SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — The Overhead Wire Media Group, producer of The Overhead Wire Newsletter and The Talking Headways Podcast, announced today the release of the first in its new series of audiobooks devoted to early classics of city planning and urban design: Raymond Unwin’s Town Planning in Practice.
“Town Planning in Practice is one of the classics that launched the practice of city and town planning,” said Jeff Wood, founder of The Overhead Wire. “Many students and academics are aware of these titles but we think relaunching them in audio format will help make them more accessible to a new generation of urban planning afficionados.”
Unwin, a celebrated architect and engineer who helped popularize the Arts and Crafts movement, was one of the first English speaking voices in the town planning movement. Unwin’s Town Planning in Practice: An Introduction to the Art of Designing Cities and Suburbs, was published in 1909 and still resonates with planners and urban designers today. Topics in the book include the organization of government planning powers, the importance of street design and building placements, as well as the idea that “suburbs occupied solely by any individual class is bad – socially, economically and aesthetically.”
“So many of the concepts and terms that we use when discussing cities and towns were originated in Unwin’s book, and it is illuminating to see someone thinking through the principles that create order in urban environments when that was an entirely new field of inquiry,” says Wood. “Books like these created some of the foundations of town planning as a science and are invaluable in understanding how we got where we are – good and bad.”
The Overhead Wire hopes to start a new library of older classics that have not yet been converted to audio. Forthcoming titles will include an early English translation of Viennese Architect Camillo Sitte’s 1889 The Art of Building Cities, Scottish Biologist Patrick Geddes’ 1915 Cities in Evolution, and Lewis Mumford’s 1968 version of The City in History. To get a copy, visit www.theoverheadwire.com where you’ll find links to purchase the audiobook and download a free timestamped PDF reader.
About The Overhead Wire Media Group
Founded in 2014, The Overhead Wire Media Group is a content aggregator and consulting firm committed to delivering insights, data and up-to-the minute news for architects, urban planners, policy makers, municipalities, real estate investors, developers and academics. Through its Talking Headways Podcast, The Overhead Wire Daily Newsletter, and its Overhead Wire Audio Book Series of classic town planning texts, the company is devoted to sharing best practices about thriving places around the globe. For more information visit www.TheOverheadWire.com.
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SOURCE The Overhead Wire
