Urban Sustainability Through Environmental Design Approaches to Time-People-Place Responsive Urban Spaces

What can architects, landscape architects and urban designers do to make urban open spaces, streets and squares, more responsive, lively and safe? Urban Sustainability through Environmental Design answers this question by providing the analytical tools and practical methodologies that can be employed for sustainable solutions to the design and management of urban environments. The book calls into question the capability of ‘quick-fix’ development solutions to provide the establishment of fixed communities and suggests a more time-conscious and evolutionary approach. This is the first significant book to draw together a pan-European view on sustainable urban design with a specific focus on social sustainability. It presents an innovative approach that focuses on the tools of urban analysis rather than the interventions themselves. With its practical approach and wide-ranging discussion, this book will appeal to all those involved in producing communities and spaces for sustainable living, from students to academics through to decision makers and professional leaders.

Part 1. Time-Conscious Urban Design 1. Introduction: the unsustainable lasting of time-unconscious urban design 1.1. Space and people: the case for socially sustainable urban design 1.2. Three core messages, or what we mostly should do 2. Time-conscious urban design: a common ground 2.1. Space and people: a literature review and the case for urban design 2.2. Time-conscious urban design: clues of a starting point Part 2. Analysis for the Sustainable City 3. Analytical techniques for a sustainable city: kicking off the toolbox 3.1. Practicing an oxymore: life-world, technical knowledge and the need for episteme-diversity 3.2. The tools Travel Time Budgets as a Tool for Sustainable Urban Design Peter NewmanThe Generation of Diversity: Mixed Use and Urban SustainabilityGraeme EvansMultiple Centrality Assessment Sergio Porta and Vito Latora Measuring the Success of Transit-Oriented Development Using a Sustainability Framework: TOD Outcome Analysis John Renne Accessibility and User Needs in Transport: Street Audit ToolkitNastaran Azmin-Fouladi Raster Cities: image processing techniques for environmental urban analysisEugenio Morello and Carlo RattiThe Communities in Action Handbook Ombretta Romice and Hidebrand Frey Collaborative Planning and Design for a Sustainable Neighbourhood on Quebec City’s University Campus Geneviève Vachon, Carole Després, Aurore Nembrini and Florent Joerin GIS Behaviour Mapping For A Provision Of Interactive Empirical Knowledge, Vital Monitoring And Better Place Design Barbara Golicnik Experiential Landscape: revealing hidden dimensions of people-place relationsKevin Thwaites and Ian Simkins Approaches of Inclusivity Alice Mathers and Ian SimkinsCathryn Chatburn Conclusions

Sergio Porta is assistant professor in urban planning and design at the Department of Architecture and Planning of the Polytechnic of Milan, Italy, where he holds the ‘Laboratory of Urban Design’ course. He is adjunct professor at the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Kevin Thwaites researches and teaches landscape architecture and urban design at the Department of Landscape, University of Sheffield where he is Director of Learning and Teaching. He has worked in private practice and, with Ian Simkins, is co-founder of elp:rdu, a research facility which explores experiential aspects of outdoor space use. Ombretta Romice is an architect heading the Urban Design Masters at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. She is actively involved in IAPS (International Association for People-Environment Studies). Mark Greaves is a professional planner focused on the delivery of exemplary urban design solutions. He is currently working in local authority planning in the UK.