Floating cities?

First question: why build cities in the sea? If we consider that cities occupies around 3% of Earth's surface, what would be a reasonable excuse to give up on land's surface? Climate change and the melting of ice-floes.
Considering that, some attempts to design floating structures that would be sustainable cities connected to others and to the environment and being -sometimes - self-sufficient were made during the last few years. The architect Vincent Callebaut desigend Lilypad, Peter Thiel envisioned series of conceptual floating cities, ATDesign has recently designed the Floating City, among others.
Second - and more relevant - question: is that the best way of dealing with the problem we have created?

Sources: Vincent Callebaut Architectures, LILYPAD, A FLOATING ECOPOLIS FOR CLIMATE REFUGEES, <http://vincent.callebaut.org/page1-img-lilypad.html>, accessed 10 June 2014;

ATDesign, ATDesignoffice release design for the Floating City, <http://www.atdesignoffice.com/news/>, accessed 10 June 2014;

Mike Jaccarino, Silicon Valley legend, PayPal founder Peter Thiel envisions floating cities off coast of California, <http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/thiel-envisions-floating-cities-coast-california-article-1.951630> accessed 10 June 2014.

Green School Stockholm

Green School Stockholm is a project by 3XN Architects that incorporates some aspects of sustainability in the design, aiming to encourage a more sustainable living. By mixing uses, being and open space on ground level, using large amounts of green as vertical farming, green roofs, and allowing people to consume food produced in the building, it is a nice example of how introducing several aspects of sustainability together in a single building.

Source: 3XN Architects, Green School Stockholm, <http://www.3xn.com/#/architecture/by-year/27-green-school-stockholm>, accessed 10 June 2014.

Resilient Cities

Resilience is a term that has been also applied to cities to describe them as adaptable, secure, and sustainable. In the article 'Resilient Cities', Peter Newman describes the seven features of resilient cities as archetypes:

1- The Renewable Energy City - cities that maximizes the use of natural and renewable energy sources in order to reduce their ecological footprint. New cities as Masdar in United Arab Emirates or even old cities as Freiburg are adopting this concepts.

2- The Carbon-neutral City - many neighbourhoods are adopting this concept - as BedZED, previously discussed - successfully, the main challenge now is how to apply it to a whole city, but many cities are now adopting strategies to achieve this.

3- The Distributed City - this consists in distribute the power and water systems through the city, decentralizing the system into small systems. Buildings could use the complete water cycle - from clean to gray and black water, produce at least part of its own energy, etc. Cities as New York and London are adopting this concept.

4- The Biophilic City - uses of natural processes in the infrastructure - green roofs and green walls, as well as urban farms, and large uses of vegetation in urban areas. Chicago and Toronto already requires green roofs in commercial buildings.

5- The Eco-efficient City - based on reduction of waste and resources requirements, including 'cradle to cradle' concepts. Kalundborg in Denmark and Kwinana in Australia are good examples of cities adopting this strategy.

6- The Place-based City - place really matters. The place-based city is based on strategies to increase local production and economic development, and the sense of place for its inhabitants that also influence in the development of the city and in its ecological footprint.

7- The Sustainable Transport City - as transport is the most important infrastructure to the city, this strategy aims to reduce fossil fuel consumption by adopting policies to encourage people to walk, use bicycle and public transport - which can be powered by renewable energy.

Applying these concepts to new or existing cities is a challenge, but as the demand for new environmental-friendly solutions increases it cannot be disregarded, being also a great opportunity to developers.

Source: Newman, P, Beatley, T, Boyer, H 2009, 'Resilient Cities', in Haas, T (ed.) 2012, Sustainable Urbanism and Beyond - Rethinking Cities for the Future, Rizzoli, New York.

Mitigation and Adaptation

These two terms are often used to describe our attitude towards environmental problems such as climate change for example. The principle of adaptation is based on recognizing that the factors are given as it is and we cannot change it, our attitude should be adapt ourselves to it; while the principle of mitigation is based on changing our behaviour in order to change given circumstances.

Talking about climate change, the principle of adaptation would suggest that we must accept these changes and adapt the world - in a large scale, or a building in a smaller scale - for a new climate. This could lead to a new way of thinking, of planning and designing. If we consider the mitigation process we must act in order to revert this circumstances, once more through planning and design.

