Ecological Urbanism

The paper is a study of micro and macro biological changes of wetland ecology, a region once used for both agricultural and industrial purposes. It is now under wetland restoration. The study area has been used both as a waste dump, fossil fuel deport and extensive cultivation around lake Hjälmaren on the Eastern side of Örebro City.

As global climate change intensifies, landscape architecture is increasingly recognized not merely as an aesthetic or spatial design field, but as a critical operational system in climate adaptation. This paper argues that landscape architecture can serve as a hybrid infrastructure that synthesizes socioecological resilience with technological and infrastructural systems. Drawing from pre-2023 literature, this work situates landscape architecture at the intersection of ecological functionality, cultural systems, and technological frameworks, illustrating how its integration fosters adaptive urban environments. The paper also presents a typology of design strategies informed by resilience thinking and infrastructural hybridity, supported by conceptual diagrams and empirical case comparisons.

On May the 29th the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Toronto and Waterfront Toronto hosted the Canada – Netherlands Resilient Cities Summit: ‘Planning and Design in a Changing Climate’. Before and in parallel to this summit, a collaborative student design charrette, including students from Delft University of Technology and the University of Toronto took place. The results of this design charrette were presented as part of the Summit program.

Relazione su invito al convegno internazionale di studi “L’arte di costruire i viali alberati delle città. Il viale alberato nella storia e il progetto dello spazio pubblico urbano. La tutela e il rinnovo del bene comune” organizzato da Associazione Storia della Città, Politecnico di Torino DIST, Politecnico di Torino Scuola di specializzazione in Beni architettonici e del paesaggio, dal titolo “Strade alberate per riquadrare la città nella regione della Cittadella di Torino” (Torino, Castello del Valentino, 5 giugno 2025, convegno 5-6 giugno 2025).

The spatiotemporal heterogeneity of new-type urbanization in Chinese cities, with its emphasis on ecological development, interacts with the low-carbon technology development (LCT), a critical initiative for achieving carbon peak and neutrality targets. This interplay may lead to varied outcomes in air pollution control. This study investigates the spatiotemporal interplay between the four innovation priorities of new-type urbanization and LCT in influencing urban sulfur dioxide (SO₂) emissions and emission intensity. By constructing the Geographically and Temporally Weighted Regression (GTWR) model, we estimate the spatiotemporally varying coefficients across 294 cities and 18 urban agglomerations in China from 2012 to 2022. Our findings reveal that: (1) LCT has a strengthening effect on the inhibitory effect of new-type urbanization on urban industrial SO2 emission intensity across all Chinese cities and in 73 % of the cities for SO2 emissions. (2) LCT alleviates the energy rebound effect caused by population and land use changes accompanying new-type urbanization. (3) In 41 % of the cities, the relationship between economic new-type urbanization and SO2 emissions was identified to be an inverted U-shaped correlation. (4) Urban agglomerations have better SO2 control impacts during their new-type urbanization process, where the strengthening effect of LCT on inhibiting SO2 emissions is 1.6 times higher. This study provides empirical evidence to inform nuanced new-type urbanization strategies and targeted SO₂ pollution control measures at city and urban agglomeration scales.

Convegno interrnazionale promosso da Politecnico di Torino Scuola di Specializzazione in Beni architettonici e del paesaggio, Associazione Storia della Città, con il sostegno del Dipartimento DIST. Torino, 5-6 giugno 2025.
La disposizione di alberature lungo le strade pubbliche è sempre stata stimata valutando sia gli aspetti pratici e tecnici di impianto sia i linguaggi progettuali tesi a ottimizzare l'uso degli spazi verso risultati coerenti con i valori culturali dei luoghi, con la loro bellezza urbanistica, con il benessere percettivo. L'ombra, la protezione dei percorsi e dei suoli, i profumi, i significati simbolici legati all'uso di determinate essenze, sono solo alcuni degli aspetti che, insieme all'attenta valutazione del disegno dei luoghi, concorrevano alla programmazione delle alberature lungo le strade pubbliche. Specialisti del progetto urbano, supportati da agronomi, botanici e giardinieri, costruivano l'immagine verde delle città, con riguardo verso l'impegno economico, i programmi di manutenzione o la gestione dei vivai. Il convegno intende contribuire alla ricognizione delle linee normative e artistiche perseguite nella storia a favore della costruzione di spazi verdi urbani e periurbani, insieme alla migliore definizione degli orizzonti estetici che, evidentemente, erano come oggi strettamente correlati con il disegno urbanistico e con la progettazione della forma tecnica delle strade. Su queste basi il convegno accoglie in una Prima Sessione una selezione di relazioni dedicate alle varie regioni italiane, anche con riguardo alla statualità preunitaria o tardomedievale, con il fine di evidenziare casi studio, buone pratiche, esiti di progettazioni puntuali o complessive che hanno portato alla costruzione dell'immagine verde delle città. Vi trovano spazio, a fianco degli approfondimenti regionali, anche particolari temi riferibili all'ambito internazionale, inediti e innovativi, come termini di confronto con le esperienze italiane. La Seconda Sessione fa il punto sulle questioni che riguardano i processi di tutela e manutenzione delle strade alberate esistenti, i principi per la progettazione e ideazione di nuovi viali, i metodi per la riconduzione dei viali storici all'originario equilibrio e ai loro processi di rinnovo nel tempo. Tutti aspetti molto attuali che non dovrebbero prescindere da una solida conoscenza storica della tematica.

