Rural Urbanism

It is probably easier to understand what Rural Urbanism is first by explaining what it is not.

It is not taking a chunk of the city and dropping it in the countryside.

Neither is it trying to re-create the countryside in the middle of the city.

Rural Urbanism is more of an art, the proverbial “you know it when you see it”.

It its core are the transitions between various intensity of urbanism and the various implementations of rural, open space and agricultural land.

While a great hamlet has many elements of urbanism they can differ substantially from the urbanism of the typical city, for a variety of reasons.

Most critical are the pedestrian connections and accessibility between these variations of urban and rural.

Rural Urbanism is about the City, the Town, the Village, the Hamlet and all the land that lies between.  Without the conserved and well integrated natural lands such places can remain beautiful but isolated from the greater vision of rural urbanism.

There are many forms of car centric suburban living that many people find very desirable that simply do not fit into the codes of Rural Urbanism.

The key element of this is that when you make certain choices as a community that include very high land consumption and create unreasonable distances or unpleasant paths for pedestrians to interact between the rural and urban components you eliminate the possibility or opportunity for Rural Urbanism.  Many communities will and have made this choice.

However, many communities are seeing a very different opportunity.  Where a balance of compact urban living can allow for greater conserved and carefully planned and integrated common, open, and agricultural space for the benefit of the whole community.

But it is important to remember that it is an art.  You can not simply allow high density and preserve random chunks of land and expect a rural urban community to develop.

Context is critical.  There are different responsibilities for a hamlet, a village, a town and a city to accommodate growth in a way that enhances the community as opposed to destroying what is great about it.

But the natural world is as important to the city as it is to the hamlet and commerce and economy are as important to the hamlet as the city.  Just their context and intensity differ.

A hamlet without its own sustainable economy will become nothing more than a hub for commuters, just as a city without great parks, piazzas, culture and a natural world at its edge will only encourage its residents to seek their own sprawling piece of nature.

When someone who lives in a thriving city can ride the streetcar or light-rail to the edge, or possibly follow trails and paths thru the city to reach it, and find parks and rural communities beyond, they can in fact enjoy both the city and the country and not be forced to choose between one or the other in isolation.

When someone lives in an agricultural hamlet not far from the edge of the city and passes thru open land, not sprawl, in their travels to the the village, town, or city, these markets remain open and viable to them and the relationship between those enjoying the urban and rural life can mix.

But even in rural agricultural realm, it is not so practical to all be spread out and isolated.  For some this is logical and viable, but for many the pleasure of a community, a place for a cafe, the common cluster of residence and business that can compliment each other makes much more sense.  And in doing so it can allow for a greater variety and viability of those participating in creating such a community.  Greater open lands and lands set aside for agricultural use can occur in such patterns, as can those who choose to work in the agricultural communities can live within them and often walk or ride the tractor to work.

Rural Urbanism is in fact where the conservationist and the urbanist come together and both gain much greater rewards in the collaboration.

So while it is clearly an ideal, it is being implemented or preserved in different ways all over the world. 

In many places it is a historic artifact of the days before the automobile, and is often greatly loved and cherished by those who have preserved it, and well visited by those who want to experience it.

But as well many communities are finding that it is within their grasp, that in fact in many ways it is more efficient and more affordable and is valued to a much higher level than the current alternatives.

So Rural Urbanism is not just a design or a theory, it is a way of life, that can expand to the level of region.  It can and is being implemented in various degrees all around the world.  You may struggle to find the complete model, but you will readily find many of the elements, and every year additional examples that are more comprehensive and integrated and inclusive of the ever important transitions.

Rural Urbanism is in fact where all the great and substantial work of the conservationists, preservationists, urbanists, organic farmers, planners, designers, artists, engineers, dreamers, builders is coming together to create that which simply should be.  Places of all variety that are both economically and environmentally sustainable.

Thom Shepard