Introduction

This is a book about cities – cities as the dominant form of human settlement for the future. It is about the transformation that cities are presently undergoing, and about the making of cities – about the ability to influence or even define the urban future by planning and design. Never before has human society gone through a comparable process of urbanization, never before have cities expanded as today. Within a few decennia the process of urbanization has led to agglomerations of unprecedented dimensions. In 1950 New York was, with 12 million inhabitants, the largest city in the world. Today metropolises like Mexico City, São Paulo, Tokyo and Mumbai have far surpassed New York with inhabitants numbering sometimes way beyond 20 million.