Good cities are places of social encounter. Creating public spaces that encourage social behavior in our cities and neighborhoods is an important goal of city design. How do we make sociable streets? This book shows us how these ordinary public spaces can be planned and designed to become settings that support an array of social behaviors. Through carefully crafted research, The Street systematically examines people’s actions and perceptions, develops a comprehensive typology of social behaviors on the neighborhood commercial street and provides a thorough inquiry into the social dimensions of streets.

Energy demands of cities need to be met more sustainably. This book analyses the technical and social systems that satisfy these needs and asks how methods can be put into practice to achieve this.  Drawing on analytical tools and case studies developed at Imperial College London, the book presents state-of-the-art techniques for examining urban energy systems as integrated systems of technologies, resources, and people.

Sustainability is a powerful force that is fundamentally reshaping humanity’s relationship to the natural world and is ushering in the Age of Integration. The move from well-intentioned environmental friendliness to the higher bar of integral sustainability and regenerative design demands a new type of design professional, one that is deeply collaborative, ethically grounded, empathically connected and technologically empowered.

The City is the Home of Prosperity. It is the place where human beings find satisfaction of basic needs and access to essential public goods. The city is also where ambitions, aspirations and other material and immaterial aspects of life are realized, providing contentment and happiness. It is a locus at which the prospects of prosperity and individual and collective well-being can be increased.

The Arab world has played a very important role in the history of urbanization. It is the region where urban civilization was born and where urban matters have been addressed for centuries. The Arab urban civilization, as it has evolved over the past millennium, has generated some of the most beautiful cities in the world.

With 80% of its population living in cities, Latin America and the Caribbean is the most urbanized region on the planet. Located here are some of the largest and best-known cities, like Mexico City, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Bogota, Lima and Santiago. The region also boasts hundreds of smaller cities that stand out because of their dynamism and creativity.

Climate change is one of the most significant global challenges facing the world today. It is also a critical issue for the world’s cities. Now home to over half the world’s population, urban areas are significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions and are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

As cities undergo vast changes due to industrialization, urbanization, and globalization, environmental considerations assume a growing importance in the urban planning processes of an increasing number of governments around the world. Several cities and regions around the world have already enacted policies that signal the emergence of a paradigm of sustainability in eco-cities planning.

Packed with conceptual sketches and photos, real world case studies and green construction details, Handbook of Green Building Design and Construction provides a wealth of practical guidelines and essential insights that will facilitate the design of green buildings. Written in an easy to understand style, the Handbook draws on over 35 years of personal experience across the world, offering vital information and penetrating insights into two major building rating systems such as LEED and BREEAM both used extensively in the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Climate change is one of the most dangerous threats ever faced by humankind. Fuelled by two powerful human-Induced forces that have been unleashed by development and manipulation of the environment in the industrial age, the effects of urbanization and climate change are converging in ways which threaten to have unprecedented negative impacts on urban quality of life, and economic and social stability.

UN-Habitat’s research shows that a total of 227 million people in the world have moved out of slum conditions since 2000. However, the absolute number of slum dwellers has actually increased from 776.7 million in 2000 to some 827.6 million in 2010.