Dangers of Going Green (original) (raw)
Nature, Technologies, and Living Infrastructure - A Theoretical Perspective for Future Cities
Humanidades e Ciências Sociais: Perspectivas Teóricas, Metodológicas e de Investigação III Nature, 2023
The integration of nature into cities has become an increasingly important topic in urban planning and design, as cities seek to address the challenges posed by rapid urbanization and enhance the well-being of their residents. This integration can take many forms, ranging from the inclusion of parks and gardens within the city fabric to the integration of wild natural corridors. The concept of green cities, where nature and the built environment are seamlessly integrated, has gained significant traction as a way to promote sustainable urban development and improve the health and well-being of city residents. In this context, the relationship between a good city and living infrastructure is a crucial one. A green city, where nature is integrated into the urban fabric, can have a number of benefits for human health and well-being. However, the integration of nature into cities is not without its challenges. There are concerns about the sustainability and viability of such projects, as well as their impact on wildlife and the environment. In addition, there is a need to consider the views of different stakeholders, including residents, city authorities, and the wider public, in order to ensure that green cities are not only functional and efficient, but also healthy, harmonious, and sustainable in the long term. In this paper, we look at the integration of technologies, nature, and living, to what have some theorists thought about, and their range of views on this complex issue, both positive and negative, opening up to utopic and dystopic questions and implications.
Dealing with Complexity – Knowledge, design, and management of the built environment
AGATHÓN | International Journal of Architecture, Art and Design, 2024
Complexity (from the Latin verb ‘plectere’ = to weave, ‘cum’ = together) is a condition in which many elements intertwine together to form a unit. The ‘complexity’ of the Planet’s condition is evident: cli-mate change, according to Amitav Ghosh (2017), is not a danger in itself but rather represents a ‘threat multiplier’ that stresses and amplifies the instability and insecurity already present in some areas of the world, even more so because many industrialised countries have already greatly exceeded their relative ‘biocapacity’, effectively becoming ‘ecological debtors’. In this view, ‘complex’ should be brought back to its etymological meaning of ‘woven’ or ‘held to-gether’, connecting different forms of knowledge in the virtuous circle of a body of knowledge articu-lated in a systemic view of the real world based on the principle of ‘co-evolution’ of social and ecolog-ical systems (of culture and nature) and the awareness that it determines; on the one hand, the inter-weaving of multiple causal chains (e.g., although the pandemic crisis is a health crisis it has also be-come a biological, ecological, economic, social, cultural and spiritual crisis) with interdependent ef-fects, and on the other hand, effects that also retroact on causes since causality is circular. According to Ceruti and Bardi (2021), unfortunately, it isn’t easy to translate this vision into the workings of every-day life and to guide both the observation of the world and the project, which is an expression of our being in the world. How we live, regardless of where this happens, has an impact on the biosphere and determines chain reactions in different areas that affect both nature and human beings on a global scale: climate change, health risks, loss of biodiversity, indiscriminate use of non-renewable resources, inequalities, and accessibility contribute to a condition of ‘polycrysis’ that amplifies the state of uncertainty about our future and the vulnerability of the entire ecosystem, especially since the actions put in place do not address the cogent environmental issue in a systemic and holistic key. Therefore, the question is, how do we transform complexity from challenge to opportunity? How do we deal with the complex issues that concern the knowledge, the design, and the management of the built compared to the now essential pragmatic indicators of environmental, social, and economic sus-tainability? Which strategies, measures, actions, and tools can Architecture disciplines implement in a holistic view and with a systems approach to meet the terms of the Paris Agreement? How do we iden-tify those with the best cost/benefit ratio capable of producing synergies to achieve the largest possible number of the Sustainable Development Goals promoted by the United Nations? How do we rethink extractive (production-based) economic systems and direct them toward regenerative ones (based on the enhancement of that which already exists and of services)? How to put into practice new systemic design approaches capable of addressing today’s complexities from their roots, developing solutions through which entire societies can intentionally transition to a more sustainable, equitable, and desira-ble long-term future, including through co-created visions capable of informing the solutions of the present and paving the way to a desirable future? How do we place knowledge and learning into a sys-tem to better understand the current era’s multidimensional, fundamental, and global issues in their ir-reducible complexity? The articles published in issue 16 of AGATHÓN offer valuable insights into addressing the complex issues surrounding the knowledge, design, and management of the built environment in light of the in-creasingly urgent pragmatic indicators of environmental, social, and economic sustainability, demon-strating that the complexity of the built environment, rather than being a challenge, can become an op-portunity to advance the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The published contri-butions certainly do not fully encompass the fields of inquiry, strategies, measures, and actions that the scientific community and the construction sector can implement to contain human activity within planetary boundaries and make both the built environment and biophysical systems more resilient. However, they provide an initial theoretical-practical framework on the topic, which will hopefully con-tribute to stimulating the scientific debate and inspire new research initiatives based on multiscalar ap-proaches, capable of leveraging the potential of digital technologies to address the pressing challenges of contemporary times, including the global goals of climate and carbon neutrality.
