City Design (carfree.com)

Innsbruck, Maria Theresienstrasse

Aranjuez, Jardines de la Isla

I found an excellent reference for anyone interested in city design.  This reference can be found at: http://www.carfree.com/design/index.html

This book-length website is based on the works of Christopher Alexander and Camille Sitte.  The website consists of 34 chapters and 325 pages, covering subjects ranging from gates to various forms of streets and squares to elements, such as entrances, arcades, galleries, courtyards, singularities, waterfront, and canals.

Spa, Le Pouhon

The author utilizes images, such as the ones seen on this post, to break down city design, one element at a time.  This site is very interesting because old images are used to describe each elements.  The author believes, and I agree, that the automobile has deteriorated all modern day urban areas, including the ones used on this website.  "I believe that much has been lost in the realm of city design, a feeling that had overcome Camillo Sitte more than a century ago. The situation became much worse during the 20th Century. It is for this reason that I have used only old images on this site. Except for a very few places that have not changed materially during the past century, I believe that virtually no modern urban area can claim to be as well designed as the best examples from a century ago. In fact, most ordinary scenes from 1900 are better than virtually all urban settings created since then" (carfree.com).

The images used are actually from postcards, mainly from the period of 1897 to about 1920.  The author describes each image in detail, even getting off the particular subject, for a moment, to fully describe what is happening, either good or bad, in each image.  I recommend this website for   leisure or research in the area of city design.