New Urbanism promotes the creation and restoration of diverse, walkable, compact, vibrant, mixed-use communities composed of the same components as conventional development, but assembled in a more integrated fashion, in the form of complete communities. These contain housing, work places, shops, entertainment, schools, parks, and civic facilities essential to the daily lives of the residents, all within easy walking distance of each other. New Urbanism promotes the increased use of trains and light rail, instead of more highways and roads. Urban living is rapidly becoming the new hip and modern way to live for people of all ages. Currently, there are over 500 New Urbanist projects planned or under construction in the United States alone, half of which are in historic urban centers.
- NewUrbanism Homepage
- NewUrbanism Congress
- NewUrbanism Resources
- The Seaside Institue
An Example NewUrbanist community in Florida. Criticized for becoming an "elitist resort" it still seems a fairly powerful example of why these design principles are important for livability.
Related Resources
- The Not So Big House
- The inspiration for The Not So Big House came from a growing awareness that new houses were getting bigger and bigger but with little redeeming design merit. The problem is that comfort has almost nothing to do with how big a space is. It is attained, rather, by tailoring our houses to fit the way we really live, and to the scale and proportions of our human form.
http://www.notsobighouse.com/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/95801/ref%3Dad%5Fb%5Fhg%5F2/002-7837451-3561626
http://www.architectureweek.com/2000/1004/design_1-1.html
http://www.architectureweek.com/2000/0726/design_1-1.html - A Pattern Language
"A Pattern Language" is a book by ChristopherAlexander in which he lists 253 architectural patterns which are destructive to human life and then describes how to change your environment to solve it. Lots of really fasinating ideas.
http://www.patternlanguage.com/ (The official site but kinda yukky)
http://downlode.org/etext/patterns/ (A condensed but conveniently browsable version of the patterns and solutions).- Car Free Cities
- A book with a web site dedicated to it. Seems to largely be an actual design based on the concepts of "A Pattern Language". Lots of pictures and examples of how to build a car free city.