Here you can find a brief explanation of the common sustainable city disciplines that you will find on this weblog. This list will serve as a glossary of terms or a directory of frequently referred to disciplines. Although you will find articles that relate to other disciplines these will be the most common threads.
Sustainable Urban Design
What is Sustainable Urban Design?
Sustainable urban design is the process and practice of creating the physical environments of cities, towns and regional centres into practical, functional, livable places. Sustainable urban design focuses on not only the physical space but also creates inclusive, environmentally responsive, economically viable and inclusive urban spaces.
According to the Responsive Environments: A Manual for Designers there are nine core qualities of urban design:
- Permeability
- Variety
- Legibility
- Robustness
- Appropriateness
- Richness
- Personalisation
- Consultation
- Integration
Permeability
Permeability refers to the inter-connectedness of streets and paths; it applies to the accessibility of the area and directness of the routes (Bently et al. 1985, 12).
Variety
Variety refers to a variety of forms, uses and meanings of an urban area, it applies to the activities and exchanges that take place in the urban centre and the areas capacity to be of mix-use (Bently et al. 1985, 27).
Legibility
Legibility refers to the ability to understand and grasp an area through physical form and activity patterns (Bently et al. 1985, 42).
Robustness
Robustness refers to the flexibility of the urban centre and its capacity to change and offer choice (Bently et al. 1985, 56).
Visual Appropriateness
Visual appropriateness refers to the meanings that people interpret from the urban space by reinforcing visual legibility, through legibility of form and legibility of use (Bently et al. 1985, 76).
Richness
Richness refers to the sensory experiences that people gain from an urban space including sight, sound, smell and touch (Bently et al. 1985, 89).
Personalisation
Personalisation refers to the capacity of the urban centre to allow comfortable engagement with other people through three indicators; protection, comfort and enjoyment, which are achieved through form, layout and design (Kenworthy et al. 2009, 25).
Consultation
Integration
References:
Bently I., Alcock A, Murrain P, McGlynn S and Smith G. 1985. Responsive Environments: A Manual for Designers. Oxford UK: Architecture Press.
Kenworthy J., MacKay M, MacKay M and Scheurer J. 2009. Urban Design for Sustainability: Fieldwork Manual. Western Australia: Curtin University Sustainability Policy (CUSP) and Uban Design Centre (UDC) of Western Australia.
Placemaking
What is Placemaking?
Placemaking is the process of creating cities that evoke a sense of place and identity, where people are invited to engage in their surroundings. Placemaking engages people in the process of creating a sense of belonging, it does not attempt to do this with without community consultation. According to Project for Public Spaces (PPS) Placemaking focuses on four key qualities;
- Sociability
- Uses and Activities
- Access and Linkages
- Comfort
Placemaking places a priority on pedestrians rather than cars and placemakers design urban areas in ways that are sociable, safe and promote diversity. By creating mixed-use urban areas and emphasising the public realm, Placemaking serves to create communities and lively places in urban spaces.
“First life, then spaces, then buildings – the other way around never works.” Jan Gehl.
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
What is Community Supported Agriculture?
Community supported agriculture (CSA) is an economic partnership between a community and a farmer or a number of farmers in the same bioregion. A community or a number of individuals become shareholders by financially contributing to the farm for the expected costs that the farm will incur and as well as sharing the risks such as drought and weather damage shareholders also are also given food for their investments.
Its purpose is to support the community to gain food that is locally produced with reduced food miles and the farmer who gains from the partnership by the financial security of having the support of a community and better prices for their crops than what big supermarkets offer.
One of the main aims of the Transition Towns initiative is to build resilience by creating sustainable towns and reducing energy usage, building awareness around climate change and peak oil and the necessity of moving beyond oil in the future.
According to the official Transition Towns WIKI website, Transition Towns must encapsulate the following points.
- awareness raising around peak oil, climate change and the need to undertake a community lead process to rebuild resilience and reduce carbon
- connecting with existing groups in the community
- building bridges to local government
- connecting with other transition initiatives
- forming groups to look at all the key areas of life (food, energy, transport, health, heart & soul, economics & livelihoods, etc)
- kicking off projects aimed at building people’s understanding of resilience and carbon issues and community engagement
- eventually launching a community defined, community implemented “Energy Descent Action Plan” over a 15 to 20 year timescale (Transition Towns WIKI. 2009b.)
References:
Transition Towns WIKI. 2009a. 12 Key steps to embarking on your transition journey. http://transitiontowns.org/TransitionNetwork/12Steps
Transition Towns WIKI. 2009b. What is a Transition Town. http://transitiontowns.org/TransitionNetwork/TransitionInitiative
