ARCH 322

PRINCIPLES OF PLANNING I
1st Lecture
New Urbanism

Soma Abdulsalam Kareem

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023
 Syllabus

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

 Syllabus

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023
 Urbanism

New Urbanism

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

 Urbanism
•The characteristic way of life of city dwellers.
•The study of the physical needs of urban societies.

New Urbanism
is an Urban design movement which promotes walk-able
neighborhoods containing a range of housing and job types. It arose
in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually influenced
many aspects of real estate development, urban planning, and
municipal land-use strategies.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

 Principles of New Urbanism
The principles of New Urbanism can be applied increasingly to
projects at the full range of scales from a single building to an entire
community. 

1. Walkability
2. Connectivity
3. Mixed-Use & Diversity
4. Mixed Housing
5. Quality Architecture & Urban Design
6. Traditional Neighborhood Structure
7.  Increased Density
8. Smart Transportation
9. Sustainability
10.  Quality of Life

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

 Principles of New Urbanism
1. Walkability

• Most things within a 10-minute walk of home and work.

• Pedestrian friendly street design (buildings close to street;
porches, windows & doors; tree-lined streets; on street parking;
hidden parking lots; garages in rear lane; narrow, slow speed
streets).
• Pedestrian streets free of cars in special cases.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

Giving Physical Shape to Community
Across North America, and around the
world, an urban design movement
called New Urbanism is changing the
way our cities and towns are built.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

Giving Physical Shape to Community
New urbanist developments are
walkable neighborhoods, rather
than large, single-use places with
streets hostile to pedestrians.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

 Principles of New Urbanism
2. Connectivity

• Interconnected street grid network disperses traffic & eases

walking.
• A hierarchy of narrow streets, boulevards, and alleys.
• High quality pedestrian network and public realm makes
walking pleasurable

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

Giving Physical Shape to Community
Careful, participatory planning ensures that everyone in the neighborhood
has easy access to the necessities of life, making life easier for kids, the
elderly, and people who don’t want to drive.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

 Principles of New Urbanism
3. Mixed-Use & Diversity

• A mix of shops, offices, apartments, and homes on site. Mixed-

use within neighborhoods, within blocks, and within buildings.

• Diversity of people - of ages, income levels, cultures, and races.

4. Mixed Housing
• A range of types, sizes and prices in closer proximity 

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

Giving Physical Shape to Community
New Urbanism provides a range of
housing choices, from apartments
over storefronts to single-family
homes with yards.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

 Principles of New Urbanism
5. Quality Architecture & Urban Design
• Emphasis on beauty, aesthetics, human comfort, and creating a
sense of place; Special placement of civic uses and sites within
community. Human scale architecture & beautiful surroundings
nourish the human spirit

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

Response to a Problem
Since World War II, cities have been spreading ever-outward. Strip malls,
parking lots, highways, and housing tracts have sprawled over the landscape.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

 Principles of New Urbanism

6. Traditional Neighborhood Structure

• Center and edge.

• Public space at center.
• Importance of quality public realm; public open space designed
as civic art.
• Contains a range of uses and densities within 10-minute walk

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

6. Traditional Neighborhood Structure
• Transect planning: Highest densities at town center; progressively less
dense towards the edge. The transect is an analytical system that
conceptualizes mutually reinforcing elements, creating a series of specific
natural habitats and/or urban lifestyle settings. The Transect integrates
environmental methodology for habitat assessment with zoning
methodology for community design. The professional boundary between
the natural and man-made disappears, enabling environmentalists to
assess the design of the human habitat and the urbanists to support the
viability of nature. This urban-to-rural transect hierarchy has appropriate
building and street types for each area along the continuum.  

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

 Principles of New Urbanism
 7. Increased Density
• More buildings, residences, shops, and services closer together
for ease of walking, to enable a more efficient use of services
and resources, and to create a more convenient, enjoyable
place to live.
• New Urbanism design principles are applied at the full range of
densities from small towns, to large cities.

8. Smart Transportation

• A network of high-quality trains connecting cities, towns, and

neighborhoods together.
• Pedestrian-friendly design that encourages a greater use of
bicycles, rollerblades, scooters, and walking as daily
transportation.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

 Principles of New Urbanism
9. Sustainability
• Minimal environmental impact of development and its operations
• Eco-friendly technologies, respect for ecology and value of natural
systems
• Energy efficiency
• Less use of finite fuels
• More local production
• More walking, less driving

10. Quality of Life

• Taken together these add up to a high quality of life well worth living,
and create places that enrich, uplift, and inspire the human spirit.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

Response to a Problem
Even older suburbs have suffered as new ones continue to spring up,

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

What’s Old in New Urbanism
Many of the planning ideas behind New Urbanism are not new.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

Where it’s needed
New Urbanism is often associated with
new towns such as Seaside, Florida.
In fact, New Urbanism guides
development at all scales, from the
building to the region.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

