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Nineteenth century Spanish engineer Ildefonso Cerda made a great contribution to the theory and practice of town planning, and indeed was probably the first person to suggest a general scientific discipline based on the town. Cerda believed that town planning was needed to ease the burden which the industrial revolution was putting on towns. However, he took a flexible approach to planning, in a bid to avoid arbitrariness. Cerda was both a theoretician and a practitioner, and his new town planning theory centered on economic, legal, administrative and political bases.

The ideas behind town planning have been blamed for having a harmful effect on the environment, but it could be that there is not yet enough awareness about what is needed to improve the environment. If the idea of the environment itself is better defined, this will help develop criteria for measuring town planning performance in terms of enhancing the environment, and for working out what is meant by the concept of environmental quality.

Architect Chris Williamson disputes the view that planners are obstructive to good architecture. Williamson advocates listening to the views of all the concerned parties and using the architect's skills to incorporate their views into the design without compromising the basic principles. Two projects where this aproach has been successful are the facade of Putney Bridge Station, London, England and a church hall extension in Pinner, Middlesex, England.

It's little wonder that the issue of managing growth was a central theme at last week's National Governors Association Conference in Providence. Controlling urban sprawl has been a pet issue [...]

Just south of Westfield's massive work-in-progress youth sports megaplex, across a stretch of 186th Street that didn't exist six months ago, lies a $225 million field of dreams. Developer Steve [...]

The Netherlands' Home Zones, which block automobile traffic on neighborhood streets, give children a safe place to play but children need to learn about the dangers of the real world. Growing up around streets with traffic teaches kids to be fearful of cars.

The influence of Jane Jacobs on US urban planning and design is discussed, in the light of the 40th anniversary of her classic work, 'The Death and Life of Great American Cities'. Jacobs favoured mixed-used developments, and saw that street life and people at leisure are a vital part of cities.

Architects, planners and other advocates of the New Urbanist philosophy wrote a charter defining their views on how to redirect design and planning at their Fourth Congress on the New Urbanism. About 200 attended the gathering, which focused on urban infill development, urban growth boundaries and other New Urbanist principals. Historical design style is still a point of contention. Awards were given for New Urbanist projects and plans were made for reports such as New Urbanist concepts' effects on car travel.

Richard MacCormac is a long standing campaigner for the concept of urban design. The Royal Inststute of British Architects president is to chair a colloquium on the subject with the aim of working out a basic code for urban development. MacCormac uses principles for assessing urban design which are based on his own experience but hopes for a pluralist approach to the issues rather than the prescriptive nature of developments like Poundbury, Dorset.

The Civic Trust proposes a new approach to urban renewal. It claims schemes are based on property and infra-structure and do not involve the local community enough. The Trust believes commercial and social concerns should be linked and proposes greater use of traffic management, development of leisure shopping areas, street festivals and markets. It favours improving shop fronts and the training of shop staff and would like to see more shopkeepers living on their business premises.