{"id":9587,"date":"2021-01-05T13:00:47","date_gmt":"2021-01-05T18:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/?p=9587"},"modified":"2021-01-04T21:08:52","modified_gmt":"2021-01-05T02:08:52","slug":"book-review-the-99-invisible-city-a-field-guide-to-the-hidden-world-of-everyday-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/national\/2021\/01\/05\/book-review-the-99-invisible-city-a-field-guide-to-the-hidden-world-of-everyday-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review – The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Authors: Roman Mars and Kurt Kohlstedt (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020)<\/b><\/p>\n

It is not a stretch to say that most contemporary urbanists have come across the 99% Invisible<\/i><\/a> <\/i>radio show at some point over the past decade. Since its start in 2010 as a collaborative initiative between the San Francisco public radio station KALW and the American Institute of Architects in San Francisco, the show that seeks to unearth and explain the many interesting, hidden aspects that shape the built world has grown to be one of the most popular podcasts on iTunes.<\/p>\n

Covering an incredible diversity of topics gathered over its many years\u2014ranging from architecture to technology and objects to history\u2014it was only a matter of time before the decision to publish was made\u2026and The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design<\/i> will not disappoint both its followers and newcomers, alike.<\/p>\n

Given the diversity and density of topics they were working with, authors Mars and Kohlstedt settled on a book format very sympathetic to their show\u2014that is, giving readers a series of short two-to-four page stories of fascinating \u2018ordinary\u2019 and \u2018overlooked\u2019 stuff related to the city. These are organized under the broad categories of Inconspicuous<\/i>, Conspicuous<\/i>, Infrastructure<\/i>, Architecture<\/i>, Geography<\/i> and Urbanism<\/i>, then further within subcategories related to the latter.<\/p>\n

For example, Inconspicuous<\/i> is broken down further into Ubiquitous<\/i>, Camouflage<\/i> and Accretions<\/i> within which a number of short stories belong. Inconspicuous> Ubiquitous<\/i> includes four short stories\u2014one on the many utility codes littering the streets of our cities (Official Graffiti<\/i>) , another on sidewalk markings (Initialed Impressions<\/i>), followed by a short history of breakaway posts (Planned Failure<\/i>) and finally a story looking at the emergency \u2018Knox Boxes\u2019 that sit beside entries of countless buildings (A Little Safer<\/i>).<\/p>\n

The number of stories within each subcategory varies and with 125 stories in total, there is plenty to keep the geeky urbanist satiated. The structure of the book also allows for a more freeform approach to reading the book. In the words of the authors, \u2018\u2026there\u2019s no reason why you can\u2019t pick and choose the path through the book that suits your own journey\u2026\u2019\u2014strolling idly through the content like a fl\u00e2neur across the city.<\/p>\n

The beautiful illustrations of Patrick Vale<\/a> peppered across the content give the book a feel well in keeping with the quirky, informal stories covered in 99% Invisible<\/i>\u2014an artifact perfectly complementing its digital counterpart.<\/p>\n

Given the nature and breadth of the content, an in-depth look at everything covered within the book is well beyond what this quick review can cover, but I will share some of my favourite themes covered\u2014beyond the utility code story markings mentioned above that I\u2019ve always wondered about:<\/p>\n