CHRA Housing Book Club

Join us on March 13 at 1:30 pm ET for the next CHRA Book Club discussion, where we’ll explore Messy Cities: Why We Can’t Plan Everything — a timely and thought-provoking read for anyone working in housing, urban development, and community-building.

Cities are often imagined as systems that can be neatly planned, regulated, and optimized. Messy Cities challenges that assumption. Through a collection of short, accessible essays, the book argues that cities are at their best when they allow for improvisation, informality, and human creativity — when they embrace complexity rather than trying to eliminate it.

Edited by Dylan Reid, Zahra Ebrahim, John Lorinc, and Leslie Woo, this anthology brings together diverse voices from across the urban spectrum to examine how unplanned moments — informal gathering spaces, adaptive reuse, “desire lines,” and everyday acts of place-making — shape more vibrant, resilient, and inclusive cities.

This book invites us to rethink control, embrace uncertainty, and reflect on how lived experience can inform better housing and urban outcomes.

Book Club Details

📅 Date: March 13

⏰ Time: 1:30 pm ET

📍 Format: Virtual

You don’t need to have finished the book to participate — curiosity and an interest in cities, housing, and communities are more than enough.