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Cities Alive: Jane Jacobs, Christopher Alexander, and the Roots of the New Urban Renaissance
Cities are experiencing a renaissance today, because we've begun to understand how they really work -- and we've begun to make them work better for people.
This book is a lively, readable account of two revealing figures in the history of that renaissance: the urban economist Jane Jacobs and the architect Christopher Alexander. Their key insights have shaped several generations of scholars, professionals, and activists. However, as the book argues, this renaissance is still immature, and more must be done to achieve its promise -- especially in an age of rapid, often sprawling urbanization.
The author is a noted scholar on both Jacobs and Alexander, and a participant in the development of the "New Urban Agenda," a historic United Nations agreement emphasizing the pivotal role of cities and towns in meeting the challenges of the future. As the book documents, Jacobs and Alexander played key roles in formulating the conceptual insights behind the New Urban Agenda, and they continue to offer us crucial implementation lessons for the years ahead.
This book is ideal for students, professionals, government officials, activists, and anyone who is interested in the future of cities. The author, Michael W. Mehaffy, Ph.D., is currently Senior Researcher at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and Director of the Future of Places Research Network. He is a popular educator, speaker and author with periodic appointments in seven graduate institutions in six countries, and a consultant in sustainable urban development with an international practice. This is his third book.
This book is a lively, readable account of two revealing figures in the history of that renaissance: the urban economist Jane Jacobs and the architect Christopher Alexander. Their key insights have shaped several generations of scholars, professionals, and activists. However, as the book argues, this renaissance is still immature, and more must be done to achieve its promise -- especially in an age of rapid, often sprawling urbanization.
The author is a noted scholar on both Jacobs and Alexander, and a participant in the development of the "New Urban Agenda," a historic United Nations agreement emphasizing the pivotal role of cities and towns in meeting the challenges of the future. As the book documents, Jacobs and Alexander played key roles in formulating the conceptual insights behind the New Urban Agenda, and they continue to offer us crucial implementation lessons for the years ahead.
This book is ideal for students, professionals, government officials, activists, and anyone who is interested in the future of cities. The author, Michael W. Mehaffy, Ph.D., is currently Senior Researcher at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and Director of the Future of Places Research Network. He is a popular educator, speaker and author with periodic appointments in seven graduate institutions in six countries, and a consultant in sustainable urban development with an international practice. This is his third book.
Paperback
Published January 1, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 30, 2024
Very accessible and explanatory, introduces the main idea of Jane Jacobs and Christopher Alexander then moves to explain the theoretical (Structuralist) background, and why the idealist (modernist, rationalist) framework and philosophy turned out to be wrong and harmful. As Jacobs said in the "death and life of great american cities": to reason from generalizations is to lead us to absurdities.
The main argument of call to action is realizing that in this century we have a critical decision to make regarding urban futures; while cities are usually seen as a negative phenomena of social life, with high levels of pollution, noise, and traffic and a busy life style, Mehaffy argues here that it need not be: it depends on the way we see and think of cities and how, in turn, they can be re-imagined.
P.s: I have to say, I had not before understood Christopher Alexander's ideas of patterns until I read this book, and I am proud to say that I have sort of independently reached a similar idea of how archietcture and building traditions work!
The main argument of call to action is realizing that in this century we have a critical decision to make regarding urban futures; while cities are usually seen as a negative phenomena of social life, with high levels of pollution, noise, and traffic and a busy life style, Mehaffy argues here that it need not be: it depends on the way we see and think of cities and how, in turn, they can be re-imagined.
P.s: I have to say, I had not before understood Christopher Alexander's ideas of patterns until I read this book, and I am proud to say that I have sort of independently reached a similar idea of how archietcture and building traditions work!
December 24, 2017
if you are not familiar with the work of Jane Jacobs and Christopher Alexander, this book might be a useful introduction- though it is sometimes too abstract for my tastes. The second half of the book is more policy-oriented.
February 3, 2019
Great book
Inspiring and deep reflections about the way we are building and we could build our urban environment, guided by two of the greatest urban thinkers of all times, Jane Jacobs and Christopher Alexander.
Inspiring and deep reflections about the way we are building and we could build our urban environment, guided by two of the greatest urban thinkers of all times, Jane Jacobs and Christopher Alexander.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews