Review of Literature
Urban Design Ecologies. Introduction Author: Brian McGrath
Ecology of the City. A Perspective from Science Author: Steward TA Pickett
Mixed-use Development: ambiguous concept, simplistic analysis and wishful thinking? Author: Alan Rowley
Hybrid Buildings Author: Steven Holl
McGrath claims that there a misconception nowadays when the term urban as space is set apart from nature, as well as when the urban design is separated from design ecologies. Looking from Guattari’s Three Ecologies’ perspective, he argues that human society cannot respond to the current environmental degradation of the planet without addressing the loss of social relations that have been facing. Another interesting idea that he introduces is that urban designers should see the world in a more complex way that goes beyond patterns and forms in space but integrates organisms, energy flows and the environment.
Pickett states that there is a fundamental difference between understanding ecology ‘of’ rather than ‘in’ the city. While the former has a metabolic focus and address the complexity of the current urban environments; the latter is only limited to urban green patches. His main point is the cities are equally biological, social, built and geophysical. Also, he points out that ecology is a commonly used term metaphorically in design, but it might be misleading sometimes, therefore there should be clarity about the core technical definition, values implied by the metaphor and concepts applied to the material world.
The author claims that mixed land use is essential for the creation of liveable and sustainable urban environments, but he also points out that the objectives should be set from the start since the concept might be a bit ambiguous and carry too many expectations. He breaks down the concept into some basic questions like what it is, how it does and why; and relates it with the main principles and visions that Kevin Lynch, Jane Jacobs and Jan Gehl had for the city decades ago. Another main idea is his criticism of the short-termism tendency that property developers have, which leads to the negative aspects of the city of today.
One of the main ideas that the author argues is that as a society, we are transiting the best possible time to give us some freedom to explore unprecedented architectural types - being that the main potential of hybrid buildings. He believes that urban porosity is a key element in these buildings, therefore they should aim to be pedestrian-focused. Another interesting idea he mentioned is that the vertical spatial experience is the new challenge that cities in the future will have to give a response. In that sense, the question that arises is how these building may go beyond the planimetric projection to have a real presence in the urbanscape.
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STD0 Pivot the City | Design Research Studio D
