Neighbourhood Unit - Criticism

Criticism

In the late 1940s the neighbourhood unit concept came under attack from Reginald Isaacs, then Director of Planning for Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago. Isaacs believed that the overwhelming endorsement of the neighbourhood unit, as a "panacea for all urban ills", was misguided; suggesting that the mystical powers ascribed to the concept by its most enthusiastic adherents engendered a dangerously sectarian discourse surrounding its application.

Isaac’s critical commentary of the neighbourhood unit centred on its (mis)use as an instrument for the segregation of racial, ethnic, religious and economic groups by private developers willing to utilise the gated-community aspects of the neighbourhood units physical design for this purpose. Supporting this argument, Isaacs pointed to examples of promotional material for new pre-planned neighbourhoods, as well as excerpts from government planning reports and information provided by social scientists – all championing the neighbourhood unit as a bastion for the gentry, keeping the undesirables, as well as through-traffic, out.

Isaac’s argument became a rallying point for the collective opposition of the neighbourhood unit, as planners began to question the unintended consequences of its repeated use, its socially divisive nature and its emphasis on the physical environment as the sole determinant of wellbeing. In developed countries across the globe, the spread of urban systems which embrace obsolete or impractical uses of space in order to manifest a synthetic ‘rural’ community lifestyle is increasingly viewed as blight upon attempts to achieve sustainable metropolitan growth.

In the past, Isaac’s argument was weakened through its inability to provide an alternative framework for community planning, in the present, planning bodies internationally, both private and public as of 2009, continue to adapt and make modular use of the neighbourhood unit when planning new communities. It is becoming increasingly difficult however, to mask the problems associated with the continued and ubiquitous use of variations on this model, and Urban Sprawl is proving to be one such problematic consequence of this usage facing many developed cities. It is becoming increasingly apparent that a rethinking of the current heteronormative approach to planning new communities on the urban fringe, or in the redevelopment of existing neighbourhoods, is required to meet density goals and forge sustainable growth.