X urbanism raises questions about the form of the city by examining various configurations of urban space analyzing them in ways that blur the traditional opposition between fi for most of his career architect mario gandelsonas has been exploring the american city through his writings designs lectures and above all through a series of . X urbanism raises questions about the form of the city by examining various configurations of urban space analyzing them in ways that blur the traditional opposition between figure and ground. Through a series of remarkable analytical drawings x urbanism opens up the architectural discourse to the questions raised by the american city the generation of new configurations of urban space and form and the production of different conditions of urban viewing x urbanism presents both an examination and a visual deployment of the formal properties of the american city blurring the traditional oppositions between fabric and object figure and ground writing and reading it reveals . The city as the object of architecture mario gandelsonas is a professor of architecture at princeton university and a partner in the design firm agrest gandelsonas architects this essay will appear as a chapter in his forthcoming book x urbanism architecture and the american city princeton architectural press 1999. X urbanism raises questions about the form of the city by examining various configurations of urban space analyzing them in ways that blur the traditional opposition between figure and ground this title serves as a visual lexicon of the formal properties of american urbanism fabric void grid wall that reveal the hidden structure of the cities new york los angeles boston chicago new haven des moines and atlantic city in the process x urbanism confounds our expectations it shows