Author(s): Nicholas De Monchaux
urbanism | Princeton Architectural Press
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Praised in the New York Times for its "intelligent enquiry and actionable theorizing," Local Code: Real Estates is a collection of software tools, design proposals, and theoretical arguments about the future of urban infrastructure and architecture. Local Code combines drawings of over five thousand digitally designed and networked microinterventions for vacant lots in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York in the United States, as well as Venice, Italy, with theoretical essays and information graphics. The book's data-driven layout presents a complex, elegant interface to myriad possible future urban landscapes. Local Code presents a digitally driven, networked approach to urban resilience and environmental justice, and argues that we have just begun to discover the full possibilities of computing and design.
Nicholas de Monchaux is Associate Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at UC Berkeley. He is the author of Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo, winner of the Eugene Emme award from the American Astronautical Society and shortlisted for the Art Book Prize. His design work has been exhibited widely, including at the 2010 Biennial of the Americas, the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale, and San Francisco's SFMOMA. A recipient of the 2013-2014 Rome Prize, he has received additional fellowships from the Macdowell Colony, Hellman Family Fund, Santa Fe Institute, Smithsonian Institution, and Van Alen Institute.