Excerpt: ‘Externalize those social needs’

“The miracle of New Urbanism is its simplicity. [Andres] Duany has designed whole towns under the movement’s principles — like Seaside, Fla., or Kentlands, Md. — and to walk their streets is to be transported back decades, before McMansions and SUVs. Houses are more human-sized, in part because the designs create vibrant, walkable public spaces, where people can eat, work, and have fun. The explosion of the American house — up from 1,385 square feet on average in 1972 to 2,140 square feet in 2000, while the average number of people living in it has decreased — is, in Duany’s view, a consequence of our practice of virtually eliminating the public space outside of major urban areas. ‘What has blown up the McMansions is the lack of community,’ says Duany. ‘We need to externalize those social needs, rather than privatizing them.’” — Bryan Walsh in Time Magazine, Dec. 19.