Brent D. Ryan, an associate of urban design and public policy in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning, has detailed his perspective on urban design in a new book, "The Largest Art: A Measured Manifesto for a Plural Urbanism," recently published by the MIT Press.
"The city is a people's art, a shared experience," a Philadelphia architect and planner named Edmund Bacon once wrote, adding that any urban designer's job was to "conceive an idea, implant it, and nurture its growth in the collective minds of the community." It sounds like a common-sense approach to city building - and one that could lead to a pleasing urban mosaic, as both community needs and architectural styles change over time. But according to MIT professor Brent D. Ryan , this approach to designing cities that are of the people and for the people has been absent from most urban design work. Instead, Ryan thinks, today's cities have been saddled with grandiose urban projects that, although they may have flashy veneers and stylistic coherence, lack sensitivity to the diverse needs of city life and the long timeframes over which urban development is evaluated. The result is that designers, developers, and city officials continue to think of urban design as little more than massive building projects that more closely resemble art for art's sake than design for people's sake. "We need to adapt urban design to the kinds of cities and societies that we have," Ryan says. "Perfection is not really achievable." Ryan, an associate professor of urban design and public policy in MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning, has detailed this perspective in a new book, " The Largest Art: A Measured Manifesto for a Plural Urbanism ," recently published by the MIT Press.
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