Author: Lucy Bullivant
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135717834
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 313
Book Description
Winner of the Urban Design Group's 2014 Book of the Year Award! In the past, spatial masterplans for cities have been fixed blueprints realized as physical form through conventional top down processes. These frequently disregarded existing social and cultural structures, while the old modernist planning model zoned space for home and work. At a time of urban growth, these models are now being replaced by more adaptable, mixed use plans dealing holistically with the physical, social and economic revival of districts, cities and regions. Through today’s public participative approaches and using technologically enabled tools, contemporary masterplanning instruments embody fresh principles, giving cities a greater resilience and capacity for social integration and change in the future. Lucy Bullivant analyses the ideals and processes of international masterplans, and their role in the evolution of many different types of urban contexts in both the developed and developing world. Among the book’s key themes are landscape-driven schemes, social equity through the reevaluation of spatial planning, and the evolution of strategies responding to a range of ecological issues and the demands of social growth. Drawing on first-hand accounts and illustrated throughout with colour photographs, plans and visualizations, the book includes twenty essays introduced by an extensive overview of the field and its objectives. These investigate plans including one-north Singapore, Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, Xochimilco in Mexico City and Waterfront Seattle, illuminating their distinct yet complementary integrated strategies. This is a key book for those interested in today’s multiscalar masterplanning and conceptually advanced methodologies and principles being applied to meet the challenges and opportunities of the urbanizing world. The author's research was enabled by grants from the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), the SfA (the Netherlands Architecture Fund), the Danish Embassy and support from the Alfred Herrhausen Society.
Masterplanning Futures
Author: Lucy Bullivant
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135717834
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 313
Book Description
Winner of the Urban Design Group's 2014 Book of the Year Award! In the past, spatial masterplans for cities have been fixed blueprints realized as physical form through conventional top down processes. These frequently disregarded existing social and cultural structures, while the old modernist planning model zoned space for home and work. At a time of urban growth, these models are now being replaced by more adaptable, mixed use plans dealing holistically with the physical, social and economic revival of districts, cities and regions. Through today’s public participative approaches and using technologically enabled tools, contemporary masterplanning instruments embody fresh principles, giving cities a greater resilience and capacity for social integration and change in the future. Lucy Bullivant analyses the ideals and processes of international masterplans, and their role in the evolution of many different types of urban contexts in both the developed and developing world. Among the book’s key themes are landscape-driven schemes, social equity through the reevaluation of spatial planning, and the evolution of strategies responding to a range of ecological issues and the demands of social growth. Drawing on first-hand accounts and illustrated throughout with colour photographs, plans and visualizations, the book includes twenty essays introduced by an extensive overview of the field and its objectives. These investigate plans including one-north Singapore, Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, Xochimilco in Mexico City and Waterfront Seattle, illuminating their distinct yet complementary integrated strategies. This is a key book for those interested in today’s multiscalar masterplanning and conceptually advanced methodologies and principles being applied to meet the challenges and opportunities of the urbanizing world. The author's research was enabled by grants from the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), the SfA (the Netherlands Architecture Fund), the Danish Embassy and support from the Alfred Herrhausen Society.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135717834
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 313
Book Description
Winner of the Urban Design Group's 2014 Book of the Year Award! In the past, spatial masterplans for cities have been fixed blueprints realized as physical form through conventional top down processes. These frequently disregarded existing social and cultural structures, while the old modernist planning model zoned space for home and work. At a time of urban growth, these models are now being replaced by more adaptable, mixed use plans dealing holistically with the physical, social and economic revival of districts, cities and regions. Through today’s public participative approaches and using technologically enabled tools, contemporary masterplanning instruments embody fresh principles, giving cities a greater resilience and capacity for social integration and change in the future. Lucy Bullivant analyses the ideals and processes of international masterplans, and their role in the evolution of many different types of urban contexts in both the developed and developing world. Among the book’s key themes are landscape-driven schemes, social equity through the reevaluation of spatial planning, and the evolution of strategies responding to a range of ecological issues and the demands of social growth. Drawing on first-hand accounts and illustrated throughout with colour photographs, plans and visualizations, the book includes twenty essays introduced by an extensive overview of the field and its objectives. These investigate plans including one-north Singapore, Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, Xochimilco in Mexico City and Waterfront Seattle, illuminating their distinct yet complementary integrated strategies. This is a key book for those interested in today’s multiscalar masterplanning and conceptually advanced methodologies and principles being applied to meet the challenges and opportunities of the urbanizing world. The author's research was enabled by grants from the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), the SfA (the Netherlands Architecture Fund), the Danish Embassy and support from the Alfred Herrhausen Society.
