Thursday, November 11, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Review: Biocity
Cities are complex dynamic living systems displaying ecological traits and adapting to environmental changes, ingesting human activity and natural resources while expelling waste. The article draws on natural systems such as ant and termite colonies as well as mould possibly being used indirectly to detemine the most effective transport networks.
The Biocity concept has evolved from emergent modelling where biotopes represent different physical aspects of a complex city, based on simple rules governing 12 component systems of biodiversity, built form, culture and education, economy, energy, food, governance, health, pollution, transport, water and waste. It is intended to be used as both an urban design tool and a monitoring tool to highlight cities with the highest resource efficiencies, informing others with examples of improvements.
A research group Biocity Studio is running in partnership with UNSW. For more information refer to the wiki at biocitystudio.com.
Mcgregor, Adrian. 2010. Biocity - Emergent Sustainability. Topos: The international review of landscape architecture and urban design, n 70, pp 70-75
The Biocity concept has evolved from emergent modelling where biotopes represent different physical aspects of a complex city, based on simple rules governing 12 component systems of biodiversity, built form, culture and education, economy, energy, food, governance, health, pollution, transport, water and waste. It is intended to be used as both an urban design tool and a monitoring tool to highlight cities with the highest resource efficiencies, informing others with examples of improvements.
A research group Biocity Studio is running in partnership with UNSW. For more information refer to the wiki at biocitystudio.com.
Mcgregor, Adrian. 2010. Biocity - Emergent Sustainability. Topos: The international review of landscape architecture and urban design, n 70, pp 70-75
Review: Sustainability 3.0
Beatley presents the latest plans, initiatives and successful implementations in the last decade around the world for urban sustainability, although the article mostly focuses on examples from the United States. He suggests that sustainability could be the next innovation age and stresses its importance in urban planning; balancing ecology, economics and equity.
Practices that are relevant to cities are collaborative, systemic and holistic design aimed to achieve access to sustainable public transport and mixed-use development allowing a more compact urban form, vibrant pedestrian spaces to enhance the sense of community and encourage diversity, biophylic connection to natural surroundings through greening, local food production, resource efficiency and zero-waste targets by considering waste outputs as inputs for other systems. Challenges ahead include the scaling up of technologies to a city scale, reaching a broader audience to take personal action and keeping sustainability on the agenda individually and collectively.
Examples where a positive approach to sustainability has been taken are Hammarby at a suburban level in Sweden, the ecocity Dongtan in China and carbon-neutral Masdar City in the United Arab Emirates.
Beatley, Timothy. 2009. Sustainability 3.0 Building tomorrow's earth-friendly communities. Planning, May 1, pp 16-22. http://www.proquest.com/ (accessed 5/10/2010)
Practices that are relevant to cities are collaborative, systemic and holistic design aimed to achieve access to sustainable public transport and mixed-use development allowing a more compact urban form, vibrant pedestrian spaces to enhance the sense of community and encourage diversity, biophylic connection to natural surroundings through greening, local food production, resource efficiency and zero-waste targets by considering waste outputs as inputs for other systems. Challenges ahead include the scaling up of technologies to a city scale, reaching a broader audience to take personal action and keeping sustainability on the agenda individually and collectively.
Examples where a positive approach to sustainability has been taken are Hammarby at a suburban level in Sweden, the ecocity Dongtan in China and carbon-neutral Masdar City in the United Arab Emirates.
Beatley, Timothy. 2009. Sustainability 3.0 Building tomorrow's earth-friendly communities. Planning, May 1, pp 16-22. http://www.proquest.com/ (accessed 5/10/2010)
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Urban Dream: Sustainability
Fly over Sydney, the beautiful city we are lucky to live in, rich with natural assets. Sustainable Sydney 2030 gives a vision and sets objectives but does it go far enough? Can a city ever be sustainable and create a positive impact on not just the environment, but socioeconomically as well? Some believe so and I hope so too. This is my idea of what sustainable Sydney might look like.
As I walk down George Street, from Central to Circular Quay, the city is in transition. Sustainable improvements appear along the way. Buildings adapt to make the most of passive opportunities with shading and setbacks to allow daylight access. Footpaths widen. Cycleways slide into the road from the curb, a tram rattles down the centre. Cars vanish. There is only one lane left going each way for buses. Bright coloured market squares open up near Town Hall, Martin Place and Circular Quay. Vibrant artworks celebrate our cultural differences. More trees line the street encouraging local native species to cohabit this city with us and increase biodiversity while providing evaporative cooling and pleasant shade to the microclimate of the street.
The vista opens up to show the harbour, flanked by the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Solar sailors line the quay ferrying people to other places on the harbour. Past the Opera House, Farm Cove once more boasts a farm producing vegetables for a garden market. It is a multi-story purpose-designed urban agricultural structure. Wetlands nearby filter the city's effluent.
Dusk approaches and as the sun sets, the city dims, the gardens and buildings lit softly by solar powered night lights.
As I walk down George Street, from Central to Circular Quay, the city is in transition. Sustainable improvements appear along the way. Buildings adapt to make the most of passive opportunities with shading and setbacks to allow daylight access. Footpaths widen. Cycleways slide into the road from the curb, a tram rattles down the centre. Cars vanish. There is only one lane left going each way for buses. Bright coloured market squares open up near Town Hall, Martin Place and Circular Quay. Vibrant artworks celebrate our cultural differences. More trees line the street encouraging local native species to cohabit this city with us and increase biodiversity while providing evaporative cooling and pleasant shade to the microclimate of the street.
The vista opens up to show the harbour, flanked by the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Solar sailors line the quay ferrying people to other places on the harbour. Past the Opera House, Farm Cove once more boasts a farm producing vegetables for a garden market. It is a multi-story purpose-designed urban agricultural structure. Wetlands nearby filter the city's effluent.
Dusk approaches and as the sun sets, the city dims, the gardens and buildings lit softly by solar powered night lights.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
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