Good Urban Design

Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck in Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream discuss how good urban design can be achieved by emulating urban forms built in the past. They describe a number of techniques and characteristics that make for good urban design, namely:

• Developing underutilized space instead of building in green space;
• Designing with reference to the regional context;
•  Including mixed-use development;
•  Making sure compatible land uses are connected via efficient transport routes;
•  Making use of the natural features of a site;
•  Creating walkable neighborhoods with well-defined centres and boundaries;
• Ensuring that public transit is frequent, predictable, direct, and pleasant to use;
• Making narrow streets to discourage speeding;
• Designing buildings that compliment the street; and
• While adequate parking is necessary, ensuring is does not exceed the  requirements of the surrounding buildings.

These design principles are characteristic of New Urbanism which I have touched on in previous blogs. Also, it is worth noting that Duany and Plater-Zyberk are prominent figures in the New Urbanism movement. Basically there work and this article in particular (as the title of the suggests) is a way of responding to the stamped of suburbanization that has been occurring over the past several decades.  Suburbanization has led to a number of serious problems including the deterioration of public spaces, disconnection of people and communities, and local and global environmental damage, as well as being uneconomical in many instances.

Seaside, Florida created by Duany and Plater-Zyberk (among others) exemplifies many of the above mentioned urban characteristics (Source: http://www.eslarp.uiuc.edu/la/LA338-S01/groups/c/) 

As mentioned previously, many of these urban characteristics and techniques are derived from examples of urban forms built in the past. Indeed, one of the core ideas of New Urbanism is to return to traditional design. It is interesting in this sense i.e. a solution to modern problems is found by returning to the abandon ideas of the past. But as our lecturer points out, although they are fundamentally old ideas, they are changed to fit within a modern context.