Urban Ecologies 2013-2016
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Alomar Atkinson V. Terreform ONE Bernbaum & Plaxton Blackwell Bogdanowicz Bowes Bresler Briker Brown & Storey Colangelo & Davila Constable & Turnbull Danahey Desai Diamond Ebrahim EVergreeN III. Peter Hall Fard & Jafari Foster Gloushenkova & Murray Gray Hinds, Hastrich & Clarke Ingram Jackson & Bell Kapelos Khamsi Lee I. Teddy Cruz Lister Margolis McCartney Edited by Montgomery & Roberts Jesse Colin Jackson NO.9 Roderick Grant Ormston-Holloway Patricio Davila Pearson Przybylski Sarmadi Schneider Schwann & Haenrates Sheppard Solow-RudaU & Wilsonr ban SpaciNG Stewart 3 Taalman & Fontenot 1 0 WaterfrONT 2 EcoloWhiteheadgies Edited by — Urban Jesse Colin Jackson Roderick Grant Patricio Davila Ecologies Designed by — David Caterini 2013 Chris Lange 3 4 Jesse Colin What Are Jackson Urban Ecologies? “ It isn’t easy to reinvent a city. Cities are made of reinforced concrete, brick and metal. Office towers and subway tunnels don’t yield readily to the forces of change. Highways and sewer systems don’t lend themselves to metamor- phosis. The biggest impediment to transforming a city, though, is not a physical limitation: it’s the inertia that comes from historical legacy and a mentality of resigna- tion. In other words, if a city is perceived in a particular way, it takes a tremendous amount of energy and inspiration to reimagine it as something radically different a n d b etter. ” David Miller, Mayor of Toronto, 2003-2010 INTRODUCTION / Urban environments are the location or destination of an increasing proportion of humanity. The urgent need for cities to achieve a sustainable balance between human impact and environmental resilience is motivating the consideration of ecology as a source of new theoretical, methodological, and metaphorical directions. Ecological approaches to the design of urban environments appropriate the complex, multivariate, and interdependent—yet innately balanced—characteristics of natu- ral systems. In considering cities as urban ecologies, designers must reconcile multiple interlocking imperatives, such as social needs and desires, cultural norms and aspirations, economic restrictions, the allocation of natural resources, and aesthetics. Urban ecologies operate dynamically across time and space: qualities that challenge the static two-dimensional logic of conventional design methods and instruments. Urban ecology ideas are also dynamic, informed by other theoret- ical frameworks including systems thinking, sustainability, biomimicry, inclusive design, active living, community engage- ment, and big data. A close examination of the relationships between ecology and urbanity has the potential to result in strategies and solutions that equip us to design sustainable, inclusive, healthy, engaged, and resilient cities. Urban Ecologies 2013 is the first in a series of OCAD University conferences and publications intended to propel the creation of knowledge by, and foster collaborative connec- tions between, urban ecologies thinkers and practitioners. These initiatives emerged as a response to OCAD University’s geographical position within the heart of a metropolis, and as an extension of the Faculty of Design mission statement: to create objects, communications, environments and experiences that nurture community, humanize technology, satisfy human needs and empower the individual; and to achieve the maxi- mum quality of experience for people for each ecological unit consumed in its creation, production, and use. As a conference, Urban Ecologies 2013 was organized around five intersecting themes, representing a spectrum of activities that contribute to the urban ecologies perspective. We called for design activities, realized or speculative, that examined the impact of emerging categories of research and practice that are shaping the future of design in our cities: visualizing information, thinking systems, regenerating cities, building health, and creating community. 5 6 URBAN ECOLOGIES 2013 Jesse COLIN JacksON 1 3 Visualizing Information: Regenerating Cities: Using advanced visual strate- Developing regenerative gies to improve our understand- urban design strategies ing of data-intensive human to create restorative and non-human urban activity. relationships between cities How can we see the city? and their surrounding What challenges do new methods environments. for representing urbanity create? How can we sustain the city? How can under-represented How does our understand- people, places and processes ing of nature inform the gain a voice? design of cities? Cities are host to multiple inter- How can cities become net locking environments, infrastructures, contributors to the ecologi- connective networks and patterns cal systems they inhabit? of information. The