Urban Design Futures
Author: Malcolm Moor
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134366558
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 582
Book Description
The last decade has seen the rise of urban design which has taken a central position in the new agendas for urban regeneration and renaissance. Urban design has moved from marginality to mainstream. The principles espoused by urban designers over the past thirty years are now accepted as key to a better urban environment and as we move towards greater sustainability, different ideas are emerging that are challenging some of the accepted urban design norms; urban design is at a watershed. Urban Design Futures presents essays from an international cast of authors to review progress and explore emerging ideas: should urban design reflect the future rather than recreate the past? What are the new driving forces that will shape urban living and hence urban design in the future? This book explores new concepts and points the way towards a series of urban design paradigms for the twenty-first century.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134366558
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 582
Book Description
The last decade has seen the rise of urban design which has taken a central position in the new agendas for urban regeneration and renaissance. Urban design has moved from marginality to mainstream. The principles espoused by urban designers over the past thirty years are now accepted as key to a better urban environment and as we move towards greater sustainability, different ideas are emerging that are challenging some of the accepted urban design norms; urban design is at a watershed. Urban Design Futures presents essays from an international cast of authors to review progress and explore emerging ideas: should urban design reflect the future rather than recreate the past? What are the new driving forces that will shape urban living and hence urban design in the future? This book explores new concepts and points the way towards a series of urban design paradigms for the twenty-first century.
Urban Futures
Author: Timothy J. Dixon
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1447336305
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 300
Book Description
Winner of the 2022 Urban Affairs Association Best Book Award. City visions represent shared, and often desirable, expectations about our urban futures. This book explores the history and evolution of city visions, placing them in the wider context of art, culture, science, foresight and urban theory. It highlights and critically reviews examples of city visions from around the world, contrasting their development and outlining the key benefits and challenges in planning such visions. The authors show how important it is to think about the future of cities in objective and strategic ways, engaging with a range of stakeholders – something more important than ever as we look to visions of a sustainable future beyond the COVID-19 crisis.
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1447336305
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 300
Book Description
Winner of the 2022 Urban Affairs Association Best Book Award. City visions represent shared, and often desirable, expectations about our urban futures. This book explores the history and evolution of city visions, placing them in the wider context of art, culture, science, foresight and urban theory. It highlights and critically reviews examples of city visions from around the world, contrasting their development and outlining the key benefits and challenges in planning such visions. The authors show how important it is to think about the future of cities in objective and strategic ways, engaging with a range of stakeholders – something more important than ever as we look to visions of a sustainable future beyond the COVID-19 crisis.
Public Places Urban Spaces
Author: Matthew Carmona
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351656619
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 1527
Book Description
Public Places Urban Spaces provides a comprehensive overview of the principles, theory and practices of urban design for those new to the subject and for those requiring a clear and systematic guide. In this new edition the book has been extensively revised and restructured. Carmona advances the idea of urban design as a continuous process of shaping places, fashioned in turn by shifting global, local and power contexts. At the heart of the book are eight key dimensions of urban design theory and practice—temporal, perceptual, morphological, visual, social, functional—and two new process dimensions—design governance and place production. This extensively updated and revised third edition is more international in its scope and coverage, incorporating new thinking on technological impact, climate change adaptation, strategies for urban decline, cultural and social diversity, place value, healthy cities and more, all illustrated with nearly 1,000 carefully chosen images. Public Places Urban Spaces is a classic urban design text, and everyone in the field should own a copy.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351656619
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 1527
Book Description
Public Places Urban Spaces provides a comprehensive overview of the principles, theory and practices of urban design for those new to the subject and for those requiring a clear and systematic guide. In this new edition the book has been extensively revised and restructured. Carmona advances the idea of urban design as a continuous process of shaping places, fashioned in turn by shifting global, local and power contexts. At the heart of the book are eight key dimensions of urban design theory and practice—temporal, perceptual, morphological, visual, social, functional—and two new process dimensions—design governance and place production. This extensively updated and revised third edition is more international in its scope and coverage, incorporating new thinking on technological impact, climate change adaptation, strategies for urban decline, cultural and social diversity, place value, healthy cities and more, all illustrated with nearly 1,000 carefully chosen images. Public Places Urban Spaces is a classic urban design text, and everyone in the field should own a copy.
