PUBLISHED IN 2010
Orienting Istanbul: Cultural Capital of Europe
Edited by Deniz Göktürk, University of California, Berkeley, Levent Soysal, Kadir Has University, Istanbul and Ipek Türeli, Brown University, Providence
Istanbul – once capital of the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, and in 2010 a European Capital of Culture – is undoubtedly one of the world’s most iconic cities. With one foot in Europe, the other in Asia, for some ‘outside’ it has evoked the romance of the Orient, but for some ‘within’ the intrusion of the Occident.
But what of Istanbul in the twenty-first century?
Orienting Istanbul is the first book to capture the rise of the city to the world stage of the present day. It analyses the re-presentation of Istanbul as a city of culture, history, and diversity and in so doing highlights the processes that go to make a city a World City.
A focus on Istanbul’s venture as a European Capital of Culture enables the contributors to reveal how creative production and exhibition in the city are intertwined with neoliberal urban restructuring and the tensions of post-industrial capitalism.
Divided into five parts (Paths to Globalization; Heritage and Regeneration Debates; The Mediatized City; Art in the City; A European Capital?), with case studies ranging from urban renewal, architecture and heritage preservation to art exhibitions, cinema and literature, the book provides a unique picture of how the course to European integration and globalization is manifested in Istanbul’s streetscapes and the lives of its citizens.
Lessons in Post-War Reconstruction: Case Studies from Lebanon in the Aftermath of the 2006 War
Edited by Howayda Al-Harithy, American University of Beirut
During the 2006 war in Lebanon 1,100 civilians were killed, 4,000 wounded and 1,000,000 displaced; damage was estimated at US$3.6 billion. Destruction was not limited to homes and villages but engulfed the entire countryside, damaging the agricultural livelihoods of a predominantly subsistence rural economy.
After the ceasefire, a group of architects and planners from the American University of Beirut formed the Reconstruction Unit to help in the recovery process and in rebuilding the lives of those affected by the war.
An introductory chapter outlines the historical and political context of contemporary Lebanon and the background to the 2006 war. Then, in a series of superbly illustrated case studies, members of the Reconstruction Unit describe their work and experiences.
These cases are diverse in scale, type of intervention, methods, and approaches to the situation on the ground. All tackle both ‘politics’ and ‘process’, from local to regional to global, and from scale of destruction to social representation, identity, decision-making and funding. They discuss the role of donors, municipalities, NGOs, and the community in negotiating both process and product; the visions and approaches to reconstruction projects; community participation; heritage protection; damage assessment and compensation policies; the role of the state; and capacity building.
The Reconstruction Unit’s activities described here will provide not just valuable lessons, but an inspiration for all those involved in post-conflict reconstruction anywhere in the world.
PUBLISHED IN 2009
Capital Cities in the Aftermath of Empires: Planning in Central and Southeastern Europe
Edited by Emily Gunzburger Makaš and Tanja Damljanovic Conley
The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw cities across Central and South-eastern Europe transformed into the cultural and political capitals of the nations and nation-states created as the Ottoman and Hapsburg Empires declined and finally collapsed.
This is the first book to explore the planning and architectural histories of those cities. In their introduction Tanja Damljanovic Conley and Emily Gunzburger Makaš discuss the interrelated processes of nationalization, modernization, and Europeanization in this region at that time with special attention to the way architectural and urban models from Western and Central Europe were adapted to fit the varying local physical and political contexts. There follow fourteen studies of individual cities.
With the help of period illustrations, each city chapter provides a summary of proposed and realized plans and projects, and the designers involved, from the mid-nineteenth century to the Second World War. Each chapter also addresses the political and ideological aspects of the city’s urban history, exploring the idea of becoming a cultural and/or political capital and the relationship between national and urban development.
The concluding chapter, drawing on what has gone before, argues that it was not just the search for national identity which drove the development of these cities in the aftermath of empires, but the pursuit of modernization and ‘Europeanization’.
Dubai: Behind an Urban Spectacle
Yasser Elsheshtawy
For many, the image of Dubai is of islands shaped like palm trees, luxurious shopping malls and the iconic building in the shape of a dhow’s sail – the Burj al Arab, but in this book Yasser Elsheshtawy reveals a very different city, a place full of aspirations, struggles, and encounters taking place in all sorts of settings. For a flavour of that city go here.
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PUBLISHED IN 2008
Stockholm: The Making of a Metropolis
Thomas Hall
Thomas Hall is Stockholm’s answer to the challenge set long ago by Werner Hegemann for Berlin and Pierre Lavedan for Paris: to become the unchallenged chronicler of the history of a great European city. Here, for the first time, he distils his lifetime’s work in a single major work in English. This, undoubtedly, will remain the standard book on its subject for many decades to come.
