Sustainable Urban Design

[Metyu]

Thanks, Patrick, for the Curitiba link. Lerner is one of my all-time favourite people; I had the privilege of hearing him talk a few years ago (SB05Tokyo), he really is inspirational and Curitiba holds lessons for us all.

As for Johnny...

Originally Posted by Johnny Electriglide

Metyu does not seem to understand that because the crash is not stoppable, I am being pessimistic and not realistic. I am being realistic, and going from there with hope that afterward, the climate, species, soil and water left will allow the continuation of intelligent humanity that will achieve sustainable living as a matter of morals.

As I said before, if this crash is as inevitable and all-paralysing as you claim, what is the point of doing anything? And don't come back at me with the "don't give up hope" nonsense.

The great thing is, if my calculations are correct you won't even be around to witness the crash! How cool is that? You can spread all the nonsense you want without fear of ever being proved wrong!

I might say to you, and others for consideration, that the crash you so desire comes from the workings of your own mind, not from rational or logical thought. And you can check that gene on google - it's often called the "God" gene.

I hate to have to put it so bluntly, but I was really hoping that at least this thread could become a useful resource. As it is this could well be my last post on this forum - I just don't have time or inclination to consider and respond to hysterical nonsense all the time, that is not why I joined this site.

[Paul Smith]

Hmm, interesting, I seem to encounter this on other sustainability related boards/listservs, the clash between people seeing possibilities, solutions, and those that think we're either doomed or need to entirely shift how we function on the planet, yesterday.

I'd prefer to sidestep that for the moment, bringing it back to the original intent of this thread. I recently moved to a small but vibrant and growing town of 12000 called Grass Valley, in California. There's a proposed development that seems to be hitting many good points, with housing laid out in such a way to encourage more community, and resources and businesses within 5 minutes walk from anywhere in the development, enough so that people need not get in their car and drive elsewhere for their needs. The properties offered will be of differing styles and costs to encourage a mixed community, each built with greater sustainability in mind. There will be an organic farm (already in operation now) on site to provide produce.

Now there are some that say why build it at all, it's increasing the population here. I'd counter that Grass Valley is drawing people no matter what the housing allotment is, the only way to eliminate people wanting to move here is to make it an unpleasant place to live, not likely to happen soon, so why not develop a healthy, life giving, environmentally friendly development, one that will be slowly rolled out, within a confined area, over 10-15 years?

See it for yourself at Loma Rica

[Patrick]

Paul that is exactley the kind of thing we need more of in the U.S. Is transit planned for the development? It seems like a perfect fit. I think the real challenge will be finding a way to retrofit our existing cities (sprawl) to more closely resemble this type of development (mixed-use, transit-oriented), and convincing residents that such a retrofit would benefit both them and the environment.

Here is one for Johnny's side: Scientist James Lovelock says time to plan for sustainable retreat

[Paul Smith]

I don't know the transit plans, but being a walkability oriented development, I don't think there will be emphasis, or need, for a transit system. An example of what you're talking about is in Vancouver, where they're currently readying for the 2010 olympics, they're building out a formerly underutilized old shipping district, creating structures that are built green, and are planned to be put to use for housing, businesses, etc afterwords, creating a new neighborhood. Vancouver overall has many examples of sustainable urban development. One that I can recall off the top of my head is the permitting on skyscraper development, they space them so that natural light can make it through, rather then building up against each other, blocking out the sun most of the day. They're very much a model of the urban density school of development.

[Patrick]

Paul, the great thing about walkable design is that it is also transit-oriented design. People have to walk to the transit stop, and they then have to walk to their destination after getting off. So if you plan for transit, you plan for walking, and vice versa. With a development like this transit is not required, but if residents decide later than it would be of benefit it would be easy to make it work.

[Paul Smith]

True enough. I don't know their plans in depth enough to know about transit, but I know the main people's son, who is my wife's boss. I may actually work with them, once this project gets approved, so it's good to have some insights to suggest. Thanks!

