Automatic for the City

Chapter 5London

This should be the promise of urban life: the city’s diversity of urban life becoming a source of mutual strength rather than a source of mutual estrangement and civic bitterness.

Richard Sennett, “Civility” Urban Age, 2005

Practical Study Area: Shoreditch

Shoreditch is emblematic of London’s complexity in many ways. It features a distinctive range of uses from employment to residential and from leisure to culture. Its urban fabric features an eclectic mix of building types from different eras. Shoreditch is also subject to an intense process of densification typical of many inner cities across the globe, with multiple developments completed in recent years and many still in the pipeline. As parks and public squares are ...