Five Best Urban Design Books

In the past 50 years since both Kevin Lynch and Jane Jacobs seminal pieces provided new dissemination regarding urban design theory. Since these two great books, the Image of the City and Death and Life of Great American Cities, there has been a plethora of books that have impacted on the Urban Design profession.

I have put together a list of the five most influential books which I believe are a must for any upcoming and practicing urban designer. I have not included the two mentioned above because I believe these are a foundation and should already be included in your collection.

Sustaining Viewpoints

Societies collapse because of a number of environmental, social and economic conditions, so says environmental historian Jared Diamond. His recent enquiry into how societies determine their existence was the spark that finally woke me from a disillusioned hiatus.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: Urban Design in the United States

A Case Study worth visiting

Sustainability as a philosophy, that is to sustain growth within our limited existing knowledge and resources, is expressed as that – a theory worthy of pursuit but impossible to actually deliver.

‘Place’ in the shrinking cultural space

(first published in 2004 - but still a timely debate)

The rediscovery and popular debate of our local communities being ‘places’ of diverse and powerful sources of economic, social and environmental solutions is a welcome change. However, in the production of designing ‘places’, are we failing to recognise these embedded resources and commonly deliver a built environment devoid of cultural presence?

How the built form creates culture

(this was published in urban design forum 2005 - would be interested in further comments)

When endeavouring to pursue urban design, most proponents today deal with the human scale and the experience to be obtained. Urban researcher Amos Rappoport was one of the first to provide evidence that the mnemonic connection to the built environment helped to define its use or the culture created by this interaction.