City Riffs Urbanism, Ecology, Place

City Riffs traces the changing perspectives of urban design within an ever-changing global context. Moving between sixteen cities, the book also considers trans-disciplinary aspects of urbanism; formal and informal growth in Kumasi and Caracas, post-colonial structures in New Delhi and Prague, post-urban phenomena in Detroit and Brussels; cultural transitions in Antwerp and Salzburg; the changing nature of place in Seoul and Mostar; and new ecological realities in New York and Rome. Urbanism is viewed as the production of space-integrating aspects of design, ecology, and engineering, as well as other influences on urban cognition such as social, economical, and psychological interactions. As it covers a wide range of places and methods, this book will be an asset to anyone who works on, lives in, or thinks about cities.

Richard Plunz is Professor of Architecture and Director of the Earth Institute’s Urban Design Lab at Columbia University, where he has also chaired the Division of Architecture and directed the Urban Design Program at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.