{"id":2603,"date":"2013-08-13T13:00:07","date_gmt":"2013-08-13T17:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/?p=2603"},"modified":"2013-08-13T20:39:34","modified_gmt":"2013-08-14T00:39:34","slug":"book-review-urbanism-without-effort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/2013\/08\/13\/book-review-urbanism-without-effort\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review \u2013 Urbanism Without Effort"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Author: Charles R. (Chuck) Wolfe\u00a0(Island Press E-ssentials, 2013)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Urbanism without effort<\/em>\u00a0is what happens naturally when people congregate in cities\u2014based on the innate interactions of urban dwellers that occur with one another and the surrounding urban and physical environment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In Urbanism Without Effort<\/i><\/a>, an e-book published under the Island Press E-ssentials program, Charles R. (Chuck) Wolfe examines how we can better understand the natural underlying relationships between cities and the people who live there. Throughout the book, Wolfe repeatedly reminds us of the importance of our own individual observations in creating the \u2018urbanism without effort,\u2019 which he believes is the key to creating lasting and sustainable places.<\/p>\n

Wolfe is a Seattle-based land use and environmental law attorney. He teaches land use at the University of Washington and contributes regularly to several publications including The Atlantic Cities<\/a>, The Atlantic<\/a>, The Huffington Post<\/a>, Grist<\/a>, seattlepi.com<\/a>, and Crosscut.com<\/a>\u2014as well as his own blog, myurbanist.com<\/a>. But this book is based on more than his professional experiences; as the son of a city planner, he has spent much of his life observing and thinking about cities around the world. As such, Urbanism Without Effort<\/i> represents a professional, personal and intellectual adventure.<\/p>\n

Although steeped in traditional urban planning concepts, Wolfe bypasses the traditional academic planning debates and instead presents a resident-centred approach to urbanism, based on citizen observation. The book is augmented by a visually stunning collection of photographs taken by the author over a lifetime of travel to cities around the world. Wolfe\u2019s keen eye for capturing the urban spirit of places highlights what unplanned places can teach us about creating high quality communities. The result combines a strong intellectual understanding of urban planning theory with a unique ability to capture the essence of everyday urban life.<\/p>\n

Wolfe believes that there is a fundamental relationship with people and cities that has always existed. This innate relationship is what makes people comfortable with where they live, who lives around them, and what goes on around them. As a result, \u201cthe best urbanism is often the urbanism we already have\u201d\u2014or in other words\u2014\u2018urbanism without effort.\u2019 This book looks at how we can enable our cities to evolve, while allowing for the \u201cunexpected elements of human settlement and movement\u201d that history has shown create some of our most cherished urban places.<\/p>\n

Context is Key<\/h3>\n

Urbanism Without Effort<\/i> starts with the assertion that many contemporary trends in urbanism, such as transit-oriented development, complete streets or carbon neutrality, \u201cunderemphasize important cues from the rich backstory of urban history.\u201d Just as ancient cities like Lisbon were once rebuilt on what existed before, Wolfe believes the many of the issues surrounding today\u2019s cities are universal and timeless no matter how they are labeled or described, and argues that our current urban planning buzzwords are simply another generation of rebuilding.<\/p>\n

By focusing on trends such as pop-up, guerilla, green, transit-oriented, etc.\u2014Wolfe believes that we lose sight of the fact that the most enduring, vibrant aspects of city life are not engineered by planners. Indeed, without the historical cues of a given place, \u201cwe are left with merely catchy ideas, plucked from a catalog of trendy, oversubscribed options.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a result of researching and writing this book, Wolfe now focuses \u201cmore on the implicit and organic evolution of urbanized areas rather than immediately embracing incomplete, popularized and\/or prescribed urbanist labels, metrics, or points of view.\u201d This viewpoint is a refreshing one in today\u2019s urban discourse, where\u2014too often\u2014desired universal outcomes of sustainability and livability are advanced indiscriminately, regardless of context or location.<\/p>\n

Urbanism\u00a0Without Effort<\/i> is not a diatribe against tactical urbanism, or pop-up urbanism, but rather a critique of the \u2018urban pied-pipers\u2019 who propose uniform solutions for communities without thinking about the context of the place. The book calls on us to understand places \u201cideally based on personal experience and observation\u201d which contribute to the urbanism we seek, and then carefully apply only solutions that work in the given local context and not just because other cities are doing it.<\/p>\n

