The city as a project - Aureli, Pier Vittorio (Ruby Press, 2013)
The city is often depicted as a sort of self-organizing chaos. This collection of essays, makes the case for the opposite hypothesis -- that the city is always the result of political intention, often in the form of specific architectural projects. Cities are shaped not only by material forces, but also by cultural and didactic visions. In challenging the split between theory and practice,the book reveals the powerful ways in which the city arises, across more than two thousands years of history, from the constant interaction between ideas and spatial conditions.