Prof. Timothy Beatley, UVA School of Architecture

Green Urbanism: Design for Resilient and Biophilic Cities

―The cities of the 21st Century are

where human destiny will be played

out, and where the future of the

biosphere will be determined. There

will be no sustainable world without

sustainable cities.‖

--Herbert Girardet

Future Cities

Resilient

Healthy

Small Ecological Footprint

Intergenerational

What is Green Urbanism?

Biodiverse, Biophilic

Livable

Distinctive

Affordable

What Does Green Urbanism Look Like?

Renewable Energy

Solar Cities

Commitments to Transit

Local Sustainable

Food

Green and Natural

Zero Waste

Circular

Metabolism

Compact and

Walkable

Implications for Designing Cities?

The ―Melbourne Miracle‖

―Of all the things a city can do to improve

its environment, Melbourne has done

almost everything: more residents and

students, more ‗people‘ streets, squares,

lanes and parks, wider sidewalks, quality

materials, active shop frontages, fine

furnishings, new street trees and public art

programs.‖ –Jan Gehl

Impressive results…ten-fold increase

in downtown population since 1980s,

number of café seats rose 275% in

ten years, 40% increase in foot

traffic, from 2 outdoor cafes in 1973

to 356 in 2004…

Molly Dilworth’s Cool Water, Hot Island

Energy Efficiency Btu/Passenger Miles

Automobiles, SUVs, light trucks 5,255

Commuter Rail 1,612

Heavy Rail 911

Light Rail 1,152

Vastra Hamnen, Malmö

Distributed

Systems

Harvesting

Current Solar

Income

Sustainability & innovative elements:

Infrastructures and biotope

Ecoparc and District Heating and Cooling

The incinerator plant will be transformed into an Ecoparc facility

District Heating and Cooling is based on the use of the steam generated

The project involved a 3,5 km network: it will supply hot and cold water to

the buildings in and around the area of the Forum 2004

• Energy efficiency improvement: 32% reduction in primary energyconsumption; reduction in the consumption of non-renewableresources (= 1.850 tonnes of oil per year)

•Reduction of atmospheric pollution: reduction of about 5.000 tonnesof CO2/year

Environmental values

Barcelona’s Solar Budget:

Incoming solar: 14.5MJ/m2/day,

1470kWh/m2/year

28 times electric consumption of city

Building Resilience and Passive Survivability

Holy Cross Green Homes, New Orleans

Resilience Features: located in the high ground close to the river and levee (it is about 6 feet above sea level; pier foundation system to address weak soils and possible lifting from foundation from bouancy during flooding; first floor elevated another 3 feet above grade; rigid foam insulation that is less easily damaged by water and dries out more quickly; insulation placed on exterior (between sheathing and siding so it can replaced if necessary without having to damage the interior; paperless drywall on the groundfloor to preclude or limit mold growth; mechanical equipment and electrical switch box on second floor to reduce risk of water damage; windows and solar panels rated for impact from hurricane force winds.

Holy Cross, New Orleans

Vauban’s Plus-Energy Homes

North Terrace Solar Precinct

Adelaide Solar City

Sydney Green

Transformers

Windpods

Graeme Attey

Kogarah Town SquareSydney, Australia

New Forms of Urban Infrastructure

Hammarby Sjöstad, Stockholm

Circular Urban Metabolism

Masdar City, Abu Dhabi

From Rooftop

To Region

Melbourne’s CH2

Bioregional Supply Lines

Glocal Cities

New Ideas for

Community Sharing

Joel Salatin, Polyface Farm

Rethinking Food and Agriculture

Klingers Bakery Wheat Toast

Vermont Smoke and Cure Maple Sausage

Chapelle Farm Potatoes

Maple Meadow Farm eggs

Butterworks Farm Organic Corn with Vermont Maple BBQ dip

Ken Dunn and Kristine Geiber

Chicago City Farm

Montreal Rooftop

Gardens Project

Ismael Hautecoeur

Eva-Lanxmeer, Netherlands

Kipp Nash

Community Roots, Boulder

What is a Biophilic City?

