The International New Town Institute (INTI) is a platform for research, education and knowledge exchange for New Towns.
In order to improve the quality and sustainability of future New Towns, we can learn from existing New Towns today. Why? Because New Towns have many similarities: they were designed from scratch according to planning doctrines of one specific period, they have experienced relatively fast urban growth, they demonstrate specific demographic patterns and they contain a homogeneous housing stock. The result of all this is that many New Towns struggle with the same problems: a uniform demography, a lack of educational, cultural or other facilities and too little diversity in the housing stock. Because of their young age, New Towns also face a lack of history and identity and usually suffer from image problems. Because many New Town developments are quite similar, also their challenges are often quite predictable.
In the 1950-1970 period, many New Towns were planned in order to control and regulate urban growth in Western Europe. Many of these planned cities are nowadays regarded as unsuccessful either economically or socially. Today, we see a new wave of New Towns being built at an unprecedented rate in the fast-growing economies of Asia, Africa and Latin America. In order not to make the same mistakes as were made as during the twentieth century, it is important to learn from the experiences with New Towns in Europe, the USA and elsewhere. Improving, rather than repeating past mistakes requires a specialized platform for the exchange of knowledge and practice.
INTI is that platform. INTI studies the past, present and future of planned communities in an urbanizing world. It serves a unique role in bringing together multidisciplinary expertise and experience in a wide range of activities in collaboration with public, private and academic partners. INTI initiates studies, offers educational programs, and organizes public events and lectures. All of these activities contribute to the institute’s objective to improve the quality of life in new cities worldwide.