Essays Archive

Art, Science, Action: Green Cities Re-imagined
December, 2015

9 December 2015

Branch Waters Urbanism: A Concept of Landscape That Organizes the Chaos of “Jungle Cities”
Kevin Sloan, Dallas-Fort Worth

Part one: natural potential from mega math Never before on the Earth or in the entire history of the human condition has something like a megacity been possible, until Tokyo and Mexico City appeared in 1950. Typically defined as a metropolis with 10 million residents or more, projections by the...

6 December 2015

Discounting Our Engagement and Betraying Our Affections for Urban Nature
Janice Astbury, Buenos Aires

When Montréal’s Parc Oxygène was bulldozed in June 2014, a local newspaper article aptly spoke of a ‘neighborhood in mourning.’ The narration of its destruction by a neighbor is heart-wrenching (1). This small park in the midst of high rises was an urban oasis made and looked after by its...

2 December 2015

Nature: Medicine for Cities and People
Chantal van Ham, Brussels

Whilst urbanization has brought many benefits to society, it increasingly denies people of opportunities for the mental, spiritual and physical health benefits from nature. Over the last decade, there has been an alarming global increase in diseases such as heart diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes [Note 1]. The...

November, 2015

29 November 2015

Democratizing Sustainability Conversations to Create Resilience from the Soul
Diana Wiesner, Bogota

(Una versión en español sigue inmediatamente después.) “We must remember that what we observe isn’t nature itself, but rather nature exposed to our method of questioning and perceiving.” —Werner Heisenberg In order to talk about sustainability on an urban level, it is fundamental to have an understanding of the social...

24 November 2015

My Experiment with One Week of Zero Waste
Briana Liu, Beijing

This past summer in Beijing, my coworker initiated a zero waste campaign for the office. Under the campaign, we pledged to live zero waste (or, at least, to consciously minimize our waste to the most practical degree) for as long as we wanted to or could. Zero waste is an...

22 November 2015

Air Pollution: Urban Myths and Realities
Huda Shaka, Dubai

You may have noticed ambient air quality returning to centre stage globally as a hot topic of discussion and debate. While the media coverage has helped draw attention to this critical issue, the plethora of data and views can cause confusion and can delay much-needed action. In this article, I...

18 November 2015

Neighborhood Planning for Resilient and Livable Cities, Part 3 of 3: Montréal’s Green, Active and Healthy Neighborhoods Project
Nik Luka, Montreal and Uppsala Jayne Engle, Montreal

The idea of the ‘neighborhood’ is reassuring, and it is our focus in this text, which explores how neighborhoods can help us to build and rebuild better cities for people. Good neighborhoods define cities and metropolitan regions at scales that are easier for us to relate to as humans, and...

15 November 2015

Close Encounters of the Moose Kind
Bill Sherwonit, Anchorage

Now a century old, Anchorage has at various times during its short history proclaimed itself the “Air Crossroads of the World,” a “City of Lights” and a place of “Big Wild Life” (the latter for the community’s “perfect blend of urbanity and wilderness”). But I have long believed—and yes, opined...

10 November 2015

Reflections on “Laudato Si, On Care For Our Common Home”
Mike Houck, Portland

Pope Francis, City Planner After reading Pope Francis’ Laudato Si, On Care For Our Common Home, I was moved to select references I felt relevant to efforts in Portland to integrate nature into the city and weave nature into the fabric of our urban and urbanizing neighborhoods. I sent a...

5 November 2015

Opportunities and Challenges in Working with Volunteers in Local Parks
Lynn Wilson, Vancouver

The urge to contribute one’s time, without compensation, to benefit a closely held cause or purpose appears to be a deeply rooted human need because volunteerism is found everywhere, in various forms and for every conceivable reason. For instance, every year, more than 13 million people volunteer in Canada, 63...

1 November 2015

How the White House Went Green: The Environmental Legacy of President Lyndon B. Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson
Adrian Benepe, New York

Which American president administration of the last century has the strongest record on preserving the environment and natural beauty? Presidents Theodore or Franklin Roosevelt, who created the National Wildlife Refuge System (protecting 230 million acres) and established the Civilian Conservation Corps, putting 2.5 million people to work building trails and...