relationships In the face of decaying infra- between these elements are chal- structure and resource depletion, lenging to observe and describe. The city builders have begun to take Visualizing Information theme called inspiration from the self-replicat- for data-driven design strategies that ing, symbiotic, and evolutionary create the potential to exploit these characteristics of nature. The complex relationships. Regenerating Cities theme called 2 for- regenerative design concepts Thinking System: that contribute to, rather than extract Applying knowledge of the from, local ecological systems. urban environment’s complex 4 and dynamic patterns of Building Health: exchange to design stron- Bringing integrated concepts ger communities. of human health, quality How does the city work? of life and inclusion to the How are the components of urban design of the urban environment. ecologies interdependent? How healthy is the city? How can systems thinking What are the key relationships approaches be used to create between urban form and stronger communities? physical and mental health? Cities are systems, comprised of How can the principles of active interconnected and interdependent living be incorporated into dynamic components. Understanding the urban design process? this interplay is essential if we are The intricate relationships to operate across physical, jurisdic- between urban form and physical tional and disciplinary boundaries. and mental health frequently go Thinking Systems seeks methods unconsidered in conventional design that productively examine the city processes. Most health care programs through a systems thinking lens. and services are located in cities, WHAT ARE URBAN ECOLOGIES? where environments often fail to categorization, allowing the work to encourage healthy living. The Building intermingle as it had at the confer- Health theme called for practices ence. Keynote speakers were asked that address this ecological paradox. to elaborate in essay form on the 5 thoughts they had so eloquently pro- Creating Community: vided in person. Also featured are Fostering design partnerships contributions from local partners between grassroots and exploring urban ecologies in profes- professional communities sional contexts: a student compe- to co-create sustainable tition focused on intelligent urban urban places. transportation ideas, and from How can we make communities? our exhibition partner, Onsite [at] Are cities too complex to OCAD U. In all cases, the practices involve the public? represented here are reimagining How can design processes the city as “as something radically accommodate an ever- different and better” by proposing increasing diversity of innovative design activities that perspectives? are essential to our urban future. Directly engaging stakeholders in the design of cities dissolves Jesse Colin Jackson institutional and disciplinary bound- May 2015 aries, and provides an alternative to conventional processes. The Creating Community theme called for design experiences that are rooted in commu- nity participation rather than in estab- lished professional relationships. The themes provided provocations through which otherwise inde- pendent segments of the interna- tional design community could be engaged. An enduring lesson from the conference, however, was that once presented with the opportunity to cross-pollinate, participants were resistant to being circumscribed by thematic containers. With this in mind, conference contributors were asked to expand on the content presented at the conference for this publication. The results have been editorially released from thematic 7 88 URBANURBAN ECOLOGIESECOLOGIES 2013 I. Teddy Cruz 10 – 19 III. Peter Hall 216 – 233 V. Terreform ONE 274 – 281 PRESENTATIONSCONTENTS / / II. Presentations 20 – 215 IV. Workshops 234 – 273 VI. Posters 282 – 355 9 10 URBAN ECOLOGIES 2013 I. Teddy Cruz Teddy Cruz is Professor in Public Culture and Urbanization in the Visual Arts Department and co-director of the Center for Urban Ecologies at the University of California, San Diego. He has been recognized internationally for his urban research on the Tijuana / San Diego border, forwarding border neighborhoods as sites of cultural production from which to rethink urban policy, affordable housing, and civic infrastructure. His work has been exhibited internationally, including representing the US in the Venice Architecture Biennial, and in various exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He was recently selected as a Social Change Visionary by the Ford Foundation, and received the Architecture Award from the US Academy of Arts and Letters. PRESENTATIONS / 12 – 19 Urban Ecology, Urban Conflict and the Politicization of Design Practice 11 I. 12 Teddy Cruz Urban Ecology, Urban Conflict and the