Gauthier de la VilleBaugé
Mar 283 min
The new Aretian Urban Analytics and Design book, “City Science: Performance Follows Form”, was recently reviewed by experts in the field of urbanism.
The first review is from the esteemed Midwest Book Review, a prestigious organization that promotes literacy, library usage, and small-press quality publishing. Midwest Book Reviewed is revered by academic librarians of high caliber universities and academic institutions across the US. Established in 1976, it publishes book review magazines specifically designed for community and academic librarians, booksellers, and the general reading public. In the Urban Planning Shelf category, Midwest Book Reviewers consider that ‘City Science’ is “unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, governmental, and college/university library collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists, and featuring a four page Atlas of Global Cities and an extended Bibliography, "City Science: Performance Follows Form" is a seminal and exceptional study that will prove of immense value to readers with an interest in Architectural Criticism, Materials, City Planning and Urban Development.”
The second reviewer, Wouter van Noort, is an influential Dutch scientific journalist working at NRC Media. Van Noort emphasizes the book’s findings around city form fractality, a fundamental indicator in the Aretian book to measure the quality of life of citizens and the urban and economic efficiency of built environments. Wouter van Noort asserts that “cities that are built in a fractal manner are the most successful and best prepared for the green transition. (...) [Barcelona, Boston and Stockholm] have different centers, strategically distributed, so that there is a mix of low-rise and high-rise buildings, and 'scale-independent' infrastructure: not one all-defining city center, but centers of activity more harmoniously distributed, so that all city functions (from childcare to theater to work) are available to all residents.”
The third reviewer, Hubert Beroche, is the founder of the Urban AI think-tank, the first think tank dedicated to Artificial Intelligence and Data Science in the context of cities and urbanism. Hubert affirms that “this dense and fascinating book aims to renew our approach to urban life in the light of Big Data and reveals the links that unite the morphology of cities with their economic performance and, more broadly, their vitality.” Beroche also mentions that “from an operational point of view, it draws up a methodology to direct investments and inform the development of a territory. From a theoretical point of view, it makes data the ‘urban planner's pegasus’, to use Corbusier's beautiful expression, and opens up stimulating perspectives on the use of AI in urban planning.”
This new book “City Science: Performance Follows Form” presents an extended study of 100 urban environments and metropolitan areas throughout the World, across the 5 different continents. This study replicates in a three-dimensional manner the morphological features of cities and metropolitan areas, as well as the economic and human systems that inhabit them. This research allows us to compare and contrast - in terms of urban performance - not only the quality of the architectural and urban design characteristics and civil engineering infrastructures, but also the impact that those systems have on the quality of life of citizens. This book answers some of the most crucial questions in modern urbanism such as: to what extent are cities able to provide 15-minute city standards? How are cities able to provide and shape a prosperous knowledge economy? As well as a good and efficient intermodal mobility and transportation system? Among other important urban topics.
Buy the book here: https://actar.com/product/city-science/
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