Changing Places: The Science and Art of New Urban Planning

The science of urban planning can make cities healthier, safer, and more livable by designing the urban landscape with health and safety in mind. Changing Places demonstrates how well-designed changes to place can improve the well-being of large groups of people and how planners and developers need to recognize the value of scientific testing and scientists need to embrace the know-how of planners and developers.

Format: Hardback
Length: 208 pages
Publication date: 22 October 2019
Publisher: Princeton University Press

The design of every aspect of the urban landscape, from streets and sidewalks to green spaces, mass transit, and housing, has a fundamental influence on the health and safety of the communities that live there. It can affect people's stress levels, determine whether they walk or drive, the quality of the air they breathe, and how free they are from crime. Changing Places provides a compelling look at the new science and art of urban planning, showing how scientists, planners, and citizens can work together to reshape city life in measurably positive ways.

Drawing on the latest research in city planning, economics, criminology, public health, and other fields, Changing Places demonstrates how well-designed changes to place can significantly improve the well-being of large groups of people. The book argues that there is a disconnect between those who implement place-based changes, such as planners and developers, and the urban scientists who are now able to rigorously evaluate these changes through testing and experimentation. This compelling book covers a broad range of structural interventions, such as building and housing, land and open space, transportation and street environments, and entertainment and recreation centers.

Science shows that we can enhance people's health and safety by changing neighborhoods block-by-block. Changing Places explains why planners and developers need to recognize the value of scientific testing, and why scientists need to embrace the indispensable know-how of planners and developers. This book reveals how these professionals, working together and with urban residents, can create place-based interventions that are simple, affordable, and scalable to entire cities.

Weight: 510g
Dimension: 240 x 156 x 22 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780691195216