The Works: Anatomy of a City, by Kate Ascher

Ascher’s work reminds me a little of classic books like Castle and Cathedral by David Macaulay–books that describe complex structures and break them down, explain how they were built. But where Macaulay beautifully illustrates the construction process of massive, man-made projects, Ascher goes even further, taking on an entire city. The city that functions as the model for The works is New York, and through effective, colorful illustrations and clear, engaging writing, this book tackles and makes understandable many elements of a large city’s infrastructure. Curious about how traffic tunnels were designed and built under the Hudson river? Or exactly (and I mean exactly) how food makes it from farms across the country to your local urban grocery store? Or how a city like New York meets its needs for electricity (when it alone consumes more of it than the entire country of Portugal!)? All of this, and much, much more is explained–and admirably so, in The Works.