1. 2/12/2010
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 Between 1980 and 2002,
Increasing consumption
energy use in the thirty
MACROTREND richest countries rose by
Increasing resource use
23%...
Falling water tables ...in the years 2000 to
Shrinking cropland 2006, the rate of global
Shrinking rangeland CO2 emission increases
tripled... global CO2 is
Declining soil quality
increasing at over 3%
MACROTREND Declining ocean fisheries per annum...
Shrinking forests
Worsening air quality
Declining climate stability
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2. 2/12/2010
“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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3. 2/12/2010
“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
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...
In the hydrocarbon economy we valued mobility over accessibility,
associating it with freedom and aspiration – and lack of it with
poverty or failure – and shaped our environments accordingly
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4. 2/12/2010
Regeneration and economic opportunity were equated with Above all, we confused what’s good for business with what’s good
property development; scale and concentration – the basis of for the economy, and what’s good for consumers with what’s good
vigorous exchange of goods, services and ideas – was lost. 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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5. 2/12/2010
Technotopia? ...or back to the future?
“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
The upside of down: good
Diversity,
urbanism enables people to adaptability The good city
live sustainably and well and continuity
Ever-changing
yet never-
changing
Urban and
green
Public and
private
Vibrant and
quiet
Doing
Sustainable urbanism because... everything
differently
• 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
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6. 2/12/2010
Interlaken East Station Switzerland
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Urban & rural together – resilience and interdependence....
A culture of sustainability
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8. 2/12/2010
“Tell me, I forget
Show me, I remember
Involve me, I understand”
From NIMBY to BANANA...
What normally happens
1. Developer acquires land; professes commitment to “exciting new
high-quality residential/ commercial/ mixed-use development” According to the consultancy firm Saint, 85% of
2. Developer appoints professional team
British people are opposed to any form of new
development where they live
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
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9. 2/12/2010
Beyond Green placemaking projects 2002-2010
From • Harlow North (28,000)
• 2012 Olympic Legacy (10,000)
• West Southall (4,000)
• Rugby Radio Station (6,200)
to • 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:
• BlueLiving Ltd established in 2006 to promote and deliver large-
• High-quality, sustainable mixed-use development costs more scale residential-led, mixed-use sustainable developments in the
upfront but offers better longer-term returns UK
• Upfront land prices destroy viability – so find owners/partners • Joint Venture with UK commercial property fund Development
with patience willing and able to share in longer-term value Securities plc - £10m fund for initial site acquisition (via option or
creation stake) and promotion
• Retain some ownership to profit from medium-to-long term • Current projects
value growth (vested interest) – ‘estate’ model - Pincents Hill, Reading – 750 homes
- North East Norwich – 4,000+ homes over 25 years
• Work at scale – units of walkable urbanism - 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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10. 2/12/2010
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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11. 2/12/2010
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
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