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| Town house of Trincity community |
- An international movement concerned with tackling the urban problems associated with urban sprawl and car dependency (Collins English Dictionary).
- New urbanism stems from the belief in the ability of the built environment to create a sense of community. It therefore embraces ideas of regionalism, sustainable development, affordable housing, environmental justice, communitarianism and anti-sprawl (Fainstein, 2000).
- Utopia is a community or society possessing highly desirable or perfect qualities
New urbanism is an American urban design which spread in the
global north and south. The new conception was introduced to Trinidad
and Tobago by the Trincity Millennium Vision to reduce
urban sprawl in Port of Spain. It reduced the burden and reliance of
Port of Spain as a shopping centre, community and
commercial hub. The main development plans were to create a livable mixture of
new urban communities of small towns and neighborhoods where people could work,
live and recreate. Trincity's new urbanism is a mixture ordinary communities
with gated communities. New urbanism ‘s marketability encourages future
home owners to buy, their brochures advertised great homes, security and
a safe environment to raise a family.
The future of new urbanism in Trinidad and Tobago.
If the ideas of Corbusier: top down approach and Jane Jacobs bottom
up approach are applied to the construction
of new cities then the possibilities are endless. Should the
governments and the private investors choose to use one of
these theories? This would lead Trinidad and Tobago
to choose the theory which best suit them and the people they
want to market their products to. If they
chose Jane Jacobs' theory then they would have to use the four
principles.
Jane Jacobs' four principles of
good neighborhoods include mixed use, mixed blocks with building
of different ages and condition, conventional streets with short
blocks and numerous corners and a dense concentration of people, all to
encourage a lively and diverse community (Hall and Barrett 2011:141)
Finally the future of new urbanism is the gated community
(Carceral). The gated communities are a result of people looking
for safety and privacy by giving up pubic communities to become
isolates, being an isolate may be difficult to some as they need to adjust to.
The people who live in gated communities are ordinary people and they seem
happy, so there can be speculation but I cannot compare their lives but I can
compare the communities from an outside perceptive. The trend in
Trinidad and Tobago is an increase in ordinary communities who convert to gated
communities. The trend is simple build high wall ,police the community with
private guards, neighborhood watch and rules which govern the
community like it was a state and 'presto' an almost perfect community
(Utopia).
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| Corbusier's idea of housing tall apartments |
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| Bayside Towers |
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| A mansion being built. |
Reference
Fainstein, S. 2000. New direction in planning theory . Urban affairs review 35(4),451-478.
Hall , T and Barrett, H. 2011, Urban Geography. Routledge, New York
Hey! Great post, I especially like your inclusion of Utopian Theory. :)
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