Biophilic Cities. Timothy Beatley

Transcription

1 Biophilic Cities Timothy Beatley

2 Biophilic Cities Integrating Nature into Urban Design and Planning Timothy Beatley Washington Covelo London

3 2011 Timothy Beatley All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher: Island Press, Suite 300, 1718 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC ISLAND PRESS is a trademark of the Center for Resource Economics. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Beatley, Timothy, Biophilic cities: integrating nature into urban design and planning / Timothy Beatley. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10: (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-13: (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. City planning Environmental aspects. 2. Sustainable development. 3. Human ecology. 4. Urban ecology (Sociology) I. Title. HT166.B '216 dc Printed using Bembo and Korinna Printed on recycled, acid-free paper Manufactured in the United States of America Keywords: biological diversity, biomimicry, biophilia hypothesis, bioregional planning, ecocity, environmental education, green building, green urbanism, green streets, light pollution, nature deficit disorder, stormwater management, sustainable, community design, urban ecology, urban parks, urban planning and design

4 To Jadie and Carolena, and the next generation of urbanites who will care about the nature around them.

5 Contents Preface Foreword xi xv Chapter 1 The Importance of Nature and Wildness in Our Urban Lives 1 Chapter 2 The Nature of (in) Cities 17 Chapter 3 Biophilic Cities: What Are They? 45 Chapter 4 Biophilic Urban Design and Planning 83 Chapter 5 New Tools and Institutions to Foster Biophilic Cities 131 Chapter 6 Concluding Thoughts: Growing the Biophilic City 151 Endnotes 159 Bibliography 175 Index 181

6 Preface This book is a first effort at explicating and tentatively defining what a biophilic city is and what it might look and feel like. While the title will be a bit unfamiliar to planners and urban designers today, part of the purpose for writing this book is to change that and to squarely place connections with and care for nature in urban areas on the agenda for these disciplines. There are several parallel geneses of this book that should be credited. The first is a highly stimulating conference organized by Professor Stephen Kellert, through the auspices of the Yale School of the Environment, in the spring of It brought together an amazing who s who of theoreticians and practitioners in the area of green design. The presentations were innovative and heady, and it felt very much like we were collectively breaking new ground, and we were. The outcome of that meeting was the subsequent publication of the groundbreaking book Biophilic Design: The Theory, Science and Practice of Bringing Buildings to Life, 1 edited by Kellert, along with Judith Heerwegen and Marty Mador. Biophilic Design has been very well received, especially within the architectural community, and there is no other book quite like it. But it is heavily focused on buildings. I was asked to write a chapter in that book on biophilic cities, and it is one of the only pieces that extend the discussion beyond the structure, building, and site. The Kellert book was a tremendous advancement to the design literature but served to further convince me of the need for a stand-alone book about biophilic cities, which you now hold in your hands. This book is also intended to serve as a companion (of sorts) to the 2009 documentary film The Nature of Cities (NOC). The making of this film has served as another important point of learning and inspiration for the book. Special thanks are due my Colorado-based filmmaker collaborator Chuck Davis, whose creative eye and stimulating questions helped to propel this book forward as well. Chuck s last film, Transforming Energy, received critical acclaim and was widely aired on PBS stations around the country, and there is every expectation that NOC will be equally successful as it airs xi

7 xii Preface in the months and years ahead. But while the book benefits from the film and tracks it in many ways, it is broader and more inclusive, tackling issues (such as what precisely a biophilic city is), stories, and examples not covered in the film (or that could not be adequately covered in a short documentary film). Nevertheless the two are quite complementary and should be seen as useful companions. The film is a visual and sensory celebration of the green and natural qualities of many cities and features faces and smiles and wondrous looks on people living and working on the greening of their cities, and this is a useful thing indeed. What follows is a relatively compact book, modeled after E.O. Wilson s The Creation 2 beautifully written and illustrated, provocative and thoughtful, and highly accessible. I m not sure if I ve reached these lofty aspirations, but I have given a try. The subject deserves nothing less. As will be apparent, the book draws heavily on the actual conditions, experiences, and programs under way in a number of cities around the world. The bulk of the examples and stories, however, are from North Ameri can, European, and Australian cities where the author s own work has focused. This is a limitation and one I hope will be addressed (perhaps by others) as the ideas and concepts of biophilic cities and biophilic urbanism catch on and move forward. Are these ideas and design and planning ex - pressions as easily applied in larger cities of the developing South, for instance? How relevant is biophilic design to the billion or so residents of slums in large cities around the world. Will biophilia have any practical meaning or use in the favelas (slums or shantytowns) of São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro or the shantytowns in cities like Lagos in Nigeria or Mumbai (formerly Bombay). Indeed, the issues of balancing nature and human needs are undoubtedly different in those locations. As I am writing, a conflict has arisen in Rio over the building of a series of walls separating favelas from surrounding remnants of the very biodiverse Atlantic forest, ostensibly to prevent further encroachment. In Mumbai, for instance, population growth and urban expansion have virtually eliminated the diverse system of mangroves that protected that urban estuary from floods. In other megacities, such as Mexico City, smog and air pollution take priority on the environmental agenda. Despite the severity of these urban problems, it is my hope that the goals and aspirations of biophilic cities, the desire to create the conditions of urban life in close contact with the natural world, will prove relevant and compelling throughout the world, but that will have to await future writing and research and the works of others to follow. In that vein it is worth emphasizing that what follows here is not the definitive work on what the biophilic city is or could be. Rather, the goal is much more modest: to at least begin to talk about what a biophilic

