- Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities
- Christopher Alexander, A Pattern Language
- Galina Tachieva, Sprawl Repair Manual
- Hassan Fathy, Architecture for the Poor
- Jan Gehl, Life Between Buildings
- Kevin Lynch, The Image of the City
this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2023
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@peterme @notjustbikes @fuckcars kevin lynch’s “the image of the city” / anything about barcelona between franco’s death and the olympics / I read peter rowe’s “building barcelona a second renaixença” after my first visit to the city / a gift certificate and a trip to william stout books in jackson square / license to believe that the bay area very likely has the worst urban planning in north america
@peterme @notjustbikes @fuckcars Planet of Cities was good:
https://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/books/planet-cities
It’s been a while since I read it, but I seem to recall it dramatically leveling up my understanding of what cities were for, and therefor how to think about planning 5rm.
I also recommend Four Lost Cities:
https://wwnorton.com/books/four-lost-cities
More history than planning, but you learn a lot about people through these old dead cities.
@peterme @notjustbikes @fuckcars
Roads Were Not Built For Cars
City (David Macaulay)
City And The City (Miéville)
@migurski @peterme @notjustbikes @fuckcars ooh Macaulay
@peterme @notjustbikes @fuckcars Best to get them thinking about Ancient Rome early and often
@peterme @notjustbikes @fuckcars Mumford’s City In History, Mike Davis’s City of Quartz (with Chinatown showing…?) - also Geoffrey West’s Scale, and Witold Rybczynski’s City Life.
@peterme @notjustbikes @fuckcars I’ll echo Rybczynski’s City Life.
Add: Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design by Charles Montgomery; Walkable City by Jeff Speck; and Cities: The First 6,000 Years by Monica L. Smith.
The last mention is a rather good overview
@peterme @notjustbikes @fuckcars Thinking of books that can set a foundation. Jane Jacobs is good and would likely be good for a 15 year old, but I always think of her work as an incredibly good counter weight, but not a starting place.
Understanding scale, how cities work, the why of cities, and the impact of cities on their people I think of as good foundations.
@peterme @notjustbikes @fuckcars Jane Jacobs’s “The Death and Life of Great American Cities”
@peterme @notjustbikes @fuckcars the documentary CITIZEN JANE could be a good intro before reading the book.