Urban Composition: Developing Community Through Design

Architecture Briefs

by Mark C. Childs

Cities and towns are among humanity's greatest achievements, yet no single individual or organization creates them. The buildings, streets, and gardens of even a small town embody substantial investments of money, natural resources, and political capital. Much more than the sum of its parts, a settlement's vitality comes from its collective composition. Sometimes the cities and towns that emerge are glorious places, but too frequently they have only fragments of greatness or are soulless and environmentally unhealthy. Our new Architecture Brief Urban Composition shows architects, planners, artists, and engineers of individual projects how they can best fulfill their public trust to help make meaningful urban places. Each chapter contains a set of design queries followed by a discussion, illustrations, and references for further research. This accessible primer on urban design provides guidelines for designing buildings or plans for large cities or small towns. Urban Composition showcases projects across the United States and internationally, in metropolitan areas such as Chicago, Seattle, and London, and small communities such as Marfa, Texas.

Genres: Urbanism

144 pages, Kindle Edition

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.