Since the last decade of the century, the ongoing
search for a model of sustainable urban form has
given way to an old new idea: compact cities. With
the emergence of a new consciousness of urbanism, a
clear argument that compactness is an essential
feature of urbanity has gained validity.

The vision of compact urban form, similar to those
seen in early phases of human history, may seem to be
just a nostalgic reaction to late-modern urbanism.
Yet a close look at compact city models allows us
to demonstrate the real performance of the concept in
a spatial context like in terms of...