Sustainable Urbanism and Beyond

A book edited by Tigran Haas
Rizzoli, 2012, 320 pp., $75 hardcover

Four years ago Tigran Haas produced a big, generously illustrated book, New Urbanism and Beyond, in which 68 essayists—many of them architects, planners, or theorists—examined New Urbanism from a multitude of perspectives. It’s one of the most stimulating, wide-ranging books ever published about New Urbanism (see June 2008 New Urban News).

Now Haas, who teaches architecture, town planning, and urban design theory at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, and the University of California, Berkeley, has put together a second volume in the same format: The hefty, illustrated Sustainable Urbanism and Beyond presents 59 essays by 76 authors from across the globe. Like its predecessor, this is a handsome production—but it’s much more worrisome about the future.

“Moving from the wasteful life of suburban sprawl toward a tighter, more self-contained, enclosed neighborhood setting and a more connected public transit system” will not by itself solve the world’s resource and climate problems, Haas warns at the start of the new collection. He suggests that New Urbanism, though beneficial, is not enough; we must advance to something more comprehensive: sustainable urbanism.

If you read David Owen’s 2009 book, Green Metropolis, you may have

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