Introduction -- The first cities: Babylon and Princess Amytis's garden -- Provins: the legacy of walled cities -- The City of London, Bloomsbury and Richmond: the transformation of the city on the Thames -- Hamilton, Ontario: city beautiful and steeltown -- Chicago: balloons and white flight -- Irvine, California: the ultimate planned suburb -- Singapore: the realm of the philosopher king -- Tanga, Tanzania: colonial town, World Heritage future? -- Kochi, India: the green gem on the Arabian Sea -- Shanghai: creative destruction -- Sô Paulo: no limits to growth -- Babylon revisited- and what that means.