ECO-CITY
B. Arch Dissertation
by
SHIVANGI (Roll No. 15632)
DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY HAMIRPUR (H. P.) – 177005, INDIA April 2019
ECO-CITY A DISSERTATION PROJECT submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of degree of
BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURE by
SHIVANGI (Roll No. 15632) under the guidance of
DR. PUNEET SHARMA
DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY HAMIRPUR (H. P.) – 177005, INDIA April 2019
Copyright © NIT HAMIRPUR (HP), INDIA, 2019
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY HAMIRPUR (HP) CANDIDATE’S DECLARATION I hereby certify that the work which is being presented in the project titled ’ECOCITY’, is the partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the DEGREE OF BACHELOR in ARCHITECTURE and submitted in Department of Architecture, National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur, in an authentic record of my own work carried out during a period from January 2019 to April 2019 under the guidance of DR. PUNEET SHARMA, Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur.
The matter presented in this project report has not been submitted by me for the reward of any other degree of this or any other Institute/University.
SHIVANGI This is to certify that the above statement made by the candidate is correct to the best of my knowledge.
Date:
(DR PUNEET SHARMA) Assistant Professor Department of Architecture NIT Hamirpur .
The Project Viva Voice Examination of SHIVANGI has been held on……………….
Signature of Coordinator
Signature of Head of the Department
DISSERTATION REPORT 2018-2019
ECO-CITY
DISSERTATION GUIDE
SUBMITTED BY:
DR. PUNEET SHARMA
SHIVANGI / 15632
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
On the outset of this report, I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude towards all the personages who have helped me in this endeavor. Without their active guidance and encouragement, I would not have made headway in the dissertation.
First and foremost I offer my sincerest gratitude to my dissertation guide and Assistant Professor, Dr. Puneet Sharma for his insight, patience and knowledge in helping me during the course of my dissertation. His valuable inputs were indispensable during the project guiding the exploration forward.
I would also like to thank Dr. Bhanu Marwaha, Professor and Head of Department, for his valuable guidance and support. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our Dissertation Coordinator, Dr. Aniket Sharma, Assistant Professor, whose constant efforts and valuable criticism made this journey a smooth one.
I also express my sincere thanks to all my friends, especially Mayank Gupta, Aparna Shaw and Meenu Chauhan who have directly or indirectly helped me to complete this dissertation report.
Lastly, I dedicate this dissertation report, with deep respect and great love, to my parents, who not only gave me the gift of life but an unrelenting passion to live it fully. And for that, I am grateful.
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this dissertation is to conserve & enhance the existing ecosystems, i.e. their plant & animal populations, natural & semi-natural wildlife habitats & the ecosystem characteristics of local areas; & to contribute to reginal conservation of biodiversity & habitats
The key references used were: (1) Building & Designing with Nature Urban Design - Joan Roelofs (2) Sustainable Urban Forms - Yosuf Rafeq Jabareen (3) Sustainable City Developing World – ISOCARP (4) Urban Design: Green Dimensions - Cliff Moughtin (5) Eco-Master Planning - Ken Yeang
TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................1 LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... 3 CHAPTERS I.
INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................4
1.1. Aim .............................................................................................................................4 1.2. Objectives ....................................................................................................................4 1.3. Scope of study .............................................................................................................5 1.4. Hypothesis ...................................................................................................................5 II.
LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................7
2.1. Introduction .................................................................................................................7 2.2. Design Concepts for a Sustainable City Form ...........................................................7 2.3. Sustainable Urban Forms ............................................................................................7 2.4. Assessment of the Sustainability of Urban Forms.......................................................7 2.5. Eco-city Infrastructure .................................................................................................8 2.6. Site and Context ..........................................................................................................8 2.7. Summary....................................................................................................................12 III. CASE STUDIES .......................................................................................................14 3.1. Green Square Town Centre, Sydney, Australia .........................................................14 3.2. SOMA, Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Bangalore, India ......................................................14 IV. CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................20 V.
