A survey of pioneering experiments in nine major cities in industrialized and emerging nations to envision solutions to sprawl.

Sustainable, austere, understated, resilient, smart… With environmental emergency looming, many innovative urban projects to reduce pollution and waste are popping up all over the world. But how valuable are such experiments on a global scale? What are their limitations? Can we make a city sustainable without harming the surrounding area? How to tell good ideas from bad? This work examines processes very different in nature and scale – urban objects, but also entire cities – in an attempt to take stock and envision solutions to sprawl.