The New Wealth of Cities: City Dynamics and the Fifth Wave

John Montgomery, Ashgate, 2007, £55.00

It is good to find a book that deals thoroughly with what makes a place successful. John Montgomery links urban design to wider issues of economic growth, cultural development, and ‘the regulation of public morality’. It is highly readable, and clearly based on evidence as well as the author’s moral standpoint - probably a new Tory. He has an enthusiasm for places with ‘visionary leadership and creative entrepreneurs’, rather than suburbs or places which neglect their potential.

He draws on diverse case studies including Barcelona, Copenhagen, Helsinki and Portland Oregon, with valuable new information on the strategies adopted in Temple Bar, Dublin, Sheffield’s Cultural Industries Quarter, Manchester’s Northern Quarter, and London’s Wood Green Cultural Industries Quarter.

Black Dog Publishing, 2006

Inside Out Outside In celebrates the 50th anniversary of architects RMJM. But this book is far more than just a piece of PR for the practice. It sets out to show the workings of RMJM from the inside out - and the unique contribution of its personalities - writing from the outside in, exploring its client relations and current projects.

Sarah Gaventa, London, Mitchell Beazley, 2006

This is a generously illustrated survey of urban spaces completed in the present century. As such it provides a very clear break with the 20th century image of planted, symmetrical ‘squares’ or the contrived afterthoughts surrounding faceless office blocks. Whilst there is, inevitably, some repetition in devices, it is the ‘sense’ of each place illustrated that comes immediately to mind.

Fred Gray, Reaktion Books, 2006

Anyone wanting a insight into what makes British seaside towns really special in terms of architecture and design will find Fred Gray’s new book, Designing the Seaside, a useful guide. For an urban designer or planner looking for inspiration the book is worth having in terms of its images alone, as its wealth of photographs, most of them collected by the author, is certainly its strongest point.

Esther Charlesworth, Architectural Press Elsevier, Oxford and Burlington, 2006

The promise of this book is profound: to highlight the mono-dimensional physical-focus of architect’s minds and offering a new vision of architects and design professional as 'mobile and collaborative agents' outside traditional sites and constructed environments. In doing so, the author examines practioners’ role in the design and re-assemblage of urban environments ravished by wars and social conflicts resulting in de facto 'divided cities'.

A useful guide for anyone in the UK concerned with improving cycling facilities: designers, engineers, planners and developers. Essentially the guide is a simplification of national guidelines and provides both examples and statements of principle. Best read in conjunction with more comprehensive European and UK design handbooks.

Alan W.Evans and Oliver Marc Hartwich - Policy Exchange/ Localis 2006

Reviewed by Alex Marsh

Challenges to the existence of the established planning system need to be debated. Jane Jacobs challenged the system in the late 1950s and, 50 years on, many of her ideas are integrated into the system.The authors promote a housing provision through an open market approach. Their principal criticism is the plan-led system. They see it as restrictive, putting unequal power in the hands of those already living in an area.

Pauline Gallacher, Thomas Telford, 2006

Pauline Gallacher’s book is a ‘must-have’ companion for urban designers as the lessons learnt from the careful improvement of everyday spaces in Glasgow’s working class suburbs, have far reaching applications. Looking with hindsight on one’s own projects can be fraught, but Gallacher was able to assess the results of the five interventions after five years with a critical eye and without seeking excuses.

Eran Ben-Joseph, Cambridge Mass, MIT Press, 2005

In the UK, we are tentatively experimenting with design codes as a means to raise the quality of new housing; in the US they are a well established mainstay of the New Urbanist toolkit. Today ‘codes’ of one sort or another control almost every aspect of the built environment.