Where it’s needed
It includes sizable infill projects within existing cities and towns.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

Where it’s needed
Or New Urbanism can be small projects on individual blocks

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

Where it’s needed
It can also apply to redeveloped neighborhoods.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

The Principles of New Urbanism
The principles of the New Urbanism are
defined by a Charter, which was
developed between 1993 and 1996 by a
broad range of architects, planners,
interested citizens, scholars, elected
officials, and developers. It was ratified
at the fourth annual Congress, the
annual meeting sponsored by CNU.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

The Principles of New Urbanism
Its principles are divided into three categories:

• The Region: Metropolis, City and Town

• The Neighborhood, the District, and

the Corridor

• The Block, the Street, and the Building

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

The Region
Towns within a region need a comprehensive
metropolitan strategy in order to prosper. Each
town should have both homes—for people of
all incomes—and jobs. That way, residents
aren’t forced to travel far to work. Each town
also needs a discrete sense of place.

Jobs

Homes
Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023
The Region
New Urbanism calls for towns to develop in the
appropriate style for their surroundings, while
respecting their neighbors.

Gainesville, FL Boca Raton, FL

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

The Region
Towns and cities within a
region should have clear
boundaries, contributing to
a sense of place. The land
between towns should be
preserved as open space—
wilderness or farm-land.
These edges are as important
as the centers to the success
of New Urbanism.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

The Region
Wilderness, farmland, villages, town edges, town centers, city neighborhoods, and city
centers each have their own building densities, street sizes, and appropriate mixtures of
retail, residential, and other functions.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

The Neighborhood
Diverse, walkable neighborhoods are what distinguish New Urbanism
from other modern development styles.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

The Neighborhood
The word “neighborhood” gets tossed
around a lot in real estate brochures, so it
is important to be clear what it means.
Each neighborhood has a center and
an edge. The center should be a public
space, whether a square, a green, or an
important intersection.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

The Neighborhood
The optimal size of a neighborhood is
a quarter-mile from center to edge.
For most people, a quarter mile is a
five-minute walk. For a
neighborhood to feel walkable, many
daily needs should be supplied within
this five-minute walk. That includes
not only homes, but stores,
workplaces, schools, houses of
worship, and recreational areas.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

The Neighborhood
People within a quarter-mile radius will walk to a major
transit stop. Those who live further from a transit node
are less likely to bother with the train or bus.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

The Neighborhood
People within a quarter-mile radius will walk to a
major transit stop. Those who live further from a transit
node are less likely to bother with the train or bus.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

The Block, Street, and Building
If there is one thing that reduces the livability of most postwar suburbs, it is the fact that
streets do not feel like pleasant, shared spaces.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

The Block, Street, and Building
In New Urbanism, streets
are safe, comfortable,
interesting places for
people to walk and meet.
Buildings open onto
sidewalks, rather than
parking lots. Windows and
doors facing the sidewalk
make streets safer, and
more interesting, for
everyone.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

The Block, Street, and Building
New urbanist streets use
buildings to provide a con-
sistent and understandable
edge. This accommodates
buildings of all styles and
functions. Important
locations are reserved for
grand, attention-getting
buildings; other sites require
buildings to respect their
context.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

The Block, Street, and Building
New urbanist streets can
accommodate cars while
also providing comfort and
convenience for
pedestrians, bicyclists,
and wheelchair users.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

Early Efforts
The first new urbanist town to get built from the
ground up was Seaside, on the Florida coast.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

Early Efforts
In the early 1990s, the movement was often termed “neo-
traditional” planning. However, that term was a misnomer.
As the New Urbanism evolved, its proponents recognized
that good urbanism is possible with many types of
architecture, town layouts, and densities.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

Progress in the Suburbs
Suburbs have not been immune to decline. As places they often engender even less
loyalty than older cities. Today's suburbs can be as impersonal as the large gray cities
of the past, and traffic has proved worse.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

Progress in the Suburbs
Suburbs provide fertile ground for new urbanists, who are increasingly interested in infill
projects, housing project redevelopment, and retrofitting town centers into existing
suburbs.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

Progress in the Suburbs
In new suburban developments, new urbanists
are including an ever-wider range of
architectural styles. While many new urbanist
developments have been built with colonial-style
architecture, recent projects include
neighborhoods of contemporary homes and
adobe.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

Cities Get It
New urbanists have been taking part in urban
redevelopment for years, and are now part of the
comprehensive movement for livable cities.
Projects include neighborhood plans, loft
redevelopment, transit villages, and the revival of
aging Main Streets.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

Other Successes
Dead mall redevelopment: Malls
built in the 1960s, 70s, and even 80s
are already failing in cities and older
suburbs. But with the help of new
urbanists, some are being converted
into real neighborhoods.

Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023

 Thank you for your attention…
Soma A. Kareem February 11, 2023