Vertical: The City from Satellites to Bunkers

by Stephen Graham

Overview

A revolutionary reimagining of the cities we live in, the air above us, and what goes on in the earth beneath our feet

Today we live in a world that can no longer be read as a two-dimensional map, but must now be understood as a series of vertical strata that reach from the satellites that encircle our planet to the tunnels deep within the ground. In Vertical, Stephen Graham rewrites the city at every level: how the geography of inequality, politics, and identity is determined in terms of above and below.

Starting at the edge of earth’s atmosphere and, in a series of riveting studies, descending through each layer, Graham explores the world of drones, the city from the viewpoint of an aerial bomber, the design of sidewalks and the hidden depths of underground bunkers. He asks: why was Dubai built to be seen from Google Earth? How do the super-rich in São Paulo live in their penthouses far above the street? Why do London billionaires build vast subterranean basements? And how do the technology of elevators and subversive urban explorers shape life on the surface and subsurface of the earth?

Vertical will make you look at the world around you anew: this is a revolution in understanding your place in the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781781689967
Publisher:	Verso Books
Publication date:	11/08/2016
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	416
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Stephen Graham is Professor of Cities and Society at the Global Urban Research Unit, based in Newcastle University’s School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape. He is the author of the highly acclaimed Cities Under Siege.

Table of Contents

Preface: Dubai, January 2010 ix

Introduction: Going Vertical 1

Part 1 Above

1 Satellite: Enigmatic Presence 25

2 Bomber: Death from Above 52

3 Drone: Robot Imperium 67

4 Helicopter: Direct Arrival 95

5 Favela: Tenuous City 116

6 Elevator/ Lift: Going Up 129

7 Skyscraper: Vanity and Violence 149

8 Housing: Luxified Skies 174

9 Sky walk/ Skytrain/Skydeck: Multilevel Cities 220

10 Air: Lethal Domes 244

Part 2 Below

11 Ground: Making Geology 281

12 Basement/Cellar: Urban Undergrounds 313

13 Sewer: Sociology and Shit 322

14 Bunker/Tunnel: Subsurface Sanctuaries 340

15 Mine: Extractive Imperialism on the Deep Frontier 365

Afterword 388

Acknowledgements 389

Index 392

Editorial Reviews

Graham’s book digs deep to reveal the elements that are not immediately apparent and will be of interest to those who truly care about shaping urban life for the better.”
—CTBUH Journal (Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat)

“Roll over Jane Jacobs: here’s urban geography as it looks like through the eye of a Predator at 25,000 feet. A fundamental and very scary report from the global red zone.”
—Mike Davis, author of Planet of Slums

“Look, you’re just going to have to read this book … After a while, you begin to wonder whether books like this will be allowed to be published for much longer.”
—Nicholas Lezard, Guardian

“Superb … Graham builds on the writings of Mike Davis and Naomi Klein who have attempted to expose the hidden corporate and military structures behind everyday life.”
—Edwin Heathcote, Financial Times

“A detailed and intense forensics of new urban frontiers, laboratories of the extreme where experiments with new urban conditions are currently being undertaken.”
—Eyal Weizman, author of Hollow Land

“A rigorously researched, pioneering book packed with disturbing and at times astonishing information.”
—Icon

“Vertical is an intellectually demanding book that demands that the reader radically revise how to look at cities. The compelling geo-political parallels between power and verticality make it impossible to see cities the same way.”
—Bookwitty

“Graham’s wonderfully dazzling cross-sectional tour puts forth a powerful argument as to why our conventional ‘flat’ reading of the world needs to be re-calibrated to meaningfully engage the vertically layered reality of society … one of the most important books on cities of the recent past.”
—Erick Villagomez, Spacing

“Graham’s exciting, journalistic study represents illustrative and narrative cross sections of his global research into urbanism, sociology, and telecommunications over the last 25 years. Enthusiastically recommended.”
—Library Journal

“Seeing cities as Gordian knots of geopolitics, [Graham] gathers an impressive range of case studies to bolster his analysis.”
—Nature

From the Publisher