Overview

Urban Transformations examines the crucial issues relating to how cities can be transformed into better places. Exploring the links between the concrete physicality of the built environment, and the complex social, economic, political and cultural processes through which the physical urban form is produced and consumed, Ian Bentley proposes a new framework of ideas to provoke and develop current debate and new forms of practice. The book focuses on four key questions, examining: the most helpful conceptual framework for thinking about the processes of urban transformation; how this framework can help us to understand how these processes generate, through speculative markets, the forms and patterns of land-use which typify recent urban places; the common ground for change that can be identified as the practical basis for widespread action towards better loved and more sustainable urban places; and how the necessary changes can actually be made to happen in cities worldwide. Bentley concludes by identifying the most promising types of urban forms and working practices through which users and professionals might work together to develop better-loved urban places in the nea

Full Product Details

Author:   Ian Bentley
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 2.40cm , Length: 23.40cm
Weight:   0.740kg
ISBN:  

9780415128230

ISBN 10:   0415128234
Pages:   316
Publication Date:   24 June 1999
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Part 1: Problematics of production Introduction 1. Untouched by human hand 2. Heroes and servants, markets and battlefields 3. Genius and tradition Conclusion: A framework of questions Part 2: Spatial transformations and their cultural support Introduction 4. Profit and Place 5. Propping up the system 6. Building bastions of sense Conclusion: Supports for the power bloc Part 3: Positive values, negative outcomes Introduction 7. Concepts for prospecting common ground 8. Beyond buzzwords 9. Horizons of choice Conclusion: An agenda for positive change Part 4: Windows of opportunity Introduction 10. Reclaiming the Modernist vision 11. Experts who deliver 12. Artists in a common cause Conclusion: Exciting prospects

Reviews

'This is an extraordinarily rich book that attempts to fill a large gap in current literature between the how to design books of the design professionals and the critical thinking of the social sciences. Ultimately, because of the ground that it covers, this book deserves to be widely read.' - TPR 'An intriguing, absorbing read, bringing together a myriad of ideas.' - Environment and Planning: Planning and Design

'an intriguing, absorbing read, bringing together a myriad of ideas - Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, Vol 27, 2000 - 'His undoubted enthusiasm rings out and he allows himself just sufficient idealism to fire imagination.' - Marcus Wilson, Urban Design, January 2000 -

Author Information

Ian Bentley

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