THE DEATH AND LIFE OF GREAT AMERICAN CITIES BY JANE JACOBS

The Death and Life of Great American Cities is a provocative, remarkable book that was instrumental in challenging the Modernist conceptions about urban planning and architecture. In the book, Jacobs analyses the characteristics of popular neighbourhoods in the United States, covering topics such as safety, footpaths, parks, identity, functions and diversity, and proposes ideas to create safe, lively and interesting cities. Carlota Marijuán Rodríguez

 "The ballet of the sidewalk" is based on Jacobs' observations of the daily life rituals on Hudson Street, NY, where her house was located. I chose to represent it as a circle, which, on one hand, represents the space as an infinite loop in which the individual actions are always placed in a time and space continuum. On the other hand, "The ballet of the sidewalk" works as a sort of clock in which one can know the time by the kind of activities that are happening: opening of businesses, coffee time, children leaving school…

 "How to create a lively, safe city" is a summary of the main lessons that Jacobs wants to transmit to readers. On a map of Jacobs' Greenwich Village are overlayed the four factors that, according to Jacobs, define a vibrant city: lively streets, continuous network of street life, open spaces that join instead of separate, and a composition of neighbourhoods with distinctive identities. These strategies are explored through sketches and diagrams, always using New York City as a reference.