ABSTRACT
Urban design, the art of city building, is concerned with the methods used to organize and structure the urban realm as distinct from the detailed design of the private domain. This book deals with one aspect of urban design: the role, function and form of ornament and decoration in the city. The book is written from the perspective that all development should be judged as an attempt to decorate the city. Alexander has suggested that each increment of development should aim to ‘heal’ or make ‘whole’ the city (Alexander, 1987). The thesis presented here accepts this notion but advocates the primacy of ornament and decoration in the process of unifying parts of the city into comprehensive wholes. The thesis that each increment of development should be seen as an attempt to decorate the city does not conflict with the idea that urban development results from consideration of such practical matters as function, use, cost, economic location and available finance: the city would stagnate and die without due consideration being given to these prerequisites of development. However, having solved the practicalities of development, the ultimate criterion for evaluating any addition to the city is whether that increment decorates the city.