October, 2015

28 October 2015

Singapore’s Life in the Trees
Geoffrey Davison, Singapore Lena Chan, Singapore

Roadside trees are not merely roadside trees. Roadside trees are living condominiums, packed with other organisms. They are functioning communities, complete with food chains, predators and prey, nutrient capture, nutrient cycling and recycling, and an organisational hierarchy. They extend their influence vertically upwards, horizontally and downwards. They are ecosystems in...

25 October 2015

A Collaborative Project in City Planning for Urban Biodiversity in Japan
Keitaro Ito, Fukutsu City

From 2014, we have been taking part in a project in city planning for urban biodiversity in Fukutsu city, Japan. Our lab (Keitaro Ito laboratory, Kyushu Institute of Technology) has been directing the project in collaboration with Fukutsu city and high school students from Fukuoka Koryo high school and Fukuoka...

21 October 2015

Paleo Cities and the Return of the Hunter Gatherer
Russell Galt, Edinburgh

Why do you feel and behave the way you do? Have you ever noticed how incredibly adept you are at bargain-hunting in the local supermarket; beachcombing for washed up treasures; or foraging for mushrooms, nuts, and berries? Have you ever wondered why sweet melodies of birdsong and fertile meadows of...

18 October 2015

The Quest for Governance Modes on Sustainable Urbanization
Buyana Kareem, Kampala Olumuyiwa Adegun, Johannesburg Collins Adjei Mensah, Cape Coast, Ghana Saleh Ahmed, Tucson Isabelle Michele Sophie Anguelovski, Barcelona Ruishan Chen, Shanghai Uchendu Chigbu, Munich Aakriti Grover, Delhi Alice Hertzog-Fraser, Zurich Tracy-Ann Hyman, West Indies, Jamaica George Kinyashi, Dodoma, Tanzania Hayley Leck, London Karolina Łukasiewicz, Kraków Martin Maldonado, Cordoba Andre Ortega, Manila Lorena Pasquini, Cape Town Alisa Zomer, New Haven

However complex the urban sustainability question is, the facts are clear to all. Over the next four decades, the global urban population is expected to nearly double, with the vast majority of this happening in Asian and African cities; if we do not rethink and coalesce our approaches and practices,...

14 October 2015

Dealing with Complex Urban Systems and Uncertainty: Insights from Northeast Thailand
Richard Friend, York Pakamas Thinphanga, Bangkok

It is now coming to the end of the rainy season—the point in the year at which the reservoirs across Thailand should be approaching maximum storage levels in order to provide the water resources that are needed for the full range of water uses through the dry season. But as...

11 October 2015

A New Reconnection Agenda for People and Nature
Chris Ives, Nottingham

I have recently started working on a new project that will explore how reconnecting people with nature can help transform society towards sustainability (see http://leveragepoints.org). ‘Connectedness with nature’ has recently become a buzz phrase, with scientists, journalists and practitioners talking about the problems of disconnection, the benefits of reconnection, and...

7 October 2015

Towards Building Community Resilience in a Coastal Town in the South of Chile: Before Measuring, Explore Planning Tools
Paula Villagra, Valdivia Mina Fallahzadegan, Los Rios

In Chile, over recent years, there has been increasing attention to the concept of community resilience, especially in facing natural disasters. Community resilience is the capacity of a community to adapt to changes that occur after natural disasters. Such adaptation capacity is vital for satisfying survival needs (e.g. food and water),...

4 October 2015

Why We Need Design Guidelines for Urban Non-Humans
Paul Downton, Melbourne

Earlier this year I had the good fortune to be invited to speak at a remarkable ‘Global Conference’ in Chantilly, France. The title of the session I was to contribute to was translated into English as ‘An urbanism built on a priority for fauna and flora’. This, it seems, was...

September, 2015

30 September 2015

September 11, 2015: An Event Ethnography of Living Memorials
Lindsay Campbell, New York Erika Svendsen, New York Heather McMillen, Honolulu Novem Auyeung, New York Rachel Holmes, New Haven Michelle Johnson, New York City Renae Reynolds, New York City

A reading of names. A procession. Placing flowers on memorials. Music. Moments of silence. Tolling of bells. Certain abiding symbols and gestures give structure to our memorial remembrances. In particular, we have come to expect a ritual formality and consistency at the World Trade Center site for remembering September 11,...

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