Sustainability, from science to philosophy to lifestyle, expresses how we shape
Sustainability, from science to philosophy to lifestyle, expresses how we shape our cities. Cities are not just a collection of structures but groups of people living different lifestyles together. When we ask if a lifestyle is sustainable, we ask if it can endure. Some archaeologists posit that environmental imbalance doomed many failed ancient civilizations. What could a sustainable city look like, how would it function, and how can we avoid an imbalance that will lead to the collapse of our material civilization?
Throughout history, settlement patterns have been set by technology and commerce. Civilizations have produced food, clothing, and shelter and accessed foreign markets to purchase and sell goods. Workers traditionally had to live near their occupation, although, in modern industrial times, advanced transportation systems have enabled us to live quite a distance from where we work.
In hindsight, we can see how reliance on water and horse-drawn transportation shaped historical civilizations and how this equation was radically altered with the rise of the automobile following World War II. While attempting to envision the “Sustainable City,” we must discern what factors will influence its shape and form in the future.
Green Urbanism and Sustainable Cities
Green urbanism is a conceptual model that seeks to transform and re-engineer existing city districts and regenerate the post-industrial city center. It promotes the development of socially and environmentally sustainable city districts. The following principles of green urbanism (Figure 1) offer practical steps toward sustainable cities, harmonizing growth and usage of resources.
Climate and Context
Every site or place has unique conditions regarding orientation, solar radiation, rain, humidity, prevailing wind direction, topography, shading, lighting, noise, air pollution, and so on. The various aspects of this principle include Climatic conditions, which are seen as the fundamental influence for form generation in the design of any project; understanding the site and its context, which is essential at the beginning of every sustainable design project; optimizing orientation and compactness to help reduce the city district’s heat gain or losses; achieving a city with minimized environmental footprint by working with the existing landscape, topography, and resources particular to the site, and the existing micro-climate of the immediate surroundings. Maintaining complexity in the system is always desirable (be it biodiversity, eco-system, or neighborhood layout), and a high degree of complexity is always beneficial for society. Enhancing the opportunities offered by topography and natural setting leads to a city well adapted to the local climate and its eco-system. We can use the buildings’ envelope to filter temperature, humidity, light, wind, and noise. Due to the different characteristics of every location, each city district has to develop its own methods and tailored strategies to r