The cover of "49 Cities," project by Amale Andraos, Dan Wood, Yasmin Vobis, Michael Alexander, Hilary Zaic, Jose Esparza, Anne Menke, Sam Dufaux, Jenny Lie Andersen, Alexander Maymind, Willem Boning

…Yasmin Vobis, Michael Alexander, Hilary Zaic, Jose Esparza, Anne Menke, Sam Dufaux, Jenny Lie Andersen, Alexander Maymind, and Willem Boning is a super survey of fantastical unrealized city plans – 49 of them – depicted graphically in such a way that they begin to have a conversation, and there will be a book launch event for the second edition tomorrow at 7pm at Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York…

What links Wright and Le Corbusier with the Spanish Conquistadors and Archizoom? + Is a city really a tree after all? Can it be a mound of dirt? Or should it really be a 200-story floating pyramid? + What city form has been used throughout history in response to foreign invasions and warfare? + Did Buckminster Fuller and Cedric Price really “do” density better than Paolo Soleri? + Who was bold enough, or perhaps megalomaniacal enough, to propose a new city for 10 million people in the middle of a bay? + Was suburbia actually invented to limit damages during a nuclear attack? + How can 6 million people be completely engaged in “efficient consumption”? + Which architect proposed a city composed of 100% greenspace? + How many apartments can be built in a building stretching from Baltimore to Washington? + Can a city shaped like an amoeba really combat urban chaos? + Which imaginary cities can best be used as a model for the ecological city of the future?

49 Cities sets out to crunch the numbers of several centuries of unrealized urbanism, all the way from the Roman city to the great utopian projects of the 20th century. Through plans, sections, diagrams, charts and scale drawings, 49 cities are observed statistically and presented in an unprecedented comparative study, the result of a research project conducted over several years.

(order the book from the Storefront Bookstore, or visit the Work AC website for more info)