• Sophisticated insertion of missing middle

    A transit-accessible infill development includes a variety of housing types geared to improving the economics of urban living.
    Sited behind a historic 1880 “grand home” in the Edgewood neighborhood of Atlanta, LaFrance Walk includes a variety of missing middle housing types within walking distance of the MARTA station and a major retail center. “One of the best aspects of living in LaFrance Walk is its proximity to the...Read more

  • Seamless town extension with affordable housing

    Tregunnel Hill in Cornwall, England, proves that the principles used in Prince Charles's Poundbury are replicable.
    In the Village of Newquay a new urban neighborhood has been built with local materials and workers, trained in an apprenticeship program. Nearly 90 percent of the new residents have moved in from the immediate area, a remarkable feat in a popular resort setting. Twenty-eight percent of the units...Read more

  • ‘Walkabout’ design with human sensors: Campus design, part 4

    A revolutionary method of direct human responses to imagined forms, performed on the actual site, reveals a vast amount of useful design information not otherwise available.
    Author’s note: This is the fourth in a series of ten essays that present innovative techniques for designing and repairing a corporate or university campus. These tools combine New Urbanist principles with Alexandrian design methods. Alexander’s implementation of participative design — essential...Read more

  • Neighborhoods are key to sustainable future

    A review of Douglas Farr’s Sustainable Nation: Urban Design Patterns for the Future
    Safeguarding the environment—largely by designing and operating buildings and communities more wisely than we’ve done for the past 200 years—is the most crucial endeavor the Earth’s inhabitants are now engaged in. If we fail, not only will the weather turn more deadly. Many species will die out,...Read more