Cities Fit to Live in and How We Can Make Them Happen (Collier MacMillan, 1971) presents “new designs for an urban renaissance”. Sixteen eminent architects and planning experts evaluate specific experiments and proposals for solving the physical, psychological, and political problems of our cities. The contributions are by Walter McQuade, Robert Gold, Louise Campbell, Roy Blumhorst, Gail Miller, Roger Starr, Christopher Alexander, John Wiebenson, Roger Montgomery, Richard Weinstein, Allen Fonoroff, Marshall Kaplan, James V. Cunningham, Ferry Finrow, Mayer Spivack, and Koji Taira.
Can our cities survive – should they, in fact, survive in their present form? Sixteen eminent professionals discuss the facts of past and present city life with suggestions for the future of the urban environment, its physical psychological, moral, and political issues. The articles include a thorough examination of urban violence (…) narcotics as the root of urban tension; and the garbage dilemma. In addition, the authors evaluate some specific solutions, including major changes in environmental form required bu social and psychological demands; the plan and use of Resurrection City; Berkeley’s student center; the revolutionary British prefabricated city of Thamesmead; and new zoning techniques designed to promote the urban economy side by side with its cultural life. The burning issues of advocacy planning and community involvement in planning are discussed at length, as is Tokyo’s remarkable Ants Villa, a small bu dramatic solution to a large social problem, and another idea for building Cities Fit to Live in.
– Cities Fit to Live in and How We Can Make Them Happen (Collier MacMillan, 1971), text from the back cover
The text is in English. The book has been richly illustrated with black-and-white photographs and some architectural drawings.
The copy in our stock is in good condition. The pages are clean without any markings, and the glueing of the binding is fine. There is some age-related yellowing on the upper edges of the pages, and the covers show some shelf wear and signs of use. The colours printed on the covers and spine are somewhat faded.