Sense of community is often mentioned as an asset of new urbanism. The purpose of the study was to explore this claim by comparing Kentlands, a prototypic new urbanist community, with a traditional suburban development near it. Four domains of sense of community were examined, each in terms of 17 distinct aspects of the physical environment, through surveys as well as interviews with residents. The findings suggest thatKentlands residents perceive substantially greater sense of community; they express stronger attachment to their community and sense of identity with it. Natural features and open spaces play a particularly important role in sense of community and Kentlands provides a rich variety of these, fostering pedestrianism and increasing the likelihood of social interactions. The overall layout of the community and traditional architectural style, as well as many other physical features, play vital functions in achieving sense of community

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New approaches to improving architectural education have emerged in recent years, but comprehensive research that investigates the roles that urban design can play in promoting positive changes in architectural education and pedagogy is scarce. Despite urban design's close alliance with architecture, many in the architectural discipline seem to lack a coherent understanding of what urban design can offer to architectural pedagogy. Following an in-depth review of relevant literature, this paper briefly outlines the history, goals, methods, characteristics, and benefits of urban design. This lays the foundation for proposing four approaches to advancing architectural education and pedagogy: facilitating (promoting consensus about design), grounding (promoting logical underpinning, inquiry by design, and evidence-based design), convening (promoting social design), and designing therapeutically (promoting environmental sensibility). Findings and lessons drawn from other fields are also used to support the four approaches. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of its findings and suggesting areas for future research.

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