The Code of the City: Standards and the Hidden Language of Place Making (Urban and Industrial Environments) by Eran Ben-Joseph

by Eran Ben-Joseph

Standards and codes dictate virtually all aspects of urban development. The same standards for subdividing land, grading, laying streets and utilities, and configuring rights-of-way and street widths to accommodate cars (rather than pedestrians) have been adopted in many areas of the world regardless of variations in local environments. In The Code of the City, Eran Ben-Joseph examines the relationship between standards and place making. He traces the evolution of codes and standards and analyzes their impact on the modern city and its suburbs, arguing that it is time for development regulations to reflect site-specific and localized physical design. Standards and codes were meant to bring order and safety to the city building process. But now, Ben-Joseph argues, these accumulated rules and their widespread application illustrate a disconnect between the original rationale for their existence and their actual effect on the natural and human environment. To discover how this separation of codes from local conditions came about, he looks at the origins of urban standards and their use, from early civilization through the rapid urbanization of the nineteenth century. He provides examples that demonstrate how standards have shaped residential developments and reshaped the natural landscape. And he considers alternatives for the future -- innovation and de facto deregulation by private developers, new design technologies, and place-based regulations reflecting local conditions. Standards, writes Ben-Joseph, will continue to shape the built environment, but they must be flexible enough to allow for innovation and contribute to the development of sustainable and desirable communities.

Genres: Urban Planning, Urbanism, History, Nonfiction

Mass Market Paperback

First published November 1, 2005

Reviews

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

In The Code of the City, Ben-Joseph discusses how standards and codes have shaped - and ossified - the urban form. That we need building standards and codes is clear; the standards and codes that govern urban development - on sewage management, building materials, land subdivisions, road layouts, etc - have their roots in the pursuit of economic efficiency and public health and safety. What Ben-Joseph is contesting is the prevalence of prescriptive one-size-fits-all codes and standards, as opposed to performance based standards that take into account place-specific needs and requirements. He argues that by doggedly building on the planning frameworks established decades or even a couple of centuries ago - such as sewage management codes and traffic management codes - under a different paradigm or mistaken assumptions, rather than reviewing or overhauling the existing framework, we lock ourselves into a sub-optimal situation.

The book can get a little technical at times when it goes into the details of modern day planning codes but overall I found it a good read. The best part of the book for me, was when Ben-Joseph goes into the history of planning; he discusses planning in early civilisations such as the Indus Valley, Zhou Dynasty, Greek and Roman, as a means to ensure that the built form supported the well-being of the population and prevailing social order. But planning, particularly in the Roman Empire, also arose from the need to map and inventory the landscape, to make it "legible", in the language of James D. Scott and hence easier to control. Ben-Joseph also discusses the rise of what he calls the "urban form-shaping professions" and how the tools and methods they developed such as Gunter's Chain, have shaped the layout and shape of the urban landscape as we now know it with its standard lots, standard blocks and standard street widths.

Ultimately, The Code of the City is a clarion call for planners and designers to move away from one-size-fits-all so-called "model" codes that have resulted in "ubiquitous, unsympathetic spaces", and think deeply about how we creates codes and standards that are sensitive to place context and allow for flexibility and experimentation (and the possibility of failure).