The Art of Shaping the Metropolis - 9780071817967

A proven approach for addressing explosive metropolitan growth in an integrated and holistic manner

For the first time, half the global population is living in urban areas—and that number is growing exponentially. Written by noted urban planner Pedro Ortiz, who served as director of the groundbreaking Madrid Metropolitan-Regional Plan, The Art of Shaping the Metropolis presents an innovative, agile solution for managing urban growth that enhances economic activity, environmental stability, and quality of life.

Based on the findings from Madrid and other cities, this timely guide offers a methodical system for addressing the crucial issues facing governments, professionals, the private and public sectors, developers, stakeholders, and inhabitants of twenty-first-century metropolises. The book details new rubrics to identify the process of growth and its evolution, new tools to monitor and gauge them, and new methods to synthesize them into a professional praxis that will be sustainable for the long term. Ortiz demonstrates how metropolises can be organized for a future that preserves the historic nucleus of the city and the environment, while providing for the necessary sustainable expansion of transportation, housing, and social and productive facilities.

Coverage includes:

• The dialogues of the metropolis
• The challenge
• The inheritance
• Balanced urban development—fabric and form
• The chess on a tripod (CiTi) method to build the model
• Madrid as testing ground
• Practical considerations in implementing a metropolitan plan
• Translating the model elsewhere