Customer Reviews

Urban Design

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is not a comprehensive book on the field of Urban Design. Although this is obvious from the subtitle one is left with dissapointment. Aside from an interesting collection of cases studies you really don't get the complexity and timeless cross-section of this field that is having a renaissance now. None of the current trends are mentioned nor do they get any strong coverage (new urbanism/trasnurbanism/reurbanism/everyday urbanism/splintered urbanism/complexity urbanism) nor does the historical element comes through. Generaly good written book but too much of a sallad bowl without a proper structure and philosophy. Not a good tool for teaching. If you want top of the pops book in this field go to D.Grahame Shane's Recombinant Urbanism. For me it was astonishing how little space was given to new urbanism, the leading urban design theory and practice today.

A spectacular book. Lang explains all the design process of the urban environment within USA in this century. What had going wrong and why. See also how a close relationship between designers and its clients can improve design quality and what sort of human needs can be fulfilled by the built environment. A book not only for urban designers but for all people related with the designing process from interiors designers to landscape architects.

I found this book as a good start to build your understanding in Urban design either as a career, profession, academic settings, or even as an extra reading. Its a good reference with multi informative illustrations. I advice anyone who is searching or has any intentions to know more about this field to have this book on the shelf.

Loaei

So good that I intend to recommend it as one of the text books for my classes of Urban Planning. It has a well balanced combination of theory - explained with conceptual diagrams - and case studies, which cover most of the examples of Urban Design in the last and this centuries. The author's review of the Master Plan of Curitiba, that had my participation 40 years ago in research and design, is very to the point when he asks: "How we move ahead?"