Can there be Science in City Planning?
Klaus Philipsen – Between urban theories that “have no principles” (Wells), which are messy and speculative and a universal formula as the one from Wells/Bettencourt, there must be some middle ground. Michael Batty, a London based architect, planner and geographer expands on the “science of cities” in his paper about “complexity theories” that considers cities as a conglomerate of large scale systems.
Needless to say we won’t have a finite answer to the question posed in the title. Maybe it is sufficient to say this: Even if cities and conglomerations of people behave based on some natural laws much like ice crystals, ants, bees or fire flies, it is obvious that none of the laws we find will conclusively describe all there is to cities.
Reading Development 