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................21
LIST OF FIGURES
1. Characteristics of Sustainable Urban city form ................................................... 5 (Source: Sustainable Urban Forms - Yosuf Rafeq Jabareen) 2. Sustainable Urban Forms ..................................................................................... 8 (Source: Sustainable Urban Forms - Yosuf Rafeq Jabareen) 3. Infrastructure in Eco-city ..................................................................................... 12 (Source: Sustainable Urban Forms - Yosuf Rafeq Jabareen) 4. Characteristics of Case Studies ............................................................................ 19 (Source: Eco Master Planning – Ken Yeang) 5. View1 of Green Square Town Centre .................................................................. 20 (Source: Eco Master Planning – Ken Yeang) 6. Elevation of Green Square Town Centre ............................................................. 25 (Source: Eco Master Planning- Ken Yeang) 7. View3 of Green Square Town Centre .................................................................. 25 (Source: Eco Master Planning – Ken Yeang) 8. Bio swales ............................................................................................................ 26 (Source: Eco master planning – Ken Yeang) 9. Land use plan SOMA ........................................................................................... 27 (Source: Eco master planning – Ken Yeang)
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LIST OF TABLES
TABLE 1 : Sustainble urban form matrix: Assessing the sustainability of urban form ... 11 TABLE 2 : Site development as per context ..................................................................... 14
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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1. INTRODUCTION For a long time urban growth knew no bounds. 200 year ago scarcely 2% of the people living on earth were city dwellers. Today, more than half the world’s population lives in an urban area. We live in a world filled with immense vibrant, noisy, overpopulated cities, where we create, manufacture, trade & consume. Where fabulous wealth & extreme poverty exist side by side. Our urban model now seems to reach its limits.
However, new aspirations are emerging. In a world of global warming & increasingly scarce fossil fuels. A new vision of the city is making its roots. We are seeing the first signs of slow but far reaching irreversible change, little by little.
A new model for our cities is developing, we call it the Eco-city. The goal of an eco-city is to reduce city’s impact on the environment. It is an immense undertaking.
The growth of large population centers, energy consumption, recycling, new urban landscape and even social diversity. All these issues are a part of the eco-city agenda. In order to kick start this movement, three major challenges need to be addressed. (1) We must transform the buildings we live in (2) Radically change our mode of transport (3) Implement new ways of supplying electricity
Buildings in the eco-city put energy-efficiency first. They are better insulated and they even generate energy themselves. They rely heavily on renewable sources of energy. Today’s buildings do more with less. There are no more energy consumers but energy producers. Requiring 40-60% less energy than buildings from a decade ago. We call them positive energy buildings. If a building produces more energy than it needs. It shares the surplus with its neighbors, we call that peer-to-peer energy. It is revolutionary, both economically and socially. 3
With regard to transport, the change is just as remarkable. In eco-cities, transportation is electric and whenever possible public. Residents use a variety of interconnected networks to get around from tramways to heart of urban landscape. This change in housing & transport gives rise to a third new network for supplying power to the city. That is the third cornerstone of our eco-city. The question is how we power the new electrical infrastructure so as to drive the growth in eco-cities. The answer lies in new networks for distributing electricity. We call them smart grids. Smart, because they use computer technology to centralize and redistribute power more effectively throughout the city and because they also regulate energy exchanges between residential buildings through peer-to-peer trading.
1.1. AIM To conserve & enhance the existing ecosystems, i.e. their plant & animal populations, natural & semi-natural wildlife habitats & the ecosystem characteristics of local areas; to contribute to regional conservation of biodiversity & habitats
1.2. OBJECTIVES 1) To study Eco-city development (Design strategies, features & components) through literature and case studies 2) To study Eco-city Development approaches as per site requirements
1.3. SCOPE OF STUDY Eco-cities are the cities that embrace the well-being of citizens and society through integrated urban-planning and management that harness the benefits of ecological systems and protect and nurture these assets for future generations.
1.4. HYPOTHESIS Eco-city is human settlement modeled on self-sustaining resilient structure and function of natural ecosystems.
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CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1. INTRODUCTION This chapter starts with explaining the terms used in the describing the various characteristics of various sustainable city forms. Then an assessment and comparison of various sustainable urban forms is done with the Eco-city. Since the main focus of the study is the Eco-city, further explanations and their possible applications are illustrated. Four major types of infrastructures, used in an Eco-city development are described.
