Living Cities

1. In: Ilka & Andreas Ruby (Eds.). The Materials Book. Ruby Press, pp. 206-210., 2020

Urban nature’s ecosystem services are acknowledged as central pillars of sustainable and healthy cities. Catchwords such as bio-design, responsive materials, adaptable architecture, and living systems reflect the growing respect for nature’s design principles. But are these trends more than nature romanticized? Do they represent more than an unrealistic return to nature dream? Are they merely some kind of green washing? That is, do these systems imply sustainability by greening an otherwise unchanged destructive system? Biophilic design can indeed help transform the way we build cities if we critically challenge our design paradigms by learning from nature. Natural systems are characterized by co-dependent parts that dynamically co-shape each other, they are not a set of static and standardized parts designed independent of specific contexts. Moreover, evolution – nature’s engine of innovation – continuously improves existing solutions and cherishes old-grown innovations, rather than providing dreams of disruptive novelty. Nature’s designs are also characterized by a high multifunctionality of imperfect solutions, which are the result of bricolage rather than the work of specialists that focus on controllability and optimized monofunctionality. Finally, urban citizens must re-learn the eco-competence of living amongst other species and with respect to the laws of ecology. This requires craftsmanship, tolerance, patience, responsibility and humility.

2015

The field of sustainable development began to draw public attention in the mid-1970s – over ensuing years the pursuit of sustainable design has sought to benefit residents through positive influence on rate, type, location, and the cost of growth. Ideally, sustainable urban design should support the provision of high quality spaces and healthy places. Our roles as Architects and Environmental Designers remain, fundamentally, to improve the quality of life for people living and working in our projects. We strive to attain this goal despite growing obstacles, including depleting resources, increasing pollution, tightening budgets, escalating regulations and a milieu increasingly known for its isolation, indifference and even hostility. Sustainable communities and greener projects are often correlated with overall higher costs of housing, whether through purchase or rental. This paper argues that truly sustainable developments must aim for greater diversity, heightened accessibility an...

A photograph of our studio at Riverside, taken shortly after we occupied it in 1990, shows only a handful of computers on the desks; today every single workstation has one. Computer screens have already replaced the traditional drawing board and some of the most fundamental aspects of our profession are changing as a result of this technology -in terms of working patterns, social relations, and our responses to environmental challenges. For example, many of the 'green' ideas that we explored in early projects are only now becoming a reality because of the new technologies at our disposal. This book is a survey of almost 40 years of work, a period of huge social and technological transformation. The rate of change is increasing rather than diminishing, and that can be seen reflected in the buildings and projects illustrated here. However, it is also possible to trace consistent themes and concerns throughout our work.

2009

New Civic Works Design professionals and planners are learning new ways to weave nature into the urban experience through the vehicle of high performance or green building. With energy-and resource-efficient building practices joined to metrics such as air quality, indoor lighting, and thermal comfort, environmental quality is being expressly redefined by better human outcomes. Put back in touch with daylight's full spectrum, embracing the lost logic of passive solar heating and natural ventilation, reconnecting with the world outside, enjoying designs that promote views for everyone to experience weather, seasons, and views, we may once again benefit from proximity to the natural world. Sustainability, many are coming to understand, is not about austerity, but to the contrary, may proffer a richer, more sensuous experiential dimension. Practiced well, it's about keeping abundant the visual, tactile, acoustic, and thermal cues that are our link to natural processes. Locked in conventionally lit, hard-surfaced, climate

Open House International, 2016

The studio project will investigate a special category of work that has useful implications for new directions in environmental thinking that is not strictly ecological. The idea is to focus on sociological and contextualism as well as orthodox green technology to address several expanded definitions of environmental reform. Fore example, using architecture and landscape architecture to recapture declining sections of the city and looking to the symbiotic fusion of buildings with landscape rather than the architecture being a formal counterpoint to landscape. At the grass roots level there needs to be a context-sensitive urbanism which responds to communities that need housing, community centres and quality-of-life urban spaces.

Open House International, 2016

Alternative approaches to rethinking and reforming the built environment in ways that imply a more frugal use of energy and natural resources, and a better quality of life, are being explored within academic and policy literature and research around the world. As part of the activities of the ‘Cluster for Research in Design and Sustainability (CRIDS) at the Department of Architecture at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, this issue of Open House International addresses various contexts in Scotland, Turkey, the Middle East, and the United States of America highlighting various theoretical and practical dimensions of sustainability.

Human developments impose a multitude of adverse effects on natural environment. Beyond principles of sustainability, restorative urban and architectural design strategies should aim to reverse the impacts of these developments by preserving and replenishing the regenerative characteristics of natural ecosystems. A conceptual design basis for reversal and restoration is proposed to be the foundation for concerted efforts whereby a series of principles and strategies are developed in eleven areas of concentration: Atmosphere, Ecology, Water, Energy, Mobility, Resources, Wastes, Materials, Places, Community, and Values. Specific strategies in majority of these areas are explored. The core premise of this study asserts the importance of implementing key design principles and strategies particularly at scales larger than individual buildings. Lloyd Crossing Sustainable Design Plan (LCSD) in Portland, OR (Mithun, 2004) is an inspiring example of such urban scale design efforts. The LCSD plan applies various design strategies in a series of design concentration areas. Recognizing the adverse impacts of human developments on natural environment, the discussions address the need for effective urban design principles and strategies to move beyond goals of sustainability towards achieving restoration of the Earth’s ecosystems. The ultimate success of environmental restoration efforts will materialize over relatively long periods of time, in which the efforts to implement these strategies will have to be consistently sustained.

What if we looked at buildings as living organisms that need nourishment to care and grow?