New Urbanisms: From Neo-Traditional Neighbourhoods to New Regionalism - Theme Cities: Solutions for Urban Problems - page 24

As McCann ( 1995 ) noted, many New Urbanists hope to achieve the kind of 'exu-
berant diversity' found in cites that was lauded by Jacobs. Hence many reviewers
have argued that the creation of what is often called the 'good community' and a
'sense of community' seem to be the essence of New Urbanist design theory (Katz
1994 ; Talen 1999 , 2002 ; Grant 2006 ). Perhaps it is ironic that this search for 'com-
munity', in the sense of more local social interaction, lay behind the designs in the
first Garden City and Perry's neighbourhood units, which were the inspiration be-
hind many contemporary suburbs that actually ended up as only distorted examples
of these original concepts.

2﻽5 Various Types of New Urbanism Ideas

These New Urban ideas have progressed considerably from their origins. It
cannot be considered a singular approach today. A range of related but different
NU approaches have extended many of the ideas since the original Charter, often
promoted by influential and charismatic proponents. Several somewhat distinc-
tive approaches can now be identified within the general rubric of the plural New
Urbanisms and are summarized in subsequent sections, namely: Neo-Traditional
Neighbourhood Design (TND); Smart Growth (SG); Urban Villages (UV); and
Transit Oriented Developments (TOD), while New Regionalism (NR) seems to be
a necessary complement to implement some of the principles.

2.5.1 Traditional Neighbourhood Design

Traditional Neighbourhood Design (TND) and Neo-Traditional Design (NTD)
are essentially different labels applied to the same approach within NU, and the
term TND will be used here to refer to either. TND is probably the approach that
most people associate with NU. It is the approach that has gained the most media
attention, the most celebration, and the most intense planning and academic debate.
The ideas of TND developed largely through the influential work of the architects
and planners, Andres Duany and Elizabith Plater-Zyberk (Krieger 1991 ), as well
as Krier's influence on their own ideas, with heavy reference to Alexander's ideas
of 'timeless ways of building' and what he called the ' pattern language ' of good
urbanism (Alexander 1979 ; Alexander et al. 1977 ). TND is very much design-fo-
cused. It espouses the use of a 'design code' for each community, and strives to
include strong references to local and vernacular architectural traditions. The Town
Centre is a crucial central point to these designs—not as an economic centre, as in
a traditional central business district, but as a focal point of mixed activity that in-
cludes commercial, civic, residential, public and recreational functions. In essence,
TND attempts to design new neighbourhoods (as well as infill redevelopments)
based on traditional town planning principles, to achieve an 'authentic urbanism'
(Duaney and Plater-Zyberk 1992 ; Katz 1994 ). This is all about creating a distinctive