Contributions by urban planners, sociologists, anthropologists, architects, and landscape architects on the role and scope of urban design in creating more just and inclusive cities. Scholars who write about justice and the city rarely consider the practices and processes of urban design, while discourses on urban design often neglect concerns about justice. The editors of Just Urban Design take the position that urban design interventions have direct and important implications for justice in the city. The contributions in this volume contextualize the state of knowledge about urban design for justice, stress inclusivity as the key to justice in the city, affirm community participation and organizing as cornerstones of greater equity, and assert that a just urban design must center and privilege our most marginalized individuals and communities. Approaching spatial and social justice in the city through the lens of urban design, the contributors explore the possibility of envisioning and delivering social, spatial, and environmental justice in cities through urban design and the material reality of built environment interventions. The editors' combined expertise includes urban politics and climate change, public space, mobility justice, community development, housing, and informality, and the contributors include researchers and practitioners from urban planning, sociology, anthropology, architecture, and landscape architecture. Contributors: Rachel Berney, Rebecca Choi, Teddy Cruz, Diane E. Davis, Fonna Forman, Christopher Giamarino, Kian Goh, Alison B. Hirsch, Jeffrey Hou, Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, Setha Low, Matthew Jordan Miller, Vinit Mukhija, Chelina Odbert, Francesca Piazzoni, and Michael Rios

Why technology is not an end in itself, and how cities can be “smart enough,” using technology to promote democracy and equity. Smart cities, where technology is used to solve every problem, are hailed as futuristic urban utopias. We are promised that apps, algorithms, and artificial intelligence will relieve congestion, restore democracy, prevent crime, and improve public services. In The Smart Enough City , Ben Green warns against seeing the city only through the lens of technology; taking an exclusively technical view of urban life will lead to cities that appear smart but under the surface are rife with injustice and inequality. He proposes instead that cities strive to be “smart enough”: to embrace technology as a powerful tool when used in conjunction with other forms of social change—but not to value technology as an end in itself. In a technology-centric smart city, self-driving cars have the run of downtown and force out pedestrians, civic engagement is limited to requesting services through an app, police use algorithms to justify and perpetuate racist practices, and governments and private companies surveil public space to control behavior. Green describes smart city efforts gone wrong but also smart enough alternatives, attainable with the help of technology but not reducible to technology: a livable city, a democratic city, a just city, a responsible city, and an innovative city. By recognizing the complexity of urban life rather than merely seeing the city as something to optimize, these Smart Enough Cities successfully incorporate technology into a holistic vision of justice and equity. The open access edition of this book was made possible by generous funding from the MIT Libraries.

In this richly illustrated history Cecil Elliott focuses on a neglected aspect of architecture, the tecnics of building form. Concentrating on developments in Europe and North America from the Industrial Revolution to the present, he surveys the ways in which new materials, methods, and systems were discovered and tested, and the ways in which they succeeded or failed. Elliott tells the story in two parts, first covering materials - in chapters on wood, masonry, terracotta, iron and steel, glass, cement, and reinforced concrete - and then systems - including lightning protection, sanitation, lighting, heating, air conditioning, elevators and escalators, fire protection, structural engineering, and acoustics. Each chapter begins with a review of the relevant classical and medieval technology, then focuses on developments over the past two centuries, including related business, political, scientific, or social events where these impinge on development or usage. Technics and Architecture brings together information on a broad range of building materials and systems not found in any existing publication. It identifies the principles underlying technical advances in the building arts, pointing out that significant innovations have depended largely on the discovery of new approaches to the problems rather than the polishing of old mechanisms or handcraft methods; that in most cases advances were more rapid when the urgency of development was imposed by uses outside the application of a material or system in buildings; and that the extent of improvements has been extremely uneven. Throughout, Elliott observes that at any specific time a variety of solutions are used simultaneously, according to industrial conditions and economic factors. This being a human activity, he notes, failures, equivocation, misjudgment, and vainglorious acts also play a part.

Peter Rowe explores the social, cultural, and expressive history of housing at two crucial moments: the first large-scale developments along modernist lines in the 1920s, and the widespread reconsideration of modernist principles in the 1970s. Starting from the question of how can the design of modern housing can be successful, Peter Rowe explores the social, cultural, and expressive history of housing at two crucial moments: the first large-scale developments along modernist lines in the 1920s, and the widespread reconsideration of modernist principles in the 1970s. Although the inquiry is conducted along historical and theoretical lines, it proposes to uncover practical principles that may guide the design of modern housing, each principle responding to a contemporary architectural paradox posed by modern conditions. Six detailed case studies form the illustrative centerpiece of the book. Modernity and Housing embraces three more or less parallel themes concerning modernity: the rise of technocracy and the attendant tendency of modern space to become universal while the experience of time is confined to the present; the problem of representation for a culture in which subject-centered reason has replaced metaphysical foundations; and social practices that give rise to urban concentrations and the production of mass housing on an unprecedented scale. Within these themes, the modern experience of space and time philosophically grounds discussion of local and traditional versus universal and novel building practices. The perspective of subject-centered reason grounds the exploration of the use of abstract forms and the comcomitant problem of providing for an expressive architectural language; while the unprecedented quantities of housing production raise the thorny issue of widely defining a normative building program that allows for local particularity. The case studies cover Sunnyside Gardens, New York; Romerstadt, Frankfurt-am-Main; Kiefhoek, Rotterdam; Byker Redevelopment, United Kingdom; Villa Victoria, United States; Malagueira Quarter, Portugal. An appendix contains an annotated and statistical summary of all major housing projects described in the text (about 40) with notes that include the date, size, place, architect, client, housing type, relative densities, and other items of interest.