2.2. DESIGN CONCEPTS FOR A SUSTAINABLE CITY FORM
Figure 1 : Characteristics of Sustainable city form
(1)
DENSITY
It is the ratio of people or dwelling units to land area. At certain densities the number of people within a given area becomes sufficient to generate the interactions needed to make urban functions or activities viable. This affects sustainability through differences in the consumption of energy, materials, and land for housing, transportation & urban infrastructure.
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(2)
DIVERSITY
Lack of concentrated diversity can put people into automobiles for almost all their needs. In dense, diversified city areas people still walk, an activity that is impractical in the suburbs and in most grey areas. The more intensely varied and closely grained the diversity in an area, the more walking. Even people who come into a lively, diverse area from outside, weather by car or by public transport, walk when they get there.
(3)
MIXED LAND USE
Also known as heterogeneous zoning allows compatible land uses to locate in close proximity to one another & thereby decrease the travel distances between activities. The aim is to reduce air pollution and traffic congestion as well as to stimulate the interaction of residents by increasing pedestrian traffic and generally improving neighborhood charm.
(4)
COMPACTNESS
It refers to the urban connectivity, which suggests that future urban development should take place adjacent to existing urban structures. When the concept is applied to existing rather than new urban fabric, it refers to the containment of further sprawl. Compactness of urban space can minimize transport of energy, water, materials, products and people. Major strategy to achieve is to increase density of development and activity.
(5)
TRANSPORT
A sustainable transportation system limits emissions and waste to weather the area’s ability to absorb is powered by renewable energy sources, recycles its components and minimizes the use of land. Provides equitable access for people & their goods helps achieve a healthy & desirable quality of life in each generalization & is financially affordable, operates at maximum efficiency & supports a vibrant economy.
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(6)
SOLAR DESIGN
The idea of this design is to reduce the demand for energy and to provide the best use of passive energy in sustainable ways through specific design measures. It is assumed that design, orientation, layout and landscaping can make optimum use of solar gin and microclimatic conditions to minimize the need for the space heating or cooling of buildings by conventional energy sources.
(7)
GREENING
A city exemplifies green urbanism if it 1) Strives to live within its ecological limits 2) Is designed to function in ways analogous to nature 3) Strives to achieve a circular rather than linear metabolism 4) Strives towards local and regional self sufficiency 5) Facilitates more sustainable lifestyles 6) Emphasizes a high quality of neighborhood & community life
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2.3.
SUSTAINABLE URBAN FORMS
Figure 2 : Sustainable Urban forms
(1)
NEOTRADITIONAL DEVELOPMENT
It advocates design based strategies based on traditional urban forms to help arrest suburban sprawl and inner city decline and to build and rebuilt neighborhoods and cities. Self-contained, tightly clustered, walkable and have mixed land uses as well as higher densities street patterns that allow drivers & pedestrians a variety of path options (encouraging people to walk from place to place), distinct traditional architectural characteristics and encouragement of street life through such features as narrower streets, front porches and public open space.
(2)
COMPACT CITY
The vision was to enhance the quality of life but not at the expense of the “new generation�. The idea includes many strategies that aim to create compactness and density that can avoid all problems of modernist design and cities. Compact cities offer opportunities to reduce fuel consumption for travelling, since work & leisure facilities are closer together. Urban land can be reused, while rural land beyond the urban edge is protected. Therefore good quality of life can be sustained, even with high concentration of people.
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(3)
URBAN CONTAINMENT
It prevents the outward expansion of the urban field & forces the development market to look inward. The goal of containment policy varies widely includes preservation of natural land, as well as farmland and resources extraction land, whose economic value will not be able to compete with urban development. Greenbelts are a spatial technique for containment. It refers to a band drawn fairly tightly around a city or urban region that planner’s intent to be permanent.
(4)
ECO-CITY
The eco-city is an umbrella metaphor that encompasses a wide range of urban-ecological proposals that aim to achieve urban sustainability. These approaches propose a wide range of environmental, social, and institutional policies that are directed to managing urban spaces to achieve sustainability. This type promotes the ecological agenda and emphasizes environmental management through a set of institutional and policy tools.
The distinctive concepts of the eco-city are greening and passive solar design. In terms of density and other concepts, the eco-city might be conceived as a “formless� city or an Eco amorphous city. There are some approaches that emphasize the passive solar design, such as the Ecovillage, Solar Village (Van der Ryn and Calthorpe 1986), Cohousing (Roelofs 1999, 240-42), and Sustainable Housing (Edwards and Turrent 2000; Boonstra 2000). There are others that emphasize the concepts of greening and passive energy design, among them the Environmental City, Green City, Sustainable City (Girardet 1999; Nijkamp and Perrels 1994; Gibbs, Longhurst, and Braithwaite 1998), Eco-City (Roseland 1997; Engwicht 1992), Ecological City (OECD 1995), Sustainable Urban Living (Girardet 1992), Sustainable Community (Nozick 1992; Paulson 1997), Sustainable Neighborhood (Rudin and Falk 1999), and Living Machines (Todd and Todd 1994).
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It is remarkable that the core of many approaches is the management of the city, rather than the suggesting of any specific urban form; it is believed that not the physical shape of the city and its built environment that is important; it is how the urban society is organized and managed that counts most. Similarly, Talen and Ellis (2002, 37) argue, “Social, economic, and cultural variables are far more important in determining the good city than any choice of spatial arrangements.�
Therefore, the city is managed to achieve sustainability through different land use, environmental, institutional, social, and economic policies (Robinson and Tinker 1998; United Nations Conference on Environment and Development 1992; United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 1992; Council of Europe 1993; European Commission 1994). For example, the well-known Agenda 21 (UNCED 1992) proposes integrated management at the urban level to ensure that environmental, social, and economic factors are considered together in a framework for the sustainable city. In practice, many local governments, planning consultants, landscape architects, and so on are grappling much more specifically with aspects of ecological, pedestrian oriented, or otherwise sustainable urban form. I strongly encourage the reader to look at examples from practice.
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2.4.
ASSESSMENT OF THE SUSTAINABILITY OF URBAN FORMS
TABLE 1 : Sustainble urban form matrix: Assessing the sustainability of urban form
The design concepts of urban forms are the criteria of the proposed matrix (see Table 1). A scale of 3 points is allocated for each typology (criterion) where 1 represents a low level of sustainability, 2 represents a moderate level of sustainability, and 3 represents a high level of sustainability. For example, a high density (scale = 3 points) means the urban form is more sustainable, and a low density, such as sprawl, means the urban form is less sustainable (scale = 1 point). Likewise, the more diverse, mixed land-use, and compact, the more the form receives points. In addition, the more the form is based on sustainable transportation, greening, and passive solar design, the more the form contributes to sustainability, and vice versa. Finally, the urban form that scores higher than the others contributes more to sustainability than they do.
This provides the sustainable urban form matrix, which helps with assessing the sustainability of different urban forms. In addition, it contributes to our selection of those urban forms that are sufficiently sustainable that they meet the requirements of the design concepts (criteria) as mentioned above. The sustainable urban form matrix in Table 1 provides an assessment of the sustainability of the different urban forms. Significantly, this is a tentative assessment that is based on the literature review of the forms and not on empirical findings or field work. Obviously, one could change the assessment as more 11
evidence comes to light. My ultimate aim is to provide an example based on the proposed matrix. As shown in Table 1, the scores of the urban forms are highlighted in bold in each cell of the matrix (1, 2 or 3), and the final score for each form is the sum of these scores that is presented at the bottom. The results of the assessment, in Table 1, show that the compact city received the highest score followed by the eco-city and then by the neotraditional development. The urban containment received the lowest score.
2.4.
ECO-CITY INFRASTRUCTURE
Figure 3 : Infrastructure in Eco-city Creating our human built environment invariably entails the imposition onto the land of built structures and hardscapes together with a myriad of human activities, acts that are often destructive of the natural environment. Quite how destructive such impositions prove depends, of course, on their intensity and on the prior ecological condition of the land in question and its ability to withstand stress.
Conventional master planning callously disrupts ecosystems. In many cases, it irreversibly devastates and fragments them, as for example, with urban sprawl. The laying of roads and highways dissects contiguous habitats, breaking them down into multiple disparate parcels that are no longer linked leading to a loss of ecological nexus. This fragmentation of land and forests, the diversion and elimination of waterways and other disruptive acts decrease the effective choices for species survival, threatening or seriously impairing connectivity. Yet it is. 12
Vital in natural systems such as watersheds streams and open spaces which create protected ecological corridors for wildlife and plant habitats. Eco Master Planning, in contrast, is integrative. Through carefully considered customized design it strives for a seamless and benign biointegration of the human built environment with the natural environment. It differs from conventional master-planning by retaining the ecosystems integrity, connectivity and functioning. It seeks to restore and repair stressed and disfigured ecosystems, while facilitating our human built development within ecologically acceptable bounds. Eco-masterplanning changes the fewest number of elements in the landscape to achieve the best result, and removes stress from the system rather than adding to it.
The objectives are ecology driven: to conserve and enhance existing ecosystems, i.e. their plant and animal populations, natural and semi-natural wildlife habitats and the ecosystem characteristics of local areas and to contribute to regional conservation of biodiversity and habitats.
In eco Master planning, the human built environment and the natural environment are designed as a single living system, not as a composite of the inorganic inert mass of the built environment disconnected from its organic host (the biosphere), and, worse, discharging emissions that disrupt the latter's natural systems. Eco-masterplanning achieves, through design one single dynamic living system that is both and functionalism is the bio integration of four in infrastructural armatures.
The ‘green infrastructure’: the eco infrastructure, i.e. nature’s infrastructure
The ‘blue infrastructure’: the water infrastructure, i.e. sustainable drainage and water conservation systems and the overall hydrological management;
The ‘grey infrastructure’: the engineering infrastructure, i.e. the roads, drains, sewerage, utilities etc. as the support systems for any urban development which is to be environmentally sustainable; and
The ‘red infrastructure’: the human infrastructure, i.e. the built environment, the enclosures and hardscapes, including human activities and social, economic and legislative systems. 13
The integration of these provides the basis for eco master planning and for the design of eco-cities
2.5 SITE AND CONTEXT
TABLE 2 : Site development as per context Eco Master Planning starts with an assessment of the ecology of the site and its context; we need to know what is there before we can insert anything new This is not a static endeavor; rather, it is driven process Ecological analyses emphasize relationships recognizing that current ecological theory has moved on from one that perceives natural boundaries as clearly defined, to a more dynamic concept of the ecosystem as composed of shifting modes of interactions with layered boundaries, driven by dynamic temporal relationships within habitats rather than by a fixed perception of the environment determined at the time of analysis.
The account of the site includes an understanding of its physical state, its internal ecological processes and properties such as its flora and fauna and their geographical disposition, its energy and material flows, its state of succession, and its biodiversity. Understanding the site's ecological history gives further clues as to what design strategies should be adopted. To be effective, these analyses and ecological studies must be undertaken prior to any consideration of whether to permit the imposition of human structures or activities upon it, if at all. These studies enable us to ascertain as far as possible the resilience of the site's ecosystems (of its biotic and abiotic constituents) ie its ability to 14
adapt and adjust to changing internal or external processes, stresses and impositions. The emphasis here is not on reaching or maintaining a certain end point or condition of systemic stasis, but one of ensuring that the site's ecology stays viable.
The fundamental premise then, is that every site has its own unique ecology. Each has varying and limited resilience to accept and withstand the stresses imposed by any intended human built form, system and activity. If an ecosystem's internal integrity and resilience (in its carrying capacity) are stressed beyond their limitations, then its ecology will become irrevocably modified. Even if such stresses are minimal and localized as with the clearing of a small land area for access), they can have a cumulative effect, leading to greater negative impacts such as the elimination of the entire landscape through deforestation and the clearing of all vegetation, erosion, siltation of existing waterways and loss of aquatic life.
A preliminary site reading enables the designer to ascertain the extent of ecological analysis required for that particular site, indicated by reviewing its ecological history and the extent to which it has already been affected by humans. The site in question may, for instance, be an urban location that has been entirely denuded of its original vegetation, as in a city center site. Conversely, the site may lie within a verdant landscape that has not been affected by humans at all, as in a pristine pine forest. It may be one that has been only partially affected or a semi-natural site. It may be one that supports a single predominant plant species, as with an agricultural field, or one that is part human created and part natural, as is a city park. Alternatively, it may be a contaminated or brownfield site which requires careful rehabilitation. Whatever the site, an initial assessment enables the designer to determine the broad design strategy and tactics to be adopted, and the extent of any further ecological analyses required prior to design.
Carried out concurrently with this initial evaluation is an assessment of the compatibility of the type and form of the proposed human and built impositions and activities with the site's ecology, and the latter's resilience For instance, we might ask whether the proposed land use is appropriate for the designated site in the first place If the answer is yes, then what is the level of development and activity intensity that the site’s ecosystem can with15
stand? Our design objective must be to seek a mutually beneficial balance between the intended design, built programme and land use with the site's ecological resilience, and to ensure positive ecological consequences or, if absolutely necessary, only permissible negative ones. Eco Master Planning this enables a level of building to take place that will prove acceptable to the site's ecology, retain its holistic integrity as a functioning ecosystem and, where possible, restore and reconnect natural elements that have been damaged The objective is to design for the successful biointegration of the intended human built structures (roofs, buildings, utilities) ondactivities (recreational, civic) with the natural systems of the site's locality.
Designing for biointegration occurs at three levels: physical systemic and temporal. Addressing each of these aspects successfully constitutes the main challenge for Ecomasterplanning.
In analysing the site's ecology, we identify geographically those parts that are potentially ecologically sensitive, those which should not be touched or have any human intervention whatsoever, and those that permit intervention. Finally, we must consider the likely impact of the intended construction and use. Together all these analyses constitute a major undertaking but one that is vital for a comprehensive understanding of the nature of the site and its environs.
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2.6. SUMMARY
The debate over the ideal or desirable urban form dates back to the end of the nineteenth century, to Howard’s Garden City. Obviously, the concept of sustainable development revives the previous debate about urban form, develops existing approaches further, and enhances them with environmental rationalization—more precisely, with principles of sustainable development and ecological design.
This study identifies four sustainable urban forms that have many overlaps among them in their ideas and concepts. The different form types are compatible and not mutually exclusive. However, there are some distinctive concepts and key differences for each one of these forms, as follows: • Compact cities—the distinctive concepts of the compact city are high density and compactness. It proposes mixed land uses like the approaches of new urbanism or neotraditional development. • The eco-city—emphasizes urban greening, ecological and cultural diversity, and passive solar design. In addition, the approaches of the eco-city emphasize environmental management and other key environmentally sound policies • Neotraditional development—emphasizes sustainable transportation, diversity (e.g., of housing types), compactness, mixed land uses, and greening. In addition, neotraditional development has much to do with style and design coding. • Urban containment—emphasizes policies of compactness.
As this article shows, there are many approaches that aim to achieve sustainable urban forms. Different approaches use different scales of concepts, as well as emphasizing some concepts over others. In practice, many local governments, planning consultants, landscape architects, and so on are grappling much more specifically with aspects of sustainable urban form through a variety of planning and design approaches and policies. The question is, which form is the most sustainable and environmentally sound?
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This article outlines a distinctive set of seven concepts by which settlements can be classified in terms of their “environmental burden� and develops a sustainable urban form matrix that can aid and contribute to our evaluation of the sustainability of a given form. Apparently, neither academics nor real-world cities have yet developed convincing models of sustainable form and have not yet gotten specific enough in terms of the components of such form. Regarding that, this article concludes that by using the right scales of the proposed concepts we might be enabled to produce theoretically and practically different sustainable urban forms.
According to the sustainable urban form matrix, this article concludes that different urban forms contribute differently to sustainability. Moreover, different planners and scholars may develop different combinations of design concepts to achieve sustainable development goals. They might come with different forms, where each form emphasizes different concepts. However, all should be forms that environmentally contribute beneficially to the planet for the present and future generations.