Cities are naturally formed through their linkage with the ground/soil, creating levels of the city according to morphological land features and relational identifications with the ground, revealing urban ground typologies that may become symbolic interpretations of original geographies and heritage. This paper argues the importance of porous and earthly surfaces as phenomenological opportunities for “active recreation, a green transportation alternative, a venue to celebrate our heritage as well as an opportunity to regenerate sensitive waterfront lands”. It criticizes the tendency to soil seal, which is “one of the main causes of soil degradation in the EU”, and which “puts biodiversity at risk” and “contributes to global warming”. Aiming to not only preserve natural soft edge transitions with the water but also take advantage of a site’s cultural and historic interest, the discussion also emphasizes the importance of natural arterial continuity (urban greenways) and morphological earth identification, offering alternative solutions to waterfront hardscapes. Although Greece is at the better end of European countries regarding the degree of soil sealing as a percentage of its total land area (1.35%), it is a country which tends to soil-seal its urban waterfronts, despite the great opportunities to create ‘earthly’ connections not only along the seashore but also through the formation of soil arteries that could potentially reach the surrounding near mountains, from the sea.

The original contribution of this paper is the perspective of phenomenology in suggesting softer surfaces over soil sealing within the context of Greek waterfront cities, helping enhance the scientific discussion on the field of environmental urban design and common landscape practices of permeable surfaces as new strategic initiation points towards urban renewal.

Today, urbanism and planning are engaged in a productive alliance with the natural sciences, which has led to the global rise of ecological forms of urbanism. Landscape readings of the territory are being used to rethink large-scale planning policies in urban regions worldwide, but are ignoring the historical and political dynamics that underscore urbanisation processes. Through an analysis of contemporary and historical design proposals to rethink the urban landscape of Brussels, this chapter explores the role of history in critically assessing contemporary landscape design proposals. It proposes a research agenda in landscape planning that explicitly mobilises a ‘history of the present’ to analyse ecological urbanism as a socio-political project.

Landscape offers a complex way of seeing, understanding, and shaping environments. In its Dutch origin, landschap meant to adapt cultural and natural processes to create new territory. As the word moved into English and other languages, it took on visual meaning as well. In several ways, landscape ecology helped return the word to its root meaning. Developments in urban ecology and landscape urbanism open new possibilities to restructure ecosystem understanding and city design. This essay will explore the concepts and evolution of landscape urbanism and urban ecology, as well as a possible synthesis-landscape ecological urbanism. Such a synthesis is important, given global trends in urbanization, population growth, climate change, energy use, and water availability.

As the oldest extra-territory of the United States, the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station (GTMO) illegally occupies the lower embayment and eastern tip of the island of Cuba. Originally named for the Indigenous Taino toponym "land between the rivers," the deep estuarine waters and shores of Guantanamo Bay were seized by force after the 1898 Spanish-American War cutting off water-based communities from five rivers (Guantanamo, Guaso, Secco, Tao, Hondo) and access to the Caribbean Sea. Since the Cuban-American Treaty of 1903,  the U.S. has forcefully re-engineered the bay as a base for a range of colonial operations, including the notorious Camp X-Ray since the 2001 Global War on Terror.

Imagining a demilitarized future, this territorial design project re-imagines the decolonization of these waters through the reclamation of Guantanamo's estuary as catalyst for territorial sovereignty, emancipation, and rejuvenation. Through a sequence of retroactive ecological strategies—both upstream and downstream, a formerly fractured Guantanamo Bay is reunified through a built-up reef system bringing together displaced peoples, environments, and economies together with the withdrawal of U.S. presence and dismantling of American structures.

Named after local fisherman Rodolfo Rossell Salas killed by the U.S. Navy in 1962, the constructed system of protective reefs and fish farms power the growth of emergent and wet market economies. By rebuilding ocean access, the pelagic body politic of the newly formed Caimanera Fishers' Cooperative not only regenerates once and future fish communities but brings ashore territorial justices and territorial freedoms grounded in the reclaimed waters of la Bahia de Guantanamo.

Studio Introduction: "Landscape as Contested Ground"

If the predominant challenges of the next generation operate on a range of territorial scales and across boundaries of political states, then ecology offers new synthetic and systemic strategies of intervention. Not only are the predominant challenges facing urban economies today—from shifting climates, resource economies, and population movements—redrawing the contours of conventional practices and the borders of state jurisdictions, they now form an extremely complex and frictional terrain of engagement where dynamic hydro-meteorological forces collide and confront fixed socio-economic infrastructures.

Through the contemporary alignment of the disciplines of landscape architecture, civil engineering, and urban planning with the fields of botany, hydrology, and geography, this studio- based course engages the territorial and temporal processes of design (and un-design) through a series of collaborative exercises leading to an advanced and sophisticated design project. With an outlay of prospective and projective scenarios, new states explore the advantages and values of weaker systems of intervention, entailing forms of de-colonization, under-development, and sub- urbanization. With a focus on multi-layered, ecological processes associated with the basic build- ing blocks of urbanization—including plants, soils, waters—projects will engage representation as a process of design research where temporal and dynamic forms of visualization will be operationalized—in time, across a range of scales: from small, technical interventions, with large, territorial effects.

