Shaping Cities in an Urban Age

Ricky Burdett & Philipp Rode

Hardcover | 22.23 x 4.45 x 25.4 cm | 448 pp

Phaidon | 2018 | 9780714877280

Shaping Cities in an Urban Age is an authoritative and fascinating investigation into the spatial and social dynamics of cities at a global scale and is published in collaboration with the London School of Economics and the Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft.

By 2050, 2.5 billion more people will be living in cities, with nearly 90 per cent of this growth taking place in Asia and Africa. China alone will be home to nearly 1 billion
urban residents by 2030, and India is not far behind. However, nearly 80 per cent of the urban infrastructure that will exist in 2050 has yet to be built; the decisions we
make about it in the next decades will affect humankind for generations to come.

This richly illustrated volume brings together authoritative research and fresh insights that explain the complexities of urbanisation. With 37 essays by leading
policy makers, practitioners and scholars, this volume offers new perspectives on the dynamics of urban change. It tracks how cities such as Addis Ababa, London and
Delhi have transformed since 1990 and compares patterns of growth, inequality and energy consumption of other global locations, including New York, Hong Kong and
Rio de Janeiro.

Shaping Cities in an Urban Age does more than put cities on the map. It identifies current trends that are making them more fragmented, less equitable and environmentally more damaging, and argues powerfully for a more integrated social, environmental and spatial approach that can inform and inspire the city makers who
are shaping an increasingly urban world.

Generously illustrated with photographs, visual data, and statistics, and featuring a series of essays written by leading people in their fields, Shaping Cities in an Urban Age addresses our most urgent contemporary and future urban issues by examining a set of key forces that have combined to create the city as we know it today.