Urban Paleontology
Book: Urban Paleontology: Evolution of Urban Forms
This book grew out of my graduate thesis at Tsinghua University, under the guidance of Professor Zhu Wenyi in 1997-2000. I am especially grateful for the influence of Mario Gandelsonas and his book Urban Text (1992), which helped shape the early thinking behind this work.
The book introduces Urban Paleontology, an interdisciplinary approach to studying urban form by examining the “remains” of cities—what we describe as “urban fossils.” It brings together ideas from architecture, urban design, and computer-aided spatial analysis to better understand how cities evolve.
Through case studies in Beijing and Savannah, the research explores how this perspective can help us read urban history and inform future development.
Co-authored with Dihua Yang. Published by Universal-Publishers, Boca Raton, Florida, 2008
