ABSTRACT

Nearly everything we treasure in the world’s most beautiful cities was built over a century ago. The exquisite architecture, walkable neighborhoods and human scale of cities like Venice, Paris and Prague draw millions of visitors from around the world each year. Yet a great deal of the knowledge and practice behind successful city planning has been abandoned over the last hundred years—not because of traffic, population growth or other practical hurdles, but because of untested and non-evidence-based aesthetic theories put into place in the 20th century. Building on ideas presented in The Art of Classic Planning: Building Beautiful and Enduring Communities (Harvard University Press, 2020), this chapter summarizes the meaningful relationship we may have with the past, presenting it as relevant for the creation of beautiful and delightful urban spaces of our future.