SHAPING THE FUTURE
Ideas, Planning, Design

The book is an auto-biography of Trausti Valsson, an Iceland architect, planner, theoretician and a professor of planning at the University of Iceland. It gives a personal account of what shaped planning and design in the world and in Iceland in the last 50 years, and about Valsson's many ingenious ideas on the future. Valsson e.g. tells about his personla encounter with ian McHarg, buckminster Fuller and Christopher Alexander.
The title of this present book "Shaping the Future. Ideas, Planning, Design" reflects how wide Valsson's field of his operation has been.

CONTENTS

ENVIRONMENT AND GROWING YEARS
• Biography of a Planner – Why? | 7 
• How I became a Visionary | 11 
• Conservative Values – Interest in the Visual Arts | 16 
• Upper Secondary School: Society in Miniature | 19 
• Basic Training for Life’s Work | 22 

THE BERLIN YEARS
• Selection of Subject to Study – and My Second Fatherland | 25 
• In the Footsteps of the First Planner | 29 
• A Studio on a Kindergarten | 32 
• Cities: A Source of Knowledge | 35 
• Study of Art - and to Find a Core through Abstraction | 38 
• Restructuring the World after the Second World War | 43 
• The New Math; New Understanding of Planning | 45 
• Student life: Tension and Joy of Creating | 47 
• Prize in a Competition – and a Diploma Thesis | 50 

THE YEARS AT THE DEVELOPMENT OFFICE
• Environmental Awakening – The Development Office Established | 54 
• The Hippies Come Home and Start to Become Active | 57 
• New Settlement Areas North – East of Grafarvogur Bay | 60 
• Open Areas for Activities and Beautification | 63 
• Spoiled Coast – Harbours and Boating Harbours | 66 
• The Capital Area – and an Airport on Löngusker | 69 
• The First Steps towards an Iceland Plan | 73 
• Prelude to the Writing of the Planning History of Reykjavik | 77 
• Where I was at in 1977... and What was Driving Me? | 81 
• Worldview of Toughness – I Get to Know a Worldview of Softness | 83 
• Systems of Thought and Systems of Value | 86 
• Work on an Iceland Plan – A New Phase in My Life | 88 

THE FORMING OF THEORIES IN BERKELEY
• My First Journey to the USA – and to Berkeley | 92 
• The Development of Concepts – California, Fatherland no. 3 | 95 
• The University in Berkeley... And my Studies There | 98 
• The Modern Problem... and a Draft for Solutions | 101 
• The Impact of the Ideas of Christopher Alexander |103
• How Form-Characteristics of Worldviews have an Impact | 106 
• Courses in Philosophy and the Shaping of the Dissertation | 109
• Student Life, Visits and a SE Asia Journey | 113
• Characteristics of Western and Eastern Worldviews | 116
• Form Used to Strengthen Connections in Design | 119

THE FIRST TWELVE YEARS AFTER RETURNING TO ICELAND
• Testing Various Subjects | 123
• A Design Library - Settlement Policy and Highland Roads | 127
• Associate Professor - and the Writing of Three Books | 131
• A Fight for Ideas, and Their Distribution | 135
• Creation of Form Theory of a Settlement Development | 138
• Form is a Key to Beauty and Depth | 142
• Engineering: A New Policy for the Department | 146
• Country Planning and the Planning of the Central Highlands | 149
• Tourism in an Iceland Plan – with Connection to Road Plans | 153

THE FIRST PROFESSOR IN PLANNING
• Advancement in Planning Matters at the University | 156
• New Master- and Regional Plans Press the Airport Issue | 158
• My Overview Book: Planning in Iceland | 160
• A Book about How the World Will Change with the Warming | 165
• The Impact of Climate Change on Iceland | 169
• The Development of Settlement Patterns on the Globe | 173

THREADS OF WORK-LIFE COME TOGETHER
• Our Settlements Studies Become an Important Theory | 175
• A New Policy for the Faculty and the School | 178
• Environmental Planning has become a Key Discipline | 180
• The New Master Plan of Reykjavik 2014 | 184
• The Planning and Location of the University | 187
• Country Planning and Highland Roads again | 189
• Conclusion: Shaping the Future is an Important Matter | 191

ON THE BOOK - AND APPENDICES
• Comments on the Book | 193
• Discussion and References | 196
• Visual Material | 203
• Index of Terms | 204
• Index of Persons and Places | 206
• General References | 212
• English Summary | 214
• Epilogue | 215
• About the DVD | 216

THE AUTHOR
Trausti Valsson studied Architecture and Planning at TU West-Berlin 1967 to 1972. He worked in the Reykjavik Development and Planning Office 1972 to 1979, e.g. on the first Green Plan and a Master Plan for new settlement areas for Reykjavik. After his PhD in Environmental Planning at UC Berkeley he has taught for 27 years as a Professor of Planning at the University of Iceland where he is now Emeritus. Valsson has published fourteen books and won several prizes for design and planning. In 2017 he was the first person to be awarded Honorary Prize of the Icelandic Planners' Association, for contribution to Planning in Iceland.