Sustaining Suburbia through New Urbanism: Toward Growing, Green, and Just Suburbs (original) (raw)
Related papers
Journal of the American Planning Association, 1996
Nothing inherent in the discipline steers planners either toward environmental protection or toward economic development --or toward a third goal of planning: social equity. Instead, planners work within the tension generated among these three fundamental aims, which, collectively, I call the "planner's triangle," with sustainable development located at its center. This center cannot be reached directly, but only approximately and indirectly, through a sustained period of confronting and resolving the triangle's conflicts. To do so, planners have to redefine sustainability, since its current formulation romanticizes our sustainable past and is too vaguely holistic. Planners would benefit both from integrating social theory with environmental thinking and from combining their substantive skills with techniques for community conflict resolution, to confront economic and environmental injustice.
Nothing inherent in the discipline steers planners either toward environmental protection or toward economic development --or toward a third goal of planning: social equity. Instead, planners work within the tension generated among these three fundamental aims, which, collectively, I call the "planner's triangle," with sustainable development located at its center. This center cannot be reached directly, but only approximately and indirectly, through a sustained period of confronting and resolving the triangle's conflicts. To do so, planners have to redefine sustainability, since its current formulation romanticizes our sustainable past and is too vaguely holistic. Planners would benefit both from integrating social theory with environmental thinking and from combining their substantive skills with techniques for community conflict resolution, to confront economic and environmental injustice.
New Urbanism as Sustainable Development
New urbanism is an urban design movement to create pedestrian-oriented settlements that also advance social equity and mitigate the environmental impacts of development. Proponents of the movement have suggested it offers a model of sustainable development. This paper investigates this claim by discussing the implications of empirical research on new urbanism for the ways in which the movement contributes to sustainability. The paper uses the concepts of environmental and social sustainability to frame the discussion. The paper traces the origin of new urbanism and the evolution of its interest in sustainable development. Review of scholarly research on new urbanism in practice shows the movement supports in limited ways both environmental and social sustainability. Moreover, this research also shows that some forms of new urbanism development unintentionally counteract environmental sustainability goals while other forms fail to achieve social sustainability goals. Citing the diverse ways in which new urbanism is put into practice, the paper concludes by considering how understanding the heterogeneity of new urbanism as it exists in the world will impart greater clarity to further analysis of the ways in which the movement actually contributes to sustainable development. Environmental and Social Dimensions of Sustainability New Urbanism (NU) is a movement to reduce sprawl and improve societal well-being through changes in the built environment that produce compact, socially diverse, and pedestrian-oriented settlements. Proponents of the movement have claimed it is a model of sustainable urban development (Congress for the New Urbanism 2008). I evaluate this claim by discussing how the practice of NU relates to sustainable development goals. I argue that urban development under the banner of NU takes steps both toward and away from sustainability. I develop this argument in three parts. I first consider the origins and expansion of the NU movement and find that there is emphasis on environmental over social sustainability goals. I then review literature on the metropolitan geography of NU and find that NU has contributed to both urban infill and peripheral development. I discuss research on the latter instance of NU development, which finds that some environmental sustainability goals are supported on technological grounds while other goals are not. Finally, I discuss literature on the ways residents of compact NU settlements interact with their built environment and neighbors, which shows that NU is associated with sustainable behaviors, such as walking and social interaction. However, these associations appear to apply only to a select set of development contexts into which NU has been deployed. Outside of socially homogeneous contexts, NU does not appear to foster behavior conducive to social sustainability goals. Noting some limitations to these findings, I conclude by identifying an approach future research can use to advance analysis of NU and sustainability. Before I discuss the origins of NU, I first define the concepts of environmental and social sustainability. The Bruntland Report's definition of sustainable development serves as a useful point of departure for discussion of New Urbanism and sustainability. 1 Brundtland situates the process of development in a context of human–environment interdependencies such that
Responsibility, responsivity, sensitivity, sustainability. Sustainability is one of the most widely used, yet misunderstood, terms across many academic and professional fields. Local circumstances such as context, culture, and politics, with consideration of social, environmental, and economical aspects, have high values and impacts. With respect to creating sustainable contemporary neighborhoods, roles of architects and environmental designers remain fundamentally to improve the quality of life for people living and working in affected projects. Is this achieved in reality and, if so, how? In such a complex milieu, and examining outcomes, the authors question the efficacy of modern methods of design and planning. What are the meanings of sustainability and how might designers more effectively approach methods leading to more demonstrably sustainable neighborhoods? Neighborhoods must be designed to ensure higher quality of life for residents and visitors. There are a variety of approaches to create places that reduce negative impacts on built and natural environments. While a physical focus is essential, it is alone insufficient. The framework for the present research delineates the coordination/ collaboration of an array of disparate elements in urban design in order to foster more complete, sustainable and people-centered neighborhoods. The present research comprises a multi-pronged research methodology including literature review, case study and logical argumentation to critically investigate, confront and reconsider our understanding of sustainability. It challenges