BOOK FORMAT
Paperback, 6 x 8.5 in. / 528 pgs / 300 color.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date 2/29/2012
Out of print

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: SPRING 2012 p. 27

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9789056628444 TRADE
List Price: $35.00 CDN $40.00

AVAILABILITY
Not available

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The Vertical Village

Individual, Informal, Intense

Edited and with text by Winny Mass. Interviews with Alfredo Brillemburg, Hubert Klumpner, Lieven De Cauter, Peter Trummer

Addressing East Asia’s rapid urban transformation, The Vertical Village looks at radical alternatives to the familiar standardized block architecture that has eradicated low-rise, “lighter” varieties of architecture, such as the Hutong in Beijing, Tokyo’s wooden house and the villages of Singapore. These “urban villages” have fostered a connected community living instead of isolating citizens in tower blocks. This volume, the latest publication from The Why Factory, attempts to reconcile the two models, proposing a contemporary “vertical village” that restores neighborhood life to East Asian--and perhaps western--civic centers. It features innovative designs for high-rise structures, detailed case studies for Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, Djakarta, Seoul and Bangkok, plus interviews with Winy Maas, Alfredo Brillemburg, Hubert Klumpner, Lieven De Cauter, Peter Trummer and families living in Taipei (where the originating Why Factory exhibition was held).

Reproduced from the chapter "Diversity" in The Vertical Village, the featured image, above, is captioned "The Tsukishima area of Tokyo derives its identity through difference. The urban structure is composed of small plots, providing a scale that encourages diversity of style and of use."

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FROM THE BOOK

"What qualities characterize healthy communities? They are lively, intimate and diverse. They combine human scale with critical mass and density, offering both individual freedom and social coherence. They grow in an evolutionary way. They are resilient. How can these qualities be described, distilled and transformed into concrete parameters? By studying the work of Christopher Alexander, Jane Jacobs and other urban theorists, we reformulated these qualities into specific criteria that can be used to evaluate communities in various global situations."
- Introduction to the chapter, "Why We Love the Urban Village: The Properties of Communities," reproduced from The Vertical Village.