Promoting Energy-Efficient Neighbourhoods: Learning from BedZED: Fid-Bau Portal

Promoting Energy-Efficient Neighbourhoods: Learning from BedZED

Oktay, Derya

In the era of climate change during which serious environmental problems threatening the world, there is an urgent need for the reform of urban areas through research and efforts towards sustainable urbanism. In this context, city neighbourhoods are the most important components of a city; when they are designed as energy-efficient, green- or eco-neighbourhoods, the whole city benefits. Of all the issues affecting the environment, by far the most important are global warming caused by the greenhouse effect, the loss of the ozone layer, pollution, shortage of water and domestic waste. In this vein, there is a range of environmental issues for the would-be environmentally conscious designers and developers to consider. Among the developments which have been exemplary in overcoming these problems, the Beddington Zero-Energy Development (BedZED) in south London has been an inspiration for low-carbon, environment-friendly housing developments around the world as the only full-scale attempt to create a zero-carbon neighbourhood in the UK. In this chapter, based on the findings of the author’s EC-funded research in BedZED conducted as part of the preliminary stage of her research at Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development (Oxford Brookes University, UK) in 2009, the development is explored through various dimensions. The study reveals that creating an energy-efficient neighbourhood with a sense of place is possible through environmentally conscious planning and design approaches based on a sustainable form of development with large scale, compact and mixed-use scheme utilising under-used sites and with energy-efficient buildings of human scale.