Yule Heibel's Library tagged ecological_urbanism →  View Popular, Search in Google

QUOTE It doesn’t solve the problem to buy a hybrid and retrofit your house if all of that takes place 20 miles from your job. You’d still consume more energy (“suburban single family green”) than an urban household without the latest green tech (“urban single family”). And that has as much to do with associated transportation emissions as the size and efficiency of your home.

The implication is that if more suburbanites opted to move out of their low-density detached homes and into walkable, mixed-use urban communities (or if we retrofitted suburbia to better resemble such places), right there we’d be on our way to taking a real whack at carbon emissions. UNQUOTE

cities suburbia housing atlantic_cities energy ecological_urbanism

Some great trends/ technologies listed here:
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...how can cities—old or new—take green to a new level? Here's a look at some of the ways
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- District Heating
- Micro Wind Turbines
-Pumped Hydro Storage/ Micro Power
- Walking and Biking
- Personal Rapid Transit
- Pneumatic Garbage Collection
- Waste to Resource
- Green Roofs

cities wsj.com ecological_urbanism michael_totty green_technologies

Several studies recently, one claiming that cities aren't so green (whereas this one counterindicates it). I like this article because it argues for more trees.
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While this news may just be common sense (trees are good!), it's another important argument for why urban planning needs to incorporate green space, particularly the shady kind. The human population is on track to add more than two billion people to our ranks in the next fifty years. Much of that growth will happen in urban areas, which currently shelter more than half of the globe. We'll need that urban land to absorb as much carbon as possible if we have any hope of fighting climate change.
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good_mag cities environment carbon_sequestering ecological_urbanism

Would be great to see something like this get built:
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Stalled projects are a blight on any city’s landscape, but several Boston architects are looking to turn those mid-construction eyesores into useful (and cool-lookin’) spaces. With the economy in the gutter, many developers’ plans were squashed, but rather than sit idly, the Boston Globe asked architects to take a look at the sites and envision completely new projects that use the existing structure to improve the city. Höweler + Yoon and Squared Design Lab took a stab at the stalled Filene Development at Downtown Crossing and envisioned “Eco Pods,” a prefab, bio-fuel producing building that can adapt, change and grow over time.

Robotic arms attached to the building would move the pods around to optimize growing conditions. Voids are created when the pods are reconfigured, leaving behind space for public parks or botanical gardens. Bio-fuel created within the pods is used to power the robotic arms and the remainder would be used elsewhere, possibly to assist construction. Once construction is complete, the pods could be taken and reinstalled on another building and be reused. As Höweler + Yoon says about the project “This is anticipatory pre-cycled architecture, capable of generating a new micro-urbanism that is local, agile and carbon net-postive.”
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ecological_urbanism futurismo boston inhabitat architecture biofuels

Useful site with upcoming and archived webcasts; this is the section on Architecture, Construction, and Engineering.

research design brighttalk webcasts video reference architecture urban_design ecological_urbanism

QUOTE:
Andy Lipkis, Founder and President of TreePeople, describes how this organization has pioneered an integrated approach to managing urban ecosystems as watersheds in the Los Angeles region. This involves strategic tree planting, tree-mimicking technologies, and community engagement to generate multiple solutions to the environmental threats facing our cities, including ensuring a sustainable water supply, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, preventing water and air pollution, fostering stronger neighborhoods, and creating jobs. For a summary of TreePeople's six demonstration projects that are now collecting 1.25 million gallons of water every time it rains 1" in Los Angeles, visit www. treepeople.org. Video Going to Green: Planting Seeds of Change with Community Forestry produced by the Media & Policy Center Foundation for PBS.
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Great stuff here - fascinating to see how "silo-think" works against solving problems.

environment ecological_urbanism los_angeles envirospeak.tv green_technologies urban_renewal

Description of "Ecological Urbanism," an exhibition at Harvard's Graduate School of Design, March 30 to May 17, 2009.

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