Traditional design group is launched in US

A US group devoted to traditional architecture and urbanism made its debut at the Traditional Building Show in New Orleans this October. The new organization — the American affiliate of the International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture & Urbanism (INTBAU) — is chaired by Michael Mehaffy, a new urbanist architect and planner based near Portland, Oregon. Mehaffy says the American group, INTBAU USA, already has gathered more than 400 members, many of them involved in New Urbanism. Matthew Hardy in London, England, secretary of the five-year-old global organization, describes INTBAU as “a worldwide umbrella organization that encompasses both New Urbanism and the new traditional architecture movement.” The recent SmartCode planning charrette in Bran, Romania (subject of an article in the Oct.-Nov. New Urban News), was an outgrowth of INTBAU’s work, beginning with a seven-day charrette in 2005 that focused on landscape protection for that village and its surroundings. Last year INTBAU held a conference in Venice on the so-called Venice Charter, an international standard for construction in historic contexts. “The charter has been interpreted in a rather rigid way that has not been much help for communities seeking to preserve their local identities,” says Mehaffy. Consequently, INTBAU published an interpretation of the document, intended to make it more useful. Among other activities, INTBAU and the Nabha Foundation sponsored a conference in New Delhi last January aimed at perpetuating Indian traditions in architecture and urbanism. Mehaffy says INTBAU is “very complementary to the work of the CNU, the [Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America], and the other groups here in the US.” INTBAU, he notes, is “not just focused on urbanism or architecture, but also takes in building crafts, vernacular building, sustainable economics — a rather holistic approach” which has attracted support for the organization from Britain’s Prince Charles. There are about 2,500 members worldwide, and nine national chapters in countries as diverse as Nigeria and Norway. The American group is planning a conference in 2008 on a topic involving new building in historic districts. This month the international organization is publishing its first book: Tradition Today: Continuity in Architecture and Society. The US group’s board includes Duncan McRoberts, Krupali Uplekar, Ethan Anthony, Steve Mouzon, Gersil Kay, David Brain, Christine Franck, and Kyriakos Pontikis. For more on INTBAU USA, see www.intbau.org/usa.