Dustin Bajer, The Nature of Cities
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
0 likes•225 views
This presentation was given at the University of Alberta Sustainability Summit. It explores ecological design and systems theory applied to urban design. Biophilic Cities Ecocities.
Recommended
More Related Content
Viewers also liked
Viewers also liked (17)
Dustin Bajer, The Nature of Cities
- 1. The Nature of Cities @dustinbajer
- 2. Leccinum boreale www.wildmushrooms.ws Populus tremuloides www.swcoloradowildflowers.com @dustinbajer
- 4. @dustinbajer
- 5. @dustinbajer
- 6. @dustinbajer
- 7. @dustinbajer
- 8. @dustinbajer
- 9. @dustinbajer
- 11. @dustinbajer
- 12. @dustinbajer
- 13. @dustinbajer
- 14. @dustinbajer
- 15. @dustinbajer
- 18. @dustinbajer
- 19. @dustinbajer
- 20. @dustinbajer
- 21. @dustinbajer
- 22. @dustinbajer
- 23. Urban Ag Prezi
- 24. @dustinbajer
- 25. @dustinbajer
- 26. @dustinbajer
- 28. @dustinbajer
- 29. @dustinbajer
- 30. @dustinbajer
- 33. YEGpie Flag
- 34. @dustinbajer
Editor's Notes
- Networks grow over time. Each new connection built upon the last and creating the conditions for further connections. In ecology, we call this process succession. In this view, to succeed isn’t to win or be the best. It’s to use what you have around you to create something new.
- Networks grow, they expand, branch out, connect to smaller networks, and diversify. The start out simple…as one or two elements but they increase in complexity and richness. Each stage building upon the connections before it and creating the conditions conducive to the next. What starts as fragile becomes resilient. With enough connections, systems can event benefit from sock. They become antifragile (Nassim Nicholas Taleb).
- One interesting property of living things is that the larger you are, the less resources to need (per unit). It’s counter intuitive but (pound per pound) a whale required less energy than a mouse. Interestingly, the larger a city is, the less energy it needs per capita. In this way, Manhattanites have 40% of the carbon footprint of the average American.
- Might it be useful to think of annual vs perennial structures? How might we use the concepts of complexity and biodiversity to explain why we inherently find some neighbourhoods more interesting than others? In his book, “Ecocities” Architect Richard Register describes a city as a place for maximizing connections. Cities grow and develop over time. I’m not scything that they always grow up but
- This is a forest. It’s a network. Each point represents a living or non-living components and every line represents a connection between elements. The sheer diversity of elements ensured a mass of connections which (in turn) ensures the system’s resiliency.
- Last Summer, the City’s Roots for Tree program and I installed a massive food forest in Edmonton’s river valley. The design consisted of thousands of edible, perennial, native plants; saskatoons, highbush cranberry, elderberry, currents, raspberries, chokecherries, and pincherries.
- Or sometimes fantastical; I like to call this avantgarden design. There are opportunities everywhere we turn. Many of you are probably thinking “sure, a glacier of road salt and dog poop” but working with your environment forces you to take stock of it. To consider it. To interact and engage with in new and meaningful ways. Because, if it’s not okay to use it, maybe we shouldn’t send it down the North Saskatchewan river.
- How about using our climate to our advantage.