Drawing from canonical case studies and strategic projects in landscape, geography, and urbanism, the studio is further enhanced by a robust, representational program that addresses a gamut of ecological flows at different scales through the multimedia language of maps and models. Supported by digital media, visual techniques, readings, and field work, a series of weekly labs throughout the semester address the interrelated subjects of media, mapping, and modeling where the territory of time is instrumentalized as scalable, design media.

Contributing to the multi-scalar interpretation of site as ‘system’ and the reformulation of physical program as ‘spatial process’, this collaborative studio-based course establishes a platform for responding to a web of different and often unknown dynamics related to regulatory frameworks, political risks, spatial vulnerabilities, contamination variables, biophysical systems, mil- itary & civilian operations, urban infrastructures, economic geographies, and terrestrial ecologies.

Advancing the political agency of ecology as dominant driver in design, this studio-based course thus involves the formulation of “territorial ecologies” where landscape operates as a synthetic infrastructure of living systems—live, lived, living, and alive—where the spatial flexibility and body politic of biophysical processes can help shape, direct, and prepare for imminent and emergent territorial complexities and spatial frictions of the 21st century.

Featured Project:
"At the Still Point of the Turning World: Reclaiming Estuarine Sovereignties at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba"
Authors: Kai Ng, Anita Cheng, Ann Lynch, Carson Booth, Danica Liongson, Harry Lee, Josh Stevens, Lanie Cohen, Melissa Naranjo, Parawee Wachirabuntoon, Tongtong Zhang, Xiaowei Zhang
Course: Territorial Ecologies
Year: 2018
Program: Landscape Architecture
Institution: Harvard Graduate School of Design

Cette communication présente les premiers résultats d'un multi-partenariat visant à réfléchir à des nouvelles formes de projet urbain dans le cadre du programme Petites Villes de Demain. Grâce à un atelier pluridisciplinaire de projet urbain et territorial réalisé sur la commune de Rives-en-Seine, au sein du PNR des Boucles de la Seine Normande, il s'agit de débattre avec les acteurs locaux d'une trajectoire de développement urbain prenant mieux en compte l'écologie et les solutions fondées sur la nature comme réponse et anticipation des impacts des changements climatiques sur la ville et le territoire de la vallée de la Seine.

The unquestionable human reliance on the natural world the whole time in history has uphold the  perception  of  the  human  affinity  for  nature  and  the  notion  that  human  physical, psychological and even moral well-being is largely dependent on experiencing a  diverse and healthy natural environment. This connection has ultimately influenced the decisions we have made thus far to endure as a species and has resulted in tremendous changes to both our natural and physical framework. This thesis focuses on creating an interconnection between life, nature and the built environment to create architecture that enriches our daily lives through the use of Biophilic Design. Different models have been proposed to explain human reactions to environments. In general, such reactions are framed as „liking‟ or „disliking‟ responses. Hence, research has shown that human mind has  affinity with more coherent or ordered  information  found  in  nature,  and  that  humans  have  a  specific  set  of  inborn  or „hardwired‟ natural preferences for typical forms and spatial organizations. Biophilic design is that design approach that deliberately translates these attributes into the design of built environment hence, a veteran’s rehabilitation and support centre. The research work is built on the subject of exploring the use of biophilic design principles in the design of veterans support centre, the problem definition being that biophilic design, among other architectural design approach, offers a better methodology towards providing an expressive and enhance living environment. The argument draws its background to the study of relevant literature and case studies. The site and its suitability for the project were also studied. By adopting these principles, a design proposal, through a well- defined concept, was developed for the veterans support centre in serti, taraba state. In conclusion, the research highlights two important facts: That biophilic design is a preferred approach to the enhancement of human psychology experience, visual effect and human comfort in a restoration, rehabilitation and resettlement centre. Secondly, that the attribute of nature can be adopted in solving problem of psychological recovery, spatial cognition and circulation inherent in restoration, rehabilitation and resettlement centres.

This chapter presents and discusses an Expert Usability Evaluation for a flight deck touch screen prototype, carried out in one European co-funded project called ALICIA (www.alicia-project.eu). Through the presentation of this evaluation activity and its impact on the rest of design process, this chapter will address some methodological issues on usability in complex domains: 1) The specific context in which the technology is introduced has to be well known by the designers as it provides crucial constraints to be taken into account; 2) Evaluating complex safety critical systems entails the use of a holistic multidisciplinary approach and an iterative design process that involve, in different phases, several type of experts (engineers, human factors, usability experts, end users and stakeholders); and 3) The level of maturity of the technology and the evaluation objectives contribute to the definition of the evaluation methods to be used.

Sens et rôle du patrimoine naturel à l'heure de l'aménagement durable et du changement climatique RÉSUMÉ.-L'idée du développement durable et tout particulièrement le défi de l'adaptation au changement climatique induisent actuellement une redéfinition du sens et du rôle du patrimoine naturel dans l'aménagement. On propose une réflexion qui s'articule autour de deux façons d'envisager cette redéfinition : le patrimoine résistance et le patrimoine résilience.

©2020 -Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações e Comunicações (MCTIC) / STEINBEIS-SIBE do Brasil / Os textos contidos nesta publicação poderão ser reproduzidos, armazenados ou transmitidos, desde que citada a fonte. Uso e Divulgação dos Dados: As informações e as opiniões expressas nesta publicação são de inteira responsabilidade de seus autores e não refletem, necessariamente, a visão do Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações e Comunicações, e nem do Governo Brasileiro e da STEINBEIS-SIBE do Brasil.

