Urban Design Since 1945: A Global Perspective
David Grahame Shane
Wiley Press, 2011

Review by Maxinne Rhea Leighton, Associate AIA

David Grahame Shane is a prolific writer with books that include Recombinant Urbanism: Conceptual Modeling in Architecture; Urban Design and City Theory; and his most recent publication, Urban Design Since 1945: A Global Perspective. In this latest book, Shane develops a treatise that charts the world since 1945 and how the world will be radically influenced in urban form with the end of Western hegemony,

These ideas unfold within a framework the metropolis, the megalopolis, the fragmented metropolis, and the global megacity/metacity. Each chapter explores the each urban type illustrate with analysis and case studies. It is Shane’s premise that the megacity is our destination. Post-war urban design produced urban principles that are no longer relevant to the 2lst century; the rapid urbanization of cities in Latin America and Asia are dominant 2lst-century models. Within these grand scale ideas is the voice of the humanitarian observer who reminds us that while half the world lives in cities, one billion live in slums. As with his other writing, Shane presents ideas where the individual can be as much a catalyst within the collective he/she inhabits.