Recommended BooksAlexander, Christopher and others, A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction, Oxford University Press, New York, 1977 - If you read one book in your life about land use and architecture, this is the book. Post-industrial architecture utilizes an archetypal language to assist in the building of houses and communities by the people who will occupy them.
Alexander,
Christopher and others, The
Timeless Way of Building, Oxford Berman, Marshall, All that is Solid Melts into Air, Penguin USA, New York, NY 1988 - The urban landscape as a chronicle of modernism's advance. One reviewer describes this book as "a dazzling reflection upon modernity. An emotive, scholarly explanation of present life and of how it became possible." Callenbach, Ernest, Ecotopia, Bantam Books, 1975, reissued 1990 - Mild SF set in the near future with more trees, fewer cars and a happy ending. Crawford, J. H., Car Free Cities, Otrecht International Books, 2000 - Mr. Crawford creates a city for the future with the worst characteristics of our modern cities left out, and the best parts included. Davis, Mike, Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster, Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1998 - The author discusses how today’s fiction and current beliefs can turn into tomorrow’s nightmares.
Davis,
Mike, City
of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles, Vintage
Garreau, Joel, Edge City - Life on the New Frontier, Anchor Books, New York, New York, 1991 - Fascinating... no one has explained the geographical, economic and sociological forces that have produced these 'new downtowns' as well as Garreau. Kay, Jane Holtz, Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile Took Over America, and How We can Take it Back, University of California Press, reprint 1998 Jacobs, Jane, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Random House, New York, 1961 - A primary work. A magnificent study of what gives life and spirit to cities when seen through the eye and the heart. It exudes honesty and common sense. Click here to read an interview with Jane Jacobs Krier, Leon,Architecture - Choice or Fate, Andreas Papadaki Publisher, Great Britain, 1998 - The author is a leading figure in the struggle between classical and modern land use patterns. Kuhn, Thomas S., The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, third edition, Chicago, 1996 - If you are interested in change, this is a must read: a landmark in intellectual history. Kunstler, James Howard, The Geography of Nowhere The Rise and Decline of America's Man-made Landscape, Touchstone, New York, 1993 - This book shows that most everything built since WWII is spiritually and physically degrading. McHarg, Ian L., Design with Nature, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1995 - This is a must read for all persons interested in our built environment and the planning process. My favorite chapter is "The city: Health and pathology" Mr. McHarg is suggesting that human health and well-being (now known as quality of life) be considered when making land use decisions. "Here are the foundations of a civilization that will replace the polluted, bulldozed machine-dominated, dehumanized, explosion- threatened world that is even now disintegrating and disappearing before our eyes." ~ Lewis Mumford, 1969. All good planning comes from good information. Mumford, Lewis, The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects, MJF Books, New York, 1961 - Not only does this book supply an encyclopedic and historic perspective of the city, it also provides an insight into human nature, religion, and politics. Register, Richard, Ecocity Berkeley - Building Cities for a Healthy Future, North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, CA, 1987 - Suggesting that nature and cities can co-exist. Register,
Richard, Ecocities:
Building Cities in Balance with Nature, Rudofsky, Barnard, Streets for People: A Primer for Americans, Doubleday (Random House), 1969 - About 150 years ago the modernist movement (art, architecture, city planning) won out over the previously held classical beliefs. This book talks about one aspect of classical city planning, namely streets. Sitte, Camillo,The Birth of Modern City Planning edited by George R. Collins and Christiane Crasemann Collins, Rizzoli, New York, NY, 1986 - Out of print - ISBN 0-8478-0785-1 - information about Camillo Sitte's life and times. This volume includes Sitte's 1889 ground-breaking book (below), City Planning According To Artistic Principles. Sitte, Camillo, City Planning According to Artistic Principles, Random House, New York, translated from Der Stadtebau, 1889, Vienna - If you believe there's only one way to plan and build human habitats ( Our current model of modern land-use planning is that cities are for cars first and for people second) you have not read C.P.A.T.A.P. If
you have any favorite books related to the subject
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