Abstract
The purpose of the International Making Cities Livable (IMCL) movement, founded in 1985, is to enhance the wellbeing of all inhabitants, strengthen community, improve social and physical health, and increase civic engagement by sustainably reshaping the built environment of our cities, suburbs, towns and villages.
To achieve these goals, IMCL proposes an interdependent four-part strategy called the Principles of True Urbanism:
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Facilitate community social life
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Facilitate contact with nature
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Facilitate independent mobility
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Freate a hospitable built environment
A major barrier preventing us achieving these goals is over-reliance on the economic model of city making. There are two competing value systems at work. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) model sees the city as an economic engine, and its function is to fuel growth and increase wealth. The second is based on Quality of Life. In this model, the function of the city is the “care and culture” (Mumford 1961) of human being and of the earth. IMCL promotes the Quality of Life model for shaping cities through the Principles of True Urbanism.
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Lennard, S.H.C. (2019). Livable Cities: Concepts and Role in Improving Health. In: Nieuwenhuijsen, M., Khreis, H. (eds) Integrating Human Health into Urban and Transport Planning. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74983-9_4
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