During the course of the semester we talked in depth about different aspects of a community. In doing so we talking about the movement from post World War II "suburban sprawl" style living to New Urbanism. New Urbanism is an urban design movement, which promotes walkable neighborhoods that contain a range of housing and job types. As an example, we looked at Disney Corps development of Celebration, Florida, a large 9600 acre New Urbanism style community just outside of Orlando. In my paper I look at three different views of New Urbanism as it relates to rhetoric and culture. The first view looks at are the social principles that draw someone to a New Urbanism style community. Second is the idea of fantasies of the "good life". How people are living outside reality. Lastly, how critics believe New Urbanism is nothing more than commercial and corporate control of culture.
Creative Project:
Last summer I was fortunate enough to intern for a large New Urbanism community that is being developed just outside of Panama City, Panama. Before the internship began, developers of the project, other interns, and myself put together a "Naked Development" forum to better educate friends, family, New Urbanism enthusiast, and potential investors of our future development plans.
During the two day event, we had experts in the fields of New Urbanism architecture, city planning, economics, and sustainable agriculture. Three influential speakers who talked about different aspects of New Urbanism were : Stefanos Polyzoides- Architect and founder of Congress for New Urbanism, Ed Everett- City Manager of Red Wood City, and Michael Shuman- Director of Research and Public Policy at the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE).
For my creative project I decided to show video clips from the forum as well as break down the different aspects of each presentation to better explain how New Urbanism prospers. Each speech outline was put together by myself and fellow interns.