ABSTRACT
Introduction The application of environmental concerns to the city has brought with it tantalising new questions for both urbanists and environmentalists. Given the environmental crisis facing humanity as a whole, and the high urban content of that crisis, was there a settlement pattern and built form that was somehow intrinsically suited to fostering a sustainable future? Could a particular urban configuration be devised with spatial properties sufficient in themselves to overcome the substantial economic, social, political and technological obstacles to urban sustainability? In short, sustainability has opened up the possibility, substantiated on environmental grounds, for a new idealisation of urban form. The ‘compact city’, though not restricted to exclusively environmental concerns, is one of the most compelling propositions in this direction.
