Urban Design - Term Paper Example

Influence of Modern Planning Principle The influence of modern planning principles can be seen in cities when they were becoming urbanized from the erstwhile rural and suburban regions. It would be worth mentioning two books that played a leading role in changing the suburban designs, namely ‘The Last Landscape,’ by William H. Whyte, which was published in 1968, and the other book named ‘Design with Nature,’ by Ian McHarg. These books helped in designing the fifth urban design principle.

As per the principle, new development work should start only if it would not create any major disturbance to the ecology of the region. Any such construction work should be in sync with the natural environment. Whyte supported the Cluster-Zoning concept, lately referred to as planned unit development. The idea was to secure more open landscape by constructing houses in comparatively limited spaces. Under the fifth planning principle, it was decided to zero-in the region where natural ecology needed to be secured.

The purpose was to carry out developmental work only in such areas that would not result in the long term loss of the environment. The impact of this planning principle was visible to a limited extent, as it could not offer a complete solution to the migration outcomes to suburban and rural areas (Barnett 39).Six Unsustainable Characteristics of Prevalent Urban Form at the SiteThe prevalent urban form suffers from the insecurity of not finding long-term solutions of sustainable urbanism. Self-validation mars the impact to be created from the spirit of pursuing a comprehensive policy.

For example, when a certified green building is enveloped by paved parking or a residential locality becomes unsustainable because of not being energy-efficient or land usage is sometimes afflicted by faulty construction. The Urban Growth Boundaries (UGB) were created with the aim of demarcating land usage beyond a limit. The UGB succeeded in its purpose of developing land within an allotted region but its sustainability purpose of quality of the developed land was compromised. It turned out to be well-positioned but bad development (Farr 28).

All efforts made by Congress for New Urbanism (CNU) have not delivered results because it devoted its efforts to bringing amendments in the traditional regulatory practices to make them modern with urban sustainability. There are still unfriendly singular parameters on the built environment that are detrimental to climate changing sprawl. Further, the United States Green Building Council’s (USGBC) targets of Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) are flawed. LEED has not been successful in meeting the certification targets of desired buildings.

LEED’s approach is building-centric. It pays less consideration relatively to a project’s position and context in the certification process, thus affecting its credibility on the surrounding issue (Farr 36). Works CitedBarnett, Jonathan. Redesigning Cities: Principles, Practice, Implementation. Chicago IL: APA Planners Press, 2003.Farr, Douglas. Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design with Nature. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2008.