The Well-Tempered City

July 18, 2016
Rose, an urban planner and developer, takes readers on a whirlwind tour of the evolution of cities, from antiquity to the “well-tempered” cities of the future—those that exist in harmony with their dynamic environments, constantly adapting to change. He argues that the next great shift in urban planning must combine the well-regulated planning championed by mid-20th-century systems thinking with the vitality and messiness identified by Jane Jacobs as integral to creating true urban communities. Central to this vision is the metaphor of city as natural organism: living, breathing, creating waste, and undergoing cyclical change. Rose’s tone can be simultaneously overinflated and banal (as is fitting for a book that takes its title from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier), but his conclusions about the future of urban civilization are hard to disagree with; who, after all, would seriously dispute the need for cleaner, greener, more equitable, more efficient, happier, more resilient cities? Rose is clearly passionate about urban development, and the reader who can look past his attempts to connect the notion of the well-tempered city to Buddhist concepts or the structure of a Baroque fugue will be rewarded with a thought-provoking introduction to the future of cities.

July 15, 2016
A creative city planner takes inspiration from the ancients' sense of urban integrity to propound a holistic approach to crafting the city space.Rose, founder of Jonathan Rose Companies and other organizations that focus on environmental, social, and economic solutions to urban issues, delineates a rather grandiose, idealistic vision for cities that is already coming to pass in some places. Modeled on J.S. Bach's work The Well-Tempered Clavier, written in the mid-18th century, Rose's work elucidates "a vast integration that demonstrates both the perfection of the whole and the role of the individual within it." In terms of cities, Rose chisels Bach's rather lofty "qualities" of urban temperament down to five and treats each in order. First, "coherence" means a framework in which to harmonize the city's various programs, departments, and aspirations for growth--what the first Mesopotamian proto-city, Eridu, called meh, "gods' gift to humans...the key to organizing society." Next, "circularity" includes the movement of energy, water, and food within a city in a manner that mirrors nature's own efficient system; a good example is the isolated, utterly self-sustaining Tibetan village of Shey. The next key quality, "resilience," represents a city's capacity to deal with stress and volatility--i.e., challenges of flooding, biodiversity, and green urbanism. "Community" involves the creation of conditions ripe for connectivity and culture for the happiness of all residents. Finally, "compassion," or relieving the suffering of all resident beings, is vital for a healthy city. Rose takes great pains to tidily organize his thoughtful, textbooklike work, using examples both ancient and contemporary, from the evolution of the Chinese city and the brilliant Mayan cities to PlaNYC, the strategic planning of New York City under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who used sophisticated data to the city's advantage. A comprehensive primer for how to contemplate urban spaces as they evolve for the future.

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