Form Based Codes: A Guide for Planners, Urban Designers, Municipalities, and Developers 1st Edition

On a recent project my assignment was to create a FBC for a local community that did not have codes. This book was informative, and helped me write codes for the town. It is a good step by step process book in order to do a great FBC and TOD (Transportation Orientated Design) community

This book serves as a great introduction to Form Based Codes. It presents the fundamentals of Form Based Codes, separates them from other Code types, and presents a step by step process for developing a Code for your community.

very informative, clear-cut guide for creating a form based code

Form Based Codes provides an excellent ways to understand how design codes works in various stages in urban design field. I think this book guides very clear description in terms of preparing design codes and the management process. The material in this book illustrates excellently relationship between design and planning principles towards high quality environment. As an Urban Designer and Landscape Architect, I would like to express a great appreciation and many thanks to all authors.

The problem is not so much the reference text, but the unwillingness of the entrenched bureaucracy to change. This text is valuable only if the decision-makers are receptive to the featured concepts.

The version I received requires a good magnifier to see the charts and other exhibits. Unless you plan to pore over the pages, close up, this is not the book for you. The infromation is outstanding but the presentation is difficult at best.

A good form-based code depends on sophisticated design insights. But the book's reason for being is to explain the job to people without sophisticated design insights. (How else to change an entire built environment in a hurry?) Hence its incredible level of detail, right down to the best typography to use in presenting the proposed code. The book sets a floor: followed faithfully, it can enable diligent but uncreative professionals to produce a better form-based code than they might otherwise. That form-based code in turn will enable diligent but uncreative professionals to produce a better town or neighborhood than they might otherwise. But will that floor over time become a ceiling? Predictable outcomes are what residents want; but creativity isn't predictable.Full review at [...]

This is a good book rich with resources to easily understand why Form-Based Codes are needed to improve the formless nature of sprawl. The book does an excellent job of making practitioners understand how to go about putting together a Form-Based Code. The materials in the book are well-organized and presented with clear graphics. For the case studies -- especially where the Form-Based Codes have been implemented -- it would have been great to see images of what improvements in the built environment were actually achieved. Regardless, if you are an architect, planner or urban designer, get this book as it will enable you to write effective Form-Based Codes and help create better public realms.