DIY City:
DIY City:
The Collective Power of Small Actions
ISBN: 9781642830521
Stock available
Regular price
$52.79 AUD
Regular price
$65.99 AUD
Sale price
$52.79 AUD
Unit price
/
per
Some utopian plans have shaped our citiesfrom England's New Towns and Garden Cities to the Haussmann plan for Paris and the L'Enfant plan for Washington, DC. But these grand plans are the exception, and seldom turn out as envisioned by the utopian planner. Inviting city neighborhoods are more often works of improvisation on a small scale. This type of bottom-up development gives cities both their character and the ability to respond to sudden change.
Hank Dittmar, urban planner, friend of artists and creatives, sometime rancher, high priest of town planning to the Prince of Wales, believed in letting small things happen. Dittmar concluded that big plans were often the problem. Looking at the global cities of the world, he saw a crisis of success, with gentrification and global capital driving up home prices in some cities, while others decayed for lack of investment.
In DIY City, Dittmar explains why individual initiative, small-scale business, and small development matter, using lively stories from his own experience and examples from recent history, such as the revival of Camden Lock in London and the nascent rebirth of Detroit. DIY City, Dittmar's last original work, captures the lessons he learned throughout the course of his varied career'from transit-oriented development to Lean Urbanism'that can be replicated to create cities where people can flourish.
DIY City is a timely response to the challenges many cities face today, with a short supply of affordable housing, continued gentrification, and offshore investment. Dittmar's answer to this crisis is to make Do-It-Yourself the norm rather than the exception by removing the barriers to small-scale building and local business. The message of DIY City can offer hope to anyone who cares about cities.
By Hank Dittmar
Imprint: ISLAND PRESS
Release Date:
Format: PAPERBACK
Pages: 181
Front Cover
About Island Press
Subscribe
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1: Cities are Back
2: Sometimes the Small Stuff Sticks: Learning to Improvise
3: Do It Yourself: An Enduring Idea
4: Doubling Up: Lessons for Cities from Life during Wartime
5: Slack Is a Good Thing
6: When Meanwhile Becomes Permanent: Eric Reynolds and London's Revival
7: Making Spaces for the Arts
8: Filling in the Missing Pieces: Lean Urbanism
9: Too Small to Matter? The Persistence of the Informal
Notes
About the Author
Insert
Island Press - Board of Directors