A concrete proposal for engagement between Earth System Science (ESS) and the social sciences is on the table. It is time for the latter to step up, or so at least prominent figures in the former state. In this paper we investigate the content of the present proposal and the implicit 'terms of union' that appear to be suggested. e paper particularly highlights what could be called the geography and the household economy of the proposed scientific union. It is argued that the 'marriage proposal' articulated by leading ESS scientists and directed at the social sciences appears to include quite a strict formatting of the role of social scientists as merely subservient implementers of the hard facts of the natural sciences. With inspiration from STS-scholars such as Michel Callon, Bruno Latour, John Law and Isabelle Stengers we then argue that the social sciences are -and should productively be allowed to be -so much more than this. e paper is concluded with a proposal for a sort of prenuptial agreement which sketches how the ideas presented in the paper can be Bylund & Metzger -Attention Anthropo(s)cene 'I can't liiiiive, when living is without yooouuuu!'-will you m… I do very strongly believe … that-if anything-this is the moment for social sciences when it comes to assisting the world in a rapid transition towards global sustainability. So if there is any historic moment that is more important than ever for social sciences-not that it hasn't been important all along-is now. (Rockström, 2011) Many social scientists working with so-called environmental issues were probably very pleased to hear a world-leading Earth System scientist such as Johan Rockström reach out a hand to the social sciences in what appeared almost like an act of courtship, inviting the social sciences to join his own community of natural scientists in the quest to save the human species from utter destruction. Earth System Science (ESS) is the preferred contemporary term used to denote the broad scientific field engaged with monitoring developments and changes in the global-ecological systems that sustain life on Earth.To an increasing degree, ESS as a discipline is also commissioned the task of proposing policy measures for securing the longer-term existence of human life on planet Earth through sustainable resource use and a stabilization of global life-supporting ecosystems (cf. Lawton, 2001). Rockström's message was quite clear: 'if natural scientists have been remarkably good at giving … evidence, it is now up to the social scientists to provide the avenues towards a solution' . If translated into the the language of romantic encounters, the overarching message of Rockströms keynote address to the 10th Nordic Enironmental Social Sciences conference (NESS) in Stockholm sounded very much like 'I can't make it through this without you, baby' , followed by a marriage proposal. Although there is nothing new in trying to get social and natural sciences to work together on issues, particularly environmental ones, the audience of mainly social scientists was given an increased sense of necessity of solidifying this union. is was understandably flattering for many of the social scientists in the audience, especially considering some rather less heart-warming episodes of the recent past, where the Earth Systems Science collective proved itself less receptive to the charms of the social sciences. A few seasoned vet-

Cette communication présente les premiers résultats d'un multi-partenariat visant à réfléchir à des nouvelles formes de projet urbain dans le cadre du programme Petites Villes de Demain. Grâce à un atelier pluridisciplinaire de projet urbain et territorial réalisé sur la commune de Rives-en-Seine, au sein du PNR des Boucles de la Seine Normande, il s'agit de débattre avec les acteurs locaux d'une trajectoire de développement urbain prenant mieux en compte l'écologie et les solutions fondées sur la nature comme réponse et anticipation des impacts des changements climatiques sur la ville et le territoire de la vallée de la Seine.

This research explores the relationship between urban environments and unintentional landscapes in Rome, emphasizing the significance of spontaneous nature within the city’s cultural narrative. To do so, it empirically hypothesizes that the temporal dimension, considering the historical context, plays a crucial role in shaping public acceptance and legitimization of these landscapes. By drawing on urban ecology experiences from Central Europe, the research aims to provide a modern interpretation of unintentional landscapes as valuable urban planning tools for Rome. Rome has many gardens, parks, and villas, but it also has a unique relationship with spontaneous nature, a phenomenon that is deeply rooted in the cultural narrative. It is visible in a number of historical engravings, paintings, and academic studies, which illustrate the intricate interactions between urban neglect and the unintentional landscapes. These landscapes contribute to a diffuse and heterogeneous natural fabric that enhances the ecological potential of today’s existing green spaces. The paper posits that, over time, spontaneous nature has blurred the boundaries between the natural and built environments, fostering a paradigm of coexistence that promotes a more-than-human city.

In 1962 the German architect Oswald Mathias Ungers submitted his proposal for the competition Grünzug Süd. The project, which is an urban planning study on the reconstruction of a southern district of the city of Cologne, was the beginning of Ungers’ engagement with questions concerning urban planning. After submitting the project, Ungers continued working on the design for three more years, evolving his design methodology and delving into the field of urban planning. Thus, the project plays a pivotal role in the evolution of Ungers’ design thinking. He gained international recognition for his seminal projects of the 1970s, above all The City in the City. Berlin: A Green Archipelago, but the concepts he applied in these projects have their origin in the work on Grünzug Süd during the first half of the 1960s.
Investigating the genesis of Ungers’ urban planning projects means also to investigate his connection to members of Team 10, with whom Ungers collaborated from 1964 onwards. This text will carve out correlations between Grünzug Süd and projects conceived by Alison and Peter Smithson at the same time, thereby shedding light on urban planning concepts which are still relevant today. The projects are not only case studies for the interplay between architecture and urban planning in the development of new and existing city quarters, but also for a thorough analysis – and thus understanding – of the urban environment, meaning the built and unbuilt condition of an urban context planners engage with.

