Planner and small_planet_ws2013-lm

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The planner and the small Planet
L'urbanista e il piccolo pianeta
Luca Marescotti
2013 Workshop - Knowledge and Appropriate
Technologies for Sustainability in Planning
12 marzo 2013

Luca Marescotti 2 / 82
From the urban question
(it was a local one just until a few decades ago)
to the environmental question
(now, it is a global one)
systemic properties and cross-disciplinary knowledge
1. The planner and the small Planet
an introduction

Just to begin
What is this? Was is das? Che cosa è questo?
What are interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity?
a suggestion ...
an introduction

A transdisciplinary introduction
two documentaries and a short
Home, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, producers: Denis Carot and Luc Besson, with PPR Group;
coproducers Elzevir Films, Europa Corp, France 2, sponsored by UNEP, 2010.
Welcome to the Anthropocene, Planet Under Pressure conference, London 26-29 March,
Copyright: Globaia. Planet Under Pressure, SEI, SRC, CSIRO, 2012.
planet RE:think, Eskil Hardt, producer Ace & Ace with EEA, UNEP, Eskil Hardt, 2012.
an introduction

Someone asked me:
“Be concise,
write ten things
to improve the urban planning”
an introduction

Complex problems require shared strategies,Complex problems require shared strategies,
Involving Public and Private Actors ...Involving Public and Private Actors ...
Projected in a Long Time,Projected in a Long Time,
Articulated in Many Areas,Articulated in Many Areas,
Funded with Adequate Resources,Funded with Adequate Resources,
Checked in their ImplementationChecked in their Implementation
and monitored in a Context that is in Continuous Changing …and monitored in a Context that is in Continuous Changing …
…… A GLOBAL CHANGEA GLOBAL CHANGE

? present vs future ?
In the place of a construction in which the
present implies the future, we have a world in
which the future is open, in which time is a
construction in which we may all participate.
Grégoire Nicolis, Ilya Prigogine, Exploring complexity: an introduction, W.H. Freeman, New York, 1989,
p.3.
an introduction

“We live in an age of transition, an age that demands
constructive modification of our environment. We must find and
explore new resources, must understand our environment better,
and must achieve a less destructive co-existence with nature.
The time scale of the qualitative modifications that are
required. . . is of the order of the decade. . . . Some of the basic
questions remain largely unanswered.”
Ilya Prigogine,
Nobel laureate, 1977
Prologue: Science in an Age of Transition from Exploring
Complexity
Grégoire Nicolis, Ilya Prigogine, La complessità. Esplorazione nei nuovi campi della scienza, Einaudi,
Torino, 1991, p.5.
an introduction

Un tempo infatti si diceva (seguendo Laplace e Comte, per esempio):
AUTORITY IS POWER
from science comes prediction; from prediction comes action ...
… if the world were deterministic ...
Yet at the same time someone else wrote
[and today we are convinced of this] ...
an introduction

Government in the name of the people, for the people, by the
people
Using our knowledge and also knowing each other to build a multicultural space,
take precautions to prevent, prepare to repair, partecipate to governance of physical and biological
systems, that are always in reciprocal relation, with indefinite probabilities of change.
Here it is: knowing how to handle the emergence of new conditions.
an introduction

Here it is: knowing how to handle the emergence of new conditions.
Where: “to emerge”
means that new conditions may cause the emergence of new properties.
That is why the socio-ecological system is really "complex".
an introduction

I had too many things to say,
was not easy,
A REAL
HOTCHPOTCH

HOW TO EXPLAIN?
SAY WHAT?

The conditions of our training
L'importanza della scuola e della società nella formazione dei valori
the Cultural Context

William Morris
The word Architecture has, I suppose, to most of you the meaning of the art of building
nobly and ornamentally. Now I believe the practice of this art to be one of the most
important things which man can turn his hand to, and the consideration of it to be worth
the attention of serious people, not for an hour only, but for a good part of their lives,
even though they may not have to do with it professionally.
But, noble as that art is by itself, and though it is specially the art of civilisation, it neither
ever has existed nor never can exist alive and progressive by itself, but must cherish
and be cherished by all the crafts whereby men make the things which they intend shall
be beautiful, and shall last somewhat beyond the passing day.
It is this union of the arts, mutually helpful and harmoniously subordinated one to
another, which I have learned to think of as Architecture, and when I use the word to-
night, that is what I shall mean by it and nothing narrower.
A great subject truly, for it embraces the consideration of the whole external
surroundings of the life of man; we cannot escape from it if we would so long as we are
part of civilisation, for it means the moulding and altering to human needs of the very
face of the earth itself, except in the outermost desert.

