The Urban Masterplanning Handbook 1st Edition

The Urban Masterplanning Handbook by Eric Firley and Katharina GroenWiley, 2013.Eric Firley's and Katharina Gron's The Urban Masterplanning Handbook is a compendium of facts and figures about twenty different rather large scale (from 29 to 395 acres) urban development projects built around the world since the nineteenth century. Ostensibly a reference tool, and a rich one at that, it also serves as a historical comparative survey of what went into those master plans--from inception, planning, design, construction, and end result---and how each phase impacts the other. By closely focussing on how the project setup influences the built result, the authors seek to equip the practitioners of the wide range of professions involved in masterplanning with the ability to identify an effective approach to a site being considered for master planning, and thus avoid pitfalls that could lead to "inefficiencies" in the realization of the plan.The introduction alone is nearly worth the price of the book. It begins with the philosophical underpinnings of masterplanning (from Plato to Thomas More), then moves to a wider historical view of architecture and urbanism and then to a closer technical focus on the state's role in initiating, developing and realizing an urban master plan. The authors describe what follows as an "organizational and visual comparative approach" to the twenty examples of masterplanning.The studies in the book highlight the conflicting ideological approaches to masterplanning--"tabula rasa interventions" vs. "piecemeal engineering," public vs. private control-- and make for consistently revealing comparisons and contrasts. For example, despite many similarities between Stuyvesant Town in New York and Kirchsteigfeld in Potsdam, the authors draw attention to their contrary built results. Later on they also cite Sarphatiipark in Amsterdam as an "imaginary alternative" to the GasHouse District Stuyvesant Town replaced. These comparisons never fail to surprise and illuminate.This book is as attractive to the eye as it is informative. It not only is a pleasure to look at with its clean textual layout and photography, it conveys a wide range of data through color coded charts, diagrams, and maps for quick accurate analysis. Its approach to analytical design would make Edward Tufte proud.Professionals and students alike will find The Urban Masterplanning Handbook a must-have for their reference shelf.

This book offer knowledge about urban planning strategies and sustainable implementations. 100% recommended to architects and urban planning students. .

Excellent (and sometimes surprising!) choice of case studies.Excellent choice of criteria for description of each project (esp. land ownership and description of the process and team).Excellent comparison of masterplans.I am an urban designer and a practice owner and I must say it is really refreshing to see a book full of really useful, relevant and carefully selected hard data (mostly our profession is about one's opinion on a subject or an approach to it). Well done.

In terms of a picture book it is impressive but in terms of actual readability it is confusing and badly labelled. It consistently refers to streets in areas of various Masterplans which are not labelled on the maps they provide. It seems one has to already know the case study areas intimately to get a sense of what the authors are trying to explain. Their pictures are beautiful but the scale of the projects they approach makes street view photos somewhat pointless. Essentially what I'm saying is there is a big disconnection between the text and the photos.

useful