The manner in which global trends affect cities and increase instability is like letting a rising river loose on a house. Global trends create urban flotsam that forms a second skin of the earth. How is this visible and how can it be useful in urban planning? This book answers questions through examples. It contains a manifesto for a general debate of issues, a poetic setting of the theme of the second skin and case studies undertaken in urban situations. With splendid photographs and magnificent conceptual maps and diagrams, the book balances between urban theory, urban pedagogy and urban poetry.