"The autors of Sustainable Urban Desing form part of an increasingly persuasive group demostrating that urban renaissance can make a key contribution to the environment. Their work takes us one step further to realising a twenty-first century characterised by environmentally responsible cities powered by solar energy. As more of us become city dwellers, we must ensure that our urban environment is as dynamic and as energy efficient as possible." Richard Rogers, Richard Rogerds Partnership.

Our future is in cities - by the end of the twenty-first century it is thought that three-quarters of the world's population will be urban. Making these cities healthy, vibrant and sustainable is an excepcional challenge which Sustainable Urban Desing addresses. The book sets out some of the basic principles of the desing of our future cities and, through a series of carefully-selected case studies drawn from UK and European experiencies by leading designers, ilustrates how these ideas can be put into practise.

This work provides a clear coherent view of the important environmental issues in urban desing. The focus is on the physical aspects of the urban environment: the buildings (and their engineering systems), landscaping, transport systems and so forth, and the energy and material flows including water and wastes. Particular emphasis is placed on exciting new energy systems and how we can move towards cities which are more enjoyable, more interesting and more green while using less energy, materials and water.