Recoded City
Author: Thomas Ermacora
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317591410
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 565
Book Description
Recoded City examines alternative urban design, planning and architecture for the other 90%: namely the practice of participatory placemaking, a burgeoning practice that co-author Thomas Ermacora terms ‘recoding’. In combining bottom-up and top-down means of regenerating and rebalancing neighbourhoods affected by declining welfare or struck by disaster, this growing movement brings greater resilience. Recoded City sheds light on a new epoch in the relationship between cities and civil society by presenting an emerging range of collaborative solutions and distributed governance models. The authors draw on their own fresh research of global pioneers forging localist design strategies, public-realm interventions and new stakeholder dynamics. As the world becomes increasingly digital and virtual, a myriad of online tools and technological options is becoming available. These give unprecedented co-creation opportunities to communities and professionals alike, yielding the benefits of a more open – DIY – society. Because of its close engagement with people, place and local identity, the field of participatory placemaking has huge untapped potential. Responding to the challenges of the Anthropocene era, Recoded City is for decision-makers, developers and practitioners working globally to make better and more liveable cities.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317591410
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 565
Book Description
Recoded City examines alternative urban design, planning and architecture for the other 90%: namely the practice of participatory placemaking, a burgeoning practice that co-author Thomas Ermacora terms ‘recoding’. In combining bottom-up and top-down means of regenerating and rebalancing neighbourhoods affected by declining welfare or struck by disaster, this growing movement brings greater resilience. Recoded City sheds light on a new epoch in the relationship between cities and civil society by presenting an emerging range of collaborative solutions and distributed governance models. The authors draw on their own fresh research of global pioneers forging localist design strategies, public-realm interventions and new stakeholder dynamics. As the world becomes increasingly digital and virtual, a myriad of online tools and technological options is becoming available. These give unprecedented co-creation opportunities to communities and professionals alike, yielding the benefits of a more open – DIY – society. Because of its close engagement with people, place and local identity, the field of participatory placemaking has huge untapped potential. Responding to the challenges of the Anthropocene era, Recoded City is for decision-makers, developers and practitioners working globally to make better and more liveable cities.
