This book pulls together a variety of perspectives on urban form and urban design. It contains invited contributions by well-known architects, economists, geographers, sociologists, and planners, fostering a much-needed dialogue between practitioners and theorists of urban planning. The contributions provide inclusive reviews of the state-of-the-art in various fields, as well as develop original and sometimes controversial new ideas. As a whole, they cut across some of the key conceptual lines of demarcation in urban research: The distinct concerns of architects, planners, social scientists and practitioners are probed; cognitive and semiotic perspectives on urban form are contrasted; and the merits of individualistic versus structural explanation are discussed.