The ideal sustainable urban form according to the design concepts of sustainable urban form is that which has a high density and adequate diversity, compact with mixed land uses, and its design is based on sustainable transportation, greening, and passive solar energy. Ultimately, sustainable urban forms aim to achieve different objectives. The most prominent among them are decreased energy use, reduced waste and pollution, reduced automobile use, preservation of open space and sensitive ecosystems, and livable and community-oriented human environments.
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CHAPTER III CASE STUDIES
Figure 4 : Characteristics of Case studies
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3.1. GREEN SQUARE TOWN CENTRE, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Figure 5 : View1 of Green Square Town center Green Square is an area within the city of Sydney requiring urban regeneration. The key design objective of this scheme is to create a vibrant heart for the community that will provide it with an enduring sense of Australian local identity, as well as an internationally recognizable symbol This new public realm will be thoroughly enjoyed by the entire local community as well as being an environmental and ecological showcase.
To fulfil this design objective, the concept of a shopping and commercial center surrounding a public plazas introduced as a catalyst to bind the community integrating and incorporating aspects of living, working studying entertaining public services and shopping in a single coherent mixed development. The cultural plaza will thus be introduced as the new 'heart of the community!
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The building design is adaptable for the incorporation of different mimetic ecological systems and devices including: solar collectors for water heating grey-water recycling systems, rainwater recycling systems, rainwater collection filtration and recycling for use, waste management systems to separate materials for recycling and so on The buildings are designed to have low energy consumption, achieved through bio-climatic considerations and ecological site planning (eg. solar shading on the north east and west facades, natural lighting and ventilation for circulation areas). The energy consumption of the buildings should be between 150 and 200 kilowatt-hours per square meter per annum and targeted to require mechanical heating or cooling for only 25 per cent of the year.
The town center is designed to have embodied energy of between 10 and 18 gigajoules per square meter, to minimize the impact on the environment, by selection of materials that are low in embodied energy and locally available.
Figure 6 : View2 of Green Square Town centre
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
Green Infrastructure: The green infrastructure is made up of a forested zone
within the cultural plaza and is to be planted with luxuriant indigenous vegetation, representative of local and Australian plant species. This urban green 'forest' replaces the existing chimney stack as the symbol of Green Square and provides a new iconic 'built'form character for the town center.
Continuous planting extends from the east-west boulevard to the plaza level and upper parts of the building and down to Botany Road, facilitating species migration and thereby engendering a more stable urban ecosystem and enhancing biodiversity. Greenery also cushions the impact of extreme weather conditions.
The design seeks to increase biomass to this predominantly inorganic industrial site by providing the development with an equivalent area of vegetation to the site's land area. The proposed combined green area for the scheme from the boulevard planting, the forested square, planters beside the ramps rooftop gardens, sky courts and so on is 33,800 square meters.
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
Blue Infrastructure: To reflect the site's past relationship with water, and as a
memento of the previous location of the Waterloo Dam, several water features will be introduced, celebrating the aesthetic and environmental qualities of water and the connection between nature and culture as part of its blue infrastructure. Our proposed landscape/urban design displays the versatile and ephemeral nature of the water, providing variety and choice, and creates a high-quality urban environment. The landscape scheme expresses a new approach to water management infrastructure in the city that not only is based on ecological principles, but also reduces water consumption. As the Green Square area has a history of flooding, water retention and management is one of the vital aspects in our design objectives The key design principles include: an extensive and intensive planting of greenery on the roof gardens; the collection of rainwater in cisterns for toilet flushing, irrigation and storm water detention; and maximizing infiltration into the soil through the use of permeable pavements and pervious substrates where possible, which aids water retention. The roof garden collects storm water not only acts as a retention system for the water but, by passing it through a series of cleansing steps in a closed-circuit system, gives it its first physical and biochemical cleaning for recycling. The cleaning process is done through the wetland filter beds at the roof garden and in public spaces Sand filters and sediment traps in the street domain cleanse water before it is used for recycling. The water is then collected into a tank for reuse in flusing and irrigation. The green open park at the other end of the east-west boulevard will act as a collection basin for excess storm water.
