Cities and grids: In search of new paradigms

Abstract

The wider global influences of expanded populations, new technologies and economies in both Europe and the Far East are having a direct impact on the pattern and planning of urban form. Joan Busquets, the principal of B Arquitectura I Urbanisme (BAU) in Barcelona, and Professor in Practice of Urban Planning and Design at Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), describes how the urban grid is continuing to evolve with these changes, becoming 'a matrix for innovation within urban development, allowing the creation of sustainable and compact cities', enabling the forming of 'new networks and innovative city systems'. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.