A New Theory of Urban Design by Christopher Alexander
The venerable cities of the past, such as Venice or Amsterdam, convey a feeling of wholeness, an organic unity that surfaces in every detail, large and small, in restaurants, shops, public gardens, even in balconies and ornaments. But this sense of wholeness is lacking in modern urban design, with architects absorbed in problems of individual structures, and city planners preoccupied with local ordinances, it is almost impossible to achieve. In this groundbreaking volume, the newest in a highly-acclaimed series by the Center for Environmental Structure, architect and planner Christopher Alexander presents a new theory of urban design which attempts to recapture the process by which cities develop organically. To discover the kinds of laws needed to create a growing whole in a city, Alexander proposes here a preliminary set of seven rules which embody the process at a practical level and which are consistent with the day-to-day demands of urban development. He then puts these rules to the test, setting out with a number of his graduate students to simulate the urban redesign of a high-density part of San Francisco, initiating a project that encompassed some ninety different design problems, including warehouses, hotels, fishing piers, a music hall, and a public square. This extensive experiment is documented project by project, with detailed discussion of how each project satisfied the seven rules, accompanied by floorplans, elevations, street grids, axonometric diagrams and photographs of the scaled-down model which clearly illustrate the discussion. A New Theory of Urban Design provides an entirely new theoretical framework for the discussion of urban problems, one that goes far to remedy the defects which cities have today.
'immensely compelling.. It is simply written and illustrated, successfully avoiding the opaque jargon and pretentious gloss often found in such publications. It is a welcome addition to the tiny body of literature on urban design and an essential addition to the 'elbow libraries' of students and practitioners.' Francis Tibbalds, RIBA Journal
'is of great value in continuing a major process extending back over twenty years' David Gosling, University of Sheffield, Town Planning Review
'is of great value in continuing a major process extending back over twenty years' David Gosling, University of Sheffield, Town Planning Review
Christopher Alexander is Professor of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, and Director of the Center for Environmental Structure
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780195037531 |
| ISBN 10 | 0195037537 |
| Title | A New Theory of Urban Design |
| Author | Christopher Alexander |
| Series | Center For Environmental Structure Series |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press Inc |
| Year published | 1988-02-25 |
| Number of pages | 272 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |