13 minute read
Ecocity World Summit: squaring the circle of sustainability
Mikeala Loach, author of It’s Not That Radical, climate action to transform our world, delivering a keynote address at the opening session chaired by Maria Adebowale-Schwarte from Foundation for a Future London.
Ecocity World Summit 2023 took place at the Barbican Centre at the beginning of June. This international gathering of city leaders captured many of the key contradictions in creating a sustainable future.
Conferences and exhibitions are often held in convenient but uninspiring premises. The choice of the Barbican Centre in the City of London was, however, both timely and relevant. The Barbican is described by Barnabas Calder, author of Architecture from Prehistory to Climate Emergency, as: ‘The architecture of fossil fuels at its glorious best….’
The conference venue was also just minutes away from the Museum of London and Bastion House, both of which are at the centre of a major resident-led campaign designed to persuade the buildings’ owners, the City of London Corporation, to retain and reuse rather than demolish. The Barbican Centre is also undergoing a major programme of refurbishment, the first part of which will be the extensive redevelopment of the high-level walkways. This area is the largest public space in the City of London and just a week after the plans were outlined to the summit by Neil Manthorpe, Head of Landscape at Atkins, the City of London gave planning permission for a landscape scheme that will increase green space by 70%. [See below for details.]
Ecocity World Summit was set up by Ecocity Builders, founded in 1992 by a core group of ecologists and activists to further a set of goals outlined at the first International Ecocity Conference in Berkeley in 1990. Its mission has been to gather experts, innovators and city leaders from across the world, and to act as a forum to challenge urban systems and focus on positive action. The focus is on making use of ecological urban planning, design, ecology, education, advocacy, policy and public participation to build healthier cities for both people and nature. The chosen theme for the London summit was Connecting Communities. This looked at how collaboration, participation, democratisation of design and transdisciplinary approaches can create better cities and communities. It was hosted by New London Architecture (NLA) and curated by Gonzalo Herrero Delicado.
As Peter Murray, Chair of NLA, explained in his opening remarks, the summit’s location in the City of London was very relevant; the City follows a medieval plan, it was already highly walkable and both the local authority (the City of London Corporation) and Transport for London had demonstrated a major commitment to active travel.
Mikaela Loach was one of the most impactful of the opening speakers. Author of It’s Not That Radical, the writer and fourth year medical student focused on a commitment to climate justice and to building ‘a framework that understands that how the climate crisis impacts on people is dependent on systems of oppression’. She explained how it builds on multiple existing inequalities and is connected to those who cause material harm. She was clear that ‘We don’t have single issue struggles in the same way that we don’t have single issue lives’ and that ‘fossil fuels are today’s weapons of mass destruction’.
Will Hurst, managing editor at the Architects’ Journal, outlined the RetroFirst campaign (to promote retrofit over demolition and rebuild) that the magazine had been running for the past three years. He spoke about the significance of the campaign to halt the demolition of the post-war Marks & Spencer flagship store in Oxford Street and he highlighted the need for tax reform to remove VAT on retrofit projects.
As a keynote speaker, Hurst introduced Lord Deben, well known as the longest-serving Conservative Environment Minister, John Selwyn-Gummer. His opening statement focused on the fact that two great rivers in Spain no longer meet the sea. Just weeks before he came to the end of his term as Chair of the UK’s independent Committee on Climate Change, he attacked his own former government for failing to ensure that homes built over the past 13 years were fit for purpose. The failure to prepare them for net zero meant that all homes consented and built since 2010 were not only unfit for the future but, because retrofit measures attracted VAT whereas new-build homes do not, this was effectively a tax handed on to the grandchildren of those currently being housed. He also made a plea for no planning permission to be given without a consideration of impact on net zero.
The keynote speeches were complemented by a range of workshops. Of particular relevance to the profession was one on retrofitting the Beaconsfield Estate, the largest council housing estate in the UK. With a mixture of tenures and housing types, the approach to retrofit needed to be especially sensitive to those currently living on the estate.
1 Calder, B. (2021). Architecture From Prehistory to Climate Emergency. Penguin UK.
2 It’s Not That Radical, climate action to transform our world Mikaela Loach, 2023 Dorling Kindersley.
3 On 20 July, AJ reported that Michael Gove had rejected plans by Pilbrow + Partners to demolish and redevelop Marks & Spencer’s Oxford Street store, overruling a planning inspector’s verdict.
Charlotte Glazier from Islington Council addressed the issue that although local authorities own significant quantities of land, they are under-resourced when it comes to being able to take action. The aim of her project was to bring together Islington Council and the private sector, especially Business Improvement Districts like the Central District Alliance, which were able to invest in creating new green spaces. Charlotte noted, ‘Islington’s Pocket Park Framework went down a storm, yet I was surprised we were the only offering for the private financing of Green Infrastructure in the whole of EcoCity Conference.’
There was however a major contradiction at the heart of the Summit. There was no consensus or even the beginning of an agreement on what a built environment practitioner had to do to effect genuine change. In a keynote speech, Norman Foster addressed the dangers of the sprawling city, which, he said, used 75% more energy than a compact city. He was often asked if towers are sustainable. It was his belief that they were. The following day, the humanitarian architect based in Pakistan, Yasmeen Lari (also the first female architect in Pakistan), explained how she had abandoned capitalist modes of production. For her it was important to avoid the excessive use of concrete pavements. She stated that sitting at the threshold of the poor, design is not a standalone activity. It was important to adopt approaches which are ecologically and socially just. Lari saw herself as a barefoot social architect and argued that there was a need to completely change the practice of architecture. She was committed to zero cement, zero concrete, zero steel and zero glass. And in a response to a question on this subject said, ‘We need more landscape architects to be part of every design.’ It was not clear from the summit what efforts could or would be made to reconcile these opposing positions.
Paul Lincoln
Just a week after the Ecocity World Summit, planning permission was granted for significant changes to the high walkway of the Barbican Estate. The City of London Corporation has received planning consent for the second phase of works on the listed Barbican podium, paving the way for an ambitious scheme that will enhance this iconic estate. The landscape and urban design team at Atkins is behind the designs, with Professor Nigel Dunnett leading on the planting design.
The decision by the City of London to approve plans for the Barbican phase 2 improvement works has given the green light to transform the Grade II* Registered Park and Podium. The scheme has embedded a climate resilient and urban greening approach which includes the replacement of the existing waterproof membrane, and introduces several key enhancements.
The expansion of soft landscape and greening is a key part of the scheme. It introduces more green spaces together with the addition of children’s play features, as well as new spaces for art, improvements to access, additional seating areas and the recreation of historical detailing which makes reference to the original design concept.
When the project started in 2021, it was focused on the maintenance and repair of the Barbican podium waterproofing and drainage – to stop leaks from causing further damage to the spaces below. Since then, the project has significantly evolved into a unique opportunity to redesign one of the world’s most iconic cultural estates. This is in contrast to phase 1, which retained the existing design layout.
The City of London Corporation’s Climate Action Strategy has really helped to steer the scheme to achieve so much more than the original brief and, by collaborating with key stakeholders, in particular the City of London planning team and Historic England, we have changed the approach to realise significant environmental improvements. Key enhancements to the scheme include the removal of the Link Building which gives access to the Exhibitions Centre – reconnecting the space into one main vista – and an improved design layout with an increased greening coverage of 70%.
The City of London Corporation’s Climate Action Strategy has really helped to steer the scheme to achieve so much more than the original brief.
The increased greening has a multitude of environmental and social benefits. It has enabled a biodiversity net gain of 235%, improved water management and surface run-off, reduced the solar radiation gain, mitigated wind speeds, provided more climate-resilient planting and will attract more wildlife to the podium. It has brought urban greening into the heart of the City of London, to reconnect people with nature. Most importantly, we feel we have developed a proposal that repairs and futureproofs the podium, simultaneously realising the unique opportunity to deliver functional, environmental and social improvements by creating a thriving place for people and nature in the heart of the City of London.
Neil Manthorpe CMLI is Associate Director – Landscape Architecture and Urban Design at Atkins.
Zac Willitts
The summit was a great culmination of ideas, a call to action and a place to spark new movements. The key messages that I took from it are that we need to do more interdisciplinary work. Secondly, there needs to be a shift in the power dynamic when it comes to design –give the power to the community – we need to enable a bottom-up approach.
What better way to improve the liveability of our cities than by reintroducing nature?
Commenting on creating toolkits for policymakers, Annekee Groeninx van Zoelen spoke about her work putting together a toolbox to make rewilding urban areas easily accessible for policymakers. She outlined two forms of rewilding, ecological and social. Both important and inextricably linked. Social rewilding was not a concept I had heard of before but it makes perfect sense. What better way to improve the liveability of our cities than by reintroducing nature? It has been shown time and time again that living near green space provides a better quality of life, for example, through the ‘300 30 3’ model, which Annekee highlighted. You should be no further than 300m from a park, 30% of your surroundings should be green, and you should be able to see three trees from your window.
Annekee specifically mentioned the importance of doing an ecological study at each patch, to then plant it correctly. These patches can then be connected to create corridors. Lastly, she proposed a system of having a human layer and a planting layer on buildings. For example, building a structure around buildings with the aim of linking together ground level planting and rooftop gardens.
A debate that was raised many times was about the relevant advantages of using mature or young plants. Is the carbon cost of transporting a mature tree mitigated by the amount of carbon it will then capture?
It is vital to think about and promote planting from the start of a scheme – finding the right plant for the right place. The management plan must be realistic and critical, and specify the correct maintenance to provide the planting with the best chance of survival.
Zac Willitts is a Landscape Architecture Student at the University of Sheffield, moving into his fourth year.
I’m so glad to have had the opportunity to attend EcoCity World Summit 2023 and meet inspiring people, sharing projects and ambitions for ecologically conscious cities.
Key themes – community collaboration, challenging systems and call to action – were threaded throughout the speakers and events programme, opening the floor to searching questions and discussion across large audiences and workshops, with many lively conversations continuing throughout the breaks between sessions. Positive debate in an open, spontaneous environment like this is inspiring, especially among such an international group. I felt a real sense of enthusiasm and shared purpose, but no hint of competitiveness. All credit to the organisers.
The EcoCity themes are directly relevant to landscape architecture and several landscape architects attended. Charlotte Glazier presented Islington Council’s ambitious programme for delivering parks through private financing. Scott Carroll, Director LDA Design, presented their Great Ormond Street Hospital project. I spoke at the Healthy Environments Session with Scott Carroll and Heba Allah Khalil, Professor of Sustainable Urbanism, Cairo University, chaired by Luisa Bravo, public space activist and academic.
I presented our co-designed project for Homerton Hospital, where workshops with staff, patients and residents created insights about the role of nature in physical and psychological recovery and social wellbeing. An open invitation to staff, as health experts, assisted the redesign of streets, ‘putting health first’. Patients in neurological recovery and mental health wards, many of whom face long, challenging recoveries, described their need for outdoors and the richer sensory stimuli offered by ‘wilder’ nature and wildlife.
Yasmeen Lari’s talk about her social architecture programme in Pakistan, rebuilding with communities affected by floods, was unforgettable. The realities of flooding appear distant, but her projects, built with people, social and environmental understanding, sets clear challenges to everyone in the built environment and is amazingly beautiful. I think her work acknowledges nature’s complexities and places nature services at the heart of placemaking at this crucial point in time.
Lucy Jenkins CMLI is a chartered landscape architect and an Associate at WSP Landscape and Urban Design.
