#298 - ANDRES DUANY, FAIA, Co-Founder of the Congress for New Urbanism, Founding Partner of DPZ-CoDesign
SUMMARY
This week David and Marina are joined by Architect Andrés Duany, FAIA, one of the founders of the Congress for New Urbanism, and Co-Founder of DPZ CoDesign to discuss new urbanism; his appearance on the Tucker Carlson Fox show; the importance of understanding an audience; Seaside, Florida and how it embodies principles of new urbanism; the current state of architecture; and more. Enjoy!
ABOUT ANDRES
Andrés Duany is an architect whose work focuses on town and regional planning. With Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk they founded their practice, DPZ, in 1980 at the time of their design of the town of Seaside, which began an ongoing debate on the alternatives to suburban sprawl. DPZ has over 200 plans in the process of implementation. The firm has particular expertise in writing codes and is dedicated to both practice and research. Duany’s books include Garden Cities: Theory and Practice of Agrarian Urbanism, The Smart Growth Manual, Suburban Nation, The New Civic Art, and Landscape Urbanism and Its Discontents.
Duany was one of the founders of the Congress for the New Urbanism. CNU is an organization established in 1993 to promote walkable, resilient urban design. Duany has been a visiting professor at a number of universities in the United States. His work has been recognized by awards such as the Driehaus Prize, the Scully Prize, the Jefferson Medal, and the Brandeis Medal.
TIMESTAMPS
(00:00) Andrés’ appearance on the Tucker Carlson Show
“To actually be in front of four-and-a-half million people who think you're trying to take the country over, now, that is cool! And that's useful. So, yes, of course, I would accept [the invitation]. It’s exactly who we should be speaking to. It's the people who think that we're against them, and we're actually not.” (02:56)
(04:27) The importance of understanding an audience
“If I don't lose two-thirds of the audience before I'm done, I haven't actually made anything or said anything of value. […] You have to lose two-thirds of the audience and that's the best test you have [to see] that you’ve actually said something that's of tremendous value and innovation because people say, “No, no! This is not what I believe already. He’s so full of shit. It's not what I read.” And so I fully intend to help you lose two-thirds of your audience.” (19:26)
(21:11) How Architecture is received by different people
(37:30) The story behind Seaside, Florida
(50:57) New Urbanism
“It's an American pragmatic movement based at the scale of urbanism, about whatever works best in the long run. So our new urbanist communities are hybrids, all of them are hybrids. For example, they have streets that are the old way because they're less expensive and they're more pleasant and more walkable. They have an urban pattern which is much more mixed use. So the 50% of America who doesn't drive—that includes children, the people who don't have enough money to own a car, and the old people who don't drive—they have access to everything [in new urbanism towns]. Right now [in most cities], only 50% of America does. It's inaccessible.” (51:42)
(01:17:14) The relevancy of old urban concepts and theories
(01:34:13) Getting the opportunities to design urban-scale projects.
