Ecopolis: Architecture and Cities for a Changing Climate by Paul F. Downton
By Paul F. Downton
From 2008, for the 1st time in human historical past, 1/2 the world's inhabitants now stay in towns. but regardless of a wealth of literature on eco-friendly structure and making plans, there's so far no unmarried publication which pulls jointly idea from the whole variety of disciplines – from structure, making plans and ecology – which we needs to come to grips with if we're to layout destiny towns that are surely sustainable.
Paul Downton's Ecopolis takes an enormous step alongside this course. It highlights the pressing have to comprehend the position of towns as either brokers of switch and technique of survival, at a time while weather swap has ultimately grabbed international awareness, and it offers a framework for designing towns that integrates wisdom – either educational and functional – from quite a number appropriate disciplines.
Identifying key theorists, practitioners, locations and philosophies, the e-book presents a superior theoretical context which introduces the idea that of city fractals, and is going directly to current a chain of layout and making plans instruments for attaining Sustainable Human Ecological improvement (SHED). Combining wisdom from various fields to offer a synthesis of city ecology, the ebook will offer a important source for college students, researchers and practitioners in structure, building, making plans, geography and the conventional lifestyles sciences.
Dr Paul Downton is a working towards architect in Sempahore, Australia
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Additional resources for Ecopolis: Architecture and Cities for a Changing Climate
Sample text
Places for people to live. In order to do this water and food must be obtained (‘settlement’ implies staying) and shelter must be erected (to create desirable micro-climates and to keep out unwanted people, beasts or other things). All these activities have an immediate impact on the environment, both animate and inanimate. The creation of the built environment is, arguably, a more damaging human activity than warfare. In the developed world 50% of greenhouse gas emissions 58 Part One – Chapter 2 – Epistemology can be attributed to the making and maintenance of the built environment and both historically and presently, the establishment of every urban centre has necessitated the ecologically destructive invasion of agriculture into its hinterland.
In considering the relationship of architectural theory to the nature and limitations of an ecological world-view it is instructive to relate notions of sustainability and ecology to aspects of architectural theory. Greening the Discourse Architectural discourse and criticism tends to the manufacture of apologia for certain styles or approaches to architecture. The cynical view of architectural theory sees it is as a field in which even the academic writing is no more trustworthy than the rhetoric of stylemongers.
Otherwise why would people accept as they do, all over the world, expensive 56 Part One – Chapter 2 – Epistemology house designs that gobble energy and destroy valuable resources – but fit the dictates of cultural norms which speak of status and fashion? In many ways, rather ironically, architects and other professional trumpeters of design have succeeded in trivialising much of what is most important to us. By treating design as little more than aesthetic conceit, the relevance of design in the built environment has been diminished, reduced to a question of taste and fashion.