Gülru Necipoglu brings together largely unpublished sources, both written and visual, along with information derived from the architectural remains to uncover the processes through which the meaning of the palace was once produced, before it came to represent a stereotyped microcosm of oriental despotism imbued with the exotic otherness of the East. Today the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul seems a haphazard aggregate of modest buildings no longer capable of conveying imperial power. Yet it is at once the most celebrated of all Islamic palaces and the least understood. Gülru Necipoglu brings together largely unpublished sources, both written and visual, along with information derived from the architectural remains to uncover the processes through which the meaning of the palace was once produced, before it came to represent a stereotyped microcosm of oriental despotism imbued with the exotic otherness of the East. She relocates the Topkapi in its historical context, a context that included not only the circumstances of its patronage, but the complex interaction of cultural practices, ideologies, and social codes of recognition. Necipoglu focuses on the imperial iconograpy of palatial forms that lack monumentality, axiality, and rational-geometric planning principles to decipher codes of grandeur that are no longer obvious to the modern observer. She reconstructs the architectural and ceremonial impact of the palace through a step-by-step tour of its buildings, demonstrating how the palace was experienced as a processional sequence of separate courts and seemingly disjointed architectural elements that were nevertheless integrated into a coherent whole by passage through time and space. Far more than an analysis of the architectural program of the palace, Architecture, Ceremonial, and Power raises questions and provides answers to fundamental concerns about the ideology of absolute sovereignty, the interplay between architecture and ritual, and the changing perceptions of a building through the centuries, a building that drew upon a wide range of Palatine traditions, mythical, Islamic, Turco-Mongol, Romano-Byzantine, and Italian Renaissance.

Today's suburban metropolitan development of single-family homes, shopping centers, corporate offices, and roadway systems constitute what Peter Rowe calls a "middle landscape" between the city and the country. Looking closely at suburban America in terms of design and physical planning, Rowe builds a case for a new way of seeing and building suburbia - complete with theoretical underpinnings and a basis for design.

Designing Paris explores the revolution in French architecture that began around 1830 under the leadership of Félix Duban, Henri Labrouste, Louis Duc, and Léon Vaudoyer. It shows how these four architects dominated their profession during the Monarchy of July and the Second Empire of Napoleon III, producing works of elasticity and brilliance not often associated with modern notions of the French Classical tradition, works in which they sought simultaneously to trace the historical evolution of architecture and to explore rational innovations in structure. This reconciliation of historicism and rationalism, Van Zanten observes, bore fruit in the design and construction of public monuments of great individuality, subtlety, and complexity. These became the generative elements of the city of Paris itself as it was transformed during the middle of the nineteenth century, giving rise to the "Beaux-Arts" system of training and design that spread from Paris to the world at large, and to the professional definition of the architect as a public servant. The buildings from the years of the Monarchy 6 of July (1830-1848) that are discussed and illustrated in detail are Duban's designs for the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Labrouste's Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, and Vaudoyer's Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers. Three of the monuments that were erected during the Second Empire of Napoleon III (who was overthrown in 1870) are the subject of the book's final chapters: Vaudoyer's Marseilles Cathedral, the only cathedral erected in France in the nineteenth century; Duc's Palais de justice on the Ile de la Cité, one of the centerpieces of Haussmann's Paris; and Labrouste's Bibliothèque Nationale, widely regarded as the most conceptu ally innovative work of this generation. Designing Paris discusses the professional, political, and cultural contexts of these great public monuments and examines their relation to the works of such figures as Charles Gamier and Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc.

