2/12/2010

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Sustainable urbanism

Context

Why sustainable urbanism?

Defining qualities & characteristics

Why it hardly happens, and how it can

Some thoughts and issues for Newcastle

Rising population

Increasing consumption

Increasing resource use

Falling water tables

Shrinking cropland

Shrinking rangeland

Declining soil quality

Declining ocean fisheries

Shrinking forests

Worsening air quality

Declining climate stability

MACROTREND

MACROTREND

Between 1980 and 2002,

energy use in the thirty

richest countries rose by

23%...

...in the years 2000 to

2006, the rate of global

CO2 emission increases

tripled... global CO2 is

increasing at over 3%

per annum...

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“In societies where income differences between rich and poor

are smaller, the statistics show not only that community life is

stronger and people are much more likely to trust each other,

but also that there is less violence... that health is better and

life expectancy is several years longer, that prison populations

are smaller, birth rates among teenagers are lower, levels of

educational attainment among school children tend to be

higher, and lastly, there is more social mobility. In all cases,

where income differences are narrower, outcomes are better”

Richard Wilkinson, co-author, The Spirit Level

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“Across the richest 25 or 30 countries there is no tendency

whatsoever for health to be better among the most affluent

rather than the least affluent countries. The same is also

true of levels of violence, teenage pregnancy rates, literacy

and maths scores among school children, and even obesity

rates. We have reached a level of development beyond

which further rises in absolute living standards no longer

reduce social problems or add to wellbeing.”

Richard Wilkinson, co-author, The Spirit Level

“We shape our buildings and

afterwards our buildings shape us”

Winston Churchill

“Place, it seems to me, is a much more empathetic way of

talking about the environment, not least because it assumes

humankind to be an embedded part of the environment

rather than a species standing apart from the environment…”

Jonathon Porritt

In the hydrocarbon economy we valued mobility over accessibility,associating it with freedom and aspiration – and lack of it withpoverty or failure – and shaped our environments accordingly

We shaped space defensively and compartmentalised our lives –

you don’t live where you work, work where you shop, shop where

you live... ‘sense of place’ gave way to no place in particular: civility

and interdependence is destroyed...

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Regeneration and economic opportunity were equated with

property development; scale and concentration – the basis of

vigorous exchange of goods, services and ideas – was lost.

Above all, we confused what’s good for business with what’s good for the economy, and what’s good for consumers with what’s good for society... the ultimate failure of planning

Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, 2007

“We must learn to see that every

problem that concerns us

conservationists always leads to the

question of how we live”

Wendell Berry

How shall we live?

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Technotopia?

“Neighbourhoods, towns and cities were invented to facilitate

exchange. Exchange of information, friendship, material goods,

culture, insights, skills and also the exchange of emotional,

psychological and spiritual support. For a truly sustainable

environment we must maximise this exchange while minimising

the travel necessary to do it.”

David Engwicht, Towards an Eco-city

...or back to the future?

The upside of down: good

urbanism enables people to

live sustainably and well

Diversity,

adaptability

and continuity

Ever-changing

yet never-

changing

Urban and

green

Public and

private

Vibrant and

quiet

The good city

Sustainable urbanism because...

• Economic – it concentrates, promotes interaction and

the easy contact and exchange (of stuff and of ideas)

that characterises productive and successful places

• Social – it reduces the realm of private difference and

promotes the common good, where necessary trading-

off individual please-yourself; it’s pro-poor and

inclusive (at both ends)

• Environmental – it grasps the limitations of the

technology-replacement view of the ‘low-carbon

economy’ and creates the conditions for genuinely

sustainable culture

Doing

everything

differently

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Interlaken East Station Switzerland

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Urban & rural together – resilience and interdependence....

