Urban Ecological Design: A Process for Regenerative Places
344
Urban Ecological Design: A Process for Regenerative Places
344eBook
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Overview
The authors note that urban design is viewed as an interface between different disciplines. They describe the field as "peacefully overrun, invaded, and occupied" by city planners, architects, engineers, and landscape architects (with developers and politicians frequently joining in). They suggest that environmental concerns demand the consideration of ecology and sustainability issues in urban design. It is, after all, the urban designer who helps to orchestrate human relationships with other living organisms in the built environment.
The overall objective of the book is to reinforce the role of the urban designer as an honest broker and promoter of design processes and as an active agent of social creativity in the production of the public realm.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781610912266 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Island Press |
| Publication date: | 06/22/2012 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 344 |
| File size: | 76 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Frederick R. Steiner is dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Texas, Austin, where he holds the Henry M. Rockwell Chair in Architecture. His books include Human Ecology: Following Nature's Lead (Island Press, 2002), The Living Landscape (Island Press, 2008) and The Essential Ian McHarg (Island Press, 2006).
Read an Excerpt
Urban Ecological Design
A Process for Regenerative Places
By Danilo Palazzo, Frederick Steiner
ISLAND PRESS
Copyright © 2011 Danilo Palazzo and Frederick SteinerAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-61091-226-6
CHAPTER 1
Processes
Urban design connects knowledge to action through a systematic process that adapts to the specific circumstances of the project. The urban designer brings knowledge from previous experience, generates new intelligence about the project, and guides the process through to its realization.
We apply a model to urban design to help designers be more effective project managers. In this capacity, the designer plans, controls, and coordinates "a project from conception to completion ... on behalf of a client [and] is concerned with the identification of the client's objectives in terms of utility, function, quality, time, and cost and in the establishment of relationships between [available] resources" (Blyth and Worthington 2001, xii).
Sticking to a process does not necessarily guarantee a successful project. However, an organized process can aid in collaboration and can clarify expectations of all involved parties. It can also help to make the best use of available resources, including time and money.
In the design and planning literature, several examples of processes and models are useful in considering a specific process for urban design. Michael Brawne (2003, 8) investigates the architectural design process or, to say it in a different way, how architects and designers "proceed from the past and present to a forecast of the future." Brawne assumes that the way architects proceed can be assimilated to sequence in the same way Karl Popper explained how scientific theories come into being. Popper's explanation appeared mainly in The Logic of Scientific Discovery, first published in German in 1935 and then in English in 1959. Brawne described the Popper sequence as a process that starts with "the recognition of a problem, then put[s] forward a hypothesis, a kind of tentative theory which need[s] to be tested in order to eliminate errors and end[s] with a corroborated theory which is, however, the start of a new sequence in which it becomes the initial problem" (Brawne 2003, 38). Brawne then concludes that "although clearly architecture is not a scientific pursuit ... I nevertheless believe that the problem, tentative solution, error elimination, problem sequence is the most accurate description of the design process" (38).
In the field of planning, a well-known and heavily discussed dictum is survey before plan, coined by Scottish biologist and planner Patrick Geddes and then further elaborated on by English planner Patrick Abercrombie (Hall 1995). This succinct dictum establishes the framework for linking knowledge to action in the process.
Theoretical reflections on planning and design, particularly after the Second World War, have resulted in many examples of processes applied to planning and design. Some examples, in order of appearance in the literature, follow.
In 1980, the Royal Institute of British Architects, in the Handbook of Architectural Practice and Management, proposed in the field of urban design a process model divided into four phases (RIBA 1980, quoted in Moughtin et al. 2004, 6):
1. Assimilation—the accumulation of general information and information specifically related to the problem
2. General Study—the investigation of the nature of the problem; the investigation of a possible solution
3. Development—the development of one or more solutions
4. Communication—the communication of the chosen solution/s to the client
Hamid Shirvani (1985) distinguishes six groups of design methods: internalized, synoptic, incremental, fragmental, pluralistic, and radical. The internalized method is the intuitive one: "The designer who uses the intuitive method first develops a design for the project in his or her mind, with the benefit and assistance of memory, training, and experience" (106).
The synoptic method, which is also commonly described as "rational" or
"comprehensive," is usually composed of seven steps (Shirvani 1985, 111):
1. Data collection, survey of existing conditions (natural, built, and socioeconomic);
2. Data analysis, identification of all opportunities and limitations;
3. Formulation of goals and objectives;
4. Generation of alternative concepts;
5. Elaboration of each concept into workable solutions;
6. Evaluation of alternative solutions; and
7. Translation of solutions into policies, plans, guidelines, and programs.
The incremental method is described by Shirvani as another version of the synoptic method in which "the designer establishes a goal and then develops incremental steps to achieve it" (116). The fragmental process is similar to the synoptic, except that it is incomplete. The designer can "go through four out of the total seven steps suggested for the synoptic process" (116). The pluralistic process is an approach that incorporates into the design process the inhabitants' value system and the functional/social structure of the urban area involved in the design. Shirvani's final approach, the radical process, has as an underlying concept that "in order to understand and design for a complex urban setting, social processes must be understood first" (118).
