TWELVE CAUTIONARY TALES

By Gian Piero Frassinelli

These cautionary tales of urbanism are as visionary, terrifying and funny as anything science fiction has managed to produce. Read more 

FOUCAULT'S BOOMERANG:
THE NEW MILITARY URBANISM

By Stephen Graham

The effects on urbanism of the phenomenon whereby the techniques of overseas military action come back to haunt civilians at home. Read more

TWO HUNDRED FIFTY THINGS AN ARCHITECT SHOULD KNOW

By Michael Sorkin

Wise, humane and witty, Michael Sorkin's list of things an architect should know ranges from the feel of cool marble to the the golden ratio. Read more

BASIC PROGRAM OF THE BUREAU OF UNITARY URBANISM

By Attila Kotányi and Raoul Vaneigem

This was one of the foundational texts of urban situationism and a biting critique of the capitalist city. Read more

DISCONTINUITIES

By Henri Lefebvre

In this extract from 'Critique of Everyday Life', a critique of modern capitalism, Lefebvre writes about the role of the city. Read more

URBAN DETECTIVE

By Richard Wentworth

A British artist obsessed with architectural clues, urban oddities and accidental space brings us the case of the rogue orange tree. Read more

THE PNYX AND THE AGORA: 
DESIGNING POLITICS

By Richard Sennett

The theatre is as much a pivotal public space as the city square, a venue in which reality is heightened and attention focused. Read more

128 THINGS ABOUT CITIES

By Edwin Heathcote

1. Time wandering the streets is never wasted.
2. Creative littering: cups impaled on iron railings.
3. The inevitability of dirt. Read more

A PROGRAMME FOR CITY RECONSTRUCTION

By Walter Gropius and Martin Wagner

This 1943 programme for a putative reconstruction of Germany now appears simultaneously quaintly modernist and economically visionary. Read more

HOW RADICAL IS RADICAL URBANISM?

By Justin McGuirk

“Architecture needs to anticipate and facilitate spontaneous urban growth.” Radical urbanism in the 21st century. Read more