"With more than half of the world's population now living in urbanized areas and the threats of climate change and resource depletion becoming tangible, Sustainable Urban Design is quickly becoming a critical field. The Sustainable Urban Design Handbook gathers the best sustainability practices and latest research from the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, planning, development, ecology and environmental engineering and presents them in a graphically rich and easy to access format that is aresource for urban design projects of all scales. The book presents a comprehensive Sustainable Urban Design Framework that organizes the many elements of urban design in relation to four main resource targets: Transportation Based Energy Use, Water, Ecology and Habitat, and Non-Transportation Based Energy Use and Production and four key scales: Regional, Neighborhood/District, Street/Block, and Project/Parcel. The framework allows designers and planners to see the range of elements they should address in any given scale project as well as the related elements that exist at other scales. Each element is broken out in its own section that describes the element and its importance, compares typical practices and recommended approaches, explains the connection to other elements, and ends with a list of 'Rules of Thumb' that can be used to directly guide project work. Easy to use and reference, The Sustainable Urban Design Handbook provides both an in depth introduction to topics across sustainable urban design and serves as an on-going desktop reference for anyone involved in the creation of sustainable urban environments"--
With more than half of the worlds population now living in urbanized areas and the threats of climate change and resource depletion evident, sustainable urban design is a critical field. The Sustainable Urban Design Handbook gathers the best sustainability practices and latest research from the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, planning, development, ecology, and environmental engineering and presents them in a graphically rich and accessible format that is relevant to urban design projects in cities of all sizes.
The book presents a comprehensive framework that organizes the +50 elements of sustainable urban design under five main topics: Energy Use & Greenhouse Gas, Water, Ecology & Habitat, Energy Use & Production, and Equity & Health, and relative to four project scales: Region & City, District & Neighborhood, Block & Street, and Project & Parcel. This organization allows people to see the range of elements they could address in any given project, as well as related elements at other scales and co-benefits. Each element is described in a dedicated section that describes its importance, background, compares typical practices and recommended approaches, explains connections to other elements, and concludes with urban design guidelines that can be used to directly inform projects and decisions.
Easy to use and reference, The Sustainable Urban Design Handbook provides both an in-depth introduction to topics across sustainable urban design and serves as an on-going reference for anyone involved in the creation of sustainable urban environments. This resource will be useful to design and planning professionals, community members, students, and elected officials in guiding decisions about our sustainable future.
This book presents a comprehensive framework that organizes the elements of urban design in relation to four main resources: transportation, water, ecology, and energy use and production. It is an in-depth introduction to sustainable urban design and a reference for anyone involved in the creation of sustainable urban environments.
