Why read Underground?

Book cover of Underground

Book description

David Macaulay takes us on a visual journey through a city's various support systems by exposing a typical section of the underground network and explaining how it works. We see a network of walls, columns, cables, pipes and tunnels required to satisfy the basic needs of a city's inhabitants.

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Topics

Skyscrapers

Genres

Design

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Underground as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Stephen Graham

Author

Because the ground itself obscures virtually all of the subterranean worlds of cities, the best way to actually represent and visualise them is through drawings and diagrams.

This book opened my eyes – as it has done for many – to the complexity, density, and depth of the foundations, pipes, tunnels, conduits, and infrastructures below cities.

In it, David Macaulay uses his unequalled drawing skills to illustrate everything from sewer valves; skyscraper foundations; the worlds beneath manholes to an amazing cross-section of New York showing shipping lanes, deep transport tunnels, and huge skyscrapers whose hidden, deep pile foundations can be…

From Stephen's list on the subterranean of cities.

Colleen Paeff

Author

Strictly speaking, I’m not sure this should be called a picture book because it has a lot of text, but David Macaulay does such a masterful job at rendering the world beneath our feet, that a list of books about the infrastructure of our cities would be incomplete without it. This book will intrigue anyone and everyone who picks it up–no matter their age.

From Colleen's list on the infrastructure of our cities.