Urbanism that the authors identify as the specific issue dominating today's urban planning and urban design discourse, arguing that urban planning and design not only results from deliberate planning and design measures, but how these combine with infrastructure planning, and derive from economic, social and spatial processes of structural change. In the paper we reflectively also discuss ideas about urban heritage, urban planning & design, and how heritage and planning & design can contribute to urban development. Urban heritage is understood as an infrastructure comparable with other infrastructures that provide an arena for urban planning & design and urban social and economic development. Moreover, the paper includes a remodeled and novel, short discussion and standpoint about five contemporary urban planning & design ideals that dominate the contemporary planning & design discourse, and their different views of the past and urban heritage. The paper concludes that in any given situation and context, the dominating urban planning & design ideal define the specific urban heritage, and, thus, influence how we will understand the past-today and in the future but also the paper maintains that, we must equally recognize how forces of economic, social and spatial structural change contribute to shaping the contemporary urban landscape.

This study investigates the spatiotemporal dynamics of land use and land
cover (LULC) change in Saudi cities between 2013 and 2023. Using Landsat
satellite imagery and a Maximum Likelihood Classifier, LULC changes are
analyzed in nine cities to understand the impact of Saudi Arabia’s rapid
urbanization following the oil crisis. The objectives are: (1) to evaluate the
LULC changes in nine cities between 2013 and 2023; (2) to explore the spatiotemporal
patterns of LULC changes in this period; and (3) to interpret the
urban expansion that occurs in Saudi Arabia in the light of the kingdom
sustainable development plan. The results identifiy four primary LULC
change models: Urbanization, Vegetation Recovery, Land Degradation, and
Ecological Transition Models. The Urbanization and Land Degradation
Models determine Saudi Arabia’s urban growth trend, posing significant
challenges to sustainable development. Most cities experienced substantial
increases in impermeable surfaces and developed lands, while concurrently
losing high terrain and barren areas. However, the small cities showed lower
urbanization and land degradation rates than major cities, showing an
opportunity to sustainably grow by adopting sustainable planning
approaches. The study’s findings show that more targeted and comprehensive
policies are needed to address the challenges of urbanization and land
degradation, mitigate environmental impacts, and ensure long-term resilience.
It underscores the importance of considering Ecological Urbanism in
urban development plans.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has taken several developmental initiatives through Vision 2030, which will significantly impact the architecture and design sector. The vision encompasses various goals, such as facilitating investment, opening the tourism sector in KSA, and planning for the execution of numerous new projects that require intensive efforts in developing the architecture and design sector. This study proposes a concept to balance old buildings and new projects by ensuring that new structures reflect the culture. In doing so, KSA preserves its cultural authenticity while showcasing modernity and advancement in new projects. This study elucidates and explains the proposed concept, analyzes relevant environmental and field aspects, and gathers individuals' opinions. Both experts and the public have endorsed and supported the idea of this concept. This concept can bridge the gap between historical and contemporary architectural structures. It sets an approach to encourage engineers and designers to adopt this concept in future designs.

In this contribution, I explore compensation landscapes as a concept through which we can question the nature of ecological urbanism today, as an alliance of environmental degradation, urban development and landscape design. In urbanism and landscape studies, there is currently almost no debate on the spatial dynamics created by the compensation of environmental harm. This is remarkable, as green urban landscapes are increasingly developed through biodiversity offsetting, i.e. the process where open space assets that have been destroyed through urban development are replaced elsewhere. While the literature on these topics is booming in critical geography and political ecology, I explore three scopes in which biodiversity offsetting can be studied as part of urbanism and landscape studies. Through the spatialization of compensation, the linking of offsetting to planning research, and by giving attention to landscape design, this paper frames compensation as a socio-spatial urbanisation project.

This article contributes to the genealogy of green infrastructure design by shifting the focus from science and technology to include broader societal, political and aesthetic issues, using a critical historical analysis of landscape design. We examine post-war Belgian green infrastructure projects by landscape architect René Pechère (1908–2002) to uncover the complex negotiations between politics, aesthetics and technology. The focus of this article is Pechère's conception of the ‘Green Plan’, which merged the motorway and the garden to create the Belgian landscape as a ‘garden territory’. We argue that this landscape policy was not merely a ‘green’ compensation for a ‘grey’ infrastructure project, but a strategy to create a modern infrastructural landscape for Belgium. Pechère's plans served as instruments for modernisation within the post-war welfare state in combination with aesthetic principles rooted in fascist Germany. His objectives were to mitigate urbanisation processes, create an aestheticised landscape representation of the nation, and redistribute green spaces across the territory. This article aims to foster a critical re-engagement with contemporary infrastructure design discussions by developing a nuanced understanding of green infrastructure as a sociopolitical tool for territorial organisation.

Ecological-Landscape development is proposed as a mature form of Ecological-Landscape Urbanism which  is a recent discourse in Western architecture and urbanism whose roots can be traced back to environmental movements in the past century. In this regard, ecological-landscape development opens new horizons for contemporary cities by relying on conceptual frameworks such as landscape as a building block of the city, landscape ecology, and ecosystem services, where the difference between natural and built environment pales and the city is conceptualized as an ecosystem including humans. It can be stated that it departs from conventional urbanism approaches that are mostly based on modern views in many ways, and introduces a novel method of shaping the built environment. On the other hand, by dissecting the tenets and major approaches of this school, a high degree of commonality with Eastern architecture and urbanism, especially Iranian architecture, can be identified. This can be acknowledged as the point where Western architecture and urbanism meet Iranian architecture, as well as a solution to its continuity and development in today’s world. Using an analytical- descriptive approach, this paper seeks to analyze the concepts, roots, and patterns hidden within this branch as the outcome of the synergy between the two schools of landscape urbanism and ecological urbanism, and propose a manifesto, albeit incomplete. Then, it introduces its common features with Iranian architecture and urbanism under concepts such as gradual development and integrity, fusion with nature, multidisciplinary knowledge, connectivity with politics, and ecology.