Illustrated throughout with 2-color and tinted maps and drawings and numerous photographs, Rebuilding Central Park is the first close examination of these invaluable 843 acres in more than a century. Central Park's legacy is unique. It was America's first great open space designed specifically for public use, inspiring the creation of hundreds of other municipal parks across the nation and spawning the profession of landscape architecture in the United States. This plan for the restoration, conservation, and management of the Park is the most comprehensive program of research, restoration, and management ever applied to a great historic landscape. It is significant in its broad concept of curatorship and provides a model for approaching and carrying out any work of scenic restoration; several of the projects it advocates to reverse the Park's steady decline are in progress or have already been completed. Illustrated throughout with 2-color and tinted maps and drawings and numerous photographs, Rebuilding Central Park is the first close examination of these invaluable 843 acres in more than a century. It unfolds a masterful design and management plan to overcome the effects of years of city budget cuts, natural aging, and human use and abuse.The book opens with a discussion of the principles and philosophy of the original design by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux and a history of the Park's management. It assesses the Park's distinct but interrelated systems - circulation, topography, vegetation, and wildlife - and presents a sector-by-sector analysis of 21 project areas. Problems and their causes are discussed on every level as are proposals for solving them. Sections of the book take up the restoration of such historic structures as the cast-iron bridges, stone arches and Victorian Gothic Belvedere and Dairy, which were features of the original Olmsted design; and the conservation of such varied landscapes as the Ramble, the East Meadow, the Great Hill, and Strawberry Fields. Maps reveal the kinds and pace of park activities, patterns of circulation - drives, paths, trails, lighting and visitor amenities - ground plans, vegetation, and historic and present tree canopy as well as the Park rebuilt. There are many recommendations, including recommendations for maintenance and security. A separate chapter describes the methodology used for approaching and carrying out this, and any other, major work of landscape restoration.

What is uniquely American about American design? This first history of American products and the philosophy behind their design, use, and manufacture points to the process - the interaction between industrial technology and culture - that gave form to an American "ethic" in material products and helped shape the life style of its citizens.Pulos discusses the influences and fashions as well as the major figures and schools of design from Colonial times to the 1940s. Central to the story are the objects and artifacts themselves - Shaker chairs, Colonial tea kettles, clipper ships, Sullivan's skyscraper department store; the work of Bel Geddes, Raymond Loewy, Russel Wright and Walter Teague as seen in cars, cameras, housewares, boats, locomotives. These objects and many others, are illustrated in over 300 unusual photographs, engravings, ads and drawings.

Galen Cranz surveys the rise of the park system from 1850 to the present through 4 stages - the pleasure ground, the reform park, the recreation facility and the open space system. Looking at both their physical design and social purpose, Cranz argues that city parks have become an instrument of social policy with the potential for reflecting and serving social values.

Cambridge, Massachusetts is a rich mixture of closely mingled examples of architectural periods; 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th century, with the 21st century already near the drawing board and before the planning board. Yet implicit in the city is a continuity overruling what might be chaos. The Cambridge Historical Commission was established not to piously preserve a static past, but to make manifest this living continuity between the best that has gone before and the best that can be actively encouraged for the future. The Survey may represent the last, best hope of establishing such a sense of continuity (both historical and architectural), because Cambridge is in the midst of a period of decisive, even divisive, change; an invasion of automobiles demanding new highways, institutional expansion into residential areas, the possible destruction of viable neighborhoods that are both socially and architecturally cohesive by projects that are likely to be only temporary encampments in the longer view. This Report surveys the Cambridgeport neighborhood, which, as its name suggests, lies along a waterway; it is embraced by a bend in the Charles River.

The decisiveness of the right angle, which is uncommon in nature, would seem to exercise an irresistible appeal to the human mind, for it permeates man's art, artifacts, and architecture. That it should also appear as a basic organizational element in town plans over many centuries and in many cultures only confirms this appeal. The present work examines Greek, Etruscan, Italic, Hellenistic, and Roman cities that were based on orthogonal or grid plans – those characterized by streets intersecting at right angles to form blocks of regular size and spacing. Some of these have only recently been uncovered. The author suggests that the implementation of these plans may have constituted the first exercise in master planning for the future extension and development of cities. These goals doubtless varied in ancient times from the tyrannical – suggesting an authoritarian control with the power to order a population into a strict grid pattern – to the egalitarian – implicit in the essential uniformity and equality of the blocks regardless of location. In Roman times the orthogonal plan was to evolve into a quadrant system in which two broad streets at right angles served as the defining axes of the town, meeting to produce a formal central space, the “origin” of the coordinated city. These plans are discussed in the book, but the major emphasis is on “Hippodamean” layouts, in which a few – usually three or four – main parallel roads are intersected at right angles by numerous narrow streets to form long, narrow blocks. Hippodamean plans are named for Hippodamus of Miletus, a Greek of the fifth century B. C. Although in antiquity Hippodamus was believed to have devised this scheme, the author points out that such plans antedate Hippodamus by an extensive period and that his role was one of refining and further systematizing the plan. His chief contribution appears to be the application of his insight into political organization and social behavior to town planning. Indeed, Hippodamean plans go back at least to the seventh century B.C. in Greece, and rectangular elements basic to such plans have been found not only throughout the Mediterranean region but in Aztec, Indian, and Chinese cultures as well. A number of aerial photographs are juxtaposed with detailed plans prepared by archaeologists and provide a fascinating insight into the solutions that Hippodamus and other planners evolved in the process of adjusting the needs of urban settlements to the exigencies of the terrain.