The science of urban design?

What is it about?

We raise some questions about the nature of urban design knowledge, theory and practice. For this we examine the theories of Jacobs, Alexander, Lynch, Cullen, Sitte and Cerdá. We suggest that this work is not and cannot be empirical science but is based in the detailed observation of cities using multiple logics. While there is an emerging science of cities, urban design knowledge is much broader, spanning both natural and social sciences as well as the arts and humanities. We also argue that it is a particular form of diagrammatic socio-spatial knowledge that cannot be reduced to either words or numbers.

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Why is it important?

Knowledge, for Socrates, was found not in the fixed outcomes of a debate but in its very modes of contestation and questioning – in the new questions it opens up, in overcoming the illusions of certainty. Knowledge is to be found in understanding that we do not know; in no field is this more pertinent than in the study of urban design.