Victor Muñoz Sanz and Robbert Jan van der Veen
The urgent challenge
Our cities are facing major crises: climate change, inequality, and ecological decline.
Urban design as it is currently practiced is not sufficient.
The authors of this book argue for the urgency of a radical redesign of our urban environment.
Muñoz Sanz and van der Veen put forward the concept of deep conviviality – a vision for urban spaces where humans and non-humans can flourish together.
This means embracing natural and social ecosystems as the foundation for design and seeing urban design as a bridge practice to dissolve contestations through spatial arrangements.
What this book offers
This book is framed as an exercise book, offering 20 prompts designed to trigger new spatial imaginaries and push you to think differently about design.
It aims to provide inspiration and optimism and guides you towards a more fluid, iterative design process.
Key shifts
The authors encourage a shift from static permanence towards permeable, adaptive structures. They emphasize recognizing the spatial needs of non-human companions and seeing landscape as a multifunctional infrastructure.
The core focus must be on ecological and social well-being.
Change comes from within
Muñoz Sanz and van der Veen believe change must come from within our cities, the discipline, and most importantly, from within us, the designers. This book equips readers to address complex challenges and design better cities for all, in a radically inclusive way.
“The structure of this book and the arguments highlighted in the 20 exercises is a wonderful series of unfolding provocations that carries us through various topics at different scales and in frameworks of various complexity…. Most importantly, they will push the designer to think through a stimulating and expansive spectrum of possible scenarios.”
From the foreword by Rahul Mehrotra