Professor Sir Peter Hall, Bartlett Professor of Planning and Regeneration, University College London
ISBN: 9780415339995
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The Evolving Arab City: Tradition, Mordernity and Urban Development
Edited by
Yasser Elsheshtawy
In their chapters on Rabat, Amman, Beirut, Manama, Kuwait, Riyadh, Doha, Abu Dhabi, the eight authors, all closely affiliated with their respective cities, reflect on urban development of each city from the nineteenth century to the present day - a time-frame chosen to illustrate the impact of colonialism (or foreign protection) on the cities' morphology and contrast this with the impacts of globalization.
ISBN: 9780415411561
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PUBLISHED IN 2007
Planning the Megacity: Jakarta in the Twentieth Century
Christopher Silver
Examines the dramatic transformation of Jakarta over the past century, as the erstwhile colonial capital of the Netherlands Indies became Southeast Asia's largest metropolitan area.
ISBN: 9780415701648
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Olympic Cities: City agendas, planning and the world's games, 1896–2012
Edited by
John R. Gold, and Margaret M. Gold
This is the first full overview of the changing relationship between Olympic events - the Summer Games, Winter Games, and Cultural Olympiads - and cities.
ISBN: 9780415374071
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Designing Australia's Cities: Culture, Commerce and the City Beautiful, 1900–1930
Robert Freestone
Extensively illustrated, this is first comprehensive history of a design and reform movement which helped shape Australia's cities.
ISBN: 9780415424226
PUBLISHED IN 2006
Remaking Chinese Urban Form: Modernity, Scarcity and Space, 1949–2005
Duanfang Lu
Today, when the Chinese city has revealed its many faces, Remaking Chinese Urban Form presents a refreshing panorama of the nation’s mixed experiences with socialist and Third World modernity which is both timely and provocative.
ISBN: 0415354501
Planning Twentieth Century Capital Cities
Edited by David L.A. Gordon
For anyone with an interest in capital cities, their urban planning and design, this book will be the key source book for a long time to come. ISBN: 0415280613
SERIES HIGHLIGHTS
Planning Europe’s Capital Cities: Aspects of nineteenth-century urban development
Thomas Hall
Reveals how the capital city projects of the nineteenth century were central to the evolution of modern planning and the townscapes of today. ISBN: 0419172904
Utopian England: Community experiments 1900–1945
Dennis Hardy
Explores the fascinating history of utopian ideals, the lives of those who pursued them, and the communities they created. ISBN: 0419246703
Urban Planning in a Changing World: The twentieth experience
Edited by Robert Freestone
Links the past and future and provides a basis for the advance of urban planning into the new millennium. ISBN: 0419246509
Selling Places: The marketing and promotion of towns and cities, 1850–2000
Stephen V. Ward
Describes the development of place marketing and promotion over the last 150 years, with examples from North America, Britain and Europe. ISBN: 0419206108
Council Housing and Culture: The history of a social experiment
Alison Ravetz
A comprehensive apolitical history of British council housing from its seeds in Victorian reaction to the ‘Poor’ to the present day. ISBN: 041523946X
Planning Latin America’s Capital Cities, 1850–1950
Arturo Almandoz
The first comprehensive work in English to describe the building of Latin America’s Capital Cities in the post-colonial period. ISBN: 0415272653
Exporting American Architecture, 1870–2000
Jeffrey W. Cody
Investigates why and where American architects, planners, building
contractors and other actors have marketed American architecture overseas. ISBN: 0415299152
Planning by Consent: The origins and nature of British development control
Philip Booth
Provides historical evidence for the way development control has evolved to become a central part of British planning. ISBN: 0419244107
The Making and Selling of Post-Mao Beijing
Anne-Marie Broudehoux
With the help of case studies, reveals the changing life of the city and its inhabitants in the final decades of the twentieth century. ISBN: 0415320577
Planning Middle Eastern Cities: An Urban Kaleidoscope in a
Globalizing World
Yasser Elsheshtawy
The cities in this book are the kaleidoscope of the title; each is discussed by a young Arab scholar either born or living in that city. ISBN: 0415304008
Globalizing Taipei: The political economy of spatial development
Edited by Reginald Yin-Wang Kwok
Describes Taipei’s quest to become a global city and the interaction of international, state and local politics in shaping its urban environment. ISBN: 041535451X
New Urbanism and American Planning: The Conflict of Cultures
Emily Talen
Demonstrates how New Urbanism is a culmination of ideas that have been evolving in the US planning since the nineteenth century. ISBN 0415701333
Banner Photo Credit: Cairo from Sultan Farag ibn Barquq Mosque in the City of the Dead. (Photo by courtesy of Yasser Elsheshtawy)
