New Urbanism

New Urbanism is an urban design movement that promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighbourhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States during the early 1980s, and has gradually influenced many aspects of real estate development, urban planning, and municipal land-use strategies. New Urbanism attempts to address the issues associated with urban sprawl and post-WWII suburban development.

New Urbanism is strongly influenced by urban design practices that were prominent until the rise of the automobile prior to World War II. It encompasses basic principles such as traditional neighborhood development (TND) and transit-oriented development (TOD). These concrete principles emerge from two organizing concepts or goals: building a sense of community and the development of ecological practices.

New Urbanists advocate for regional planning initiatives aimed at fostering open spaces, employing context-appropriate architectural and planning designs, ensuring adequate infrastructure provision, including sporting facilities, libraries, and community centers, and promoting a balanced development of both jobs and housing. The proponents of this initiative assert that their strategic approach has the potential to alleviate traffic congestion by promoting the use of alternative modes of transportation such as bicycles, walking, and public transit. Moreover, there is an expressed desire to augment the availability of affordable housing and to regulate suburban sprawl. The Charter of the New Urbanism also covers issues such as historic preservation, safe streets, green building, and the redevelopment of brownfield land. The ten Principles of Intelligent Urbanism also phrase guidelines for New Urbanist approaches.

Architecturally, New Urbanist developments frequently exhibit a range of stylistic influences, including New Classical, Contemporary traditional, Postmodern, or Vernacular. However, this is not uniformly true of all New Urbanist projects.