A culture of sustainability

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“Tell me, I forget

Show me, I remember

Involve me, I understand”

What normally happens

1. Developer acquires land; professes commitment to “exciting new high-quality residential/ commercial/ mixed-use development”

2. Developer appoints professional team

3. Professional team designs policy-compliant scheme

4. Team meets planners and a few other gatekeepers

5. Public exhibition is held – whizzy CGI, smiling faces, no cars... PUDDLE

6. Submits planning application

7. Builds (unsustainable) rubbish

From NIMBY to BANANA...

According to the consultancy firm Saint, 85% of

British people are opposed to any form of new

development where they live

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to

From

Beyond Green placemaking projects 2002-2010

• Harlow North (28,000)

• 2012 Olympic Legacy (10,000)

• West Southall (4,000)

• Rugby Radio Station (6,200)

• Stanton Ironworks (5,000)

• 4 years strategic advice to New East

Manchester URC

• Community Enquiry for S&N brewery site,

Newcastle

• Competition for Irvine Harbourside, West

of Scotland (800)

• Walker Riverside Community Enquiry

• Etc, etc...

In a nutshell:

• High-quality, sustainable mixed-use development costs more

upfront but offers better longer-term returns

• Upfront land prices destroy viability – so find owners/partners

with patience willing and able to share in longer-term value

creation

• Retain some ownership to profit from medium-to-long term

value growth (vested interest) – ‘estate’ model

• Work at scale – units of walkable urbanism

• BlueLiving Ltd established in 2006 to promote and deliver large-

scale residential-led, mixed-use sustainable developments in the

UK

• Joint Venture with UK commercial property fund Development

Securities plc - £10m fund for initial site acquisition (via option or

stake) and promotion

• Current projects

- Pincents Hill, Reading – 750 homes

- North East Norwich – 4,000+ homes over 25 years

- a.n.other – 6,000+ homes in negotiation...

Pincents Hill: scheme summary

• Compact mixed-use walkable neighbourhood

• 750 homes in a range of types, sizes and tenures, including 35%

affordable; generous volumes

• Productive roofs for energy, food growing, outdoor eating and

ecology

• Comprehensive mixed-use strategy including hotel/restaurant,

business centre, library, health centre, primary school

• Adaptable buildings to allow increased local retail and commercial

uses over time & housing responsive to residents’ changing needs

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Pincents Hill: scheme summary (cont.)

• “Car freedom” strategy for sustainable transport including

localised mixed-use, excellent cycle & pedestrian connections,

new bus route, 50-space car club, electric car facilities, strict

parking ratio & leased permit parking

• CHP energy network with biomass boilers and solar PV for 17% of

electricity demand – overall 60% renewable energy – managed by

on-site ESCo

Detailed Cameo of Block N7

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10 tenets of sustainable urbanism

1. What’s the purpose of development - “how shall we live?”

2. A process: it starts from the city’s values, self-image and way of thinking

3. Because of reciprocal determinism we have to involve people (rather than ‘engage’

them or ‘consult’ them) in understanding and deciding how

4. Its organising imperative is the movement economy – and in the best cities the

walking economy – and the economic, social and cultural outcomes it makes

possible

5. Cardinal characteristics of city planning: compactness, connectedness and diversity

6. Diversity x4: in the (walkable) neighbourhood, the (fine-grained) block, the

(adaptable) building, the (mixed) community – take anyone out and the whole piece

falls short

7. The public realm: the business incubation space of any good city

8. Importance of the ‘good ordinary’ – not just icons + housebuilders

9. Whole-life values and patient finance – new development model needed

10. Get all this right and then (and only then) ‘sustainable design’ has true value

Implications

• What kind of society, and what kind of ‘competitiveness’? Catch-up, or new paradigm?

• ‘Business friendly’ or economy friendly?

• Movement across the Tyne, and consequentials...

• Big projects vs the great ordinary...

• New development economics and the role of the public sector

• Regional and city-regional relations

• How to systematise...

In the middle of the road, you get

knocked over

neil@beyondgreen.co.uk

www.beyondgreen.co.uk

www.blueliving.co.uk