Ben Brown reviews Dhiru Thadani's new book, The Language of Towns and Cities. Weighing in at 800 pages, this encyclopedic urban design dictionary defines planning terms with extensive graphics.
Brown is effusive about the book:
"Here, delivered with the customary Thadani elegance and illustrative efficiency, are the components of placemaking and how they've been honed over centuries to achieve interior and exterior spaces that not only appeal to the head and the heart but also represent high-performance design. Here's proof that some stuff just works. And it works on just about any level we imagine.
"The reason that sounds so remarkable is that these are not inspiring times, particularly for those holding onto to dreams of collaborative achievement or even collaborative competence or maybe even collaboration itself. We're hard at work downsizing expectations and adjusting to the new normal in which less is really less."
Thanks to Hazel Borys
FULL STORY: Dhiru’s Encyclopedia of City-Shaping: Reassurance in Uncertain Times

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