Product Description

Provides an international history of urban development, from its origins to the industrial revolution. This well established book maintains the high standard of information found in the previous two editions, describing the physical results of some 5000 years of urban activity. It explains and develops the concept of 'unplanned' cities that grow organically, in contrast with 'planned' cities that were shaped in response to urban form determinants. Spread throughout the texts are copious illustrations from a wealth of sources, including cartographic urban records, aerial and other photographs, original drawings and the author's numerous analytical line drawings.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #702080 in Books
• Published on: 1996-03-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 456 pages

Customer Reviews

A great architectural book!
My professor introduced this book to us as the textbook for a core course when I was reading for my Master degree in School of Architecture, University of Southern California in Los Angeles. I bought it for the class and I loved it and kept it with me ever since. It has many great line drawings to illustrate the city and urban planning and architecture in many different cultures throughout history. It enlightens you and encourages you to look at a design issue in a grand scale. Very powerful images. It'll show you how brilliant human beings can be.

Gang Chen, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Author of "LEED GA Exam Guide," "Architectural Practice Simplified," "Planting Design Illustrated," and other books on various LEED exams, architecture, and landscape architecture

introduction to cities
this book is a wonderful introduction to understanding the origins of cities in human civilization. its extensive illustrations and photographs help to show the development of cities up to modern day. i am studying geography and found this book to be an invaluable text.

History of Urban Form: A seminal work.
This book is seminal and contains a wealth of information. The 3rd edition is, however, severely fragmented with Islamic cities addressed in two unrelated chapters and Japanese and Chinese urbanism as annexures! captions and references are in a very small font, as are some illustrations, making them irritatingly difficult to read. But for an overview of pre-industrial urbanism ... a must buy!