Understanding Cities: Method in Urban Design – Alexander Cuthbert
Millions of people step up to the city design table each week. People from civic associations, the public works department, the mayor, PTAs, engineering firms, architects, homeowners' associations, chambers of commerce. And they all have one thing in common, there is no one good resource that captures every aspect of city design in one place. Until now, with City Design Method Cards. The cards describe aspects of urban planning, design, and governance. The app has all the cards, updates and links to more information. It seems odd, in this day of computers and instant access to information from all kinds of sources, to rely on old fashioned cards.
On the other hand, one can have too much information, too many choices. Perhaps simplifying, getting down to basic principles and definitions, dare I say curating, is a good approach to speeding up the planning and urban design process. See more at the Kickstarter site and be sure to watch the video, it explains it so much better than the copy.
Urban Design, how important is it for cities?
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Overall, the trilogy allows a new field of urban design to emerge. Pre-existing and new knowledge are integrated across all three volumes, of which Understanding Cities is the culminating text.
Urban Design, how important is it for cities?
Cuthbert places urban design in the context of urban political economy: For design professionals, Cuthbert offers a robust new intellectual framework. For social scientists, Cuthbert demonstrates the importance of theorizing urban design and development. In this last instalment of his major trilogy, Alexander Cuthbert presents us with a framework of knowledge that is essential for urban designers. This is a major intellectual contribution to the urban design field, one that flatly and rightly rejects physical determinism and the notion that urban design is merely large scale architecture.
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Cuthbert deconstructs the old paradigm and skilfully reconstructs a much more robust one that draws from the social sciences and spatial political economy to enhance our understanding of cities and their design. With his three book 'tour de force' Cuthbert makes a seminal contribution to outlining a unified field for Urban Design so that it can assert its place among the built environment disciplines.
Understanding Cities invites scholars and reflexive practitioners to understand and build upon the knowledge shaping the discourse of new Urban Design. All Built Environment disciplines will be enriched by this contribution. He has degrees in architecture, urban design and urban planning, with a doctoral degree from the London School of Economics.
He has over academic publications.