The Endless City

At the turn of the twenty-first century, the world is faced with an unprecedented challenge. It must address a fundamental shift in the world's population towards the cities, and away from mankind's rural roots. Today, for the first time in history, more than half of the global population resides in urban areas - a number likely to reach a staggering 75 per cent by 2050.

Taking six major world cities as its focal point, the book examines the key social, structural and economic factors that are critical to creating a thriving modern city. In Shanghai and Mexico City, the urban population is experiencing rapid growth and changem while Berlin is coming to terms with shrinking expectations.
The result was a sometime passionate, always challenging and informed debate on how architects, urbanists, politicians and policy makers can constructively plan the infrastructure and development of the endless city, to promote a better social and economic life for its citizens.

Authoritatively edited by Richard Burdett and Deyan Sudjic, with essays by internationally renowned contributors from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds, The Endless City presents a pioneering initiative on the future of cities. The research - produced in close collaboration with the London School of Economics - is clearly presented alongside informative texts written by some of the greatest professionals in the field of architecture, urbanism, economics and politics, including Richard Sennett, Saskia Sassens, Rem Koolhaas and is richly illustrated with photographs, maps, diagrams and statistics.

CONTENTS

Introduction
Foreword, Wolfgang Nowak
The Urban Age Project, Ricky Burdett and Philipp Rode
Theory, Policy and Practice, Deyan Sudjic

Cities
The Urbanization of the World, Edward Soja and Miguel Kanai

New York City
Finding its Nerve, Deyan Sudjic
Behind the Boom, Susan Fainstein
An Urban Age in a Suburban Nation?, Bruce Katz and Andy Altman

Shanghai
The Speed and the Friction, Deyan Sudjic
The Urban Laboratory, Xiangming Chen
China’s New Revolution, Xiangming Chen

London
Governing the Ungovernable, Deyan Sudjic
The Capital of Suburbia, Ricky Burdett
Towards a Europe of Cities, Tony Travers
The European City Model, Joan Clos

Mexico City
Back from the Brink, Deyan Sudjic
After the Explosion, José Castillo
Makeshift Globalization, Néstor Canclini

Johannesburg
The View from Outside, Deyan Sudjic
Recovering from Apartheid, Lindsay Bremner
African Urbanism, Caroline Kihato

Berlin
Looking for a New Future, Deyan Sudjic
The Stunted Metropolis, Franziska Eichstadt-Bohlig
The German System, Dieter Lapple

Data
A statistical analysis of the six Urban Age cities

Issues
Seeing like a City, Saskia Sassen
The Open City, Richard Sennett
Designing Government, Gerald Frug
Politics, Power, Cities, Enrique Penalosa
In Search of Authenticity, Rem Koolhass
The Particular and The Generic, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron
The Death and Life of  the Urban Office, Frank Duffy
How Roads Kill Cities, Hermann Knoflacher, Philipp Rode and Geetam Tiwari
Informality and its Discontents, Geetam Tiwari
Confronting Fear, Sophie Body-Gendrot
At Home in the City, Anne Power
Towards a Carbon Neutral London, Nicky Gavron
Sustainable Cities, Guy Battle
A Taxonomy of Towers, Alejandro Zaera-Polo

Interventions
From Theory Into Practice, Sarah Ichioka
An Exploration of 20 projects demostrating new urban thinking in the six Urban Age cities

Positions
An agenda for the Urban Age, Bruce Katz, Andy Altmann and Julie Wagner
Urban Age Glossary

Index
Conference Partecipant
Book Contributors
Credits
Notes
Index

EDITOR:
Ricky Burdett is Centennial Professor in Architecture and Urbanism at the London School of Economics and Director of the Urban Age Project. He is an adviser on architecture to the Mayor of London, the BBC and the Tate, and os the Chief Adviser on Architecture and Urbanism to the London Olimpic Delivery Authority. He was also Director of the Venice Architecture Biennale (2006)
Dejan Sudjic is Director of the Design Museum, London and a former Dean of the Faculty of  Art, Design and Architecture at Kingston University. He was previously editor of Blueprint and Domus magazines,  and Director of "Glasgow 1999: UK City of Architecture and Design" and the Venice Architecture Biennale (2002). Former architecture critic of the Observer, he has written several books, including The 100 Mile City (1992), and John Pawson Works and Future System, published by Phaidon