Book review: visual pollution: advertising, signage and environmental quality by Adriana Portella

In architecture and psychology literature there is now growing interest in the negative consequences that commercial signs can have on the visual quality of urban areas and on people’s quality of life. Visual Pollution by Adriana Portella asks what is needed to enhance visual quality in historic and commercial city centres, and includes chapters on consumer culture, marketing the city, and urban tourism. This book is a welcome addition to an emergent field and hopefully it will inform urban policies that focus on the quality of people’s experience of historic city centres, writes Paulo Rui Anciaes.