A number of recent posts/discussions outline what is now shaping up as a ‘war’ between the proponents of Landscape Urbanism and those of the New Urbanism. I find it constantly amusing, in this time of blatant political attack ads on television every night (the rift could be DNC v. RNC), to see the polarization that occurs between schools of thought – primarily due to misinformation. This debate is no different.



:: Qianhai Water City – James Corner Field Operations – image via Architect Magazine

I’m current at work on an expanded publication of this so will reserve thoughts, but thought it worth sharing some of the key links, for fodder and discussion.

:: The Next Urbanism is not New Urbanism’
 The video that launched a thousand New Urbanists into the fray.

:: Land Matters: Man Bites Dinosaur
 LAND Matters take on Duany’s video.

:: ‘The Landscape Urbanism: Sprawl in a Pretty Green Dress?’
 Michael Mehaffy’s take on LU vs. NU. Check out the comment stream as well.

:: Interview with Michael Van Valkenburgh (The Dirt)
 MVV riffs on landscape- and ecological urbanism

And today I caught a new article from Architect magazine ‘Systems, Not Icons’ – adding to the discussion with views from both camps and another interesting metaphorical argument from Duany (and lawyers to boot!), this time using the Vietnam war as a way to differentiate between the different camps – so who is country and who is city?

“It’s exactly like the Vietnam War: Those who control the cities cannot control the countryside, and those who control the countryside have a difficult time controlling the cities—unless they kill everybody.” But he is willing to learn from the other side. “I have an attorney going through all their material to extract all their vocabulary.”