[Patrick]

From the Loma Rice website:

"There will be a series of interconnected, mixed-use neighborhoods. These neighborhoods are sized in such a way that all residents of Loma Rica are never more than ¼ mile – about a five-minute walk – from a central node of community activity. These nodes might contain neighborhood-serving retail, community-oriented amenities such as meeting halls, schools or religious facilities and recreational facilities such as playgrounds and formal urban parks."

The natural thing to do then, would be to connect these "central nodes" with transit. Such a thing might become necessary if the development were to reach a certain density, or if gas prices were to enter the ~$5/gallon range.

[Paul Smith]

True. Though I don't know how far the nodes would be from one another. As in if it would be worth it/necessary to have transit. But it is something to consider, and mention, when I meet these people. I can see some sort of shuttle bus circling these places, indeed...

[kimgyr]

To one and all, thank you for the subject - if we don't get this one right, all those who are now concentrated in cities when we have no more petroleum risk being deprived of food and energy certainly, and most probably clean water as well. There is a lot that we can do with modern technologies and new paradigms. Please see my site at greenmillennium.net for proposals for ways, similar to Patrick's, for the elimination of both cars and aircraft and their replacement by high, medium and low-speed maglev trains, which have little resistance to forward movement below 50 miles/hour, and can be run in evacuated tubes to reduce aerodynamic resistance at higher speeds ( the Swiss are currently exploring such systems under the name of "Swissmetro"). These would service Linear Cities that would place everyone in close contact with agricultural areas so that they can walk into the fields to tend them when no one has any fuel to run tractors and lorries.
We must very carefully study the ways to provide for more than 6 billion when energy resources fall to the same levels that they were in 1900, when the world only supported 1.6 billion people, and I propose the Linear City idea to provoke you into providing even better solutions! The Linear Cities also run north and south, at right angles to the prevailing westerly winds in the Northern Hemisphere, with wind turbines all along their roof cornices and semi-transpparent photovoltaic panels covering the atrium between the 2 outer walls. 2 outer walls? Please remember that a Linear City might run from Southampton to Aberdeen, connecting London, Coventry, Newcastle and Edinburgh on the way, or Naples to Copenhagen, Ho Chi Minh City to Vladivostok, San Diego to Anchorage, Miami to Boston, so essentially they have only 2 outer walls insted of the ubiquity of 4 sided buildings that we now have.
There ought to be a considerable reduction in heat loss, or heat gain in the summer through outer walls as a result, combined with savings in transportation, food and energy production from entirely renewable resources!
We would, of course, keep our existing cities, linking them as indicated above. The juxtaposition of the windtubines close to both industry and habitations, but out of sight above them will also greatly decrease the at least 6 - 7% losses that are incurred by the current siting of power generating plants well away from cities.
Where possible, the Linear cities could use natural features such as shorelines and ridges, the Pennines come to mind, as the obstacles to the wind that I am proposing to exploit where there is maximum air flow and where its velocity is greatest!
These are ideas that came to me as I staggered, walked and jogged more than 330 miles, just after I had arrived for the first time in England in 1980, my heart having stopped for 10 minutes following a car accident in Kenya on the way. I hope that they may spur younger designers, and all designers, to complete the 100% sustainable infrastructure that future generations will need for their survival before we run out of petroleum!

We might also consider that futuristic ideas have almost always found a way into our everyday lives, after storms of resistance. It's only another 100 generations until the year 4000, or 20 times the generations that we know in our own families. Perhaps we owe it to them to provide them with alternatives, otherwise, at present projections, at least 99% of the time between now and then will be spent without petroleum. Would you wish that on yourself? Please visit the site at Home to get some visuals of the idea, email me at humansolutions@greenmillennium.net, or post a reply on this site. Thank you very much for your consideration!

[Patrick]

That looks very impressive kimgyr. I think such a city could be built linearly, or like a spoke and wheels pattern with several lines radiating out from a central point, with concentric bands connecting the lines. All the space inbetween would be for agriculture. Have you seen the Victory City? It seems to have some similarities to what you are envisioning. I have not had enough time to read over your entire site, but I will get to it later. Keep up the good work.