Scenario:

The Chinese are in the process of pursuing a policy of urbanization with the intent of shifting the urban/rural population demographic more in line with the advanced industrialized nations in the world.  Currently, the urban population of China has just passed 50 percent.  Globally the average in the developed nations is about 70 percent.  In order for China to reach the 70 percent goal, it will require more people than the entire United States to move into the urban areas of China.  The scale of this kind of shift, planned to be reached by 2030, will require massive growth in Chinese cities over the next 15 years.  Addressing this massive human migration in ways that explore a 'sustainable urbanism' agenda is the focal point of the studio.

 

Urban areas around the world are facing the challenges of a magnitude never before seen in human history.  As sea level rises and weather patterns change, the United Nations Habitat group indicates that 60 percent of the largest cities are at risk from storm surges and tsunamis and all are threatened by the effects of climate change.  Despite this threat the populations of urban areas are growing at an accelerated rate.  Urban growth, whether it is formal or informal, is consuming more and more land in its wake, removing adjacent agricultural land from production in some instances and occupying environmentally fragile lands in others.  The report indicates more than 60 percent of the land projected to become urban by 2030 has yet to be developed.  This unprecedented human migration is goig to put great pressure on the cities to accommodate and manage this trend both with current urban boundaries and on adjacent lands.

 

As society reconsiders growing its future urban environment, it can no longer ignore the requirements of sustainability.  To achieve this goal, ciites must start with the reintegration of natural systems into its framework to establish greater harmony between settlement and nature.  Settlement will need todevelop robust and resilient circulation systems that collectively yield a lower carbon footprint and less pollution of the environment.  The production, processing, and delivery of food will need to give greater emphasis to local sources.  Distributed infrastructure systems will need to supplement or replace centralized systems.  Waste will need to be reconsidered in the context of a broad system of reuse and recycling.  It also means that the heritage landscape of a community should be identified and preserved integrally within the new fabric of the city.  The future of the city does not lie in the segregated patterns of modernism, it lies in the integrated patterns of sustainable urbanism.

Research

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Program

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Evaluation

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