Urban Composition: Developing Community through Design

Architecture Briefs

by Mark C. Childs

Cities and towns are among humanity's largest and most complex achievements. The buildings, public works, plazas and parks of even a small town embody substantial amounts of capital, energy, natural resources, history, and aspirations. Cities are among our greatest creations, yet typically no single individual creates them. Rather they arise from the dialog between multiple designers, clients, regulators, citizens, critics and users. Sometimes the cities and towns that emerge are glorious places. Too frequently they have only fragments of greatness or are soul-deadening and environmentally unhealthy. Just as private doctors have responsibilities to their individual patients and for public health, project designers are accountable to their clients and for a set of public goods such as environmental stewardship, fostering civil society, and inspiring joy. In Urban Composition, I introduce essential ways in which the architects, planners, artists and engineers of individual projects can fulfill their public trust to help make great urban places.

Genres: Urbanism

144 pages, Paperback

First published May 2, 2012

About the author

Librarian note: There are multiple authors with this name in this data base.

M.C. Childs’ award-winning urban design books include The Zeon Files: Art and Design of Historic Route 66 Signs (UNM Press 2016), Urban Composition (Princeton Architectural Press 2012), Squares: A Public Space Design Guide (UNM Press 2004). He is a Fulbright Senior Scholar and interim dean of architecture at the University of New Mexico. He lectures internationally on story and placemaking, public art and public spaces, and context analysis.

His poetry has recently appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Andromeda Spaceways Magazine, Abyss & Apex, Focus, Liminality and many others. He was a member of M.I.T.’s International Tiddlywinks Team.