An Introduction

	Achieving Sustainable Urban Form Back to contents page
	Achieving Sustainable Urban Form: An Introduction Katie Williams, Elizabeth Burton and Mike Jenks

The search for the ultimate sustainable urban form perhaps now needs to be reoriented to the search for a number of sustainable urban forms which respond to [a] variety of existing settlement patterns and contexts … (Jenks et al., 1996, p.345)

The central premise of this book is that the form of a town or city can affect its sustainability. It is now widely accepted that a relationship exists between the shape, size, density and uses of a city and its sustainability. However, consensus is lacking about the exact nature of this relationship. The relative sustainability of, for example, high and low urban densities, or centralised and decentralised settlements is still disputed. Certain urban forms appear to be more sustainable in some respects, for example in reducing travel, or enabling fuel efficient technologies, but detrimental in others, perhaps in harming environmental quality or producing social inequalities. Some forms may be sustainable locally, but not be beneficial city wide or regionally.
Consequently, if any advances in urban sustainability are to be made, then connections between urban form and a range of elements of towns and cities, at all geographical scales, need to be established. If an understanding of these connections can be gained, then steps can be taken towards achieving urban forms that are more sustainable than at present. In order to advance this understanding, this book attempts to answer two key questions. First, what is sustainable urban form? and second, how can it be achieved?