Week 02: Planning Systems

One could say that urban form is a product of political, social, cultural, economic and environmental idealistic sustainable future visions.  These future visions however vary as result of multiple planning strategies championed by different social groups and government.  For instance, as highlighted by Barton (2000), “eco-Idealist” would argue that strategic dispersed, decentralized, low density settlements be established with self-sufficient communities with diverse eco-systems focusing on consumption at a sustainable level. “Urban revivalists" Barton (2000), largely the government, consider this as urban sprawl resulting in higher transportation resource consumption to connect segregated areas. They propose a more centralized urban form, concentrating high-density neighbourhoods near transportation hubs that link to economic zones with revitalization to identified zones.  This does however raise the issue of the degradation to the immediate eco-system with heightened energy consumption in heavily dense regions. 

Reference:

Barton, H., 2000. Urban form and Locality. In H. Barton, ed. Sustainable communities: the potential for eco-neighbourhoods. London: Earthscan, pp. 105-122