Thirteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

The core proposition of New Urbanism is one of the ultimate expressions of nostalgia, and embodies the reality of an imagined past that is damaging the neighborhoods of today. When we allow nostalgia to become the primary focus of urban design, we substitute it for the potential to create the authentic. This is because nostalgia is the idea that “the past is better than the present and definitely better than the future; our best days are behind us; and if we want to have a glorious future, we have to recreate that great past.” In the nostalgia contrivance, there is no way that the future can be bright unless it is a reboot of the “Golden Age.” Except that “Golden Age” never really existed. When applied to urban planning it becomes nostalgic environmental determinism, with the core idea being that if you revert to the forms of the the past, you will be able to solve a host of modern problems. This misguided strategy ignores the realities of modern aspirations and ever-changing patterns of life. This paper will explore the possibilities for an urban development that is responsive to current societal needs while embedding the necessary flexibility to allow those neighborhoods and cities to respond to future development.