One of the primary challenges of landscape knowledge is to develop practical strategies to use the landscape approach on the scale of operational projects. One of the most controversial scales of the project is the intermediate scale which is defined as the common border between the architectural project and the landscape, which has not received much attention from experts in either field. In the meantime, “continuous architecture” as an approach based on the “landscape approach” of the project, moves on the border of architecture and landscape. By carefully studying the landscape components of the project, through the two principles of “ time continuity” and “place continuity” of the project platform, the continuous architecture seeks to create a work that, while carrying historical memory, is a harbinger of future prosperity. In addition to these two, it also displays the spirit of his time. Apart from responding to the plan, the work must be formed in interaction with the surrounding natural landscape and express the aesthetics of the geography of its context. This research seeks to analyze the main campus of Koç University, one of the most significant projects formed based on this approach, based on the three-part system of meaning, function or use, and aesthetics. This study also attempts to evaluate its different dimensions and discuss the success of the applied strategies in compliance with the project perspective. On the one hand, considering that the “continuous architecture” approach, despite its relative success in reflecting the landscape approach on the intermediate scale of architecture and landscape, lacks a theoretical background to discover practical strategies to achieve the project’s landscape goals, this research aims to recognize and categorize these approaches through re-reading the project. Finally, the analysis of this work shows its remarkable success in expressing landscape concepts on the intermediate scale of architecture and landscape. The most important strategies in achieving the goal of the project are “Semantic unity”, “Integration of users”, “Flexibility of users”, “Form consistency”, “Form continuity” and “Form reference”.

Bahrain, a beautiful archipelago nestled in the Arabian Gulf, is known for its rich culture, economic prosperity, and modern skyline. However, one of the most pressing challenges it faces today is environmental sustainability. With its arid climate and limited natural greenery, Bahrain is in dire need of initiatives that can improve its environment, and one of the most effective ways to achieve this is through planting trees.

1 Doutor em Engenharia Mecânica pela Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp), professor da Faculdade de Engenharia Mecânica da Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp). 2 Mestre em Engenharia de Produção pela Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRGN), professora assistente da Universidade Federal da Paraíba (UFPB). 3 Especializado em Economia pelo Instituto Latinoamericano de Planificación Económica y Social do Chile (Ilpes), diretor do CGEE. 4 Doutor em Engenharia Mecânica pela (Unicamp), professor da Faculdade de Engenharia Mecânica da Unicamp. 5 Especializada em Saúde Pública pela Universidade de Ribeirão Preto (URP), terapeuta ocupacional do Stimuly Núcleo de Terapias Integradas, em São Paulo. 6 Mestre em Gestão do Conhecimento e TI pela Universidade Católica de Brasília (UCB), mestre em Ciências Navais pela Escola de Guerra Naval (EGN), assessor técnico do CGEE. 7 Doutor em Medicina pela Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp), médico do Hospital das Clínic...

n 1977 the Machu Picchu Charter implemented a revision of the Athens Charter (1933), based on the organic-ecological paradigm – as opposed to the mechanistic one – and codifying the living city as a complex dynamic system. The critical analysis, according to changes generated by oil crisis and cultural phenomena, identifies the rhetoric about the crisis of the city and environmental upheavals. The re-reading aims to highlight strategies also on protection and preservation of cultural heritage

Recentemente, a revista Nature desafiou os formuladores de políticas e a sociedade em geral em um de seus editoriais: cientistas nos Estados Unidos e demais lugares devem atender às necessidades de contribuintes que têm visto poucos benefícios dos avanços científicos. (…) As necessidades de milhões de pessoas nos Estados Unidos (e bilhões de pessoas em todo o mundo) não são suficientemente atendidas pelas agendas e interesses que impulsionam grande parte da ciência moderna (Researchers…, 2017, tradução nossa). Assim, cientistas e organizações científicas devem sair de suas bolhas e prestar atenção em problemas sociais e em como a ciência pode ajudar a resolvê-los (Negri, 2018). Com base nessas reflexões, é importante entender a relação entre tecnologia, inovação e desafios que existem na sociedade. Esta Nota Técnica visa contribuir para este debate, examinando a ligação entre pesquisa e inovação (P&I) e as necessidades da sociedade na comunidade europeia (CE). Para isso, analisam-se os Desafios da Sociedade (Societal Challenges-SC), pilar três do Horizon 2020 (H2020), seu maior programa de apoio à P&I. Com base nos programas e projetos de SC, verifica-se quais problemas da sociedade europeia estão realmente sendo priorizados pelo financiamento de P&I na região, e como seus desafios são definidos e apoiados. A proposta deste estudo não é avaliar os impactos do programa, mas identificar (ao menos em parte) as prioridades europeias a serem resolvidas por meio de P&I. A próxima seção apresenta a estrutura dos programas de P&I na União Europeia (UE), com foco no H2020. Em seguida, na seção 3, discutem-se os objetivos do pilar SC, discorrendo sobre os programas de cada desafio. Na seção 4, os principais assuntos de cada desafio são mostrados por meio de uma análise de frequência de palavras. Por fim, a última seção apresenta os comentários finais. 2 ESTRUTURA DO FINANCIAMENTO DE P&I NA UE O apoio à P&I na Europa é complexo, envolvendo a interação entre atores regionais, nacionais e internacionais. De acordo com Frenk et al. (2015), existem três maneiras pelas quais a UE financia diretamente a pesquisa, conforme descrito a seguir. • Programas estruturais (framework programs-FPs), o principal mecanismo de financiamento de P&I na UE. Sua versão atual, FP7, é chamada H2020.

