THE ENDLESS CITY
LSE Cities & Phaidon
Review by Kees Boersma, Amsterdam University: "The endless city is a comprehensive, visually compelling book from a growing organization (LSE Cities & Urban Age Project) that is attempting to set the agenda for the future of the global age. After reading the book and looking at the many pictures of high-rises, one may be left with the conclusion that urban planning is still about megalomaniac visions and ideas. A closer look at the details of the book proves this conclusion to be wrong. Throughout the book, the authors of The endless city pay attention to the reckless and unbalanced growth of global cities. The dark side of city planning once unmasked by Jane Jacobs (1961) needs to be critiqued once more. Paying attention to diversity of all kinds and encouraging small-scale, subtle initiatives and interventions is crucial in the further development of cities in the urban age. Burdett and Sudjic did a great job bringing together authors that are aware of this urgency."
Review by architecture website Core77: "With this organic view of city planning in hand, the authors then tackle a variety of macro trends. Striking colorful graphics display the growth of air traffic corridors over time. Bubble maps demonstrate the growth of megalopolises, and statistics of unfathomable scope (3.3 billion people live in urban areas, 1 in 6 people live in a slum!) support the academic writing and analysis that sandwich the graphs and charts. I simply can't do justice for the number of insights that stuff the pages.
"Perhaps The Endless City is like a city - enormous, deep and complex - ... visceral, immediate and small ... If the The Endless City could be abridged into any one statement, it is this: The coming of the urban age is inevitable; we cannot control it, but we may be able to understand and shape how it develops and grows."
Brian Eno and his library