A basic assumption about the appearance of cities is that they look the way they do because of intentional design decisions made by people or bodies, such as planners and architects. But what if the look of cities had less to do with design and more to do with social, cultural, financial and political processes – as well as the way ordinary citizens interact with them?

To debate this question, Andrew Carter is joined by Richard Williams, Professor of Contemporary Visual Culture at the University of Edinburgh and the author of Why Cities Look the Way They Do, which is the subject of this episode.

This episode is part of the Centre for Cities City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.