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
Grey Infrastructure: The grey infrastructure was designed to address the issues
of the existing condition of the site. To improve connectivity, the railway site. It is within the town center, located by Botany Road, and directly connected up vel where the user can then proceed t the next level via the continuous ramps or stairs. The bus interchange is located on Botany Road, which links the Airport to Sydney City central. The interchange itself consists of a separate passenger drop-off and lay-by area where three buses can stop at once travelling both north-south and east west through the area. The podium level around the station site contains multiple entrances to the towers and retail/commercial outlets, to encourage an even distribution of pedestrian movement. A proposed new light rail system is to be added in a future development
Car parking is dispersed over different parts of the site, and is easily accessible to all buildings and facilities. Minimum car parking is proposed due to the scheme's good site connectivity and pleasant walks to the existing station and bus terminal.
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
Red Infrastructure: The grey infrastructure was designed to address the issues
of the existing condition of the site. To improve connectivity, the railway site. It is within the town center, located by Botany Road, and directly connected up to level 1 where the user can then proceed to the next level via the continuous ramps or stairs. The bus interchange is located on Botany Road, which links the Airport to Sydney City central. The interchange itself consists of a separate passenger.
Figure 6: Elevation of Green Square Town centre
Figure 7 : View3 of Green Square Town centre
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3.2. SOMA Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Bangalore, India Located in the hot humid tropics in Bangalore, this site occupies 86.75 hectares of formerly agricultural land that has become fallow and is to be converted into developed land to accommodate urban growth. Abutting the land is a forested green reserve that runs all the way down the site's west boundary. This boundary edge forms the springboard for the new green infrastructure which stretches eastwards across the entire site with connected strands and empty voids in between, like a linear strip of sticky dough that has been pulled sideways This green pattern takes the form of new wildlife corridors that straddle the land as a continuous ecological nexus. These are combined with a number of green bridges and tunnels that straddle the roads drains and other utilities link all the green spaces together, contributing in aggregate to the enhancement of the site's biodiversity.
Figure 9 : Bio Swales Underneath this ecological infrastructure is the grey infrastructure that is woven across the site, together with the architectural built forms and public-realm hardscape spaces. The masterplan had to be laid out and landscaped to harmonize with the traditional Indian planning principles of Vastu Shastra as given by a Vastu Master These concepts which govern aspects such as the orientation of roads and buildings and decisions on land useare integrated with the accompanying blue infrastructure (using bio-swales and water retention ponds) The red infrastructure of the urban developments, recreational spaces and the various hard and soft public-realm spaces are designed and generated around the eco infrastructure green corridors and green spaces, in order to enhance views social connectivity and quality of life. The built systems will be enhanced by green technology through the use of environmentally responsive and recyclable materials, maximum openings for natural lighting and ventilation roof gardens and green terraces, rainwater harvesting, and low-energy building design.
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Figure 10 : Land use plan of SOMA
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CHAPTER IV CONCLUSION In planning for a sustainable future for our planet, it is vital that we achieve a seamless and benign bio integration of all human interventions in the natural environment. Finding green design solutions for our built environment must start from the wider scale of regional and urban planning, and must then be carried right through to infrastructural engineering, architecture and industrial design. Masterplanning affords the chance to redress current environmental imbalances and to reduce the consequences of our build systems on the environment, with the greater aim of reversing climate change.
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CHAPTER V REFERENCES I.
Books Building & Designing with Nature Urban Design - Joan Roelofs Sustainable City Developing World - ISOCARP Urban Design: Green Dimensions - Cliff Moughtin Eco-Master Planning - Ken Yeang, A john Wiley and Sons, Ltd, Publication 2009
2. Research papers
Sustainable Urban Forms - Yosuf Rafeq Jabareen Sustainable Development of Systematical Modularized Low- carbon Low Carbon Ecocities - Guo Liqiao Low-carbon and Ecological Development Strategies and implementation Measures of Chinese Cities – Li Xun
3. Internet Sources
What is an Eco city? A video by WithAlstom (https://youtu.be/7ygw2L-Qi0c)
Transforming a former wasteland into Tianjin Eco-City, A video by CAN (https://youtu.be/6ojOzSikrm0)
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