A process of ecological planning, consisting of eleven steps, was proposed by Frederick Steiner in The Living Landscape (2008) (see Figure 1.1). These eleven interacting steps are as follows:
Step 1. Problem and/or opportunity identification
Step 2. Goal establishment
Step 3. Regional-level inventory and analysis
Step 4. Local-level inventory and analysis
Step 5. Detailed studies
Step 6. Planning concept
Step 7. Landscape plan
Step 8. Education and citizen involvement
Step 9. Detailed designs
Step 10. Plan and design implementation
Step 11. Administration
This ecological planning model synthesizes other processes of regional and landscape planning. Its main references are the ecological methods for design and planning formulated since the 1960s by Ian McHarg (1966, 1969, 1981) (see Figure 1.2). The principal idea links environmental information through ecological knowledge to design and planning decisions by what McHarg called the "layer-cake model."
In the field of urban planning, Larz Anderson, on behalf of the American Planning Association (1995), defines an urban planning process as composed of nine strongly interconnected phases. The process of plan making was viewed as a continuous cycle that recognizes the iterative and interactive nature of planning (see Figure 1.3; Steiner and Butler 2007, 3):
1. Identify issues.
2. State goals, objectives, and priorities.
3. Collect and interpret data.
4. Prepare plans.
5. Draft programs for plan implementation.
6. Evaluate impacts of plans and implementation programs.
7. Review and adopt plans.
8. Review and adopt implementation programs.
9. Administer implementation programs.
Planning involves managing land uses in cities, agricultural areas, and forests. Planning is studied and practiced in terms of process. The planning and management of natural resources can be accomplished using the principles of stewardship, which can be defined as "the call to care for the Earth," counting on human and individual responsibility to "guide individuals toward the common goal [... of the preservation of] Earth's beauty and productivity for future generations" (President's Council on Sustainable Development 1996, 8) and can be undertaken, according to Sexton et al. (1999), using the seven-step process summarized below:
1. Identify the problem, decision makers, their authorities, the stakeholders, and the decision-making process.
2. Define the problem and refine the objectives.
3. Develop alternative actions to achieve the objectives.
4. Compare each alternative with the objective.
5. Choose a preferred alternative.
6. Implement the chosen alternative.
7. Monitor and evaluate. (Reynolds et al. 1999, 690-92)
Tony Lloyd Jones (2001), discussing the urban design process, distinguishes between artistic inspiration and Geddesian analysis. The first approach (which barely can be considered a process) is driven by the view of "many designers who see themselves as ... gifted artists" (51). Therefore, according to Lloyd Jones, "the stress is on beautifying the city through grand and often formal street layouts and landscaping interventions" (51). This very clearly relegates the landscape to decoration ("landscaping") in the grand plan, rather than the deeper meaning of landscape as a synthesis of nature and cultural processes with clear ecological implications. On the opposite side of the "artistic inspiration," there is the Geddesian approach that views the design action as a problem-solving activity
concerned with the issue of spatial organisation to meet functional need.... [This] approach [also labeled "functionalist" because of its engineering origin] suggests that if we analyse the problems that the design sets out to address in sufficient detail and in a scientific manner, a spatial solution will emerge from this analysis or "programme". It suggests that design is a linear process, which, if carried out with sufficient rigor, will lead to a single, optimum solution. (51)
Lloyd Jones suggests that there is a third option that overcomes the inspirational and the deterministic approaches. This approach takes the form of a cyclic process of analysis-composition-evaluation: "an attempt to reconcile factors that relate to client or user needs, factors that relate to the site or area under study and its context, and factors that relate to the constraints of planning policy and local planning regulation. It involves understanding the problems that are to be addressed and refining, abstracting and prioritizing the essential issues" (52). Lloyd Jones's third option lends itself to an ecological interpretation that emphasizes cyclic process and interaction.
Following are the four steps of the urban design process:
1. Defining the problem—starting from a study area appraisal and the project brief
2. Developing a rationale—taking into account summary analysis on planning/socioeconomic context; built form/townscape; land use/activity; movement and access; physical and natural environment; public realm and social space; and perceptual and cultural factors
3. Summarizing development opportunities and constraints —balancing the potentials of the site for its projected uses
4. Conceptualizing and evaluating design options—envisioning the possibilities for the study area with relative merits and shortcomings
Urban design can be considered "a continuous process of trial-test-change, involving imaging (thinking in terms of solutions), presenting, evaluating, and re-imagining (reconsidering or developing alternative solutions)" (Carmona et al. 2003, 55), a process characterized by cycles and iterations "by which solutions are gradually refined through a series of creative leaps or conceptual shifts" (54).
