CITIES: COMPARISONS OF FORM AND SCALE

Richard Saul Wurman

6 x 9 softcover book with 64 pages of photographs and diagrams of models of 50 significant towns and cities to the scale of 1:43,200 or 1"=3,600'. Produced by Richard Saul Wurman and 61 students of the School of Design, North Carolina State University at Raleigh.

Collection of photographs of clay models of fifty significant towns and cities all to the scale of 1:14,000. Because the models exhibited only the gross topographical and architectural characteristics of each locality, a city's general pattern, shape, and area can be apprehended immediately and compared directly with the form and size of the others included.

The models were the work of a second-year studio in architecture with help from other members of the student body. They were built from white plasticene, balsa wood, and paint to the scale of 1:7200 (600 feet to an inch) and photographically reduced to the scale of 1:14,000 (1200 feet to an inch).

For the most part the settlements are represented at the peak of their historical importance, whether in ancient, medieval, or modern times. Included are Aigues-Mortes, Amsterdam, Angkor, Assisi, Athens, Avila, Babylon, Bruges, Cambridge, Carcassone, Chandigarh, Chartres, Chichén Itzá, Granada, Hook, Karlsruhe, Kristiansund, Lübeck, Machu Picchu, Middelburg, Miletus, Monte Albán, Mont-Saint-Michel, Moscow, New York, Nördlingen, Palmanova, Paris, Peking, Pergamum, Persepolis, Philadelphia, Pompeii, Portofino, Priene Pyramid Complex, Rome, Saarlouis, Sabbioneta, San Gimignano, Savannah, Siena, Tikal, Timgad, Venice, Versailles, and Washington, D. C.

With the publication of his first book in 1962 at the age of 26, Richard Saul Wurman began the singular passion of his life: making information understandable. He chaired the International Design in Aspen in 1972, the first Federal Design Assembly in 1973, followed by the National AIA Convention in 1976, before creating and chairing TED (Technology/Entertainment/Design) conferences from 1984-2002. He created and chaired the TEDMED and eg2006 conferences.

In 1976, Wurman coined the phrase "information architect" in response to the large amount of information generated in contemporary society, which is often presented with little care or order. Wurman said, "I thought the explosion of data needed an architecture, needed a series of systems, needed systemic design, a series of performance criteria to measure it."

A sample spread from this volume can be viewed here.

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