As US towns sprawl into the countryside, creating anonymous zones dominated by soulless malls, one of Britain’s leading historians asks if it could happen here. “Traditionally, British policymakers are all too easily drawn to American innovations. But, my time in Phoenix has shown the United States pursuing a model we desperately need to avoid: depopulating […] Continue reading → “But ministers insist that quality can be achieved cheaply. In an effort to secure better standards of housing design they have backed controversial design codes used on Poundbury, Prince Charles’s mock village in Dorset, and Seaside in Florida, the setting for the satirical film The Truman Show. Such codes are endorsed by the influential “new […] Continue reading → 
CEU has produced an exhibition of European urban development projects from the last 10 years. We have now also made the exhibition available online. Included are projects from Italy, Germany, Portugal, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Netherlands and United Kingdom. The exhibition was presented at the Congress for New Urbanism in Pasadena, California June 2005, and the CEU […] Continue reading → 
Delegates at the launch of CEU Deutschland with the signed Charter first day. . . First day at the town hall of Görlitz (German side) Opening of the conference. . . The mayor of Görlitz, Stefan Holthaus, opened the seminar with an introduction on the background of this unique city lying on the German-Polish border, […] Continue reading → 
2 – 4 September 2004, Görlitz, Germany and Zgorzelec, Poland Delegates at the launch of CEU Deutschland with the signed Charter The mayor of Görlitz, Stefan Holthaus, opened the seminar with an introduction on the background of this unique city lying on the German-Polish border, and the problems of its shrinking population. Today European […] Continue reading → “The government’s current planning policy, on which the decision was based, is aimed at avoiding an expansion of out-of-town shopping to reduce pollution caused by car journeys, and to protect existing town centres”. Read full article. Continue reading → One of Germany’s most iconic buildings, the historic Cologne Cathedral, has been put on the UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) List of World Heritage in Danger, due to the increasing development of the German city’s skyline. “The organization admitted concerns during its annual meeting that the construction of several highrise buildings on the […] Continue reading → Report by Susan Parham from the C.E.U. – INTBAU Conference 4 – 9 May 2004, Viseu, Portugal Globalisation is a long standing and well established process, as Elizabeth Plater Zyberk and Matthew Hardy pointed out. It would be presumptuous to assume this is purely a 20th and 21st Century phenomenon. As Javier Cenicacelaya and others […] Continue reading → This article by Peter Franz focuses on demographic changes in Germany and their impact on cities. Read more… Continue reading → The Guardian April 20: “John Prescott wants to re-educate planners and councillors so that they no longer allow housing estates or shopping centres to be dumped on the edge of towns or in the middle of the countryside. He also wants councillors to veto developments that lack the right mixture of houses, jobs, transport and […] Continue reading → 