City as Living Organism: Ecological Urbanism

How the United States builds cities has changed over the last 50 years. Urban design and planning has gone from an autocratic and elitist process that disregards environmental impact, to one that is more democratic, more dynamic, and more sustainable. But it must change even more quickly to meet the challenges ahead. Since the early 2000’s, a new approach to designing our most intensely human spaces has emerged: ecological urbanism. Anne Whiston Spirn, the MIT professor credited with starting the ecological urbanism movement, defines it as the wedding between “the theory and practice of city design and planning…with the insights of ecology.”

The West Philadelphia Landscape Plan and Greening Project (led by Spirn herself) is a prime example of ecological urbanism’s principles at work. The Mill Creek watershed is managed as part of an approach to improve regional water quality through community development and educational reform. Community gardens and the reuse of vacant lots improved the management of water through the city and implemented landscape literacy programs for its youth.

Ecological urbanism encompasses multiple fields: community engagement and activism, urban planning and design, landscape literacy, and accessibility. It can take place at multiple scales, be it the neighborhood, the small town, the city, or the region. Ecological urbanism can influence and operate on principles that apply to a variety of settings: intensely developed cities, sprawling suburbs, and small rural towns. A fundamental tenet shared across these settings is respect: respect for the natural processes that impose limitations on our cities, respect for all the people who inhabit them, and respect for the potential that lies in achieving harmony of these components.

How will our new values and attitudes toward living be reflected in our built environment? How can we cultivate the forces of nature within the walls of the city, working with it and not banishing it? Who will have the most access to these changes in our environment? Who benefits and who faces the costs? I will answer these questions and more by exploring the field of ecological urbanism, reviewing the themes and principles tantamount to its philosophy, and evaluating the outcomes of this new approach.

 

Source: https://web.mit.edu/nature/overview.html

Image source: https://www.shmadrid.com/blog/en/caixaforum-madrid-a-cultural-centre-in-the-heart-of-old-madrid/

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