The Urbanism Reader: Design, Technology, Culture and the Future of Cities

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Stefan Al (City University of New York, USA) Tom Verebes (New York Institute of Technology)

The Urbanism Reader

Design, Technology, Culture and the Future of Cities

Stefan Al (City University of New York, USA), Tom Verebes (New York Institute of Technology)

$59.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

Bloomsbury Visual Arts
01 May 2025

City & town planning - architectural aspects; Urban & municipal planning

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, 45 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.

Edited by: Stefan Al (City University of New York USA), Tom Verebes (New York Institute of Technology)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 242mm, Width: 190mm, Spine: 18mm
Weight: 760g
ISBN: 9781350377905
ISBN 10: 1350377902
Pages: 280
Publication Date: 01 May 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Stefan Al is an architect, urban designer and author, and Associate Professor of Urban Policy and Planning at Hunter College, City University of New York, USA. His previous books include The Strip: Las Vegas and the Architecture of the American Dream which was a Wall Street Journal “best book to read” and Beyond Mobility: Planning Cities for People and Places which won the 2019 National Urban Design Award. Tom Verebes is Tenured Professor in the School of Architecture and Design at the New York Institute of Technology, USA, and Director of OCEAN CN, based in New York. He is the author of over 150 books, chapters, articles and project features.

Reviews for The Urbanism Reader: Design, Technology, Culture and the Future of Cities

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 *