This may result in trendy ideas, such as parklets or food trucks that may not naturally belong in a place working in a particular context. For example, he celebrates Vancouver\u2019s Keys to the Streets<\/i><\/a> public pianos as a current urban trend that works well in a recent guest post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Urban Observations in a Digital Age<\/h3>\n

One of the ironies of Urbanism Without Effort<\/i> is it\u2019s e-book format. Throughout the book, Wolfe celebrates age old principles in a very modern means. This paradox is not lost on Wolfe, indeed, he openly celebrates it. He says he has seem more community form through the possibility of contemporary technologies\u2014including e-books\u2014than through local book talks where people want to adapt his principles on a hyper-local scale.<\/p>\n

Wolfe really likes the ability of e-books to create community of interest with people from around the world. He has made friends and corresponded with people all over the world\u2014India, South Africa, and Portugal to name a few examples\u2014via email, Facebook and Twitter as a result of this project. Unlike many North American readers, this global audience can observe first hand how the ideas put forth in the book resonate in communities that can look back longer than 1860\u2019s when cities like Seattle and Vancouver were founded.<\/p>\n

Concluding Thoughts<\/h3>\n

Urbanism Without Effort<\/i> is a helpful book for city observers to pause and reflect on how their own neighbourhoods have evolved until now, and how they might be improved in the future. While this book lacks\u2014and intentionally avoids\u2014any prescriptive solutions to city design, it reminds the reader that the quest for great places is not necessarily found in the classroom or city hall, but in our communities and favourite places. Readers will come away motivated to find, experience and document their own favourite places find ways to apply effortless urbanism in their own neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Yuri Artibise<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0is a public policy analyst and social media specialist. Through his Yurbanism brand, he explores the \u2018Y\u2019 of urbanism by sharing ways to make our cities more livable, community-oriented places one block at a time. He currently works with PlaceSpeak, an online location-based community consultation platform.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author: Charles R. (Chuck) Wolfe\u00a0(Island Press E-ssentials, 2013) Urbanism without effort\u00a0is what happens naturally when people congregate in cities\u2014based on the innate interactions of urban dwellers that occur with one another and the surrounding urban and physical environment. In Urbanism Without Effort, an e-book published under the Island Press E-ssentials program, Charles R. (Chuck) WolfeContinue reading “Book Review \u2013 Urbanism Without Effort”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6024,"featured_media":2604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[413,422,426,23],"tags":[437,438,461,462,446],"class_list":["post-2603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-neighbourhoods","category-streetscape","category-urban-design","tag-book-review","tag-books","tag-chuck-wolfe","tag-public-space","tag-urbanism"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBook Review \u2013 Urbanism Without Effort - Spacing National<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/2013\/08\/13\/book-review-urbanism-without-effort\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Book Review \u2013 Urbanism Without Effort - Spacing National\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Author: Charles R. (Chuck) Wolfe\u00a0(Island Press E-ssentials, 2013) Urbanism without effort\u00a0is what happens naturally when people congregate in cities\u2014based on the innate interactions of urban dwellers that occur with one another and the surrounding urban and physical environment. In Urbanism Without Effort, an e-book published under the Island Press E-ssentials program, Charles R. (Chuck) WolfeContinue reading "Book Review \u2013 Urbanism Without Effort"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/2013\/08\/13\/book-review-urbanism-without-effort\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing National\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-08-13T17:00:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-08-14T00:39:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/Wolfe_UrbanismWithoutEffort-Cover.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1033\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Yuri Artibise\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Yuri Artibise\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/2013\/08\/13\/book-review-urbanism-without-effort\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/2013\/08\/13\/book-review-urbanism-without-effort\/\",\"name\":\"Book Review \u2013 Urbanism Without Effort - Spacing National\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/2013\/08\/13\/book-review-urbanism-without-effort\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/2013\/08\/13\/book-review-urbanism-without-effort\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/Wolfe_UrbanismWithoutEffort-Cover.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-08-13T17:00:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-08-14T00:39:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/#\/schema\/person\/5b28f95b74f26de66992b19c937170f9\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/2013\/08\/13\/book-review-urbanism-without-effort\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/2013\/08\/13\/book-review-urbanism-without-effort\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/2013\/08\/13\/book-review-urbanism-without-effort\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/Wolfe_UrbanismWithoutEffort-Cover.