Overview

From 2008, for the first time in human history, half of the world’s population now live in cities. Yet despite a wealth of literature on green architecture and planning, there is to date no single book which draws together theory from the full range of disciplines - from architecture, planning and ecology - which we must come to grips with if we are to design future cities which are genuinely sustainable. Paul Downton’s Ecopolis takes a major step along this path. It highlights the urgent need to understand the role of cities as both agents of change and means of survival, at a time when climate change has finally grabbed world attention, and it provides a framework for designing cities that integrates knowledge - both academic and practical - from a range of relevant disciplines. Identifying key theorists, practitioners, places and philosophies, the book provides a solid theoretical context which introduces the concept of urban fractals, and goes on to present a series of design and planning tools for achieving Sustainable Human Ecological Development (SHED). Combining knowledge from diverse fields to present a synthesis of urban ecology, the book will provide a valuable resource for students, researchers and practitioners in architecture, construction, planning, geography and the traditional life sciences.

Full Product Details

Author:   Paul F. Downton
Publisher:   Springer
Imprint:   Springer
Edition:   Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2009
Volume:   1
Weight:   0.949kg
ISBN:  

9789402413120

ISBN 10:   940241312
Pages:   607
Publication Date:   29 March 2019
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

List of Figures & List of Tables.- Acknowledgments.- Preface.- Introduction – The City Is My University.- 1. The Ground Plan. 1.1 The Idea of Ecopolis. 1.1.1 Projects and Praxis. 1.1.2 The Propositions. 1.1.2.1 Proposition 1: CITY-REGION: City-regions determine the ecological parameters of civilisation. 1.1.2.2 Proposition 2: INTEGRATED KNOWLEDGE: There is an imperative need to integrate extant knowledge. 1.1.2.3 Proposition 3: CULTURAL CHANGE: Creation of an ecological civilisation requires conscious, systemic cultural change. 1.1.2.4 Proposition 4: CULTURAL/URBAN FRACTALS: Demonstration projects provide the means to catalyse cultural change. 1.1.3 The Three Parts of the Dissertation. 1.2 The Purpose of Cities. 1.2.1 Defining Cities. 1.2.2 Types of Cities.- 2. An Epistemology for Urban Ecology. 2.1 An Heuristic Hybrid? 2.1.1 Hemisphericism and Sustainability. 2.1.2 Reconciliation of Urban and Non-urban Epistemologies. 2.1.3 Architecture, Cross-talk and Points of View. 2.1.4 City as Ecosystem. 2.1.5 Defining Urban Ecology. 2.2 Further Words on Architecture and Ecology. 2.2.1 Greening the Discourse. 2.3 Towards Sustainable Human Ecological Development. 2.4 Romantic Science. 2.4.1 Picking Flowers. 2.4.2 Objectivity, Subjectivity and the Third Way. 2.5 Adaptive Thinking and the Climates of Opinion. 2.5.1 Convenient Misrepresentations and Inconvenient Truths. 2.5.2 The Days After Tomorrow.- PART ONE: Ecopolitan CityScapes: Theory & Practice. A.1 People, Places and Philosophies.- 3. Architecture, Urbanism & Ecological Perspectives. 3.1 Points of view. 3.1.1 Antecedents and Antitheses. 3.1.1.1 Gardens and Cities. 3.1.1.2 Conservative or Conservationist. 3.2 Integration. 3.2.1 The Second Generation of Ecological Design. 3.2.1.1 Four Ecological Phases of Human Existence. 3.2.1.2 Three Urban Phases of Human Settlement. 3.2.1.3 Mainstream sustainability. 3.2.2 Which Analysis? 3.2.3 Health, Technology and Ecology. 3.3 A Sense of Place. 3.3.1 Placing the Architectural Experience. 3.3.1.1 Critical Regionalism. 3.3.1.2 Growing from Place. 3.3.1.3 Being Critical of Regionalism. 3.3.1.4 Bioregionalism. 3.3.1.5 Ecological Architecture. 3.4 Changing Places. 3.4.1 Architecture for a Changing Climate.- 4. Relevant Theorists. 4.1 Picture People – Visionaries and Utopians. 4.1.1 Soleri – Arcologies and Spiritual Complexification. 4.1.2 Register – From Vegetable Cars to Ecocitology. 4.1.3 Fuller – Geodesic Domes on Spaceship Earth. 4.1.4 Howard – The Garden City. 4.1.5 Morris – News From Nowhere. 4.1.6 Callenbach – Ecotopia. 4.1.7 Wright – Broadacre City. 4.2 Process People – Understanding the Nature of Cities. 4.2.1 Geddes – A View from the Outlook Tower. 4.2.2 Mumford – Cities, Technology and the Green Matrix of Regionalism. 4.2.3 McHarg – Designing With Nature. 4.2.4 Hough – Cities as Natural Process. 4.2.5 Spirn – In the Granite Garden. 4.2.6 Jacobs – The Death and Life of Cities. 4.2.7 Fisk and Vittori – Maximising the Potential of Building Systems. 4.2.8 New Alchemy and the Todds – Bioshelters and Living Machines. 4.2.9 Biosphere 2 – Off the Planet. 4.2.10 Berg and Sale – The Bioregional Imperative. 4.2.11 Papanek – Designing for the Real World. 4.2.12 Van der Ryn – Ecological Architecture and Intellectual Coherence. 4.2.13 Yeang – Architect and Bioclimatician. 4.2.14 Chinese and Russian Urban Ecologists – Red Green. 4.3 Pattern People – Putting the Pieces Together. 4.3.1 Alexander – People, Patterns, Process and the Nature of Order. 4.3.2 Mollison – The Productive Patterns of Permaculture. 4.3.3 Frampton – Critical Regionalism. 4.3.4 Brand – How Buildings Learn in the Long Now. 4.4 Pragmatic People – Getting from ‘Here’ to ‘There’. 4.4.1 Newman and Kenworthy – Auto Dependence. 4.4.2 Engwicht – Calming the Traffic. 4.4.3 T

Reviews

From the reviews: The book is an impressive, albeit lengthy, dissection and re-evaluation of current ecological models for city planning, one which will certainly cater more to the academics than the practitioners of sustainability. Given the extensive research and case studies this book is an important resource for all who are interested in looking at the bigger picture of sustainable issues in the city and architecture. (Thomas Wong, Futurarc, July, 2009) Paul's bug was bigger than academic politics and his desire to educate was the world not the campus. And indeed that's exactly what he's doing with his new book `Ecopolis.' Not only educating, but educating about what's most important. ... Perfect for post docs in the field and field workers in the doc's office ... . Perfect for all restless minds probing what's the meaning of building these here cities in the first place. ... It's stuffed with illustrations, photos, charts and references ... . (Richard Register, Ecocities Emerging, September, 2009)

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