Ecological Urbanism has emerged as a way to reconcile the landscape with urban occupation, ruled by the potentialities and limitations of natural resources. Green areas do not function only beautifying and improving the visual and environmental quality, they become true engineering artifacts and elements of a high performance green infrastructure. The street tree system gains strength and scale while connecting fragments of urban forests and green areas scattered in the urban fabric. The research results change the look on the river floodplains. Segregated in the contemporary city, under Ecological Urbanism principles, floodplains become structural elements and links of the urban fabric adding great value. The thesis presents the hypothesis that it is possible to implement the Ecological Urbanism in São Paulo through the implementation of a comprehensive process and tools ranging from public policies, private sector actions and community engagement resulting on the improvement of environmental quality and urban life. The research focuses on Itaquera neighborhood impacted by the implementation of large urban facilities part of an institutional hub and home to the new soccer stadium of Corinthians club that will host World Cup 2014 games. Through field surveys, mapping and analysis of case studies in the United States and in South Africa is possible to identify a clear opportunity for transformation in the vicinity of the arena based on ecological principles. At last, the research presents an Ecological Urbanism proposal for the surroundings of the Arena Corinthians taking advantage of its local potentiality, green areas, hydrograph and new dynamic as a result of new public and private investments.

A workshop funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) was jointly hosted by NSF and the US Department of Energy (DOE)  with participants from academia, national laboratories, and the building industry. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the utilization of ambient energy (from the sun, sky, air, and ground) to serve building energy demands and to strategize mechanisms to promote awareness, education, research, and market adoption. Because ambient energy is ubiquitous and abundant, it has potential beyond that of energy efficiency to reduce the need for fossil fuel and its associated carbon emissions. This document highlights the findings of the workshop.

The paper discusses co-design, development, production, application of TreeHugger (see Figure 1). The co-design among community and tran-sdisciplinary participants with different expertise required scope of media mix, switching between analogue, digital and back again. This involves different degrees of physical and digital ‘GIGA-Mapping’ (Sevaldson, 2011, 2015), ‘Grasshopper3d’ (Davidson, 2017) scripting and mix of digital and analogue fabrication to address the real life world. The critical participation of this ‘Time-Based Design’ (Sevaldson, 2004, 2005) process is the interaction of the prototype with eco-systemic agency of the adjacent environment – the eco-systemic performance. The TreeHugger is a responsive solid wood insect hotel, generating habitats and edible landscaping (Creasy, 2004) on bio-tope in city centre of Prague. To extend the impact, the code was uploaded for communities to download, local-specifically edit and apply worldwide. Thus, the fusion of discussed proc...

El estudio de los grafitis provoca opiniones muy polarizadas y plantea problemas delicados y espinosos acerca de la conservación del patrimonio. Este campo complejo e interdisciplinar exige nuevas orientaciones de investigación y nuevas metodologías capaces de proporcionar las herramientas para abordar los grafitis de forma ética y sostenible. Con este fin, un concepto muy

A transition to a new, greener urbanism is increasingly imperative in the face of environmental crises. However, such a transition is not possible without considering social justice. This essay examines some tensions between social justice and urban sustainability and some of the reasons why a social justice approach to urban sustainability is often marginalized by a neoliberal sustainability ontology. This essay irst engages with various normative concepts of social justice and its long existing but unful illed claim in the city. It then considers some gains toward greener urbanism but contends that urban sustainability responses have generally been more preoccupied with ecological modernization and the reproduction of best practices rather than with socio-spatial justice. In looking at some workings of green neoliberalism, the essay points to how the ecological is easily recuperated for neoliberal ends. The last section addresses some reasons why the social is de-privileged in the dominant sustainability discourses and practices, and how social justice serves, through citizenship practices, as a claim to urban change where participation is not a bureaucratized process but an everyday practice. Overall, the essay cautions against certain sustainability discourses and green neoliberalism without addressing its ingrained inequalities.

In this paper we have examined the scale and cost efficiency of Italian and Swiss regional bus companies. For this purpose, we have used the estimation of a frontier cost model using a fixed effect approach. Two translog cost frontier models were specified and estimated using panel data. The first model was estimated for a sample of 58 Italian bus companies, whereas the second model was estimated for a sample of 55 Swiss bus companies. The findings on efficiency were discussed in the political and regulatory setting under which the Swiss and the Italian regional bus companies are operating. ♣ Questo documento di lavoro presenta la parte econometrica di un più ampio progetto di ricerca commissionato dalla Banca d'Italia e svolto in collaborazione con Roberto Fazioli. Si desidera ringraziare Roberto Fazioli, Barbara Antonioli e Maria Luisa Santella per la preziosa collaborazione e Nomisma per la messa a disposizione della banca dati necessaria per lo svolgimento del lavoro. Si desidera inoltre ringraziare la Banca d'Italia per il finanziamento del progetto, Fabrizio Balassone della Banca d'Italia e un referee anonimo per i preziosi commenti. Le responsabilità di quanto scritto rimangono comunque degli autori.

