Designing Cities

Urban Design: The Arrangement of Structures, Systems, Components, and Spaces Urban design is based on planning and design principles that need to meet functional demands on the one hand, but on the other hand bring the design elements together into a distinctive whole. Although designs are almost always dominated by the spirit of the times, the basic compositional principles are, for the most part, timeless. Designing Cities examines the most important design and presentation principles of urban design, using selected historical examples and contemporary international competition entries designed by practices including Foster + Partners, KCAP Architects & Planners, MVRDV, and OMA. At the core of the publication is the question of how the projects were designed and what methods and tools were available to the designer.