Books like The Geography of nowhere by James Howard Kunstler

Jane Jacobs’ seminal work argues that diverse, vibrant street life sustains cities, challenging conventional plans that favor large developments and uniformity.

Norman Crowe explores how architecture can harmonize with nature, arguing for a symbiotic relationship that restores traditional values lost to modernism and redefines the built environment as a form of nature.

xii, 238 p. : 20 cm

In Home from Nowhere Kunstler explores the growing movement across America to restore the physical dwelling place of our civilization. Picking up where The Geography of Nowhere left off, Kunstler describes precisely how the American Dream of a little cottage in a natural landscape mutated into today's sprawling automobile suburb in all its ghastliness, and why "we are going to run shrieking from it to a better world." He locates in our national psychology the origin of Americans' traditional dislike for city life, and what this implies about our ability to get along with one another. Most important, Home from Nowhere offers real hope for a nation yearning to live in authentic places worth caring about. Kunstler calls for a wholehearted restoration of traditional architecture and town planning based on enduring principles of design. He declares that the public realm matters, and that it must be honored and embellished in order to make civic life possible. He argues that the idea of beauty must be readmitted to intellectual respectability. From Seaside on the Florida panhandle, a bold experiment to create a radically better form of land development, to the reclamation of inner city neighborhoods, Kunstler documents the movement to revive American communities and a shared sense of place - presenting the crisis of our landscape and townscape that is at the center of the debate about this nation's future.

James Howard Kunstler explores how urban design and architecture shape city culture and success, tracing examples from ancient Rome to modern America and Europe and examining the social impact of planning decisions.