Masterplanning the Adaptive City
Author: Tom Verebes
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135055149
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 311
Book Description
Computational design has become widely accepted into mainstream architecture, but this is the first book to advocate applying it to create adaptable masterplans for rapid urban growth, urban heterogeneity, through computational urbanism. Practitioners and researchers here discuss ideas from the fields of architecture, urbanism, the natural sciences, computer science, economics, and mathematics to find solutions for managing urban change in Asia and developing countries throughout the world. Divided into four parts (historical and theoretical background, our current situation, methodologies, and prototypical practices), the book includes a series of essays, interviews, built case studies, and original research to accompany chapters written by editor Tom Verebes to give you the most comprehensive overview of this approach. Essays by Marina Lathouri, Jorge Fiori, Jonathan Solomon, Patrik Schumacher, Peter Trummer, and David Jason Gerber. Interviews with Dana Cuff, Xu Wei Guo, Matthew Prior, Tom Barker, Su Yunsheng, and Brett Steele. Built case studies by Zaha Hadid Architects, James Corner Field Operations, XWG Studio, MAD, OCEAN Consultancy Network, Plasma Studio, Groundlab, Peter Trummer, Serie Architects, dotA, and Rocker-Lange Architects.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135055149
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 311
Book Description
Computational design has become widely accepted into mainstream architecture, but this is the first book to advocate applying it to create adaptable masterplans for rapid urban growth, urban heterogeneity, through computational urbanism. Practitioners and researchers here discuss ideas from the fields of architecture, urbanism, the natural sciences, computer science, economics, and mathematics to find solutions for managing urban change in Asia and developing countries throughout the world. Divided into four parts (historical and theoretical background, our current situation, methodologies, and prototypical practices), the book includes a series of essays, interviews, built case studies, and original research to accompany chapters written by editor Tom Verebes to give you the most comprehensive overview of this approach. Essays by Marina Lathouri, Jorge Fiori, Jonathan Solomon, Patrik Schumacher, Peter Trummer, and David Jason Gerber. Interviews with Dana Cuff, Xu Wei Guo, Matthew Prior, Tom Barker, Su Yunsheng, and Brett Steele. Built case studies by Zaha Hadid Architects, James Corner Field Operations, XWG Studio, MAD, OCEAN Consultancy Network, Plasma Studio, Groundlab, Peter Trummer, Serie Architects, dotA, and Rocker-Lange Architects.
Advanced Research in Technologies, Information, Innovation and Sustainability
Author: Teresa Guarda
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031488555
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 470
Book Description
The three-volume set CCIS 1935, 1936 and 1937 constitutes the refereed post-conference proceedings of the Third International Conference, ARTIIS 2023, Madrid, Spain, October 18–20, 2023, Proceedings. The 98 revised full papers presented in these proceedings were carefully reviewed and selected from 297 submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: Part I: Computing Solutions, Data Intelligence Part II: Sustainability, Ethics, Security, and Privacy Part III: Applications of Computational Mathematics to Simulation and Data Analysis (ACMaSDA 2023), Challenges and the Impact of Communication and Information Technologies on Education (CICITE 2023), Workshop on Gamification Application and Technologies (GAT 2023), Bridging Knowledge in a Fragmented World (glossaLAB 2023), Intelligent Systems for Health and Medical Care (ISHMC 2023), Intelligent Systems for Health and Medical Care (ISHMC 2023), Intelligent Systems in Forensic Engineering (ISIFE 2023), International Symposium on Technological Innovations for Industry and Soci-ety (ISTIIS 2023), International Workshop on Electronic and Telecommunications (IWET 2023), Innovation in Educational Technology (JIUTE 2023), Smart Tourism and Information Systems (SMARTTIS 2023).
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031488555
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 470
Book Description
The three-volume set CCIS 1935, 1936 and 1937 constitutes the refereed post-conference proceedings of the Third International Conference, ARTIIS 2023, Madrid, Spain, October 18–20, 2023, Proceedings. The 98 revised full papers presented in these proceedings were carefully reviewed and selected from 297 submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: Part I: Computing Solutions, Data Intelligence Part II: Sustainability, Ethics, Security, and Privacy Part III: Applications of Computational Mathematics to Simulation and Data Analysis (ACMaSDA 2023), Challenges and the Impact of Communication and Information Technologies on Education (CICITE 2023), Workshop on Gamification Application and Technologies (GAT 2023), Bridging Knowledge in a Fragmented World (glossaLAB 2023), Intelligent Systems for Health and Medical Care (ISHMC 2023), Intelligent Systems for Health and Medical Care (ISHMC 2023), Intelligent Systems in Forensic Engineering (ISIFE 2023), International Symposium on Technological Innovations for Industry and Soci-ety (ISTIIS 2023), International Workshop on Electronic and Telecommunications (IWET 2023), Innovation in Educational Technology (JIUTE 2023), Smart Tourism and Information Systems (SMARTTIS 2023).
