Cities on Rails

by Luca Bertolini

The development of railway stations and their surroundings is an emerging feature in current urban projects. Based on a series of the most inspiring contemporary European examples of station redevelopment, this book will help planners and urban designers understand the specific and complex nature of station locations. Based on their extensive research, the authors, pioneers of studies in the field in the last few years, harness and expand the body of knowledge and present guiding principles and conditions for successful implementation of such planning projects.

252 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 1998

Reviews

[Gede Suprayoga · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a bit dated. But it gives insightful commentary, which is still relevant today, into the redevelopment of rail stations from a planning perspective. The authors systematically examine the renewal by using the planning triangle as a frame of reference, comprising three interactive features, i.e., object (node & place), process (actors and institutional arrangement), and context (socio-economic structure, legal systems). This framework turns out useful to elucidate the complexity of redevelopment, in which multiple actors (at different scales) having various interests (also resources). The main contribution of this book is that it perceives the railway station areas as not merely a node (transferring passages, etc.) but also a place (property development, etc.). Such a perspective is essential to envision the areas as an integrative part of urban planning.