Our century is the urban century -- a century in which the balance between urban and rural has been tipped with more than half of the world's population now living in cities. It is also a century characterised by an unprecedented urbanisation that has affected both urban form and urban life, and a century where the role of Urban Design has never been so intensified - and so urgent. It is our endeavour with this book to explore emergent theories and practices relating to urban design in order to better understand current processes of urbanisation and to intervene in our built environments with a focus on the quality of life in them. Through a series of articles and projects, Musings -- an urban design anthology brings together researchers, practitioners and students from the Urban Design Programme at the Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology, Aalborg University with the aim of providing a multilayered and nuanced perspective on the discipline of urban design -- one that explores a number of optics through which urban design can be reflected upon, and ways in which the contemporary built environment can be intervened with. In this way the book navigates new frontiers in search of a better understanding of emerging urban culture. This journey presents a varied account of the urban design field through four chapters that reveal core themes framing both the theoretical and practical challenges of contemporary urbanity: Performativity, Mobility, Transformation, and Design & Method. Illustrating the direct relationship between research and teaching in the Urban Design Programme, the book investigates the themes through research and through project work of students at the Bachelor and Masters level. It is also the aim of this book to encourage continued discussion in the field of urban design through this - a contribution of our musings - manifested here in the theory, practice and production generated in the Urban Design Programme at Aalborg University.
