an intricate assemblage of forms with more intricate cultural implications and motivations.

Arida begins with a whirlwind synopsis of urban thinking from the Ancients to the present followed by an equally terse look at the now venerable history of quantum theory. Where the book gets very interesting, and here it could have become just the opposite as this is the most speculative portion of Arida's text, is when he relates theory and the city using his reading of the quantum, viewing urban space and the relations between forms. Here the programs, motivations and manifestations of urban desire form a matrix for action based on relations, on balances and uncertainty. Holistic connections are formed at this point unnecessarily, but the basic notion of an urban field of shifting interactions not only, more clearly than usual, describes the extraordinary circumstances of the city but seems to, more effectively than usual, propose new ways of working there.

Michael Stanton

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars city as a strange attractor, October 8, 2002

By 

Gabriel Kram (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Quantum City (Paperback)

Arida's Quantum City provides a cogent framework for describing the city in terms of the language and concepts of quantum theory. This approach allows him to view buildings as events, urban users as roving subjectivities, and to re-texture the urban space as a process of interference rather than a collection of static objects. The author is at his best grappling directly with the city, and notions of quantum theory that provide a means to re-evaluate `chaos'. Without being proscriptive, the book makes a different kind of sense out of what makes urban space tick, and offers a novel critique of classical urban design. More importantly, it makes inroads into offering a new set of language/conceptual structures that allow us to see the city differently, and therefore offers the possibility of solving existing urban problems in novel ways.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars where's the beef?, March 5, 2006

By 

archi-cat (New York, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Quantum City (Paperback)

I was disappointed by this work, which tried to apply advanced scientific theories to explain the chaotic conditions of one city [why this single case?].
The script is a very mixed: dense at times, light [or superficial] at others...