Transect Urbanism

"""Fairly regularly, but not often enough, I ask myself, 'What has Andr�s been up to lately?' The answer to that question is always worth at least a year in grad school. This masterwork is no exception, offering a long-awaited and much-needed deep-dive into the Transect and its potential uses in city planning and beyond. If you are serious about urban design, you need this book."" - Jeff Speck, author, Walkable City ""The Transect Urbanism primer is for the understanding and planning of human settlements what The Origin of Species was for creation narratives."" - Leon Krier ""Understanding the Transect is like knowing the DNA code for human habitat. Transect Urbanism is a must-read for city-builders."" - Charles Marohn, founder, Strong Towns; author, Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity ""Imagine a tool that banishes the social and environmental ills of modern planning and its corresponding theory of suburban sprawl, instead constructing an approach that reconciles urbanism and environmentalism. Meanwhile, the tool also enables choice and equity in how and where individuals live. Architect, urban designer, and DPZ CoDesign principal Andr�s Duany insists such a tool exists. It's the Rural-to-Urban Transect, at once a tool and a theory, and it's a balm to the recklessly sprawling modern life now ubiquitous across the U.S., which takes the form of socio-economic uniformity, automobile dependence, and conspicuous land consumption."" - Grace Mitchell Tada, Associate ASLA, Hood Design Studio, writing in THE DIRT Imagine a tool that banishes the social and environmental ills of modern planning and its corresponding theory of suburban sprawl, instead constructing an approach that reconciles urbanism and environmentalism. Meanwhile, the tool also enables choice and equity in how and where individuals live. Architect, urban designer, and DPZ CoDesign principal Andr�s Duany insists such a tool exists. It's the Rural-to-Urban Transect, at once a tool and a theory, and it's a balm to the recklessly sprawling modern life now ubiquitous across the U.S., which takes the form of socio-economic uniformity, automobile dependence, and conspicuous land consumption. The book Transect Urbanism: Readings in Human Ecology, edited by Duany and Brian Falk, who is director of the Center for Applied Transect Studies, presents a collection of essays and descriptive graphics that examine the Rural-to-Urban Transect and explains its potential to create both a better quality of life within communities and better environmental practices across all scales. Transect Urbanism: Readings in Human Ecology, describes itself as ""The definitive reference on the Rural-to-Urban Transect."" Edited by Andres Duany and Brian Falk, the book fills a gap in the planning literature. The Rural-to-Urban Transect--which I will refer to as Transect with a capital T--is one of the most influential planning theories in recent decades. Prior to this, no books have been devoted entirely to the Transect--although many have touched upon it (I included sections in New Urbanism: Best Practices Guide). Published by Oro Editions and the Center for Applied Transect Studies, Transect Urbanism comprises eight new essays, 100 pages of images--many fascinating and some amusing--by artists and designers, and six of the best previously published academic articles on the topic. An excellent two-part introduction by Duany--Transect co-creator and an architect and planner with DPZ CoDESIGN--is worth the price of the book.--ROBERT STEUTEVILLE ""Public Square: A CNU Journal"""