Friday, August 27, 2010

What is an ecocity? part 2

In an earlier post, I explained what kind of features I think an Ecocity should have briefly. To give a supplement to that and to explain the ecology of the city, a new longer list has to be discussed. This is because it seems as every project fail in some parts; either the project focus on the energy issue, or the green space issue, and forgets the rest of what an city or what ecology means. When ecology means relations or connections between parts, and not environmentally friendly, the Ecocity is much more than just structural "green stuff".

This is an attempt, a first draft, from the latest ecotrip together with a very good friend of mine, to explain what an ecocity should contain because time is up, we need to build them.
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The town surrounding the man instead of man encloses the city in its motion

The city is in the Ecocity;
  • The proximity between home work and other activities
  • Private Car replaced by walking, cycling and public transport as a priority in that order
  • Goods, some transportation and some maintenance must be continued with "car"
  • Mixed use of housing, business
  • Mixed socio-economic
  • Mixed density housing and open spaces
  • Diversity in architecture, solutions, height, color, age; to create locality
  • Children will find playgrounds in the area!
  • Livable three-dimensional
  • Proximity to "real" nature
  • Linking the history, importance of issues and future plans
  • Participation in continuous democratic processes for both development, evaluation and feedback
  • The individual are always at the center of the neighborhood- people are all experts and have knowledge of their part of town, and should therefore be the ones who should decide and have opinions on how it should be designed
  • Shared responsibility is built up by responsibilities and experience of responsibility/ ownership
The word ecology, ie interactions between different biotic and abiotic factors, in an Ecocity is used to explain that;
  • People are connected, no one is alone
  • The buildings are connected by streets, nature and human creativity
  • People interact with the open spaces through different processes and projects
  • The city must be seen largely as a closed ecosystem; self-sufficient and recirculated
  • Biodiversity re-created and promoted by coherent green structure and the free water
  • Ecosystem Services have to work and should priorities, ie be used to the greatest extent possible and does it work badly, a larger area is needed for the purpose
  • Bioclimatic building construction of natural light, heat consumption, available for multiple surfaces
  • Construction materials from local produce and "natural" sources, adapted to local climate
  • Old tree and existing important habitats should be considered before rebuilding
  • Green roofs and walls for a stabilized indoor, outdoor climate and runoff

List made by two environmentalists at the train
2010-08-23, ICE 237 Hamburg- København

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