Messy Cities
The Case for Navigating Urban Disorder
John Lorinc editor Zahra Ebrahim editor Dylan Reid editor Leslie Woo editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Coach House Books
Published:17th Jul '25
Currently unavailable, our supplier has not provided us a restock date
Can messiness make our cities more liveable, lively, and inclusive?
Crowded streets, sidewalk vendors, jumbled architecture, constant clamour, graffitied walls, parks gone wild: are these signs of a poorly managed city or indicators of urban vitality?
Messy Cities: Why We Can’t Plan Everything argues that spontaneity and urban workarounds are not liabilities but essential elements in all thriving cities.
Forty-three essays by a range of writers from around the world illuminate the role of messy urbanism in enabling creativity, enterprise, and grassroots initiatives to flourish within dense modern cities.
With pieces on guerrilla beaches, desire lines, urban interruptions, and the inner lives of unlovely buildings written by experts from all walks of life, Messy Cities makes the case for embracing disorder while not shying away from confronting its challenges.
One of Bloomberg Cities Network's 'Summer Reads for Urban Innovators'
"[S]tudents of urbanism looking for an alternative to the straight and narrow path will find much to consider." – Publishers Weekly
"Cities will always grapple with disorder and the best ways to manage it. But one core message embedded in this collection of 43 essays is that it can be helpful for residents and local leaders alike to consider when that “mess,” whether a glut of street vendors or a complicated traffic intersection, is actually an asset." – Bloomberg Cities Network, '5 Summer Reads for Urban Innovators'
"This anthology of (mostly) brief essays celebrates what’s now known as “messy urbanism” – the serendipitous, unplanned ways people shape urban environments, from graffiti to street vending. Appropriately polyphonic, its diverse contributors include urban planners, artists, physicians and geographers." – Emily Donalson, Globe and Mail
"With examples from Toronto and around the world (Mexico City, Cape Town, Los Angeles, Tokyo and points beyond), it’s a book that takes an intentionally scattered – one could say messy –approach to considering the value and the complications of spontaneous and unplanned city building." – Edward Keenan, The Toronto Star
ISBN: 9781552455036
Dimensions: 215mm x 139mm x 12mm
Weight: 498g
300 pages