Research
The research component has examined several aspects of new towns:
Economic Performance
Planning for Health
Quality of Life
Their role in an aging society
East Asia’s unprecedented pace of urbanization has led to the development of the largest number of new towns since Great Britain’s post‐war new towns development program. China, India, Korea, Vietnam and other countries in East Asia all have major government-led programs to develop new towns. However, new towns are not just an East Asian phenomenon but can be found around the world.
This research project looks broadly at international experience in new town development, operations, management, and the perceptions and quality‐of‐life of residents.
Database
A database of new towns with populations over 30,000 from the twentieth century is available. Researchers looking for a list of sources can contact [email protected].
Publications
New Towns for the Twenty-First Century: A Guide to Planned Communities Worldwide
… edited by Richard Peiser and Ann Forsyth, has been published by Penn Press. It builds on classic works on new towns such as those below.
![book cover](https://research.gsd.harvard.edu/new-towns/files/2020/06/book-cover.jpg)
The book is now available for ordering through Penn Press using the link below:
2021 Forthcoming, A. Forsyth and R. Pesier. Lessons from Planned Resettlement and New Town Experiences for Avoiding Climate Sprawl. Landscape and Urban Planning.[Free Reprint to Nov 17, 2020]
2021 R. Peiser and A. Forsyth eds. New Towns for the Twenty-First Century: A Guide to Planned Communities Worldwide. Philadelphia: Penn Press.
2019 A. Forsyth and R. Pesier. The British New Towns: Lessons for the World from the New Town Experiment. Town Planning Review 90, 3: 239-246..
2017 H.Y. Kan, A. Forsyth, and P. Rowe. Redesigning China’s Superblock Neighborhoods: Policies, Opportunities, and Challenges. Journal of Urban Design 22, 6: 257-277. [Abstract] [Free reprint–total 100]
2016 P. Rowe, A. Forsyth, and Har Ye Kan. China’s Urban Communities: Concepts, Contexts, and Well-being. Berlin: Birkhäuser.
2014 A. Forsyth. Global Suburbia and the Transition Century. Urban Design International, 19. 4: 259-273. [Dash version.]
2014 A. Forsyth. Alternative Forms of the High Technology District: Corridors, Clumps, Cores, Campuses, Subdivisions, and Sites. Environment and Planning C 32, 5: 809-823. [Dash version.]
2011 A. Forsyth and K. Crewe. Finding Common Ground in the Metropolis: Planned Residential Enclaves as Connection or Exclusion? Journal of Architectural and Planning Research 28, 1: 58-75.
2011 A. Forsyth. Planned Communities and New Towns. In T. Banerjee and A. Loukaitou-Sideris eds. Urban Design: Roots, Influences, and Trends: The Routledge Companion to Urban Design. New York: Routledge.
2011 K. Crewe and A. Forsyth. Compactness and Connection in Environmental Design: Insights from Ecoburbs and Ecocities for Design with Nature. Environment and Planning B 38, 2: 267-288.
2010 A. Forsyth and K. Crewe. Suburban Technopoles as Places: The International Campus-Garden-Suburb Style. Urban Design International 15, 3: 165-182.
2009 A. Forsyth and K. Crewe. New Visions for Suburbia: Reassessing Aesthetics and Place-making in Modernism, Imageability, and New Urbanism. Journal of Urban Design 14, 4: 415-438. [Abstract]
2009 A. Forsyth and K. Crewe. A Typology of Comprehensive Designed Communities since the Second World War. Landscape Journal 27, 2: 56-78. [Abstract]
2007 A. Forsyth and K. Crewe. Across the Board, Master Planned Communities Come in all Shapes and Sizes. Planning 73, 7: 10-15.
2005 A. Forsyth. Reforming Suburbia: The Planned Communities of Irvine, Columbia, and The Woodlands. Berkeley: University of California Press.
2005 A. Forsyth. Grading the Irvine Ranch, Planning 71, 5: 36-40.
2005 A. Forsyth. Evolution of an Ecoburb, Landscape Architecture 95, 7: 60-69. [Abstract]
2003 A. Forsyth. Ian McHarg’s Woodlands: A Second Look, Planning August 10-13.
2003 A. Forsyth. Entries, Encyclopedia of Community. K. Christensen and D. Levinson, eds. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Entries include: New Towns; Columbia, MD.
2002 A. Forsyth. Who Built Irvine? Private Planning and the Federal Government. Urban Studies 39, 13, 2507-2530. [Abstract]
2002 A. Forsyth. Planning Lessons from Three US New Towns of the 1960s and 1970s: Irvine, Columbia, and The Woodlands. Journal of the American Planning Association 68, 4: 387-415. [Abstract]
1999 A. Forsyth. Constructing Suburbs: Competing Voices in a Debate Over Urban Growth. Amsterdam: Gordon & Breach, New York: Routledge.
1999 A. Forsyth. Soundbite Cities: Imagining Futures in Debates Over Urban Form. Journal of Architectural and Planning Research 16, 1: 33-51. [Article]
1997 A. Forsyth. Five Images of a Suburb: Perspectives on a New Urban Development. Journal of the American Planning Association 63, 1: 45-60. [Abstract]
1995 A. Forsyth. Privatization: Infrastructure on the Urban Edge. Journal of Urban Affairs 17, 3: 241-262. [Abstract]