How do we get the most out of big city life?

How to deal with the challenges of urban life? Whether we were born in a big city or just moved there later, we often focus on the negatives of city life. Waiting in traffic jams, noise pollution, alien faces, expensive restaurants. Yet the other side of being urban - the diverse gastronomic, cultural offerings, the vibrant energy, the never-ending feeling that the number of possibilities is endless - is truly magical. The more we immerse ourselves in it, the more likely we are to find places where we feel good and can be ourselves. The volume is not a textbook or a travel guide, but rather a kind of manual. Hugo Macdonald, a journalist for design, architecture and urban planning, will not only help us tackle the challenges of being a big city, but also how we can make the city more livable. HUGO MACDONALD is a London-based critical and professional consultant in urban planning, architecture and design. Before moving to the capital, he studied Arabic and modern history at the University of Cambridge. Throughout his career, he has been deputy editor-in-chief of Wallpaper * magazine's website and then design editor of Monocle magazine, where he appeared on a weekly basis as the host of Monocle's radio design and architecture program, Section D. After making a short detour to Ilse Crawford as a brand director at his design consulting firm, Studioilsen, he founded his own company. His writings have appeared in the columns of the Financial Times, the Guardian, the Modern Design Review and the Journal of the London Society, among others.