Why urban design is larger than architecture: the foundational qualities of urban design, examples and practitionersUrban design in practice is incremental, but architects imagine it as scaled-up architecture -- large, ready-to-build pop-up cities. This paradox of urban design is rarely addressed; indeed, urban design as a discipline lacks a theoretical foundation. In The Largest Art, Brent Ryan argues that urban design encompasses more than architecture, and he provides a foundational theory of urban design beyond the architectural scale. In a "declaration of independence" for urban design, Ryan describes urban design as the largest of the building arts, with qualities of its own.
