Despite the fact that the majority of us now live in towns and cities, we Irish still tend to disparage urban living; ownership of a place in the country remains the ideal. This is probably why we continue to make such a mess of our large population centres and show so little respect for the work of our predecessors.

However, a newly-published book on urban architecture at the start of the new century shows that Ireland is by no means alone in failing to tackle the problems of urban expansion, even if this country has been slower than others to respond to changing circumstances. Reviewing the many cases examined by author Kenneth Powell, certain patterns begin to emerge, not least that city living has always been difficult and prone to defy all efforts at structured planning. One hundred years ago, just 10 per cent of the world's population lived in cities; before the end of the last century that figure had grown to more than 50 per cent and is still climbing - globally 250,000 people move into cities every day, the majority of them in Asia and South America. The drawback to such rapid growth is that the imposition of order becomes almost impossible, and it is significant that the majority of developments Powell considers tend to involve the regeneration of old city centres rather than attempting to grapple with suburban sprawl. But urban renewal will obviously be of particular concern in this country, precisely because escalating land and property prices, coupled with similarly fast-climbing demand, has meant the centres of our towns and cities, so long neglected in favour of alternative sites, are now being redeveloped. Powell quotes the Renaissance architect and theoretician Leon Battista Alberti who pointed out that any building is just a city in microcosm - this certainly needs to be taken into greater account when planning urban regeneration. Cities require not just a sense of civic responsibility but, just as important, of civility. Sound planning will place these necessities at the heart of all decisions. For much of the last century, low-density housing was favoured by urban planners, and this is the reason for so much suburban sprawl in Ireland. Present circumstances indicate that this approach will no longer be feasible in the future and that greater numbers of people will be expected to survive in ever-smaller spaces.

This demands not just greater discipline on the part of those living in new housing, but also more thought in the design and construction of their homes. To date, there is little evidence in Ireland that such new housing has shown any serious preparatory care and this will almost certainly lead to further problems as the stock begins to show signs of ageing. These are some of the negatives of contemporary urban life. Powell, understandably, is more concerned with celebrating the positive aspects of the wave of regeneration which has swept around the world and been made manifest here by such projects as the scheme for Dublin's Temple Bar during the 1990s. Certain features consistently reassert themselves in his survey, one of the most crucial being the importance of good public transport systems. So much devastation to towns and cities around the world during the second half of the 20th century was caused simply by the car being given preferential consideration. Cars scarcely feature in the examples studied by Powell; instead, public transport of the highest quality has been introduced and old sites such as railway stations and depots, which have traditionally occupied large spaces in urban centres, have been overhauled.

There are certainly valuable lessons to be learnt for Ireland, where railway stations - and indeed the entire area of public transport - remain absurdly neglected and underfunded. A number of instances cited by Powell, such as the station quarters created in Stuttgart and Frankfurt, show just what can be done in this respect. So too does his exploration of the regeneration of abandoned industrial sites which exist along the riverfronts of almost every city in the world.

This rediscovery of water has been extraordinarily beneficial in many urban renewal programmes and should be a key feature of whatever scheme is eventually adopted on Dublin's Spencer Dock: so far in the capital, although much of the quaysides have been rebuilt, few new structures show interest in the River Liffey. This contrasts sharply with Rotterdam, for example, where an entire district - the Kop van Zuid - has been created out of largely derelict industrial property and where water is celebrated through the construction of the Erasmus Bridge designed by Van Berkel & Bos. This bridge has become the symbol of Rotterdam's revitalisation and it soon becomes apparent that such symbols are almost as critical to the success of an urban regeneration project as anything more concrete; presumably this is why Dublin Corporation has placed such emphasis on the installation of a piece of sculpture on O'Connell Street. But Powell also stresses other devices which encourage a city's reawakening, arguing that investment in culture "is a surefire route to urban regeneration". This was indisputably true of Temple Bar and it is interesting that Fingal County Council has just finished investing some £11 million in the creation of a new library and arts centre in Blanchardstown. But the most essential element in any programme of urban renewal must be an awareness that the key function of cities is to provide a place to live. Without people, towns and cities have no purpose; the interests and comfort of citizens must therefore come first.

City Transformed by Kenneth Powell is published by Laurence King, price £45 sterling