Springer has finally released the masterpiece and ultimate book on the traditional urban heritage of Southern Europe by professor Besim Hakim, a must-read work that will impress scholars and practitioners. This outstanding book brings together historic urban/building rules and codes for the geographic areas including Greece, Italy, and Spain. The author achieved his ambitious goal of finding pertinent […] read more
Marco Casagrande, Biourban Acupuncture. Treasure Hill of Taipei to Artena, Rome: International Society of Biourbanism 2013 [ Read & buy “Biourban Acupuncture. Treasure Hill of Taipei to Artena” on Google Books ] Science fiction has always confronted artificial and natural reality. Most of it has envisioned a future that is going to corner and minimize nature, echoing […] read more
![Participation and ICT—for a [Viable and] Living City](https://www.biourbanism.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/ICT+Partecipazione-70x70.jpg "Participation and ICT—for a [Viable and] Living City")
Antonio Caperna, Alessandro Giangrande, Paolo Mirabelli & Elena Mortola (2013) Partecipazione e ICT. Per una città vivibile, Rome: Gangemi editore The main purpose to select and connect together these chapters, papers and case studies is to link the concept of participatory urban and architectural designs to human oriented design processes, during which participants and […] read more
Alison G. Kwok, Walter T. Grondzik, The Green Studio Handbook. Environmental Strategies for Schematic Design, 2nd edition, New York: Architectural Press, 2011. Review by Angelica Fortuzzi Alison G. Kwok, AIA, architect and professor of architecture at the University of Oregon, she taught in architecture programs in California, Hawaii, Hong Kong, Japan, and New York. Walter […] read more
Vibhavari Jani, Diversity in Design: Perspectives from the Non-Western World, New York: Farichild, 2010 In his wonderful masterpiece The Nature of Order, Christopher Alexander refers often to Eastern architecture traditions and schools, both ancient and contemporary, e.g. indicating in Geoffrey Bawa one of the leading masters of a life-enhancing architecture (“the soul of our […] read more
by Nikos A. Salingaros Techne Press, Amsterdam, Holland: 252 pages. This monograph introduces the unifying notion of the network city to understand urban phenomena as components of a complex system, using concepts such as “fractal loading” and the brain-computer analogy. Scientific principles underlying urban form surprisingly support traditional concepts of urban planning. “Urban coherence” links […] read more
Edward O. Wilson’s Biophilia Hypothesis Edward O. Wilson, a Harvard University entomologist, coined the term “biophilia”, referring to humans’ “love of living things” – our innate affinity with nature. A somewhat controversial hypothesis put forward by Edward Wilson is the idea that humans evolved as creatures deeply enmeshed with the intricacies of nature, and that […] read more
a book Edited by Prof. T. M. VINOD KUMAR Info: Copal Publishing ISBN: 9788 1924 73352Publication Date: May 2013Dimension: 6 x 9 in.Binding: HardboundPages: 450 Smart cities are knowledge based cities, that develop extra ordinary capabilities to be selfaware, function 24 hours and 7 days a week, and communicate, selectively, in real time knowledge to citizen […] read more
Christopher Alexander, 2002-05. The Nature of Order, Books 1-4: The Phenomenon of Life; The Process of Creating Life; A Vision of a Living World; The Luminous Ground. Berkeley, CA: Center for Environmental Structure. Reviewed by David Seamon, Architecture Department, Kansas State University, 211 Seaton Hall, Manhattan, KS. 66506-2901 USA. Tel 1-785-532-5953. www.arch.ksu.edu/seamon; triad@ksu.edu. °°°° We […] read more
“Two books I read in the past month overlap with each other in useful ways. The first, Commonwealth by Toni Negri and Michael Hardt, is the third volume of their epic theoretical work that began with Empire and continued through Multitudes. While I’m not a camp follower per se, I did get a lot out of these efforts and was glad to read Commonwealth as the conclusion. It made some parts of their argument clearer, but left some important areas unresolved and even self-contradictory. I suppose that’s to be expected with such an ambitious effort to unravel this moment in history, the rise of new paradigms of both capitalist self-perpetuation and (potentially) revolutionary subversion.
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