4D Hyperlocal
Author: Lucy Bullivant
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119097126
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 136
Book Description
4D Hyperlocal: A Cultural Tool Kit for the Open-source City The evolution of digital tools is revolutionising urban design, planning and community engagement. This is enabling a new ‘hyperlocal’ mode of design made possible by geolocation technologies and GPS-enabled mobile devices that support connectivity through open-source applications. Real-time analysis of environments and individuals’ input and feedback bring a new immediacy and responsiveness. Established linear design methods are being replaced by adaptable mapping processes, real-time data streams and experiential means, fostering more dynamic spatial analysis and public feedback. This shifts the emphasis in urban design from the creation of objects and spaces to collaboration with users, and from centralised to distributed participatory systems. Hyperlocal tools foster dynamic relational spatial analysis, making their deployment in urban and rural contexts challenged by transformation particularly significant. How can hyperlocal methods, solutions – including enterprise-driven uses of technology for bioclimatic design – and contexts influence each other and support the evolution of participatory architectural design? What issues, for example, arise from using real-time data to test scenarios and shape environments through 3D digital visualisation and simulation methods? What are the advantages of using GIS – with its integrative and visualising capacities and relational, flexible definition of scale – with GPS for multi-scalar mapping? Contributors: Saskia Beer, Moritz Behrens, John Bingham-Hall, Mark Burry, Will Gowland and Samantha Lee, Adam Greenfield, Usman Haque, Bess Krietemeyer, Laura Kurgan, Lev Manovich and Agustin Indaco, Claudia Pasquero and Marco Poletto, Raffaele Pe, José Luis de Vicente, Martijn de Waal, Michiel de Lange and Matthijs Bouw, Katharine Willis, and Alejandro Zaera-Polo. Featured architects and designers: AZPML, ecoLogicStudio, Foster + Partners, Interactive Design and Visualization Lab/Syracuse University Center of Excellence for Environmental Energy Systems, Software Studies Initiative/City University of New York (CUNY), Spatial Information Design Lab/Columbia University, Umbrellium, and Universal Assembly Unit.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119097126
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 136
Book Description
4D Hyperlocal: A Cultural Tool Kit for the Open-source City The evolution of digital tools is revolutionising urban design, planning and community engagement. This is enabling a new ‘hyperlocal’ mode of design made possible by geolocation technologies and GPS-enabled mobile devices that support connectivity through open-source applications. Real-time analysis of environments and individuals’ input and feedback bring a new immediacy and responsiveness. Established linear design methods are being replaced by adaptable mapping processes, real-time data streams and experiential means, fostering more dynamic spatial analysis and public feedback. This shifts the emphasis in urban design from the creation of objects and spaces to collaboration with users, and from centralised to distributed participatory systems. Hyperlocal tools foster dynamic relational spatial analysis, making their deployment in urban and rural contexts challenged by transformation particularly significant. How can hyperlocal methods, solutions – including enterprise-driven uses of technology for bioclimatic design – and contexts influence each other and support the evolution of participatory architectural design? What issues, for example, arise from using real-time data to test scenarios and shape environments through 3D digital visualisation and simulation methods? What are the advantages of using GIS – with its integrative and visualising capacities and relational, flexible definition of scale – with GPS for multi-scalar mapping? Contributors: Saskia Beer, Moritz Behrens, John Bingham-Hall, Mark Burry, Will Gowland and Samantha Lee, Adam Greenfield, Usman Haque, Bess Krietemeyer, Laura Kurgan, Lev Manovich and Agustin Indaco, Claudia Pasquero and Marco Poletto, Raffaele Pe, José Luis de Vicente, Martijn de Waal, Michiel de Lange and Matthijs Bouw, Katharine Willis, and Alejandro Zaera-Polo. Featured architects and designers: AZPML, ecoLogicStudio, Foster + Partners, Interactive Design and Visualization Lab/Syracuse University Center of Excellence for Environmental Energy Systems, Software Studies Initiative/City University of New York (CUNY), Spatial Information Design Lab/Columbia University, Umbrellium, and Universal Assembly Unit.