An Outdoor/Outside

Oriented CityImportance Given to Protecting and

Restoring Nature

Nature Education and Nature

Nudging Green Neighborhoods: Every

Neighborhood Has Ample Access to

Outdoor Nature

Functional/Spatial Hierarchy:

Connected Systems of Nature and

Green Infrastructure

Fosters Connections to Local

Landscapes, History, Culture,

Unique Aspects of Place

Diverse and Multi-layered Contact

with Local Nature (e.g. including

sound, smell, other sensory

experiences)

Building Natural Social Capital

Biophilia

“…the innately emotional

affiliation of human beings to

other living organisms. Innate

means hereditary and hence part

of ultimate human nature.”

--E.O. Wilson

On the Therapy of Walking

in Nature:Study by British mental health charity MIND

―The new research…shows green exercise has

particular benefits for people experiencing mental

distress. It directly benefits mental health (lowering

stress and boosting self-esteem), improves physical

health (lowering blood pressure and helping to tackle

obesity), provides a source of meaning and purpose,

helps to develop skills and form social connections.‖

Does Nature Help Us To Be Better

Human Beings?Nature Makes Us More Generous!

―Those more immersed in natural settings

were more generous, whereas those

immersed in non-natural settings were less

likely to give. Feelings of autonomy and

nature relatedness were responsible for the

willingness to give to others, indicating that

these experiences facilitated a willingness

to promote others‘ interests as well as

one‘s own. In other words, autonomy and

relatedness encouraged participants to

focus on their intrinsic values for

relationships and community rather than on

personal gain.‖ --Weinstein, Przybylski,

and Ryan, 2009 (Univ of Rochester)

―I like to play indoors better,

‗cause that‘s where all the

electrical outlets are‖

--San Diego fourth-grader

We Have Become Profoundly

Disconnected from the Nature Around Us

Ability to Name?

0%

0%

100%

Ability to Name?

―Can you imagine a satisfactory love

relationship with someone whose name you

do not know? I can‘t. It is perhaps the

quintessentially human characteristic that we

cannot know or love what we have not

named. Names are passwords to our hearts,

and it is there, in the end, that we will find the

room for a whole world.‖ –Paul Gruchow

Largest Moth in the

World?Giant Wood Moth!

1.

2.

3.

4.

Blue Urbanism?

Soundscapes as Profound

Dimensions of Place

Charlottesville Sound Map

Soundscapes as Profound

Dimensions of Place

Charlottesville Sound Map

Soundscapes as Profound

Dimensions of Place

Charlottesville Sound Map

What is This?

Soundscapes as Profound

Dimensions of Place

Charlottesville Sound Map

Eastern Screech Owl

Networks of

Interconnected Nature

Akerselva, Oslo

Towards a Biophilic Urbanism

º

º

Free Range Kids!

Minneapolis Public Library

Nature in Unexpected Places

Caixa Forum Museum in

Madrid

Jane Martin Founder, PLANT*SF(Permeable Landscapes As

Neighborhood Treasures)

Developing Nature’s

Social Capital

Helena

KlangemoNature Guides,

Stockholm

Planning Zoöpolis

―To allow for the emergence of an ethic, practice and politics of caring for

animals and nature, we need to renaturalize cities and invite animals back

in—and in the process re-enchant the city.‖ –Jennifer Wolch

c

―Using projections of species‘

distributions for future climate

scenarios, we assess

extinction rates for sample

regions that cover some 20%

of the Earth‘s terrestrial

surface…We predict on the

basis of mid-range climate-

warming scenarios for 2050,

that 15-37% of species in our

sample of regions and taxa will

be ‗committed to extinction.‘‖

--Thomas et al, Nature, 2004

Left: Boyd's forest dragon

(Hypsilurus boydii)

Filming “The Nature of Cities” Documentary

Prof. Tim Beatley,

beatley@virginia.edu

Green Urbanism: Design for Resilient and Biophilic Cities