Process Strategies
As the process begins, it helps to provide an outline of future steps that should be considered during the project development. Available time, project character, and necessary materials to achieve the brief's requirements are important criteria for defining the process scope. In environmental impact assessments, scoping is used to define the proposed action, identify significant issues, eliminate peripheral issues, identify project requirements, indicate the decision-making schedule, and identify cooperating agencies. These activities are generally relevant to many urban design projects as well (especially if an environmental assessment is required by law).
The urban design process described in this book can be used as a reference basis, but every design project will possess its own particular characteristics (see Figure 0.7 in the introduction). Defining the times, responsibilities, meeting schedules, and interim deadlines is useful. However, as the project progresses, the outline will need to be amended as a result of factors that are often unpredictable in the idealized planned process.
Any urban design process should have a strategy, as Kevin Lynch and Gary Hack explain (1984, 369):
Plans imply agreements. Without the agreement of those with the power to make changes, and at least the passive assent of those who could stop them, plans remain on paper. To have an effect beyond that of an influential intellectual model, the process of site planning must follow a strategy: it must organize the analysis, programming, design, and implementation so that ideas and decisions are meshed. A strategy includes many choices: how to define the problem, the particular design approach, the use of intuition or rationality, the response to uncertainty, the technique of learning, the degree of participation, the linking of form and management, the use of professionals, and the relation to the client and other decision makers. A good many of these decisions are in the usual case simply customary. But ... such choices should be made explicitly.
The Process Strategy in the Workshop on Chisinau, Moldova
Organizing the design process takes into consideration the time available, the competencies, the prerequisites, and the nature of the assignment. When time is particularly short, as is usually the case in a workshop, the process organization has a significant value. In 2007, an urban design workshop was conducted in Lecco, Italy, for a strategic area of Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, the Eastern European state that borders Romania to the west and the Ukraine to the east (see Figure 1.4).
Chisinau is the political, industrial, and commercial center of Moldova. Located on the Bic River in the center of the country, it is the largest city of Moldova, with 650,000 inhabitants. During the Soviet domination (1944-1991), the heavy industry of the country was located along the Bic River. Today, the industrial areas have been largely abandoned. Some buildings were demolished and replaced by retail centers; others are only partially used. The Bic River and its adjacent soils are heavily polluted.
The municipality of Chisinau and Milan Polytechnic promoted a design initiative to define some ideas for the area along the river. A two-week workshop was organized to produce a proposal for the City of Chisinau. The workshop was held with practitioners from the London office of Skidmore, Owings &&&; Merrill (SOM), with academics from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Autonomous University of Barcelona) and Milan Polytechnic, and with students from various European and Asian countries. In addition, four design and planning professionals from Chisinau communicated daily via computer with this group of twenty-one people. To redefine the function of the whole area (7.400 acres, or 3,000 hectares), the team decided to work on different issues:
• Transportation at national, regional, and urban levels
• Mobility of people and goods
• Environment and landscape, including the pollution of the river and soils and the need to redesign the areas along the river in terms of hydraulics and for recreational uses
• Agriculture, one of the most important resources of the nation and the major land use outside Chisinau
• Energy, the need to understand how to reduce natural gas use by introducing biomass plants
• Finance, finding the financial sources to implement the workshop proposals
• Administration and management of the whole project
To perform these tasks, the twenty-five-member team was split into different groups focusing on specific issues. A phasing table was proposed to organize the process and to give the team pace and rhythm (see Figure 1.5). The process was determined at the very beginning of the two-week workshop on the basis of the time available, the strengths of the team, the request of the "client," and a rational organization of the steps from initial research and analysis (which correspond to the "knowledge" and "synthesis" steps described in this book) to preliminary concepts ("options") to final plan ("master plan") and then the final presentation. The "prerequisites" were contained in a briefing book prepared in advance and distributed to workshop participants and in "dialogue" between the Milan team and the local participants in Chisinau.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Urban Ecological Design by Danilo Palazzo, Frederick Steiner. Copyright © 2011 Danilo Palazzo and Frederick Steiner. Excerpted by permission of ISLAND PRESS.
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Table of Contents
DedicationTable of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1. Processes
Chapter 2. Prerequisites
Chapter 3. Knowledge
Chapter 4. Synthesis
Chapter 5. Options
Chapter 6. Dialogues
Chapter 7. Master Plan
Chapter 8. Presentation
Chapter 9. Details
Chapter 10. Implementation
Chapter 11. Conclusion
Bibliography
Index