The City Assembled

by Spiro Kostof, Richard Tobias (Illustrator)

The City Assembled is the companion volume to Sprio Kostof's The City Shaped(reissued in paperback by Bulfinch, spring 1999) and continues Kostof's unique study of urban landscape and process. Moving from the historical and cultural overviews of the city in the first book, Kostof descends into the streets, sidewalks, squares, markets, and waterfronts of the city and presents a detailed urban anatomy. The book is organized thematically around the structural phenomena of the city-the city edge, street, public space, the marketplace, and the realities of cultural and ecomomic segregation-and explores the customs, practicalities, and biases behind the elements of the city. In every instance, Professor Kostof follows a far-ranging story up to the present to illustrate how fresh the discussion remains today. In the past, the various elements of a city evolved in response to a variety of pressures. Today, they are usually the result of planning decisions. In a final chapter, Kostof considers 'urban process' "the effect on cities of natural disasters, wars, and comprehensive redevelopment" compared with incremental growth and change. His book is thus an exercise in architectural and social history, a case study for the present, and a pointer for the future. The story is also told in over three hundred drawings, prints, paintings, and photographs that illustrate not only typical elements of a city, such as a colonnaded street of ancient Palmyra, but also specific uses of particular elements, such as Prague's Wenceslas Square. The City Assembled is a fascinating account of the urban experience, writte, like The City Shaped, for general readers and professionals alike.

Genres: Urban Planning, Architecture, Nonfiction, History, Urban, Urban Design, Urbanism

352 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1992

About the author

Spiro Konstantine Kostof was a leading architectural historian, and professor at the University of California, Berkeley. His books continue to be widely read and some are routinely used in collegiate courses on architectural history.

In 1993, following his death, the Society of Architectural Historians established the "Spiro Kostof Award," to recognize books "in the spirit of Kostof's writings," particularly those that are interdisciplinary and whose content focuses on urban development, the history of urban form, and/or the architecture of the built environment.

Reviews

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat tedious but the last chapter on urban process is worth reading. It captures the reasons and ways cities change and are rebuilt, beginning with devastation resulting from natural disasters and war to self inflicted urban renewal, population changes and growth, industrial forces, and different urban design ideologies and aesthetic strategies.

[Raina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably because my reading was so interrupted, but I didn't get as much out of this book as the first one. The themes seemed a little random. But still quite a worthwhile and informative read.

[bookblogjourney · Rating 5 out of 5]

The City Assembled is the companion volume to Spiro Kostof’s The City Shaped (reissued in paperback by Bulfinch, spring 1999) and continues Kostof’s unique study of urban landscape and process. Moving from the historical cultural overviews of the city in the first book, Kostof descends into the streets, sidewalks, squares, markets, and waterfronts of the city and presents a detailed urban anatomy. The book is organized thematically around the structural phenomena of the city – the city edge, street, public space, the marketplace, and the realities of cultural and economic segregation – and explores the customs, practicalities, and biases behind the elements of the city. In every instance, Professor Kostof follows a far-ranging story up to the present to illustrate how fresh the discussion remains today. In the past, the various elements of a city evolved in response to a variety of pressures. Today, they are usually the result of planning decisions. In a final chapter, Kostof considers the ‘urban process: the effects on cities of natural disasters, wars, and comprehensive redevelopment’ compared with incremental growth and change. His book is thus an exercise in architectural and social history, a case study for the present, and a pointer for the future. The story is also told in over three hundred drawings, prints, paintings, and photographs that illustrate not only typical elements of a city, such as a colonnaded street of ancient Palmyra, but also specific uses of particular elements, such as Prague’s Wenceslas Square. The City Assembled is a fascinating account of the urban experience, written like The City Shaped, for general readers and professionals alike.

[Marcos Assis]

Uma ótima oportunidade de conhecer a teoria de importante teórico do urbanismo