In the Life of Cities Cover
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Mohsen Mostavafi (ed.)

In the Life of Cities

Parallel Narratives of the Urban

What is it that gives places their individual qualities and defines the life of a city? Architects and urbanists are accustomed to describing and creating the organizational structures, the layouts and physical attributes of our cities. But what are the relations between the design of a city—its form—and the life engendered by that form? Responding to this question is the inspiration for In the Life of Cities. Contributors from a wide range of fields address the inseparability of urban life and urban form. Portfolios of contemporary photography assert the layered realities of urban life today.

With contributions by Arjun Appadurai, Eve Blau, Svetlana Boym, Lindsay Bremner, Jana Cephas, Felipe Correa, Rahul Mehrotra, Mohsen Mostafavi, Antoine Picon, Gyan Prakash, Nasser Rabbat, Rafi Segal, Jorge Silvetti, AbdouMaliq Simone, and Charles Waldheim.

Featured cities: Baku, Bucharest, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Caracas, Chicago, Dakar, Detroit, Hong Kong, Houston, Jakarta , Johannesburg, London, Moscow, Mumbai, Paris, Quito, São Paulo, St. Petersburg, Tel Aviv, Tirana, Tokyo, and Toronto.

What is it that gives places their individual qualities and defines the life of a city? Architects and urbanists are accustomed to describing and creating the organizational structures, the layouts and physical attributes of our cities. But what are the relations between the design of a city—its form—and the life engendered by that form? Responding to this question is the inspiration for In the Life of Cities. Contributors from a wide range of fields address the inseparability of urban life and urban form. Portfolios of contemporary photography assert the layered realities of urban life today.

With contributions by Arjun Appadurai, Eve Blau, Svetlana Boym, Lindsay Bremner, Jana Cephas, Felipe Correa, Rahul Mehrotra, Mohsen Mostafavi, Antoine Picon, Gyan Prakash, Nasser Rabbat, Rafi Segal, Jorge Silvetti, AbdouMaliq Simone, and Charles Waldheim.

Featured cities: Baku, Bucharest, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Caracas, Chicago, Dakar, Detroit, Hong Kong, Houston, Jakarta , Johannesburg, London, Moscow, Mumbai, Paris, Quito, São Paulo, St. Petersburg, Tel Aviv, Tirana, Tokyo, and Toronto.

Winner of 50 Books/50 Covers Competition 2012

Edited by Mohsen Mostafavi, co-published by Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Design: Integral Lars Müller

16,5 x 24 cm, 6 ½ x 9 ½ in

376 pages, 286 illustrations

hardback

2012, 978-3-03778-302-3, English
Urban Development Architectural Research Public Space
CHF 30.00

Mohsen Mostafavi

Mohsen Mostafavi, architect and educator, is the Alexander and Victoria Wiley Professor of Design of the Harvard Graduate School of Design and was the school's dean from 2008 through 2019. His work focuses on modes and processes of urbanization and the interface between technology and aesthetics.

CHF 30.00