Synopsis: This manifesto by renowned town planners Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk proposes an alternative model for community design, advocating for a return to traditional planning principles to combat suburban sprawl in North America. The authors highlight the ecological and economic unsustainability of sprawl and its negative impact on various demographics, including children, the elderly, and the middle class. In "Suburban Nation," they assess the societal costs of sprawl—ecological, economic, aesthetic, and social—and critique the development community and government for the decline of traditional town building. The book also offers potential solutions to address these issues.

Synopsis: "Public Places - Urban Spaces" is a comprehensive guide to urban design, exploring its complex dimensions through ideas, theories, research, and practices. The authors systematically build concepts, addressing catalysts of change and the contexts in which urban design operates. The book highlights six key dimensions: social, visual, functional, temporal, morphological, and perceptual, making it suitable for both targeted reading and cover-to-cover exploration. This clear and accessible text offers a holistic approach to understanding urban spaces.

Synopsis: In the late nineteenth century, Boston transformed from a bustling merchant town into a divided metropolis, characterized by an inner city of commerce and slums and an outer city of commuter suburbs. "Streetcar Suburbs" explores who built this new city, their motivations, and the methods they employed. The book includes a new introduction that examines the current suburb/city divide and offers insights for creating a livable future city.