Sustainable City Growth New Models for the Post-Industrial City: Fid-Bau Portal

Sustainable City Growth New Models for the Post-Industrial City

Cao, Jun / Lin, Ye

This paper reports on research in the area of Green Urbanism and new models for urban growth and neighborhoods, as cities need to transform from a fossil-based model to a model based on sustainable energy sources. The paper deals with cross-cutting issues in architecture, landscape architecture and urban design and addresses the question of how we can best cohesively integrate all aspects of energy systems, transport systems, waste and water management, passive and active strategies, natural ventilation and so on, into contemporary urban design of Eco-Cities with an improved environmental performance of cities. This text reflects upon practical strategies focused on increasing sustainability beyond and within the scope of individual buildings and provides a context for a general discourse about the regeneration of the city centre, its transformation to a sustainable model, and discusses how urbanism is affected (and can be expected to be even more affected in future) by the paradigms of ecology. Recent examples for the application of such urban design principles are the two proposals for the Australian city of Newcastle: the City Campus and Port City projects. These case studies illustrate that it is less environmentally damaging to stimulate growth within the established city centre rather than sprawling into new, formerly un-built areas. Three steps from passive building design to active mechanical equipment. The designer needs to take full advantage of basic, passive building strategies first, before adding mechanical active equipment. Motto: More with less. The entire urban metabolism is based on energy supply. However, a new symbiosis between countryside and city is emerging: The century-old tension between rural and urban might finally get resolved, where the city stops to grow at the expense of its rural hinterland.