Beyond Nature-Based Rhetorics: A Prospect on the Potentials of Redundancy in Ecology-Oriented Design
Sustainability
Nature-Based Solutions are defined as infrastructures or systems which are inspired by, supported by, or copied from nature. This biophilic leitmotif has rapidly permeated and been prescribed in many fields, particularly in urban and architectural design, stimulating an invasion of green rhetorics not necessarily founded on genuine ecological performing. In this context, this article explores current gaps in the epistemology and rhetorics of NBS, expanding the field with alternative narratives such as cycle-based design and micro-scalar or process-oriented approaches. The concept of redundancy is here presented as a non-observable, still nature-based principle, already applied in disparate scientific fields such as information theory, cybernetics, or evolutionary biology, and introduced in design fields from a theoretical perspective. Novel applicability of the term will be articulated from design perspectives through various case studies, using a multi-scalar scope and concluding i...
ACE 40 EMPLOYING BIOMIMICRY IN URBAN METAMORPHOSIS SEEKING FOR SUSTAINABILITY: CASE STUDIES
ACE 40 , 2019
Structured Abstract Objective The current study has aimed to develop the framework of biomimicry involvement in urban metamorphosis for sustainability. This research has engaged four objectives to achieve the aim. Objective one is to explore the rudiment interaction between human and nature through interrogating history, nature’s design. Objective two is to excavate the biomimicry in emulating nature’s genius. Objective three is to investigate the association between biomimicry and sustainable development, focusing on architectural features. Objective four is to develop the framework based on the biomimicry rules for human evolution and survival in the natural environment. Methodology To achieve objective one, the grounded theory method was applied for scrutinizing human development and human awareness about their natural environment. To achieve objective two, an evidence study was conducted on the biomimicry emulation of nature’s genius. To achieve objective three, a critical literature review was conducted using content analysis method to identify the biomimicry focus and architectural features. Through matrix development method, the focus and architectural features were tabulated. To achieve objective four, the waterfall framework design method and case studies were conducted to plot this framework. Conclusions This research gained a better understanding of biomimicry-based on theories of the evolution of organisms, including humans in the urban context, as measurement against sustainable benchmarks. It followed the paths of ecological researcher and urban philosophers, such as Freya Mathews and Moore, by re-versioned the human relationship with nature and the surrounding environment and observing human actions and development about life principles. In particular, the research found out that biomimicry is an approach that recently becomes the focus of many researchers of different disciplines seeking a solution for human problems. The biomimicry has been merged with sustainable architecture design through specific features; included, form and function, geometry, metaphor, movement, material, pattern, proportion, sustainability, and technology. Furthermore, biomimicry is an approach that involves nature as a model, mentor, and measure for inspiration, which converges law, principles, and strategies in the context of biomimicry-based on human evolution. Originality The findings allowed architects and urban designers to enhance people’s awareness of their natural environment and provide a better perception of biomimicry in the application of human world, whether founded because of base instinct or a strategic view derived from the life’s principles.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), 2022
This guidebook introduces the Connecting Nature Framework. The Framework supports the planning, delivery and stewardship of nature-based solutions on a large scale in cities and communities. It provides a comprehensive toolkit for urban practitioners who want to develop nature-based solutions and in this way foster urban resilience, increase citizen health and wellbeing, support innovation and promote empowerment. This guidebook is intended for a wide audience of practitioners, from urban planners at local authorities to community groups, entrepreneurs and non-governmental organisations. The Connecting Nature Framework is co-produced by scientific partners and cities. This generates innovative solutions for science and practice. It supports Europe to become a global leader in the innovation and implementation of nature-based solutions.
2014
There is an argument that infrastructural systems have entered the same domain as ecosystems: blackouts in the electric grid behave with the same system dynamics as forest fires do and earthquakes. Nature and culture seem to