At the beginning of the third millennium, environment has become an issue of global importance. Changes arising from globalization in the contemporary era, lead to the formation of the same concerns that have inevitably been effective in the field of urban planning and design. New paradigms have become inclusive in different countries, but lack of attention to contextual compliance underlying some of them, while having some capability, have caused extremes in some cases leading to a more difficult digestion of local- global dualities. This is especially evident in developing countries. There are occasionally some proposals regarding utilizing international architectural consulting services with innovative and new approaches to design and planning in large cities. In these circumstances the adaptability of the above paradigms to local context is a concern. This study considers three recent paradigms: New Urbanism, Urban villages and Urban Renaissance in the context of global sustainability concerns emerged in recent years. In this regard, besides an overview on the most important written sources related to the topic, the proposed solutions of each movement are examined and their adaptability to context are analyzed on the basis of contextualism conceptual framework.

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