• We need a vision for auto-jitneys and livability

    The primary task for autonomous vehicles is placemaking, not engineering. If new urbanists don't create a vision for how AVs can support neighborhood life, nobody will.
    Every week brings news of another place where auto-jitneys are being deployed. We in the New Urbanism need to develop a vision of how that emerging technology will support neighborhood life. If we don’t do it, nobody will. We are the ones who can shift the focus from the technology to the places it...Read more

  • Urbanism and the meaning of life

    Jane Jacobs, Christopher Alexander, and why good urbanism requires good philosophy
    I am new to New Urbanism, still finding my way around its leading ideas and projects. And as an academic, trained in philosophy no less, I sometimes wonder why I find all of this so captivating. Perhaps the reason should be obvious: there is in fact a rich philosophical dimension to contemporary...Read more

  • Missing middle close up: Bungalow courts

    A bungalow court consists of a series of small, detached structures, providing multiple units arranged to define a shared court—an important community-enhancing space.
    We’ve closely documented lots of examples of the Missing Middle housing and explored the world of carriage houses . This time, we’re looking at a charming, clustered type of Missing Middle Housing: the bungalow court. Like a lot of other Missing Middle Housing types, bungalow courts are present in...Read more

  • Planning a neighborhood square

    With a mix of local stores below apartments that provide “eyes on the square,” shade trees, and places to sit, a European-style neighborhood square is a place where everyone belongs.
    Unlike a city’s main square that, from time to time, brings together representatives from all over the city for major festivals, concerts, and special events, a neighborhood square has certain unique social functions: it is frequented every day of the year by those who live in the neighborhood; it...Read more