New Urbanism: a bandaid on a failed urban form

Out of its ashes sprang form-based codes however

New Urbanism is a model of urban development which aspired to remake communities into walkable, live-work places for people, not cars. It failed, but left behind something better.

From the outside looking in at New Urbanism the following observations are easy to make.

New Urbanism has a strong taint of nostalgia, preferring in most of its incarnations to recreate 19th Century styles of homes for no reason except that people are looking for an insular village and that very old fashioned styles give them that aesthetic sense where even mid-century modernism does not. As such, new urbanism communities tend to value porches on the front of peak-roofed homes and relatively baroque architectural details such as senseless pillars framing doorways and curlicue detail work under the eaves. To be clear, this is relatively tasteless pastiche architecture, and tends to be accompanied by community covenants which prevent individuality in colour, renovation or home styles. There are…