Being Urban Minded: Three Current Debates Around Urban Design Practice by: Alex Krieger
To serve an urban world requires a far broader concept of the processes and forms of urbanization than we tend to acknowledge or deploy from our memory bank of good cities. To be urban-minded means learning from Las Vegas and Venice and Shanghai, but not conflating these into a universal formula for future urbanization. To be urban-minded requires genuine affection for the energy and messy vitality of cities, and seeking inspiration in that vitality rather than distilling it into a few set patterns. To be urban-minded requires an inquiring sensibility and acceptance of multiple inputs—yes, being a generalist, a synthesizing generalist, however, not a dilettante. To be urban minded is to commit to producing the kinds of environments that an urban species deserves and can love.
