While the Asian city is in transition, diverse settlement patterns and urban forms have given way to commonalities brought about by the dominant forces of globalization. Not withstanding this, the urban design that we perceive today can be traced back to a range of interventionist processes and influences over the centuries. This requires an understanding of historical, cultural, economic and political dynamics that have created the physical condition of the modern Asian city.

In this book Peter Cookson Smith discusses such issues as the conflicts and co-ordinates of heritage; colonizing paradoxes; and the forces that are re-formatting the Asian region through forms of capital growth and distinctive spatial patterns. The book documents the case studies of 20 primate cities within several geographic regions, around which capitals and port cities came into being, and is accompanied by more than 500 drawings and sketches.