Remaking the City Street Grid: A Model for Urban and Suburban Development

This book challenges the perception that shaping neighborhoods and districts is a top down benevolent activity by inspired planners; rather, the book sees this activity as a constant resolution of tensions or friction that citizens experience and the physical city structure exhibits. Out of this pragmatic dialectic emerge 'patters' which, when applied and codified, respond to inevitably semi-permanent regional cultural realities. These patterns endure until a new culture, understood as the sum total of all human activity of production, provision, defense and exchange, appears to take hold. A new cycle of adaptation and mutations sets in until the fresh tensions and frictions are resolved.

In this constant spiral of evolutionary readjustment, this book adds a new pattern--the Fused Grid--that resolves contemporary pressure points such as citizen health, well-being, multi-modal mobility, Green House Gas emissions, water preservation, alienating anonymity and traffic safety. By synthesizing piece-meal responses, it creates a unified, complete, contemporary model that displaces the ones in current vogue that are taken for granted.

This new pattern rests on cutting-edge theoretical and empirical studies each of which examined special aspects of current stresses, induced or endured by citizens or their environment. It catalyzes much of this available research around the poles of neighborhood and district network configurations that produce a fully functional and enjoyable contemporary city environment while minding its environmental footprint. To substantiate its strengths, the book examines case studies where the potential for the model to deliver on its intended outcomes becomes fully evident. This book is a worthy, stimulating read for every planner and advocate of well-functioning, healthy communities.

Publisher: McFarland & Co Inc

Published: United States, 30 March 2015

Format: Paperback, 277 pages

Age Range: 15+

Other Information: 62 illustrations

Dimensions: 25.4 x 17.7 x 1.2 centimeters (0.51 kg)

Writer: Grammenos, Fanis, Lovegrove, G. R.

About the Author

Fanis Grammenos is the founder and director of Urban Pattern Associates, a planning consultancy and research firm credited with the conception of the Fused Grid model. He is a regular columnist for the Canadian Homebuilder magazine, a contributor to books and to planning journals, periodicals and web sites. He is a visiting lecturer at McGill University; has presented widely at national and international conferences; and has consulted with several Canadian municipal governments. He lives in Ottawa, Canada.

G.R. Lovegrove is a professor of civil engineering and a research lead at the Sustainable Transport Safety (STS) Research Laboratory, at UBC's new School of Engineering in Kelowna, Canada. He is an author, contributor and expert consultant on sustainability texts used today by governments and universities across North America and around the globe from India to China. He lives in Kelowna, Canada.

Reviews

"thought-provoking"--Sustainable Cities Collective; "a thoughtful and comprehensive overview of street design...meticulously detail[ed]"--Planning Institute of British Columbia.