The battle of the “- ism’s” & the “-ology’s”

Green building (read the original post here http://j.mp/dI5FML)

“Are cities the best place to live? Are suburbs OK? A fight grows in urban planning, with Harvard at the center”

Is there really a space for academic turf wars – what’s in a name – we never agreed on anything before – so why this now?

The Urbanism Wars -image by Boston Globe

 

“A little over two months ago, some two dozen influential architects, urban planners, and academics from around the country gathered at a New Orleans cottage to spend a long weekend discussing strategy. The house belonged to 61-year-old Andres Duany, a leader in the movement known as New Urbanism, which originated in the late 1970s and has enjoyed decades as the dominant force in American city planning, urging Americans to reject suburban subdivisions in favor of denser, more diverse neighborhoods.

Andres Duany's article from Metropolis Magazine

The purpose of the summit was to talk about an enemy. A rival faction of urban theorists had begun to publicly challenge them, and declare their approach to city-making obsolete. Calling themselves landscape urbanists, these upstarts were promoting themselves as environmentally conscious, ecologically sophisticated, and uniquely suited to bring sustainability to America’s suburbs. Instead of talking about buildings, street grids, and parks, they spoke seductively about “living processes,” “flows,” and the importance of respecting “ecological infrastructure.” Their ideas were being embraced in the architecture world as radical and new. Most disconcertingly, they were rising to power at one of the most influential architecture academies in the country: the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.

Landscape & Urbanism Blog’ s take :The Urbanism Wars: AD v. CW