City and the Super-Organism

Marco Amati teaches urban planning at the Centre for Urban Research at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. His research interests include understanding urban planning history and mapping the benefits of urban forests.

• Prologue.- Introduction.- A city for ‘natural man’.- From an exterior to an interior urban gaze.- The vital city.- Evolving the city.- Urban social hygiene.- The city of organic regularity.- Planning natural communities with open space.- European medicine for American urbanism.- Conclusion: a renewed direction for naturalism in planning.

“The book is overall a great tool to think about the complex narrative relationship between city planning and the sciences, its risks and potentials, which can inform today’s understanding of trends such as ‘urban acupuncture’ … .” (Margherita Tess, Urban Studies, Vol. 60 (6), 2023)