UrbanABQ stands for concepts that are time-tested. 

Up until the last 100 years,  human settlements were built around people walking. Only in the last few decades have our societies been reshaped by the automobile.

Automobiles are great tools and we would never suggest doing away with them completely. However, there are numerous social, economic and societal benefits to organizing our built environment with a focus on people instead of cars.

So what is urbanism and what does it look like? Below are a couple of helpful documents that begin to answer those questions.

The CNU Charter 

The Congress for New Urbanism has attempted to take the fundamental elements of a typical human settlement and written it into a Charter. It’s a great place to begin if you’d like to learn more about what urbanism is. Click here to read the Charter. 

10 Principles for Building Healthy Places

The Charter explains the concepts of good urbanism – but what does it look like on the ground? This document from the Urban Land Institute provides some read world examples with images of what these look like. Click here to see the 10 Principles of Healthy Places.