Nothing else damages the earth's environment more than our cities. As the world's population has grown, our cities have burgeoned, and their impact on the environment worsened. Meanwhile, from the isolated, gated communities within Houston and Los Angeles, to the millions of residents of Bombay living in squalor, the city has failed to serve its ideal function—as the cradle of civilization, the engine of culture, and the inspiration for community and citizenship. In Cities for a Small Planet , Sir Richard Rogers, one of the world's leading architects and the designer of the Pompidou Center in Paris, demonstrates how future cities could provide the springboard for restoring humanity's harmony with its environment.Rogers outlines the disastrous impact cities have had and will continue to have on our world, from waste-saturated Tokyo Bay, to the massive plumes of pollution caused by London's traffic, to the depleted water resources of Mexico City. He traces these problems to the underlying social and cultural values that create them—unchecked commercial zeal, selfish individualism, and a lack of community. Bringing to bear concepts such as that of “open-minded” space—places within cities that serve multiple functions such as markets, parks, and sidewalk cafes—he explains how urban design can be used to give citizens a sense of shared experience. The city built with comfortable and safe public space can bring diverse groups together and breed a sense of tolerance, awareness, identity, and mutual respect. He calls for a new theoretical shift in the way cities do business and interact with the environment, arguing that many products come to market and are sold without figuring their social or environmental cost.Rogers goes on to describe the city of the future: one that is sustainable within its own environment; that can make a positive impact on its surroundings; that encourages communication among its citizens; that is compact and focused around neighborhoods; and that is beautiful, a city whose buildings and spaces spark the creative potential of its inhabitants.As our population grows larger, our planet grows smaller. Cities for a Small Planet is a passionate and eloquent blueprint for the cities we must create in response, cities that provide for the needs of both their residents and the earth on which they live.

'Thames & Hudson's new, affordable, covetable 'Pocket Perspectives': beautifully illustrated essays by canonical writers' Financial Times A manifesto for the future of architectural practice and the necessity of good design to modern life, by renowned British architect Richard Rogers. Written in what architect Richard Rogers regarded as a moment of crisis in modern architecture, this essay considers how the way we build - and live - might change for the better. Poor design, monotony and inhuman scale are, Roger argues, not the results of a lack of talent nor the failures of the Modern Movement, but of a surrender to exploitative economic systems and inconsiderate business interests. Best known for his work on the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and the Lloyd's building and Millennium Dome in London, Rogers was perhaps the most original and inventive architect of his time, and was a frequent commentator on the contemporary scene. As a practitioner, he was in the best position possible to appreciate how economic forces can create - or frustrate - good design. A succinct summary of his design philosophies, Richard Rogers on Modern Architecture continues to be a powerful manifesto.