The Hidden Potential of Sustainable Neighborhoods

How do you design a community to be both livable and sustainable? More importantly, how do you know if that design really worked? Harrison Fraker goes beyond abstract principles, providing a clear evaluation of the first-generation of sustainable neighborhoods. Using concrete performance data to gage successes and failures, he presents a holistic model based on best practices.

Part one of this volume examines four neighborhoods built expressly to conserve resources: Bo01 and Hammarby in Sweden, and Kronsberg and Vauban in Germany. Part two compares their different strategies, including approaches to transportation, open space, energy use, and waste water. Part three then develops a comprehensive model of sustainability, promising not only a smaller carbon footprint, but an enriched form of urban living.



Harrison Fraker is a professor of Architecture and Urban Design at UC Berkeley, as well as former Dean of the School of Architecture. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for creating a new College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of Minnesota and was appointed the founding Dean. He was granted Fellowship in the AIA College of Fellows for his distinguished career of bridging education and practice and has published seminal articles on the design potential of sustainable systems and urban design principles for transit oriented neighborhoods.