Martin Heidegger
Wohnen, zum Frieden gebracht sein, heißt: eingefriedet bleiben in das
Frye, d. h. in das Freie, das jegliches in sein Wesen schont. Der
Grundzug des Wohnens ist dieses Schonen. Er durchzieht das
Wohnen in seiner ganzen Weite. Sie zeigt sich uns, sobald wir daran
denken, daß im Wohnen das Menschsein beruht und zwar im Sinne
des Aufenthalts der Sterblichen auf der Erde. (…)
Die Sterblichen wohnen, insofern sie die Erde retten -das Wort in dem
alten Sinne genommen, den Lessing noch kannte. Die Rettung entreißt
nicht nur einer Gefahr, retten bedeutet ei-gentlich: etwas in sein
eigenes Wesen freilassen. Die Erde retten ist mehr, als sie ausnützen
oder gar abmühen. Das Retten der Erde meistert die Erde nicht und
macht sich die Erde nicht un-tertan, von wo nur ein Schritt ist zur
schrankenlosen Ausbeutung.

1881 William Morris - 1951 Martin
Heidegger
WHY mention them, so different and after so many years?
What did they want to say in 1881 and 1951?
What has changed in the cultural context?
AND HOW MUCH IS CHANGED OUR TRAINING?

William Morris
Five Lectures Delivered in Birmingham, London, and
Nottingham (1877-1881), as the population grows (from 1
million in 1800 to 6.7 million in 1900), while the conurbation
was a continuos sprawls and public administration implemented
great public works: sewers, subways and railroads.
Martin Heidegger
Darmstad (1951), in a conference held on rebuilding of Germany
after nazism and WWII:
Social Identity Re-Building
Town Re-Building

The conditions of our time
The conditions of our time are incomparably different from those of the
past; it is different the environmental awareness, the potential of
modern technology is immense, extensive and serious are the new
social issues, exacerbated by financial powers. Once unthinkable.
Urban planning, however, one speaks and teaches with languages that
refer to the past, a golden age ever existed, as far as the combinations
of art and architecture, crafts and technologies were brilliant in building
the city.
But, in this mess, no one understand perfectly the language and context
of that idealized past; and every man try to overshadow the main
features of this present
2. The Planner and the current Situation

CITTÀ E INFRASTRUTTURE 2%≈3%: poco?
Earth Resources Measurement and Assessment

Not only we don't have more arable land to use,
but a part of the existing ones are lost or altered
Irreversibly by our use / exploitation
(overgrazing, deforestation, plowing mechanics).
The dimensions of Earth
Our shrinking Earth

How much Water?

BoundariesBoundaries
Soglia limiteSoglia limite
JonathanFoley,GretchenC.Daily,RobertHowarth,DavidA.Vaccari,
AdeleC.Morris,EricF.Lambin,ScottC.Doney,PeterH.Gleickand
DavidW.Fahey,“BoundariesforaHealthyPlanet”,ScientificAmerican
Magazine,10marzo2010.
JonathanFoley,“Limitiperunpianetasano”,LeScienze,aprile2010,
n.500.
Planetary Boundaries

Where is forestry depletion. Where forestry grows up.

Earth Forestry

Earth Resources Measurement and Assessment

No climate change ...
Human beings have not responsability ...
Nuclear power is cheapest and most
secure energy ...
Green economy is too expansive ...
…
The struggles to dominate the information

1848 Charles Robert Cockerel
The conditions of our time
Architetture Masterpieces

Technology and power: you can do it all
From
architectural masterpieces
to
skyscrapers technological power

1884 Gli edifici più alti del mondo

Harmony and Wholeness

Earth Measurements: the Ecological Footprint

Christopher Alexander, The Nature of Order as expression of
wholeness and harmony among interconnected centers

Local must be global, the sum of elements in a system is not the total

Only 2-3% of all lands is used by cities ...

… but cities absorb more of
the total resources available
and in the cities there are the
powers who decide the fate
of the entire bio-productive
system ...

Ebla
… EBLA VARSAVIA HIROSHIMA ...

Luca Marescotti 45 / 82 varsavia

Luca Marescotti 46 / 82 Hiroshima

3. The Planner and the Biosphere
… in name of the people, for the people, by the people ...

Lago d'Aral
Lago Ciad
Giordano e Mar Morto
Nilo e Progetto Toshka
California

Le reti di comunicazione sono globali.
Il mondo è una città globale, un sistema di città

Tropical forest los

Luca Marescotti 54 / 82 1997
Act and think globally
a necessary governance among local authorities

2012 Piazza Tahrir

HARMONIOUS CITIES
SOCIALLY AND ENVIRONMENTALLY

HARMONIOUS CITIES

WHOLENESS IS MORE
AND LESS THAN THE SUM OF ALL ELEMENTS
(Edgar Morin)
AND IF
RELATIONS
INTENSITY
And
INFORMATION
FLOWS
WERE
UNEQUAL...
EDGAR MORIN

IN WHICH DIRECTION WE WANT THE SYSTEM WILL BE ORIENTED?
BUT HOW CAN WE PUSH THESE BUTTONS?
WHICH FORCES CAN WE IMPLEMENT?
EDGAR MORIN

STOCKHOLM EUROPEAN GREEN CAPITAL
❙ 1 000 parks,
❙ 7 nature reserves within city,
boundaries (and more than 200 in the
surrounding area), 1 cultural reserve and
❙ 1 city national park,
❙ 95 kg of recycled refuse annually per
Citizen,
❙ 12 000 trees in the city centre,
❙ 24 official beaches,
❙ World’s largest district cooling network,
❙ Set to become fossil-fuel free by 2050,
❙ The city hosts 2 700 clean-tech companies.

