Kategoria BISAC: Architecture >> Landscape

The promise of competitiveness and economic growth in so-called smart cities is widely advertised in Europe and the US. The promise is focussed on global talent and knowledge economies and not on learning and innovation. But to really achieve smart cities that is to create the conditions of continuous learning and innovation this book argues that there is a need to understand what is below the surface and to examine the mechanisms which affect the way cities learn and then connect together.

This book draws on quantitative and qualitative data with concrete case studies to show how...

Urban systems now house about half of the world's population, but determine some three quarters of the global economy and its associated energy use and resulting environmental impacts. The twenty-first century will be increasingly urban. Sustainable development therefore needs first to be defined and analyzed, and then realized in urban settings. Energy is one of the key challenges, but also one of the key opportunities in the required urban sustainability transition.

The book is the result of a major international effort to conduct the first comprehensive assessment of...

Community Matters: Service Learning in Engaged Design and Planning explores issues that resonate with a diverse group of design and planning educators drawn to the challenge of supporting greater community building and empowerment while combining learning with practice. The book explores such questions as:

• How do we foster mutuality and reciprocity in community-academy partnerships?
• What conflicts, challenges, limits and obstacles do we face in our service-learning studios and projects?
• What evidence do we have of our impacts on students and...

Community Matters: Service Learning in Engaged Design and Planning explores issues that resonate with a diverse group of design and planning educators drawn to the challenge of supporting greater community building and empowerment while combining learning with practice. The book explores such questions as:

• How do we foster mutuality and reciprocity in community-academy partnerships?
• What conflicts, challenges, limits and obstacles do we face in our service-learning studios and projects?
• What evidence do we have of our...

Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are unequally confronted with social, economic and environmental challenges, particularly those related with population growth, urban sprawl, and informality. This complex and uneven African urban condition requires an open discussion of past and current urban planning practices and future reforms. Urban Planning in Sub-Saharan Africa gives a broad perspective of the history of urban planning in Sub-Saharan Africa and a critical view of issues, problems, challenges and opportunities confronting urban policy makers.

The book examines the rich...

Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are unequally confronted with social, economic and environmental challenges, particularly those related with population growth, urban sprawl, and informality. This complex and uneven African urban condition requires an open discussion of past and current urban planning practices and future reforms. Urban Planning in Sub-Saharan Africa gives a broad perspective of the history of urban planning in Sub-Saharan Africa and a critical view of issues, problems, challenges and opportunities confronting urban policy makers.

The book examines the rich...

In a world increasingly concerned about the impact of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere on global climate, the A Carbon Primer for the Built Environment will provide an understanding of the science and the public policy and regulation intended to tackle climate change. It will spell out the essential information needed for navigating through the growing regulatory maze with confidence.

The book will:

• Provide an explanation of climate change, why carbon has been targeted as the main culprit and how this will impact the working lives of...

Large, modern cities have effectively declared their independence from nature. But while they take up only three percent of the world's land surface, their ecological footprints actually cover the entire globe. Humanity is building an urban future, yet urban resource use is threatening the future of humanity and the natural world. To meet the aspirations of city people in both developing and developed countries, bold new initiatives are needed.

Modern cities are an astonishing human achievement. As centres of innovation they are humanity's cultural playgrounds. Their communication...

Making Use of Deleuze in Planning translates and re-creates some of Gilles Deleuze s most abstract philosophical concepts to form a new, practicable planning assessment tool. It shows what his philosophy can do for planning theory as well as planning assessment practice and, in doing so, sets out a pragmatic approach to Deleuzian studies: one that helps form bridges between ontological problems and the problems found in professional practice. It also breaks new ground in assessment methodology by challenging the essentialist ideas underpinning assessment methods like BREEAM and...

Traditional approaches to understand space tend to view public space mainly as a shell or container, focussing on its morphological structures and functional uses. That way, its ever-changing meanings, contested or challenged uses have been largely ignored, as well as the contextual and on-going dynamics between social actors, their cultures, and struggles. The key role of space in enabling spatial opportunities for social action, the fluidity of its social meaning and the changing degree of "publicness" of a space remain unexplored fields of academic inquiry and professional practice....