The Dictionary of Urbanism

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THE DICTIONARY OF URBANISM

Robert Cowan, Illustrated by Lucinda Rogers, Streetwise Press, 2005

How do you review a dictionary? You look at difficult words to see if they are there; you look at your favourites and check whether you agree with the descriptions; you check for inclusiveness and for clarity. Rob Cowan’s new opus has two additional objectives: to demystify the jargon and to break down language barriers. On most accounts the dictionary succeeds; it is very comprehensive and there are not many words used by built environment professionals that are not included. If anything, the list is excessive; perhaps leaving some entries out could have improved the depth of some of the remaining ones. For example a number of films are listed but their relevance – beyond the fact that they deal with city issues or have architects as protagonists, is not always clear (and I say this as a big film buff). Rob’s erudition is evident but a ‘less is more approach’ (see entry), leaving some entries out, could have allowed more information on others, for example Cerdà and Canary Wharf, two entries taken at random. The Urban Design Group may also have merited a slightly longer entry (this magazine does not figure). On the other hand there is a thorough definition/description of ‘legibility’, one of today’s urbanist’s key words and other similarly important ones. It is clear that such a dictionary will never totally satisfy everybody, and the challenge of producing it was undoubtedly huge. Another positive aspect is the abundant cross referencing.

So, overall the text of Rob’s latest is a very positive contribution. But this leaves the illustrations, and here is a puzzle: why all those portraits? And why not plans or drawings by the masters? Illustrating Milton Keynes with a portrait of Melvin Webber seems perverse; what are the four characters on page 294 doing (they seem thoroughly bored) and what exactly is the urban fabric illustration intended to show? This seems a pity as it detracts from the quality of the work. Maybe the next edition will take a different approach to this aspect of the otherwise welcome dictionary.

(Thisreview was first published in Urban Design 95, Summer 2005 and is reproduced with the Editor's kind permission)