New Urbanism

Technically, new urbanism is a movement that was launched in 1993 by a group of architects whose primary mission was to address the interconnected problems of suburban sprawl and inner-city degradation. New urbanists see themselves as non-ideological pragmatists who employ a variety of techniques and strategies to create more walkable, mixed-use, compact forms of urbanism—mostly in the U.S. context. The movement is represented by a nonprofit organization known as the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), whose dues-paying members total about 2,500. The initial concept of CNU was modeled after the Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne (International Congresses of Modern Architecture), known as CIAM, which was started in 1928 and lasted for more than 30 years. The principles that guide new urbanism are written in a 2000 manifesto known as the Charter of the New Urbanism.

New urbanism is broader, and more deeply rooted, than a singular organization, however. Its objectives—to create vital, beautiful, just, environmentally benign human settlements—are in line with what urban reformers have been seeking for over a century. In a nutshell, new urbanism values compact urban form that encourages pedestrian activity and minimizes environmental degradation; encourages social, economic, and land use diversity as opposed to homogeneity; connects uses and functions; has a quality public realm that provides opportunities for interaction and exchange; offers equitable access to goods, services, and facilities; and protects environmental and human health. New urbanism is against disconnected, automobile-dependent, land consumptive, environmentally degrading, single-use, homogenous, inequitable, and inaccessible urban places. New urbanism should be seen as the culmination of a long, multifaceted attempt to define what urbanism in America should be.

The difficulty of new urbanism is that its goals are often internally conflicted: the quest for urban diversity within a system of order, control that doesn't impinge on freedom, an appreciation of small-ness and fine-grained complexity that can coexist with civic prominence, a comprehensive perspective that does not ignore detail—these goals often work against each other. An unresolved question is whether new urbanists have now seized upon the only logical, necessarily multidimensional definition of what urbanism in the United States can be.

It is not always easy to determine what is or is not new urbanist development. There is no universally accepted list of “new urbanist projects,” in part because there is no official certification process. Still, there are several lists of new urbanist projects maintained by organizations connected with the Congress for the New Urbanism, and these lists estimate nearly 500 projects as of 2011. The editors of New Urban News, a professional newsletter for planners, architects, and others involved in “the creation of human-scale communities,” in its publication, called the list the Directory of the New Urbanism: People, Places, Products.