ABSTRACT
This chapter is intended as a supplement to the latest French edition of Formes urbaines. In it we will try to bring the narrative of this book forward by considering recent developments in the US and UK that, in a sense, bring the story told by the original three authors full circle. This additional material will deal in detail with four exemplary projects accomplished over the last fifteen years in these two countries and discuss the changing role of the block as an element of urban composition. In order to set the context for this it is necessary to discuss the urban design culture of both the US and the UK together with some of the aspects of the wider planning contexts that have had and continue to have a bearing on the form of towns, especially with regard to new housing developments, whether in town, on the urban periphery or in new settlements.
