The nature of urban design- A book review

the nature of urban design author Alexandros Washburn is from an art and biology major; he studied master of architecture from Harvard University. He worked in several areas of specialty in the United Nations as public work advisor, president of a big development in Pennsylvania, a partner in architecture and landscape firm, chief urban designer in Department of City Planning in New York, a professor in Stevens Institute of Technology, and now having his own practice in broklyen. It is obvious that the author possesses various experiences in architecture and urban design as well as research. Most of his career work is focused on environmental issues that influence the city he lives in. climate change and storms hitting the city of New York pulled all his attention and was the major drive of his work. The author wanted to–through his work- to experience and observe closely what happens to inhabitants and the city when hurricane hits the city .He was on the roof of his house when hurricane hit the streets , lights and power off, people vacated, sand all over the place, sea water hit the banks of shores.

Whoever sees the need to transform our cities, people who want to become urban designers whether they are students or practitioners in the field of–politics, finance, design- or who help to enhance the design of the city, this book is for them. He emphasizes the need for citizen’s involvement and participation in the urban design process as community involvement and stakeholder involvement for that ordinary people need to read this book. He claims ordinary people should read this book because they have a role in building our cities may be through their effect on politics .He thinks that public intervention is very important to define factors that influence the separation of poor neighborhoods from rich neighborhoods, the idea of urban design as a universal language. In my experience, the book though limited benefit because its focus on managing risk and environmental issues in the urban design process it can serve a wide range of readers, people looking for: strategies to tackle environmental disasters, community and stakeholder involvement in the urban design process, practitioners and students who want to strengthen their capabilities in making the urban design products, general interest about why city should transform.

In the beginning of the book the author describes the context of New York City as a city specialized in ship building and industrial sector; the city is under regular attack of environmental hurricane causing various disasters. The book is centered on a general theme; this theme is the answer to the two questions raised by the author. Why do we care about cities? And why Americans live in suburban areas? The book focus on mitigation strategies to prevent disasters of hurricane hitting megacities like new York ; the urban design role to participate in the resilience work to decrease risk and damage in disaster time by increasing community involvement and stakeholder involvement. The author emphasizes the need to make urban design a major discipline to face climate change and increase the quality of living in cities.

The author in his book introduction gives a clear message that he “loves his city, new York city”. The introduction starts by indicating the last mayor city evacuation he was in the city, but this time he is going to stay. Washburn describes various things starting from the characteristics of his city being a place of building ships and the place of industrial activity and warehouses. His neighborhood population count and what is the physical form of it; and at the time of hurricane how the roofs and building were as well as how people move in that event to safe areas. The author proceeds in describing the storm event and what he saw and experienced in the city and the neighborhood the lights shut down, the buildings surrounded by water, the roofs leaking water. I think the introduction does not provide a clear message related to the goal of writing this book, but to describe or tell a story of the storm hitting the area he lives in. In reading the introduction, the reader does not have a clear idea about the book content or what is he going to read.

The book is built in an extreme hierarchy from the preface to the last chapter. As he indicates in a paragraph who should read this book it’s for every one interested in urban design. The book structure is merely a story of a city that is hit by a hurricane, in some areas of the book, he introduces examples of facing climate change. The book provides in general the method of urban design work in the American context with no correlation to theory or detailing the relation of these process components to professional practice.

The author connects all the book components, chapters, paragraphs in high hierarchy. In the first chapter, he talks about the effect of city on nature and vise versa. The city design affects our environment if not designed properly; the city could increase gas emission and environment temperature as well as sea level. In his second chapter defines three phases of the urban design process, designing the problem, designing the solution, implementing the solution. The third chapter is focused on the urban design production as he names it the products: building brief, writing guidelines, structuring rules of the development, and the urban development design. He hints to the misconception of urban design build cities, but it makes products. The author transfers directly to an example in chapter four of the high line project in Chelsea in USA to reflect the previous chapters on the project development. Resilience is a major idea he focuses on within the urban design process, mitigation and adaptation; the strategies to achieve resilience are mainly green building and sustainability concepts. He drags the reader to examples from the world to reflect the misconception and the introduced ideas to land with the reader on a concept he believes in that urban design is about transformation.

Since the book as I have mentioned earlier simulate sustainability concepts; most of the book ideas are to date relevant in terms of research content and correlation to urban design debate. But Washburn did not provide alternate solutions or new proposals to tackle the problems he intends to turn the public concern to. In many areas of the book in presenting an idea it lacks proper support as he is an academic specialist in his field no reference to: studies in urban design, statistics support his arguments nor graphs or illustrations, but mostly are photos from cities in the world mainly from Hong Kong.  

Alexandros is concerned about his city new York, the climate change, the risks of storms hitting the city, community involvement in building the policies, the role of urban design in transforming the city, the people engagement in the urban design process and politics, and finally he was very successful to reflect the book title and to connect all the content to it . In every chapter, Washburn repeats again and again his extreme interest in his city and his love to New York.

From the first eye catch on the book index it is closely ties to the chapters of the book and their content. What was needed to enhance the visibility and attraction to interested people to buy the book is to provide subdivisions to every book chapter. This will allow the reader to take full picture of the book content and to examine whether the relevant information and knowledge he is looking for exists in the book.

This is not the place to discuss the green space movement or the similar one’s targeted to enhance the urban environment in country side development and as well in city centers. The author does not link any of his discussions to any organizations research, university studies, or professional guidelines and best practices. The author focus on three urban designers works from the early mid 20^th century. Olmsted efforts to build New York central park and how it became a reservoir to many inhabitants and water. Moses work on the derelict areas in New York to build the middle class towers and the automobile network to enhance middle class labor living conditions. Jane Jacob works to enhance what mosses started to focus on daily activity in the city’s streets and the importance of community involvement.

Regardless it is a valuable book for students in various majors such as geography, planning, political science, architecture, and environment as the book theme is repeated and could be found in other books in much more detail. The book gives a general idea for practitioners and non related professionals about the urban design process from the American context and perspective. If the reader is looking for a good information about the documentation work within the urban design process then this is one of the books he need to read. This book review was written based on my method of writing a book review check details click here.