Beyond Sustainability: Architecture in the Renewable City

Beyond Sustainability: Architecture in the Renewable City

1. The over use of the world sustainability - what does sustainability really mean??

   • To refer to this enormous problem as a ‘sustainability challenge’ is to marginalize, even trivialize. Naked survival is at stake.
     • ‘Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromis- ing the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (WCED 1987). The smooth two-liner quickly conquered the world – without clarifying how one could determine what future generations’ needs might possibly entail.
       • It needs to be regained, if we are to move beyond the misty myths of sustainability that fog urban and architectural design discourse today.

2. rapid urbanization can surely be a problem but nothing like its trigger: the world of cheap and abundant fossil fuels.

   • twentieth century architecture mani- fests the great fossil fuel age
     • Human civilization has come to be seen as predominantly urban: the end of the twentieth century is often celebrated as an Age of Cities.
     • THE 4 INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONS
       • 1: the invention of the steam engine
       • 2: associated with the rise of coal and later oil as central cultural forces
       • 3: the spread of telecommunications and thinking machinery: the rising information age
       • 4: the transcendence of the fossil fuel age.
         • A race is on to rid the world of fossil fuels. The dark poison propelled twenthieth- century civilization in a dizzying growth curve – with a spectre of collapse rising in the twenty-first century. Human settlements emerge as the most visible and tangible staging ground for this battle.
           • renewable energy technology, biological carbon sequestration efforts and emission avoidance projects promise to proliferate.
             • The major urban policy challenges of this century are positioned between the global nature of greenhouse gas effects and fuel depletion dynamics on the one hand, and the local reality that represents both original source and final impact of such global changes on the other.
               • World Wide Level eg world global bank and united nations
               • Local level - this is less successful - lack of resources and expertise - Declarations of commitment have been plentiful but effective strategies have been scarce
                 • Hinderance also due to: lack of planning, worry about wealth distribution, worry that a change in energy infrastructure may risk the pace, direction and nature of development, despite much evidence that changes are widely beneficial.
                   • The transformation of mobility systems, human settlement patterns and land management practices are important but insufficient requisites for serious sustainability improvements.
                     • Renewable hardware and combustibles – stationary and transport power systems and fuels – are central to the urban re-engineering challenge.
                       • But the change required goes deeper still, involving resource autonomy, and investment in endogenous energy assets within the local and regional economy.

3. Environmental Impact Equations

   • I = environmental impact | P = population | A = affluence | T = technology
   • 20th C
     • I = P x Ax T
       • T = T20
         • • Extractive (taking raw materials from the Earth); • Linear (take-make-waste); • Powered by fossil fuel-derived energy; • Wasteful and abusive; and • Focused on labour productivity
           • 3 big changes: 1. radical increases in resource efficiency; 2. shifting from a linear model to a closed loop; and 3. changing from a fossil fuel economy to renewable energy economy.
             • 1: The Eden Project - use of ETFE instead of glass
               • 2: The Mobius Project: Exploration of biomimetics
                 • 3: A zero-carbon city runs entirely on renewable energy; it has no carbon footprint and will not cause harm to the planet.
   • 21st C
     • I = (P x A) / T
       • T=T21

4. 10 GUIDING PRINCIPLES

   • 1. Revise land use priorities: Create green, and safe mixed communities; 2. Revise transportation priorities: Favour foot, bicycle, cart and transit over auto; 3. Restore damaged urban environments; 4. Create decent, safe, and economically mixed housing; 5. Nurture social justice and create improved opportunities; 6. Support local agriculture: Create community gardens; 7. Promote recycling and resource conservation; 8. Work with businesses to support ecologically sound economic activity; 9. Promote voluntary simplicity; and 10. Increase awareness of the local environment.