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/Wolfe_UrbanismWithoutEffort-Cover.jpg\",\"width\":1033,\"height\":1560},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/2013\/08\/13\/book-review-urbanism-without-effort\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Book Review \u2013 Urbanism Without Effort\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing National\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Architecture, Urban Deisgn, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/#\/schema\/person\/5b28f95b74f26de66992b19c937170f9\",\"name\":\"Yuri Artibise\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/00e985757fba9daa86cf959353529df9?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/00e985757fba9daa86cf959353529df9?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Yuri Artibise\"},\"description\":\"Yuri Artibiseis an experienced public policy advisor and digital engagement specialist with a passion for urban planning and community participation. He is the Executive Director of the Vancouver City Planning Commission, the principle of Yurbanism, an urban engagement and communications consultancy, and an elected director of the Co-operative Housing Federation of British Columbia.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/yuriartibise.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/author\/yuriartibise\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Book Review \u2013 Urbanism Without Effort - Spacing National","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/2013\/08\/13\/book-review-urbanism-without-effort\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Book Review \u2013 Urbanism Without Effort - Spacing National","og_description":"Author: Charles R. (Chuck) Wolfe\u00a0(Island Press E-ssentials, 2013) Urbanism without effort\u00a0is what happens naturally when people congregate in cities\u2014based on the innate interactions of urban dwellers that occur with one another and the surrounding urban and physical environment. In Urbanism Without Effort, an e-book published under the Island Press E-ssentials program, Charles R. (Chuck) WolfeContinue reading \"Book Review \u2013 Urbanism Without Effort\"","og_url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/2013\/08\/13\/book-review-urbanism-without-effort\/","og_site_name":"Spacing National","article_published_time":"2013-08-13T17:00:07+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-08-14T00:39:34+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1033,"height":1560,"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/Wolfe_UrbanismWithoutEffort-Cover.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Yuri Artibise","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spacing","twitter_site":"@Spacing","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Yuri Artibise","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/2013\/08\/13\/book-review-urbanism-without-effort\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/2013\/08\/13\/book-review-urbanism-without-effort\/","name":"Book Review \u2013 Urbanism Without Effort - Spacing National","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/2013\/08\/13\/book-review-urbanism-without-effort\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/2013\/08\/13\/book-review-urbanism-without-effort\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/Wolfe_UrbanismWithoutEffort-Cover.jpg","datePublished":"2013-08-13T17:00:07+00:00","dateModified":"2013-08-14T00:39:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/#\/schema\/person\/5b28f95b74f26de66992b19c937170f9"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/2013\/08\/13\/book-review-urbanism-without-effort\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/2013\/08\/13\/book-review-urbanism-without-effort\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/2013\/08\/13\/book-review-urbanism-without-effort\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/Wolfe_UrbanismWithoutEffort-Cover.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/Wolfe_UrbanismWithoutEffort-Cover.jpg","width":1033,"height":1560},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/2013\/08\/13\/book-review-urbanism-without-effort\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Book Review \u2013 Urbanism Without Effort"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/","name":"Spacing National","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Architecture, Urban Deisgn, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/#\/schema\/person\/5b28f95b74f26de66992b19c937170f9","name":"Yuri Artibise","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/00e985757fba9daa86cf959353529df9?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/00e985757fba9daa86cf959353529df9?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Yuri Artibise"},"description":"Yuri Artibiseis an experienced public policy advisor and digital engagement specialist with a passion for urban planning and community participation. He is the Executive Director of the Vancouver City Planning Commission, the principle of Yurbanism, an urban engagement and communications consultancy, and an elected director of the Co-operative Housing Federation of British Columbia.","sameAs":["http:\/\/yuriartibise.com"],"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/author\/yuriartibise\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6024"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2603"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2655,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2603\/revisions\/2655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}