Urban Transformation: Understanding City Form and Design
- ISBN-10
- 1610911490
- ISBN-13
- 9781610911498
- Category
- Architecture
- Pages
- 336
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2012-09-26
- Publisher
- Island Press
- Author
- Peter Bosselmann
Description
How do cities transform over time? And why do some cities change for the better while others deteriorate? In articulating new ways of viewing urban areas and how they develop over time, Peter Bosselmann offers a stimulating guidebook for students and professionals engaged in urban design, planning, and architecture. By looking through Bosselmann’s eyes (aided by his analysis of numerous color photos and illustrations) readers will learn to “see” cities anew. Bosselmann organizes the book around seven “activities”: comparing, observing, transforming, measuring, defining, modeling, and interpreting. He introduces readers to his way of seeing by comparing satellite-produced “maps” of the world’s twenty largest cities. With Bosselmann’s guidance, we begin to understand the key elements of urban design. Using Copenhagen, Denmark, as an example, he teaches us to observe without prejudice or bias. He demonstrates how cities transform by introducing the idea of “urban morphology” through an examination of more than a century of transformations in downtown Oakland, California. We learn how to measure quality-of-life parameters that are often considered immeasurable, including “vitality,” “livability,” and “belonging.” Utilizing the street grids of San Francisco as examples, Bosselmann explains how to define urban spaces. Modeling, he reveals, is not so much about creating models as it is about bringing others into public, democratic discussions. Finally, we find out how to interpret essential aspects of “life and place” by evaluating aerial images of the San Francisco Bay Area taken in 1962 and those taken forty-three years later. Bosselmann has a unique understanding of cities and how they “work.” His hope is that, with the fresh vision he offers, readers will be empowered to offer inventive new solutions to familiar urban problems.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2008-11-26
- 310 pages
- Paperback
- Island Press
-
- 2009-01-01
- 167 pages
- Paperback
- Bruner Foundation
Similar books
-
CyberCities: Visual Perception in the Age of Electronic Communication
By M. Christine Boyer52 Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake , “ Paradise Regained , ” Architecture 80 ( December 1991 ) : 48–51 ; the quotation is on pages 48–49 .
-
Steel Surfaces: A Guide to Alloys, Finishes, Fabrication, and Maintenance in Architecture and Art
By L. William Zahner... Joe, 211 Kelly, William, 12 Kieran Timberlake, 28, 29 killed steels, 22 Kure Beach (North Carolina), weathering evaluated in, 275 M machining, 225–226, ...
-
Creating Healthy Neighborhoods: Evidence-Based Planning and Design Strategies
By Ann Forsyth, Emily Salomon, Laura SmeadBrender, Jean D., Juliana A. Maantay, and Jayajit Chakraborty. 2011. ... Chris Frost, Katharine Ker, Rebecca Steinbach, Ian Roberts, and Reinhard Wentz.
-
The World by Design: The Story of a Global Architecture Firm
By A. Eugene Kohn, Clifford PearsonIn the Army and the Navy, everyone had both line and staff duties. Line duty was your primary mission—say, as a gunnery officer—which you did while being ...
-
Designing for Autism Spectrum Disorders
By Kristi Gaines, Angela Bourne, Michelle Pearson... The Faison School for Autism is a unique and welcoming learning environment that encompasses the needs of its students, staff, and families alike.
-
Manual: The Architecture of Kieran Timberlake
By Stephen Kieran, James Timberlake"A must for practitioners and students alike, Manual brings the process of design and details of architecture to life, revealing the beauty of building derived from composition within a tradition of innovative assembly."--BOOK JACKET.
-
KieranTimberlake - Fullness
By KieranTimberlakeProjects in this book include a house made from prefabricated modules in rural California that minimally disturbed its picturesque site; a major renovation of Philadelphia's Dilworth Park in front of City Hall; Cellophane House (TM), a ...
-
refabricating ARCHITECTURE: How Manufacturing Methodologies are Poised to Transform Building Construction
By Stephen Kieran, James TimberlakeThis thought-provoking book presents a compelling argument for moving architecture from a part-by-part, linear approach to an integrated one that brings together technology, materials, and production methods.
-
Cellophane House: KieranTimberlake
By Stephen Kieran, James Timberlake, KieranTimberlakeThrough a series of questions, the book explores several of KieranTimberlake's ongoing research agendas including speed of on-site assembly, design for disassembly, a holistic approach to the life cycle of materials, and the development of ...
-
Loblolly House: Elements of a New Architecture
By Stephen Kieran, James TimberlakeThrough the use of state-of-the-art building information modeling, the architects were able to streamline the design-build process. This is a manual for the componentized prefab.