The Temporary City

This book analyzes the role of integrated spatial planning in constructing eco-sustainable urban housing in post-conflict scenarios and investigates two different spaces in an emergency: Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan and Damascus city in Syria. The book presents a new innovative tool that assists in building a successful and sustainable reconstruction after emergencies which corresponds to the planning approach's heterogeneous nature within emergency situations. The same innovative theoretical framework also covers the ramifications of climate change on the urban built environment and reduces its sociological impact on the stricken communities.

Cities are imagined not just as utopias, but also as ruins. In literature, film, art and popular culture, urban landscapes have been submerged by floods, razed by alien invaders, abandoned by fearful inhabitants and consumed in fire. The Dead City unearths meanings from such depictions of ruination and decay, looking at representations of both thriving cities and ones which are struggling, abandoned or simply in transition.