7/28/2019 The Language of Towns and Cities

1/2

The Language of Towns and Cities: A Visual Dictionary, by Dhiru A. Thadani (with help

from about 50 contributors), is an oddly personal work. I say "oddly," because the book's

title invokes that most characteristically objective of all books, the dictionary, and the

book's format resembles that of an encyclopedia, also typically objective. And the book

has 781 10-inch by 10-inch pages and weighs more pounds than the postal scale in myoffice can measure -- hardly a slim volume of personal reflections.

The book takes on this personal dimension in two ways. The first is autobiographical.

Thadani includes in the book references to where he grew up (in India, and the inclusion

of many references to cities in India, otherwise so often ignored, is a definite plus for the

book), to how he was educated in the U.S. and became an architect and urban designer,

and to city and town planning projects that he has worked on.

The second aspect of the book's being personal is intellectual; Thadani makes no pretense

that the book is neutral. The book expounds his perspective on towns and cities, which is

that ofNew Urbanism.Many planners, and not only New Urbanists, believe that New Urbanism has become the

most important planning paradigm to emerge in recent decades, and there is nothing

wrong in orienting a book about urbanism in that direction. Thadani might well have

used the Charter of the New Urbanism more explicitly as a lens to view the material in

the book, relating specific topics and visual data to the precepts of the charter.

However, the role of New Urbanism in the book can be off-putting. Many entries are

directed at developers and designers interested in how to build New Urbanist projects,

and many pages are celebrations of New Urbanist developments. Thadani may intend

these to illustrate the "language" he is trying to explicate, but they tend to be repetitive,and the weight given them is excessive, given their sometimes tenuous connections to

towns or cities.

For example, the book contains larger entries for New Urbanist developments like

Seaside, Florida, or Kentlands, Maryland (six pages each), than the entries for Rome (five

pages), Bombay (four), Bologna (two) or, for that matter, London, New York, Chicago,

Los Angeles, or Philadelphia (zero pages each). Thadani might not find much in Los

Angeles that he likes, but at least taking it into account seems necessary for

comprehending the language of cities in the 21st century.

This focus on New Urbanist projects can also result in awkward juxtapositions, such as

one in the description of Windsor, Florida (also a six-page entry): in one sentence

Windsor is described as "an intimately scaled neighborhood in the urban tradition of the

Caribbean," and in the next sentence it's described as "an exclusive sporting community."

If one can get beyond the emphasis on and promotion of New Urbanist projects

(unfortunately something many potential readers will not want to do), one will find that

Thadani's massive tome is a valuable resource. It is certainly a pleasure to read or leaf

through -- the photographs and illustrations are excellent and the book contains many

informative entries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Urbanismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Urbanismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Urbanismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Urbanism

7/28/2019 The Language of Towns and Cities

2/2

Thadani is also not a New Urbanist who categorically condemns Modernism. He favors

the re-working of traditional architectural types, but he is open-minded about design, so

long as the urbanism is good. For instance, Thadani includes an entry on Chandigarh, the

Indian provincial capital designed by Le Corbusier, and gives credit to Le Corbusier for

creating the basis for a successful city. Principles that Thadani attributes to Le Corbusier-- for autonomous neighborhoods with a range of housing types, schools and workplaces

and other uses and services -- could come directly from the Charter of the New

Urbanism.

Similarly, although an entry about C.I.A.M. (which Andrs Duany co-wrote) considers

the role of Modernism in the development of post-war suburban sprawl, Thadani and

Duany take care to say that it was "degenerate versions" of Modernist principles that,

combined with other factors, led to sprawl, not the principles themselves.

As useful as the book is, an overriding criticism is that any book that concentrates so

much on the built environment of cities will slight the human or sociological element.

Interestingly, the entry on Seaside makes this point. The entry consists of a talk that the

founder of Seaside, Robert Davis, gave in 2009 about the town's history. In a wry and

perceptive passage, Davis describes how even though Seaside was designed to foster a

connected community, a "counterproject" to gated communities, once Seaside

homeowners had settled in, they (or at least many of them) turned out to be as selfish

and hidebound as anyone else -- "reactionaries" who wanted to barricade the place.

I fear this short review emphasizes negative points more than my overall favorable

reaction to Thadani's book, but nonetheless I will finish with a quibble. This one has todo with appearance: the book is well served by photographs and illustrations, but not by

its typography. Perhaps under the influence of the Internet, someone chose to use a sans

serif typeface, and to lay the paragraphs out like a business letter: in block form, with

blank lines between them. The text looks word-processed, not typeset, which is odd in a

book that celebrates traditional design in another context.

The Language of Towns and Cities: A Visual Dictionary by Dhiru A. Thadani, forward

by Lon Krier, introduction by Andrs Duany, published by Rizzoli.

Frank Gruber writes a weekly column on local politics, which often involve land use

issues, for theSanta Monica Lookout News,a news website. His first book, UrbanWorrier: Making Politics Personal, was published byCity Image Press.

http://www.surfsantamonica.com/http://www.surfsantamonica.com/http://www.surfsantamonica.com/http://www.cityimagepress.com/http://www.cityimagepress.com/http://www.cityimagepress.com/http://www.cityimagepress.com/http://www.surfsantamonica.com/