Description - Urban Design by Jon Lang
Urban Design the American Experience Jon Lang Urban Design: The
American Experience places social and environmental concerns within
the context of American history. It returns the focus of urban
design to the creation of a better world. It evaluates the efforts
of designers who apply knowledge about the environment and people
to the creation of livable, enjoyable, and even inspiring built
worlds. Urban Design: The American Experience emphasizes that urban
design must take a user-oriented approach to achieve a higher
quality of life in human settlements. All the keys to this approach
are spelled out in chapters that address:
* Urban design as both a product and process of communal
decision-making
* Types of knowledge required as a base for urban design
action
* How to apply recent environmental and behavioral research to
professional design
* How human needs are fulfilled through design
* The true role of functionalism in design
Urban design efforts of the twentieth century in the United States
are examined within their socio-political context. Jon Lang reviews
the urban design experience from the beginning of the "City
Beautiful" movement, paying particular attention to developments
since World War II. He explores how the twentieth-century city has
developed, as well as discusses the attitudes that have driven
major movements in urban design. Readers learn a neo-Modernist
approach that builds on the successes and failures of Rationalism
and Empiricism, the two major streams of Modernist thought in
architecture and urban design. They also gain an understanding of
how the environment is experienced by people, and the implications
of this experiencing for architectural and urban design. Numerous
illustrations throughout demonstrate how various design schemes can
be used. Urban Design: The American Experience provides architects,
designers, city planners, and students in these fields with a model
for their own future development as professionals. It is a valuable
guide to design methodology (procedural theory) and other issues
related to creating optimal urban environments.
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