Why urbanists need to think bigger

June 26, 2023 (last updated on October 20, 2023)

Austin Williams, "What is a City?" Architectural Design 82 (2012): 1

The take-away: For Williams, urban practitioners are far too quick to dissolve the city into “localisms—urban villages, sustainable communities, and insular neighbourhoods”. Instead, he says, urban practitioners need to be more daringly optimistic, and conceive of cities in ways that “creatively transcend natural barriers”. 

Abstract

On the 75th anniversary of Lewis Mumford's rhetorical essay ‘What is a City?’, Austin Williams asks whether we risk defining cities out of existence.

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