Yasmin Ali

Subtitled as '111 Inspiring Ideas for a Better City', LeCool's A Smart Guide to Utopia is a must-have on any discerning citizen's bookshelf. Beautifully-bound and presented hardback edition with silver gilded lettering and yellow-edged paper. It is illustrated with carefully-curated accompanying photos, sketches, infographics and excerpts from architectural presentation drawings, making it a visual feast.

One of the strengths of its textual content is that it is readable to the general community, not just urban planners. It includes essays by contributors which include architects and key urban thinkers, among these city marketing guru Richard Florida and global multidisciplinary design and engineering firm ARUP. There is also input from LeCool editors from around the world including LeCool London, Lisbon, Budapest, Moscow, Vienna and Barcelona, as well as the founding agency.

Inspring and informative links to associated websites populate the footer of many pages, making this a book for the digital ages. The book is indexed, making the ideas easy to find, and the volume is a useful source book or as a primer for concept research on emerging urban innovations.

// With thanks to K-MB Berlin, Smart, and LeCool
// Retails at £20  (24euros)+ p&p, Hardback, 160 pages, available online from LeCool online bookshop

Weblinks

LeCool Bookshop - http://lecoolbook.com
LeCool website (magazines) - here
LeCool Glasgow - here