ECOLOGICAL URBAN ARCHITECTURE book with chapter about 2011 Atelier

Posted by on December 18, 2012 in Homepage, Publications

Ecological Urban Architecture (edited by Thomas Schroepfer) has been published recently by Birkhäuser. The books focuses on qualitative approaches to sustainability and features a chapter entitled Sustainable energy landscapes: The power of imagination authored by Sven Stremke from the NRGlab.

Book abstract: The goal of advancing eco cities often remains confined to political or technological issues. This book establishes a focus on architectural and infrastructural design approaches to sustainable urban planning. Starting out from a critical assessment of five prototypical eco cities of recent decades, the book identifies fields in which architectural and urban designers can use their creative skills and methods to achieve sustainable results on an urban scale. Sustainability is undergoing a shift of focus from quantitative measures toward designoriented, interactive interventions.

The range of qualitative solutions in ecological design is discussed here in four topical sections on “Materialize”, “Mobilize”, “Simulate” and “Transform”. For example, “Materialize” explores the potential of eco-design beyond the traditional palette of materials to show how spatial boundaries can be re-imagined as gradients of conditioned versus unconditioned space, working with climatic conditions rather than material boundaries to help generate new forms of urban architecture.

Contributions by experts in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, engineering and design theory provide in-depth information on the complexity of eco-design in urban environments and emphasize the need for new sensibilities in disciplinary and trans-disciplinary thinking processes.