In the context of rapid urbanization and urban sprawl, growing concerns about sustainability in urban governance have come to the forefront. The study employed exploratory bibliometric analysis to examine the literature on sustainable urban governance and critically investigate how sustainability is complexly woven into urban governance as a multidimensional phenomenon. The paper addresses the existing literature gaps, including contextual challenges and inadequate theoretical-methodological underpinnings, by analyzing 2,194 scholarly outputs. We propose a "sustainable urban governance framework" that rationalizes contextual justifications (at the macromeso-micro and interlevel) by synthesizing the concept of good urban governance, interlinks of sustainability dimensions, and multilevel governance systems. Sustainable urban governance is defined in this study as a process and system that creates harmonious coexistence among urban settings' ecological and social strata through integrating rationalized contextual justifications, collective sustainability objectives, and inclusive urban resilience plans.

In the context of rapid urbanization and urban sprawl, growing concerns about sustainability in urban governance have come to the forefront. The study employed exploratory bibliometric analysis to examine the literature on sustainable urban governance and critically investigate how sustainability is complexly woven into urban governance as a multidimensional phenomenon. The paper addresses the existing literature gaps, including contextual challenges and inadequate theoretical-methodological underpinnings, by analyzing 2,194 scholarly outputs. We propose a "sustainable urban governance framework" that rationalizes contextual justifications (at the macromeso-micro and interlevel) by synthesizing the concept of good urban governance, interlinks of sustainability dimensions, and multilevel governance systems. Sustainable urban governance is defined in this study as a process and system that creates harmonious coexistence among urban settings' ecological and social strata through integrating rationalized contextual justifications, collective sustainability objectives, and inclusive urban resilience plans.

Since the late 1960s, The Netherlands saw to mounting criticism vis-à-vis mass housing schemes. Resonant of wider international critiques of mass housing, the Dutch critics addressed both social and ecological issues. Because the social engineering of mass housing schemes was considered inadequate (e.g., because they produced unlivable environments for specific groups), they called for participation in the design of the living environment. At the same time, under the influence of the environmental movement, modernist green public spaces were criticized for lacking in biodiversity, and new design ideas based on ecological variation and incremental growth were implemented. In the paper, questions will be opened up about the legacies and evaluations of mass housing projects in the light of this merging of ecological and social concerns, through a focus on two cases. A first case focuses on the development of green spaces by Louis Le Roy, a radical landscape designer who questioned conventional ways of governing the city by introducing both inhabitants and ecological processes, in the design and governance of urban space. This paper particularly focuses on his combined anarchist-ecological approach evinced by struggles with existing power dynamics, and on the back of a more widely emerging resistance towards a hegemonic capital-led and/or technocratic planning system. A second case study is the Bijlmermeer mass housing scheme, a postwar housing project developed in the 1960s with ample green, ecologically managed space, but which was criticized for its inhumane scale. Over time, the project became the home of immigrant communities from former Dutch colonies who creatively reshaped the neglected environment. Both cases allow us to revisit the sociopolitics of inclusive design through a lens of intersectional environmentalism, posthumanism and decolonialism and to provide further insight into the struggle against monotonous and monofunctional green spaces produced by postwar technocratic modes of planning. Session The Unresolved Tensions of Mass Housing (Montréal)

The concepts of metabolism, ecosystem, and circular economy are currently challenging the discipline of urbanism. As the shift from linear to circular production-consumption patterns seems to be ultimate for reducing the externalities of our urban environments and to meet stricter environmental targets, the search for sustainable territorial metabolism has become
imperative for our metropolitan areas.
This publication questions the discipline of urbanism in relation to the challenge of territorial metabolism and combines theoretical contributions
with cutting edge design proposals for European metropolitan regions. It synthetizes two years of intensive research by design on Barcelona, Brussels, and Venice Metropolitan areas conducted jointly by the Laboratory on
Urbanism, Infrastructure and Ecologies of the Faculty of Architecture of Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), the Università IUAV di Venezia
and the Laboratori d’Urbanisme de Barcelona (ETSAB–UPC) in the framework of an Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership.

Demographers, architects, and urban designers have noted that the
world’s population continues to move from rural areas and into
urban metropoles. Forty years ago, it was predicted that “mega
cities” would emerge as over a billion people would migrate to
them. Wholescale transformation of these cities would be required;
new lifestyles would have to be considered and the service-based
innovation economy would change how we used to the city.
Suburbs would become marginalized. Nearly a quarter of century
later, most of these predictions did not come to fruition. More
importantly, the 2020 Covid pandemic changed the paradigm of
work. Most workers could work from their homes and preferred
doing so. Suddenly, the inevitable mega city no longer seemed so
inevitable. Recognizing that cities will have to provide environmental
conscious sustainable amenities in order to attract talented
innovative workers and entrepreneurs back to the city, the authors
propose three strategies that promote live/work environments in
the post-industrial city. They argue that regenerating existing building
stock and developing financial tools, which promote living and
working are two critical approaches in making post-industrial cities
attractive for entrepreneurs and workers.