This book explores an interpretation of the urban environment as an evolutionary entity. Its multi-disciplinary approach considers the nature of the city and its design through the consideration of organic and architectural analogies.

This innovative book explores an alternative interpretation of the town or city not as an overall fixed design product, but as an evolutionary entity, a product of open-ended adaptive change over time. In doing so the book considers the nature of what a city is' - and how therefore it might be designable' - particularly through consideration of organic and architectural analogies . While centrally grounded in the field of urban design, it is eclectic in drawing from a variety of design, policy and scientific disciplines. In doing so, the book weaves together philosophies from Leviathan to Le Corbusier, geometries from fractals to ziggurats, and design processes from grand visions to street-level codes. The book provides novel insights and understanding of interest to those in the urban design related professions, as well as to a wider audience, from those interested in the history of urbanism to current developments in complex systems, from the scale of buildings to cities.

Reviews of Streets & Patterns, by the same author: "classic, incisive, thought-provoking" - Journal of the American Planning Association "a fascinating contribution, beautifully published" - Municipal Engineer "one of the most exciting books we have read this year" - Transport Reviews