For planning to be successful, design must mean more than simply blindly following the dictates of legislation and regulation – yet losing sight of the importance of the design process is all too often exactly what has happened.

Ron Kasprisin has written a book for students of planning and urban design that reconnects the process of designing with outcomes on the ground, and puts thinking about design back at the heart of what planners do. The book identifies the elements and principles of composition and explores compositional order and structure as they relate to the meaning and functionality of cities. It discusses new directions and methods, outlines the importance of both buildings and the open spaces between them.

Mixing accessible theory, practical examples and carefully designed exercises in composition from simple to complex settings, Urban Design is an essential textbook for classrooms and design studios across the full spectrum of planning and urban studies fields. Not only filled with illustrations and graphics of excellent projects, it gives students tools to enable them to sketch, draw, design and above all, to think.