Interestingly, after completing Metropolis, I picked up Remote by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, which talks-up home/remote working. Early on in that book, they predicted the working from home movement (greatly accelerated by Covid19) would result in the decline of cities – people would choose to live in cheaper, larger properties out of the city. Being a city person, I disagreed with this statement, and after reading Ben’s Metropolis, I realised why.
It’s easy to label cities as dirty, violent, over-priced, etc, but that’s missing the point. They provide means of collaboration of ideas and resources, social opportunities and much more. Throughout history, cities like Uruk (six thousand years ago) have drawn people to them – to the point now where the majority of people live within them.
This well researched book does have it’s flaws. There are a few odd transitions which seem shoe-horned in, and a few chapters really could’ve used a trim (repeated discussions on the benefits and troubles of walking in a city, too many film plots explained) but otherwise this is an excellent book that I can see myself dipping in and out of in the future.