Fourth Places
Author: Patricia Aelbrecht
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031079469
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 254
Book Description
This book challenges current views that public life is in decline and that contemporary urban design trends reliant on privatisation, control, events, and thematic designs are to be blamed. Drawing on detailed and extensive analysis of a case study that illustrates well such urban design trends, it shows that informal social life and interaction occur more than its necessary in new master planned environments and new designed public settings, whether public or private owned and/or managed. Furthermore, it reveals the existence of a new category of informal public social settings which it calls fourth places because of their close relationship to Oldenburg’s third places in terms of social and behavioural characteristics – radical departure from the routines of home and work, inclusivity and social comfort – but distinct in terms of activities, locations and spatial conditions – being characterised by spatial, temporal and managerial in-betweenness, i.e. indeterminacy in form, function and times, and a great sense of publicness. The acceptance of these findings problematises well-established urban design theories about master planning, expands existing social theories about the optimal conditions for public social life by empirically and spatially elaborating on them and redefines several spatial concepts for designing public space in relation to the specific dynamics of informal social interaction. More importantly, it brings optimism to urban design practice, offering new insights into designing more lively and inclusive public spaces.
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031079469
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 254
Book Description
This book challenges current views that public life is in decline and that contemporary urban design trends reliant on privatisation, control, events, and thematic designs are to be blamed. Drawing on detailed and extensive analysis of a case study that illustrates well such urban design trends, it shows that informal social life and interaction occur more than its necessary in new master planned environments and new designed public settings, whether public or private owned and/or managed. Furthermore, it reveals the existence of a new category of informal public social settings which it calls fourth places because of their close relationship to Oldenburg’s third places in terms of social and behavioural characteristics – radical departure from the routines of home and work, inclusivity and social comfort – but distinct in terms of activities, locations and spatial conditions – being characterised by spatial, temporal and managerial in-betweenness, i.e. indeterminacy in form, function and times, and a great sense of publicness. The acceptance of these findings problematises well-established urban design theories about master planning, expands existing social theories about the optimal conditions for public social life by empirically and spatially elaborating on them and redefines several spatial concepts for designing public space in relation to the specific dynamics of informal social interaction. More importantly, it brings optimism to urban design practice, offering new insights into designing more lively and inclusive public spaces.
Ecological Urbanism: The Nature of the City
Author: Susannah Hagan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317645324
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 189
Book Description
Ecological Urbanism: The Nature of the City asks the questions that are important inside and outside the built environment professions: what are climate change, urbanisation and ecology doing to the theory and practice of urban design? How does Ecological Urbanism figure in this change? What is Ecological Urbanism? In answer, this book is neither definitive – impossible when a subject is still in motion – nor encyclopaedic – equally impossible when so much has been written on almost every aspect of these essays. Instead, it seeks to rebalance the ecological narrative and its embryonic modes of practice with the narratives of urbanism and its older, deeply embedded modes of practice. It examines the implications for cities and the designers of cities now we are required to again address their metabolic as well as social and formal dimensions, and it explores the extent to which environmental engineering and natural systems design can and should become drivers for the remaking of cities in the 21st century. Above all, it argues that sooner rather than later, urbanism needs to become environmentally literate, and environmental design needs to become culturally literate.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317645324
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 189
Book Description
Ecological Urbanism: The Nature of the City asks the questions that are important inside and outside the built environment professions: what are climate change, urbanisation and ecology doing to the theory and practice of urban design? How does Ecological Urbanism figure in this change? What is Ecological Urbanism? In answer, this book is neither definitive – impossible when a subject is still in motion – nor encyclopaedic – equally impossible when so much has been written on almost every aspect of these essays. Instead, it seeks to rebalance the ecological narrative and its embryonic modes of practice with the narratives of urbanism and its older, deeply embedded modes of practice. It examines the implications for cities and the designers of cities now we are required to again address their metabolic as well as social and formal dimensions, and it explores the extent to which environmental engineering and natural systems design can and should become drivers for the remaking of cities in the 21st century. Above all, it argues that sooner rather than later, urbanism needs to become environmentally literate, and environmental design needs to become culturally literate.