I purchased this little gem from the RIBA bookshop in London while I was there for the ‘Women in Architecture’ talk. ‘Triumph of the City’ by Edward Glaeser was an addition to my reading for my Part 2 studies which are due to commence this September. I was gathering my items together to cover my interest in both the Urban Design and the International Architectural Regeneration and Development studios on offer at Oxford Brookes. This one caught my eye because it focused on urban development and structure not only on built form but mainly on a social development, understanding how humans and cities have developed together.
I started to read the book before I headed off on my travels but found it hard to get into at first (this might have been the excitement and anxiety of my trip ahead!), it was very much directed on american development and understanding of their cities, which I have not had much encounter with and only been to America once so found it hard to visualise the cities written about and how they are structured.
This was shortly out lived due to Glaeser giving an excellent history of each area, building up the development of these magnificent cities and also how individual cities have declined. He did not just say how a city or place has become but told the whole story: symbolic acts and historical events, pioneers of the city and also the culture and its people that inhabited the place. It was not the buildings that dominated the pages but the people and their society.
Once I was into the full swing of it I found it hard to stop, just wanting to know more! Glaeser does real off a lot of facts and figures which are quite full on at times but then I also learnt how the word and meaning ‘restaurant’ came about which I am sure I can pull out on the next pub quiz!
This book not only gives you loads of juicy facts to think over but it also gets your brain working. It opens up a whole new understanding, giving a life and existence to this new thinking which now seems endless.
I am wanting to read the book again just to take on some more understanding (and even some more interesting facts) of the social structure within certain urban spaces around the world. With the collaboration of other readings I have read this summer; mainly books by Paul Oliver, this book does give a fresh dynamic knowledge that leads onto new thinking.
This book would appeal to almost anyone and I for one have recommended to a handful of my friends already. So, what you think..you going to read it?