prevailing methods of design & planning in light of emerging neighborhood development obstacles, opportunities, and possibilities. In sustainable neighborhoods different meanings, methods and design approaches should exist according to geography and jurisdiction. For example, a given project must consider not only access to amenities and services, public transit, walking and bicycling, and a spectrum of housing choices, but also the complications of regional regulations, expectations, principles and priorities. The strategies for sustainable urban development conventionally include measurable/pragmatic/functional/scientific dimensions such as reduced energy consumption, increased renewable energy, lowering of emissions, shift in transport, and adjustment to climate change. The present researchers argue effective strategies must also and further attend to systemic interactions, immeasurable (e.g., subjective, emotional, poetic, etc.) aspects and local nuances often neglected in more conventional 'empirical' approaches. Sustainable neighborhoods must improve residential experience and celebrate public life while enhancing community atmosphere with respect to common vision, shared values and obligatory standards. They create places with a distinctive and contextually-inspired character while responding sensitively to natural features of the site/surroundings. Well-defined streets, inviting sidewalks and creative urban spaces should function as social concentrators that prove both pragmatic and poetic. The urban ethos must provide opportunities for peoples' communication and conduct with clear connections between and interrelations among buildings. Well-designed sustainable neighborhoods translate into greater security, enhanced pride and more livability. The present paper delivers a critique of status quo sustainability – that is, in definition, practice, meaning, and methods, as manifest in so-called 'green' neighborhoods. It presents a novel model for integration and implementation of more responsive/responsible design and planning. In neighborhood design, a rich mix of users and their harmonious co-habitation provide the foundation for more sustainable development. We argue that sustainability in neighborhood design and planning is not one characteristic or even a prescribed set of given characteristics, but, rather, it necessitates a complex collection of intensely interconnected elements working together, dynamically and vigilantly, within and across the whole system.
Green urbanism: environmental discourse in new urbanism and smart growth
2011
Contemporary discussions about new urbanism and smart growth argue that the strategies contribute to environmental protection and sustainability. The paper follows the discourse about environmental concerns over two decades through close reading of foundational documents from the movements and of local plans from Maryland communities: a heartland of new urbanism and smart growth. Analysis illustrates a relatively weak commitment to environmental protection in the foundational documents, although approaches such as LEED-ND portend some recent shifts. Neighborhood plans in Maryland reveal selective local concerns, such as the loss of farmland and environmentally sensitive areas. Broader environmental problems such as adaptation for climate change rarely appear in the discourse at any level. The paper concludes that new urbanism and smart growth theory and practice take a utilitarian approach which promotes growth and environmental disruption while employing the rhetoric of sustainabil...
From Garden City to Eco-urbanism: The quest for sustainable neighborhood development
Since the early 20th century various planning movements have been developed. It would be useful to trace the evolution of these movements to see how their underlying principles have changed and how successful they have been in addressing the requirements of sustainable development. Literature on five selected movements is reviewed. These are, namely, Garden City, Neighborhood Unit, Modernism, Neo-traditionalism, and Eco-urbanism. Results show that evolution of neighborhood planning is characterized by the progressive inclusion of different dimensions of the sustainability concept. However, there are still many difficulties in terms of translating the rhetoric into action.
How Possible is Sustainable Urban Development? An Analysis of Planners'
New urbanism, smart growth and the ecological city have been proposed by advocates and others as being the essential equivalent of sustainable development as that termhas been broadly defined. This paper focuses on how planners in the USA collectively define these three development approaches in terms of 14 principles of sustainable development. Based on a national survey of practicing planners in the USA, we find that planners everywhere have relatively high, but quite different, expectations regarding what can and should be accomplished under each of the three development approaches. Smart growth is matched most frequently with the sustainable development principles and is also the most understood. The ecological city, while least understood, becomes more frequently matched with the principles as familiarity increases.We conclude with a discussion of the implications of these results for our quest to achieve a more sustainable development pattern.
2010
The emergence of the sustainable development concept at the end of the 1980s triggered the intensification of the environmental sustainability discourse in urban design and planning. The vision of sustainable urbanism includes calls for limitations to urban growth, protection of sensitive areas, compact design, clean forms of transportation, low- impact building construction, use of renewable resources, and healthy agreeable living environments. While there is growing agreement on the necessity of making sure that new developments comply with these mandates, there is less to say about how to do so. This thesis explores the planning processes underlying three new neighborhood developments in Sweden and Germany broadly regarded as exemplary green developments. I find that the implementation of the sustainable urbanism vision was possible through a municipality-led process with direct control of the land use, built form, and resource supply through legally binding instruments such as detailed plans and development contracts; the consistent build-up of technical capacity in both the public and private sector; and an openness to learning and adaptation. The findings confirm that local government authority in Sweden and Germany still largely reflects the notion of the benevolent state, and suggest that such a role is important for the endorsement of the value-laden notion of sustainability. Transferability of the lessons in the US context depends on the creativity of solutions that will need to tap on latent potential in the public and private sector and research institutes.