New Urbanisms: From Neo-Traditional Neighbourhoods to New Regionalism - Theme Cities: Solutions for Urban Problems - page 18

quent Charter of the New Urbanism in 1996 (Congress for the New Urbanism 1999 ;
Murrain 1996 ).
Basic to the Charter were what were portrayed as 'new' forms of towns and
neighbourhoods that paid attention to various scales of development from regional
setting to streets and buildings. Many of the ideas evolved from modern critiques
of suburban design, with concepts from works such as Alexander's pattern lan-
guage (Alexander et al. 1977 ; Alexander 1979 ). However, students of the history
of urbanism will know that many of the components are actually a return to those
promulgated a century earlier. So NU frequently involves the desire to rediscover
neighbourhood and a sense of community through more human-scale developments
that also reclaim the public realm. In addition, the approach envisages more walk-
able communities and better public transit connectivity as well as a more integrated
approach to metropolitan or city-regional growth. However as Hall ( 1988 , p. 24)
observed
[its] widespread appeal emanates from its all-enabling invocation of 'community', a term
that provides little practical or ideological direction, yet which is vague enough to embody
everybody's hopes.

Indeed, the NU term has become more diffuse in recent years, becoming somewhat
of an umbrella term to cover a set of related or extended ideas, initially mainly
linked to Neo-Traditional Design (NTD) or Traditional Neighbourhood Design
(TND), but which has extended into Smart Growth (SG), Urban Villages (UV), and
more recently into Transit Oriented Development (TOD), while New Regionalism
(NR) ideas also seem relevant, although they have developed from different sourc-
es. Hence it seemed appropriate to use the term 'New Urbanisms', in the plural,
to draw attention to the many types within the movement. Space limitations mean
that this review cannot provide a comprehensive review of all the details of these
various approaches. Rather, it will provide an overview of the problems that led to
the New Urbanism movement, its basic ideas and associated developments, using
examples from many cities. Subsequent sections will review its utility and impact
on current development, as well as ask questions about how new many of the ideas
really are.

2﻽2 Background to the New Urbanism

New Urbanism has grown out of a reaction to some of the perceived ills of the con-
temporary industrial-commercial city. The overarching issue here is urban sprawl
(Duany and Plater-Zyberk 1992 ; Grant 2006 ). New Urbanists argue that the mod-
ern metropolis, particularly the American one, is inherently dysfunctional, and its
sprawl is the spatial expression of this problem (Krier 1991 ; Audirac and Shermyen
1994 ). The Fordist industrial regime and increasing affluence spawned almost uni-
versal car ownership in the developed world by the mid-twentieth century, accom-
panied by planning and land development practices that were biased toward the
supremacy of the automobile. This resulted in cities characterized by endless ex-