The Neighborhood Unit as a Design Paradigm

Abstract

In this chapter we review the thinking about the neighborhood unit paradigm. Although it is seemingly an oft-told tale among environmental designers, we submit that their story of the neighborhood unit is incomplete, and that frequently they are ignorant of some important intellectual underpinnings of the concept that better explain its configuration. Rather than being a physical design created to accomplish some social ends arrived at de novo, the neighborhood unit is actually the three-dimensional expression of some underlying cultural and intellectual beliefs that pervaded American reformist thinking at the turn of the century. Moreover, it is also the most careful summation and delineation extant of more ad hoc design practices that have been carried on for thousands of years, for although the precise nature and purpose of the neighborhood unit well illustrates the American penchant for intellectual pragmatism, the roots of the paradigm can be traced back in history to the earliest civilizations. Furthermore, the concept of the neighborhood unit, in addition to nicely capturing some prevalent strains in American thought, has also captured the endorsement of most modern-day societies, for the concept is now employed throughout the world.