Designing the City of Reason: Foundations and Frameworks

by Ali Madanipour

With a practical approach to theory, Designing the City of Reason offers new perspectives on how differing belief systems and philosophical approaches impact on city design and development, exploring how this has changed before, during and after the impact of modernism in all its rationalism. Looking at the connections between abstract ideas and material realities, this book provides a social and historical account of ideas which have emerged out of the particular concerns and cultural contexts and which inform the ways we live. By considering the changing foundations for belief and action, and their impact on urban form, it follows the history and development of city design in close conjunction with the growth of rationalist philosophy. Building on these foundations, it goes on to focus on the implications of this for urban development, exploring how public infrastructures of meaning are constructed and articulated through the dimensions of time, space, meaning, value and action. With its wide-ranging subject matter and distinctive blend of theory and practice, this book furthers the scope and range of urban design by asking new questions about the cities we live in and the values and symbols which we assign to them.

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Ali Madanipour has studied (MArch, PhD), practised, researched, and taught architecture, urban design and planning, winning design and research awards, and working with academic and municipal partners from around the world. His work has been translated into French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Persian and Spanish. His visiting positions include the City of Vienna Senior Visiting Professor at the Technical University of Vienna (2010), the Wits-Claude Leon Distinguished Scholar at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (2011), and Visiting Professor at the Polytechnic of Milan (2015).

Forthcoming book:

Handbook of Planning Theory (2017, co-ed, Routledge);
Published books include:

Cities in Time: Temporary Urbanism and the Future of Cities (2017, Bloomsbury)
Planning Theory, Volume I, Planning with Creativity, (2015, ed, Routledge);
Planning Theory, Volume II, Planning with Efficiency, (2015, ed, Routledge);
Planning Theory, Volume III, Planning with Flexibility, (2015, ed, Routledge);
Planning Theory, Volume IV, Planning with Contingency, (2015, ed, Routledge);
Reconsidering Localism (2015, co-ed, Routledge);
Urban Design, Space and Society (2014, Palgrave-Macmillan);
Public Space and the Challenges of Urban Transformation in Europe (2014, co-ed, Routledge);
Handboek Ruimtelijke Kwaliteit (2013, co-ed, ASP)
Knowledge Economy and the City (2011/2013, Routledge);
Whose Public Space? International Case Studies in Urban Design and Development (2010, ed, Routledge);
Designing the City of Reason (2007, Routledge);
Public and Private Spaces of the City (2003, Routledge);
Social Exclusion in European Cities (1998/2003, co-ed, Routledge);
Urban Governance, Institutional Capacity and Social Milieux (2002; co-ed, Ashgate);
The Governance of Place (2001, co-ed, Ashgate);
Tehran: the making of a metropolis (1998, Wiley);
Design of Urban Space: An inquiry into a socio-spatial process (1996, Wiley);
Managing Cities (1995, co-ed, Wiley).