Hello everyone, it's been quite a while since I posted.
First to reply to the above poster:
This is not about imposing some kind of grand, utopian ideal on people. This is about practical solutions to reduce consumption through better urban design. It is a fact that urban sprawl, the living environment of the majority of Americans, consumes far more energy and resources per capita than is necessary. For example Swedes have a footprint which is on average 1/3rd that of their American counterpart and yet they still have televisions, computers, heat, etc showing that using less energy does not necessarily mean a decrease in the standard of living. The biggest thing that needs to change is how we access places. If more places can be made accessible by walking, cycling, or mass transit than energy use could be reduced drastically. In addition a more compact city requires fewer miles of sewers, power lines, roads etc to serve the same size population, as would be required by a sprawling city.
A recent report suggests that compact development uses 1/3rd the energy on average of a typical sprawl environment. This includes energy used in transportation, construction, maintenance, etc for the entire lifespan of development.
Post WWII planners envisioned a new society where everyone would drive a car and live in a suburban house. Urban sprawl was the result. It was known at the time that this would increase per-capita consumption of energy and resources but this was thought to be a good thing - planned waste would employ more people and would increase profits for the producer. It was thought that after every family had two or three cars, that personal helicopters or flying cars would then be built and sold, keeping economic growth going forever. No consideration was given to resource limitations, endless cheap energy was thought to be an American birthright. This assumption has proven to be false. 50 years later, it is clear that this economy based on waste and endless growth can no longer continue. The current generation of planners are now forced to "clean up the mess" which has been left behind by the WWII planners. New Urbanism and Transit Oriented Development are emerging as the dominant trends in planning in order to solve the problems which have been created by urban sprawl. It is true that New Urbanism attempts to encourage social interaction by having houses close together, front porches, etc. However the main reason for New Urbanism and Transit Oriented development is to reduce energy use and provide people with an alternative to urban sprawl. So the new generation of planners is far less idealistic and more practical-minded than the WWII planners. In fact, one of the reasons modernism still seems to attract more attention is the fact that modernist architects seem always to be trying to build the biggest this-or-that. New Urbanism is more about creating communities that work and less about making some kind of artistic statement.
Please visit my
updated site for more information on sustainable urban design. I'm trying to get user feedback so that I can make the information as accessible and as easy to understand as possible. If you have a question regarding sustainable urban design, feel free to leave a comment on my site or to e-mail me. Or, if you have an interest in sustainable urban design and would like to contribute or have any suggestions, don't hesitate to contact me. Right now I am looking for someone with a little bit of graphic-arts knowledge to make images for the site.