Strong Towns

Strong Towns
Author: Charles L. Marohn, Jr.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2019-10-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1119564816

A new way forward for sustainable quality of life in cities of all sizes Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Build American Prosperity is a book of forward-thinking ideas that breaks with modern wisdom to present a new vision of urban development in the United States. Presenting the foundational ideas of the Strong Towns movement he co-founded, Charles Marohn explains why cities of all sizes continue to struggle to meet their basic needs, and reveals the new paradigm that can solve this longstanding problem. Inside, you’ll learn why inducing growth and development has been the conventional response to urban financial struggles—and why it just doesn’t work. New development and high-risk investing don’t generate enough wealth to support itself, and cities continue to struggle. Read this book to find out how cities large and small can focus on bottom-up investments to minimize risk and maximize their ability to strengthen the community financially and improve citizens’ quality of life. Develop in-depth knowledge of the underlying logic behind the “traditional” search for never-ending urban growth Learn practical solutions for ameliorating financial struggles through low-risk investment and a grassroots focus Gain insights and tools that can stop the vicious cycle of budget shortfalls and unexpected downturns Become a part of the Strong Towns revolution by shifting the focus away from top-down growth toward rebuilding American prosperity Strong Towns acknowledges that there is a problem with the American approach to growth and shows community leaders a new way forward. The Strong Towns response is a revolution in how we assemble the places we live.

The Modern House

The Modern House
Author: Jonathan Bell
Publisher: Artifice Press
Total Pages: 159
Release: 2015
Genre: Architecture, Domestic
ISBN: 9781908967725

The modern House reflects upon the complicated relationship architecture has with the terms "Modernist", "Modernism" and "Modern" specifically in relation to the potent concept of the home, reflecting in part the narrative of how some of the most important examples of Modern houses were commissioned and built in the UK. These special examples of British Modernism include such progressive experiments on communal urban living as London's Isokon Building, completed in 1934 by eminent architect Wells Coates, and Berthold Lubetkin's Highpoint, which is today considered one of the most prominent examples of the early International Style. Compared with these urban enormities are private houses, such as the Laslett House in Cambridge, 1958, by the architect Trevor Dannatt, or the Winter House, designed by John Winter as his own residence. Included are an extended introductory essay by acclaimed architectural journalist Jonathan Bell, former architecture editor for Wallpaper* and contributing editor at Blueprint, and projects such as those designed by renowned architect Carl Turner, responsible for the low energy Slip House, a cantilevered sculptural abode of translucent glass, steel and concrete. With images of yet to be seen interiors and restorations, The Modern House illuminates the convergent characteristics of functionalism, truth to materials, flowing space and natural light within the Modern home as a space for living.

Modern Housing

Modern Housing
Author: Catherine Bauer
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
Total Pages: 541
Release: 2020-04-14
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1452963223

The original guide on modern housing from the premier expert and activist in the public housing movement Originally published in 1934, Modern Housing is widely acknowledged as one of the most important books on housing of the twentieth century, introducing the latest developments in European modernist housing to an American audience. It is also a manifesto: America needs to draw on Europe’s example to solve its housing crisis. Only when housing is transformed into a planned, public amenity will it truly be modern. Modern Housing’s sharp message catalyzed an intense period of housing activism in the United States, resulting in the Housing Act of 1937, which Catherine Bauer coauthored. But these reforms never went far enough: so long as housing remained the subject of capitalist speculation, Bauer knew the housing problem would remain. In light of today’s affordable housing emergency, her prescriptions for how to achieve humane and dignified modern housing remain as instructive and urgent as ever.

John Bull's Other Homes

John Bull's Other Homes
Author: Murray Fraser
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Total Pages: 440
Release: 1996-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780853236801

State housing became an integral part of the relationship between Ireland and Great Britain from the 1880s until the early 1990s. Using research from both Irish and Westminster sources, this book shows that there was recurrent pressure for the state to intervene in housing in Ireland in a period when the "Irish Question" was the major domestic political issue. The result was that the model of subsidized state housing subsequently introduced in Britain was first developed in Ireland, as a product of the tensions of British rule. An important corollary of innovative Irish housing policy was its influence, even in a negative sense, on developments in mainland Britain. This book also examines the cultural impact of imperialism, and in particular the way in which British ideas of garden suburb housing and town planning design came significantly to reshape the Irish urban environment. Fraser not only presents hitherto unknown material, but does so in a unique interdisciplinary blend of architectural, planning, urban and socio-economic history.

Paradise Planned

Paradise Planned
Author: Robert A.M. Stern
Publisher: The Monacelli Press, LLC
Total Pages: 1073
Release: 2013-12-03
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1580933262

Paradise Planned is the definitive history of the development of the garden suburb, a phenomenon that originated in England in the late eighteenth century, was quickly adopted in the United State and northern Europe, and gradually proliferated throughout the world. These bucolic settings offered an ideal lifestyle typically outside the city but accessible by streetcar, train, and automobile. Today, the principles of the garden city movement are once again in play, as retrofitting the suburbs has become a central issue in planning. Strategies are emerging that reflect the goals of garden suburbs in creating metropolitan communities that embrace both the intensity of the city and the tranquility of nature. Paradise Planned is the comprehensive, encyclopedic record of this movement, a vital contribution to architectural and planning history and an essential recourse for guiding the repair of the American townscape.

Empire's Nature

Empire's Nature
Author: Amy R. W. Meyers
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Total Pages: 608
Release: 2012-12-01
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 080783856X

Completed in 1747, Mark Catesby's Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands was the first major illustrated publication on the flora and fauna of Britain's American colonies. Together with his Hortus Britanno-Americanus (1763), which detailed plant species that might be transplanted successfully to British soil, Catesby's Natural History exerted an important, though often overlooked, influence on the development of art, natural history, and scientific observation in the eighteenth century. Inspired by a major traveling exhibition of Catesby's watercolor drawings from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, this collection of interdisciplinary essays considers Catesby's endeavors as a naturalist-artist, scientific explorer, experimental horticulturist, ornamental gardener, and early environmental thinker in terms of the interests held by the various, overlapping communities in which he functioned--particularly as those interests related to the British colonial enterprise. The contributors are David R. Brigham, Joyce E. Chaplin, Mark Laird, Amy R. W. Meyers, Therese O'Malley, and Margaret Beck Pritchard.

Urban Transformations

Urban Transformations
Author: Ian Bentley
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2004-08-02
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1134796366

Cities affect every person's life, yet across the traditional divides of class, age, gender and political affiliation, armies of people are united in their dislike of the transformations that cities have undergone in recent times. The physical form of the urban environment is not a designer add-on to 'real' social issues; it is a central aspect of the social world. Yet in many people's experience, the cumulative impacts of recent urban development have created widely un-loved urban places. To work towards better-loved urban environments, we need to understand how current problems have arisen and identify practical action to address them. Urban Transformations examines the crucial issues relating to how cities are formed, how people use these urban environments and how cities can be transformed into better places. Exploring the links between the concrete physicality of the built environment and the complex social, economic, political and cultural processes through which the physical urban form is produced and consumed, Ian Bentley proposes a framework of ideas to provoke and develop current debate and new forms of practice.