8 Preface xiii city might include or feel like or look like. It s meant to be more exploratory than thorough, more provocative than comprehensive. I will await others who will pick up the gauntlet and carry through with what will likely be more ambitious agendas and scholarship. I am happy to mark an important beginning in thinking about cities through a biophilic lens. What follows are six chapters that together begin to sketch out what a biophilic city is or could be. Chapter 1 explores the history and meaning of the concept of biophilia and how it might be useful in shaping the design and planning of cities. A number of arguments are made on behalf of efforts to integrate nature into cities and urban neighborhoods. Chapter 2 is an exploration of the wondrous and amazing nature that does in fact exist in cities; from the microscopic to the large, from the visual to the auditory, from the discrete to the enveloping, nature is everywhere and ubiquitous, though often hidden and unnoticed by urbanites. Chapter 3 is an initial attempt at defining what a biophilic city is, or might be, and what some of its main qualities and key principles are. What does a biophilic city look and feel like, and what are its sensibilities and values? A number of specific strategies for planning for and designing in nature are examined in chapter 4, with many examples offered from North American, European, and Australian cities. From larger-scale plans for restoring natural systems and green infrastructure to the site level and building scale, this chapter provides a comprehensive introduction to the state of the practice in biophilic urban design. Chapter 4 also explores the design and functioning of biophilic urban neighborhoods. Again with many examples of existing neighborhoods across the country and world, the main question is, What will be necessary to make nature a (the) central organizing element of the urban places in which we live and play and raise children? Chapter 5 is an exploration of what is needed beyond physical design and planning what are the institutions and organizations, the urban capabilities, the grant programs and new urban codes needed to stimulate and in some cases mandate biophilic cities and urban design. Finally, chapter 6 provides concluding remarks and some speculations about future directions in research and practice in the area of biophilic cities.

9 Foreword Beautiful, benevolent, and soul restoring, nature waits for us to bring her home. It is not so much that humanity has destroyed a large part of the natural world and withdrawn from the remainder. We have also expelled it needlessly from our daily lives. Today, the number of people living in urban areas has passed the number living in rural areas. Simultaneously, the home range of each person on average, the area traversed on a regular basis, is declining steadily. In the cities we do not grow our own food or hunt for it. Mostly, we pick it up at a market and have little idea of its origin. Our eyes are fastened upon the digitized images of screens. Even the images of nature we see are those of remote places, taken by other people. No matter, we say the city sustains us, and we are happy. But so are cattle in a feedlot. They are provided with the essentials of maintenance but can never live the lives true to their species and the epic millionyear evolution that put them on Earth. They cannot visit the habitat in which they were born. They cannot roam freely, explore, learn the dangers and discover the delights that shaped their bodies and brains. And to a lesser degree, the same is true of humans in most of the cities around the world. Cities rural villages in the beginning have been in existence for only about ten thousand years, and then for most of the ensuing time for only a very small percentage of the population. In Biophilic Cities: Integrating Nature into Urban Design and Planning, Timothy Beatley shows that in creating them, we have carelessly left out part of the environment vital to the full development of the human mind. The evidence is compelling that frequent exposure to the natural world improves mental health, it offers a deep sense of inner peace, and, in many ways we have only begun to understand by scientific reason, it improves the quality of life. Beatley also demonstrates the many ways to design urban landscapes and buildings to bring nature into the hearts of our cities. He shows xv

10 xvi Foreword the effect of even little changes in health and economic growth. The cost is relatively little to further such a readaptation to the rest of the living world, and the potential benefits are enormous. Edward O. Wilson