In this situation, to adopt the adaptation process would be the same as to affirm that our behaviour and lifestyle does not affect the climate, and so, our greenhouse gas emissions have no impact in the climate, we should maintain things as it is and only adapt ourselves to future changes. On the other hand, adopting the mitigation process, we must change our behaviour, try to live more sustainably in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to change this situation - we have created let's say - for a better future.

The two approaches give us different perspectives of how we could act given the situation is already uncomfortable and some action is needed. However, one does not exclude another. If we consider mitigation as a process, our behaviour changes aiming to revert the situation in the future - to not change the climate for instance - will demand some changes now, and by doing this we will be somehow adapting to the present situation. And so does the adaptation process - by changing and adapting we also contribute to environmental changes that will reflect in the future. For example, to avoid overheat in buildings we improve its design in order to adapt the building for the circumstances - using green roofs, green walls, solar panels that uses the heat for generating energy, etc - and as we adapt it we are also using the mitigation process, improving the quality of the environment in a long term process. So, it is important to note that most processes are both mitigation and adaptation.

However, some actions must be taken quickly to avoid imminent loss and damages, and we cannot think only in long term, but instead of think in one or another, we must think in both  as a unique process, for short and long terms, improving the quality of life for this and future generations, and most importantly, for all kind of life in the planet. If we can adapt ourselves to these changes, many other species may not be able to it, and may disappear in near future - disregarding many already extinct species - an irreversible damage.

The role of architects, urban planners and all involved in the built environment is to improve the quality of life trough design regarding that all environments are connected - as McDonough says in 'Cradle to Cradle', there is no 'away'. It is more than clear that we need to change our behaviour and lifestyle if we expect a better future, and this could be done for everyone, through adaptation and mitigation processes.

Big Dig Boston

An interesting example of how old structures found in the city - that are eventually demolished and discarded - can be reused as treated as new materials for other uses, something even better than recycling.

There is many complains due to the high cost of the Big Dig project - around U$14bi - but the attempt to reuse the beams and slabs is not valuable? And how much should cost the benefits of having public green spaces in a city?

Source: PBS 2009, 'Gray to Green?', accessed 23 May 2014, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pdw9MWElRbk>

Evaluating Sustainability

Many ways of evaluate sustainability in projects are easily available and can help architects, designers, urban planners and developers - for example - to check their projects. Some are more easy to use than others, but in all cases the three pillars of sustainability - environmental, economic, social - are required in the analysis.

But more important than any scale is the question 'is this project demanding more than it can offer?' A simple question with a hard answer. The complexity of environmental impacts needs to be considered and studied in every project, as well as the social and economic impacts, and the key for a successful project is obviously the consideration of each one of these topics.

Source: Haas, T (ed.) 2012, Sustainable Urbanism and Beyond - Rethinking Cities for the Future, Rizzoli, New York.

Reykjavík

Reykjavík is the capital of Island, a city with 120 thousand habitants and the most populous in the country. The city had a significant development after the second world war, with the modernisation and population growth.

Reykjavík is one of the top sustainable cities in the world - figuring in the top of many ranks considering carbon emissions. The main reason is that the city is largely powered by renewable energy - the geothermal activity from its surroundings is converted into energy, and distributed to the city, being responsible for almost 95% of the heating of the city, nothing even seen in another contemporary city in the world.

In 2006, 26,5% of electricity originated from geothermal sources, 73,4% from hydropower and only 0,1% from other sources. Some estimative show that annually the use of renewable sources to produce energy made Reykjavík save 4 million tons of CO2 from its emissions between 1944 and 2006 . The city's plan is that by 2050 the city will be completely free from fossil fuels.

Sources: Danish Architecture Centre 2014, Reykjavik: The Ground Heats The City, accessed 20 May 2014 < http://www.dac.dk/en/dac-cities/sustainable-cities/all-cases/energy/reykjavik-the-ground-heats-the-city/>;

Green City Times, Reykjavik (renewable energy mecca), accessed 20 May 2014, < http://www.greencitytimes.com/Sustainable-Cities/reykjavik.html>;

Mihelich, P 2007, Iceland phasing out fossil fuels for clean energy, accessed 20 May 2014 < http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/09/18/driving.iceland/index.html>.