Sustainable Urban Neighbourhood: Building The 21st Century Home - Softcover

Rudlin, David; Falk, Nicholas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0750656336 ISBN 13: 9780750656337

Publisher: Routledge, 2009

Synopsis

This successful title, previously known as 'Building the 21st Century Home' and now in its second edition, explores and explains the trends and issues that underlie the renaissance of UK towns and cities and describes the sustainable urban neighbourhood as a model for rebuilding urban areas.


The book reviews the way that planning policies, architectural trends and economic forces have undermined the viability of urban areas in Britain since the Industrial Revolution. Now that much post-war planning philosophy is being discredited we are left with few urban models other than garden city inspired suburbia. Are these appropriate in the 21st century given environmental concerns, demographic change, social and economic pressures? The authors suggest that these trends point to a very different urban future.

The authors argue that we must reform our towns and cities so that they become attractive, humane places where people will choose to live. The Sustainable Urban Neighbourhood is a model for such reform and the book describes what this would look like and how it might be brought about.

About this title

Review

Reviews of first edition:

'The Sustainable Urban Neighbourhood is the best analysis I have read of the crisis of the contemporary British city. This book offers a chance to rethink our priorities, break the cycle of decline and to create sustainable cities suitable for citizens.'
Richard Rogers

'There are many books published now with a revisionist urban programme, but Rudlin and Falk's is one of the best and most comprehensive.'
The Architect's Journal

From the Back Cover

'Sustainable Urban Neighbourhood' explores the way that the UK’s towns and cities are changing at the turn of the millennium. Previously known as 'Building the 21st Century Home', the second edition of this successful text describes the way that environmental and demographic change, economic pressures and the needs of community could change urban areas forever just as the garden city movement did a century ago.

Some of the arguments that were so contentious ten years ago are now widely accepted. Others rumble on, particularly after another property crash that has hit urban apartments. The central point, however, remains; urban renaissance will not be achieved by coercion but by the creation of positive urban models. Through case studies, the book describes one such model, the Sustainable Urban Neighbourhood: mixed-use, mediumdensity urban development, designed to minimise resource use and maximise community.

This classic text will be essential reading for urban designers, architects and planners, and anyone involved in the development of new homes and the regeneration of towns and cities.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0750656336
• ISBN 13: 9780750656337
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 338