Developing sustainable urban environments

Juha Kostiainen, Building green in cities, 25th August

yit.fi

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CRADLE-TO-CRADLE

ECOLOGICAL SUSTAINABILITY

SHARED VALUE

BIO ECONOMY

CARBON NEUTRALITY

CLEANTECH

CARBON HANDPRINT

DECOUPLINGREBOUND

RESOURCE EFFICIENCY

ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY

RESILIENCECIRCULAR ECONOMY

CARBON FOOTPRINTECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT

BRUNDTLANT’S COMMISSION

NET POSITIVEWEAK SUSTAINABILITYEARTH’S ECOLOGICAL CARRYING

CAPACITY

APPROACHES AND CONCEPTS OF SUSTAINABILITY

STRONG SUSTAINABILITY

SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY

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Creating more compact cities

Infill

Brown-field development

Combining houses, jobs and services – mixed-use

Improving public transportation

MAIN TRENDS IN URBAN DEVELOPMENT ACCROSS EUROPE

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QUALITY OF RESIDENTIAL ENVIRONMENT• Clean air,

clean water, noise, crime rate, etc.• Finland at the top

MIXED-USE• Shops, post office,

banks, culture services within walking distance • Ireland 1.

Finland 15.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION• Portion of all journeys• Hungary 1. (38 %)

Finland 15. (15 %)

GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS• Emissions / person• Latvia 1.

Finland 19.

PERCEPTIONS FROM THE SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES STUDY (Winston 2013)

• Residential environments are high-quality, but monotonous• Private car has been a dominating paradigm in city and transport plannning, lack of competition on public transportation• In terms of energy efficiency, the focus should be transfered from single building to neighborhood level

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URBAN DESIGN AND URBAN DMA(DOVEY 2016)

• Urban design is not strictly a discpline nor a profession, but multidisciplinary zone of practices where architecture, urban planning, landscape architecture and property development intersects.

• It is shaping of urban public space

• Structural core of urban design is comprised of density, mix and access

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• To create more dense or compactstructures has been leading trend in european urban development

• Often the content is unclear: (apartment, dweller, job, floor area) / given district (plot, block, unit area)

• Benefits: less traffic emissions, smooth everyday life due to betteraccess, well-functioning publictransportation, higher productivity, preservation greeneries, etc.

• Disadvantages: more congestion, more pollution, saturate problems of storm waters, less privacy, psychological stress, etc.

DENSITY(BOYKO & COOPER 2011, DOVEY 2016, KYTTÄ ET AL. 2014)

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• A new conceptualisation of density: quantitative density (ap/h, distance of tram stops), physical quality of environment (materials, facades, stop roofs) and user experience and needs (user-centric planning)

• Urban happiness study (n=3119) carried out in Helsinki and Espoo investigate density in apartments/hectare basis

• Experienced quality on living environment improved until level 100 ap/h, then weakened, improved again after level 190 ap/h

• Finally urban intensity is influenced by many other features than concentration of buildings and people as such!

DENSITY (BOYKO & COOPER 2011, DOVEY 2016, KYTTÄ ET AL. 2014)

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MIX

FUNCTIONAL MIX• Types: living, work or

visitation

• Can be mixed from the level of single building

• In Finland a long tradition of functional urban planning

FORMAL MIX• Range of different

buildings and lot sizes

• Scale where single building can be replaced

SOCIAL MIX• Preventon of

segregation; urban planning have only limited influence

• Main means education policy, health policy, housing policy, etc.

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INNERACCESS

OUTERACCESS

IMPROVING ACCESS, CONNECTIONS AND TRANSPORT

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ASEMANRANTA

FABRIIKKITRIPLA

LAUTTIS

RANTA-TAMPELLA

EXAMPLES

KASARMINKATU 21

KONEPAJA

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City is a whole (assemblage), a socio-

spatial cluster of interconnections between

parts wherein the identities and functions of both parts and wholes emerge from the flows, alliances and

synergies between them.

(DOVEY 2016, APPLYING DELEUZE & GUATTARIA 1987)