Norberto Bobbio, Elogio della mitezza, Il Saggiatore, Milano, 2010, p.45.
As I presented it, it is likely that the mildness there has appeared
a feminine virtue. I readily admit it. I know I'm wanting to hurt
women in revolt against the old domain of the male when I say
that the mildness has never appeared desirable because of its
femininity.
I think that would be destined to triumph the day when you
realized the city of women (not that of Fellini, of course).
HARMONIOUS CITIES, SOCIALLY AND ENVIRONMENTALLY
ECONOMY AS A TOOL, NOT AS A POWER

HARMONIOUS CITIES, SOCIALLY AND ENVIRONMENTALLY
UNDERSTANDING NATURE AND ITS ECOSERVICES

2012 CRS

Resilience Center of Stockholm
The complexity of the biosphere and our relationships with theThe complexity of the biosphere and our relationships with the
environment will clearly show the need for systemic, cross-cutting,environment will clearly show the need for systemic, cross-cutting,
adaptive approaches, involving at the same timeadaptive approaches, involving at the same time
our capabilityour capability
to learn to learn and to govern intersecting levels of governmentto learn to learn and to govern intersecting levels of government
and populations.and populations.

What have I learned?
CITIES AREN'T ARCHITECTURAL PROBLEMS
LANDSCAPES AND ENVIRONMENT AREN'T
AESTHETIC PROBLEMS

Cities are socio-ecological systems, open systems, inducing
more or less great impacts on physical and biological factors
What choices and for whom?
Do we care for the environment? for the Earth?
the urban choices impact on the whole environment
and the environment must be considered in its entirety, wholeness and
harmony...

shifting the architecture definition of Morris to
urban and regional planning
WE CAN GIVE A DEFINITION OF
PLANNING AS ...

Any action which tends to change the spatial organization, changing the
distribution of the population, of manufacturing plants, of business and
commercial settlements, modifying infrastructures, altering the relationships
between them, is an act of planning
positive or negative
access to social facilities, to transportation system, to natural beauty,
social exclusivity, degradation inconvenience, social segregation or unhealthiness
URBAN PLANNING IS A PROCESS, MUST BE CONSISTENT IN ALL
SECTORS COMPETING TOWARDS THE SAME GOALS
strategic plans and implementation plans;
economic resources allocation and programming,
public works, transport, education and culture;
improving monitoring and assessment tools

THE COMPLEXITY OF SOCIAL AND ECOLOGICAL SYSTEM
REQUIRES KNOWLEDGE OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND ITS
DYNAMICS,
AND CAPABILITY TO GOVERNANCE TO IMPLEMENT VARIOUS
AND COMPLEX STRATEGIES ...
EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY OF PLANNING AND
MANAGEMENT REQUIRES THE COLLECTION OF
GEOREFERENCED DATA AND INFORMATION ...
AND ACCOUNTABILITY WHY WE WORK ...

in name of the people, for the people, by the people
that this nation, under God, shall have a new
birth of freedom, and that this government of
the people, by the people, and for the people
shall not perish from this earth.
1865 - Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address

in name of the people, for the people, by the people
that this PLANET shall have a new birth of
freedom, and that this government of the
people, by the people, and for the people
shall not perish from this earth.
1865 - Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address [2012 revised]

FOR A NEW ALLIANCE
This speech is dedicated to
who is opinion leader, who governs the territory, who prepares plans
and designs, who is a student or a scientist. In particular, to be honest,
is dedicated to the citizens who inhabit the Earth: please, keep attention
to its languages, investigate the past, be sensitive to the earliest signs
of the future, because the Earth is fragile.
Aware, we must work for the poetry of living. Actions and energies
should be combined in knowledge. The power of technology has to take
care of the fragility in which we are immersed and of which we live. The
alliance among living beings and alliance with the wholeness of
biosphere.
In his name we must turn away from that terrible collective madness, we
are sadly aware, which so far has directed a so considerable part of our
history.

Enseignant qui ouvre les ailes des enfants et les
fait voler pour leur enseigner la liberté, mais pas
une liberté gratuite ou indifférente, ni pire encore,
le rejet des règles qui permettent de penser et de
faire.
… like a flock of starlings ...

grazie per l'attenzione

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