Bertaud has a unique ability to enliven analysis with stories of success and failure in city development that range over a long period and a wide geography. The result is a cautionary tale best summed up by his comment that planners should be 'nonvisionary but competent'—focused ruthlessly on data.
Dame Kate Barker, author of Housing: Where's the Plan?
Compelling and thought-provoking, Order without Design is a must-read for anyone interested in urban and regional planning. Informed by decades of observation and practice in cities worldwide, it is a timely call for economists and planners to forge collaborations in meeting the needs and challenges of our cities, manage urban expansion or shrinkage, sustain access and mobility, and regulate land development and built form, to name but a few.
Weiping Wu, Professor of Urban Planning, Columbia University; author of The Chinese City
Alain Bertaud challenges the norm in developing new cities; master plan it, build it, thereafter the jobs and people will come! Bertaud encourages those of us in the fields of urban planning and urban economics to move forward together to better understand the dynamics of city structure and building form, in order to develop livable and sustainable cities for the future. He arms us with an understanding of easily digestible formulae and graphs that span the topics of planning, mobility, and affordability that will undoubtedly influence a new generation to break out of their siloes and integrate across horizontals.
Michael Koh, Fellow, Centre for Liveable Cities, Singapore
Alain Bertaud is one of the world's great urbanists. He straddles the world of urban economics and urban planning—and draws forth the best of both fields. This book is a fascinating tour-de-force of clear thinking and real-world experience. Like Alain, it is wise, witty, and deeply insightful. Anyone who cares about cities throughout the world should read this book and grapple with Alain's incisive intellect.
Edward Glaeser, Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics, Harvard University; author of Triumph of the City
Definitely recommended, this is now one of my favorite books on cities.
Marginal Revolution
Order without Design is a work with a clear vision for urban policy—a magnum opus from one of the twenty-first century's great city planners. Similar to Jane Jacobs's The Death and Life of the Great American City, Bertaud's book manages to weave together theory and practice in a way that will be eye-opening to the curious urbanite and enriching to the practicing professional. If city planning has a future, its contours can almost certainly be found here.
City Journal
I am indebted here to Alain Bertaud whose most recent book Order Without Design best articulates his view about cities as labour markets. If you love cities that view might seem a bit reductionist, but it is a pretty good description. A well-functioning labour market makes possible every other aspect of urban life.
Transport Minister for New Zealand, Speech to Government Economics Network 2019 Conference
