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T h e m e i s s u e : F O R G I N G A D VA N C E S I N S U S TA I N A B L E A R C H I T E C T U R E A N D U R B A N I S M

D e s i g n f o r C h a n g e

G r e e n U r b a n i s m

G u l f C i t i e s

S p a c e / N a t u r e S y n t a x

T h e U r b a n L a b o r a t o r y

T r a d i t i o n a l M a s t e r p l a n n i n g

S u s t a i n a b l e U r b a n D e v e l o p m e n t

U r b a n T e x t u r e

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open house internationalVol 41 No.4 2016 ISSN 0168-2601

a C I B e n c o u r a g e d j o u r n a l

T h o m s o n I S I A r t s & H u m a n i t i e s

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Sustainability has been an important topic in many dis-ciplines over two decades, and its urgency is rising. Atthe same time, a conceptual understanding of sustain-ability remains rather vague, posing a challenge forresearch in this area. Nevertheless the term ‘sustain-ability’ is increasingly used in the context of ecologi-cal, economic, and social studies. In green economicsit is often used interchangeably with the term ‘sustain-able development’, defined by the World Commissionon Environment and Development in 1987 as, “devel-opment which meets he needs of the present withoutcompromising the ability of future generations to meettheir own needs.” This underlines sustainability’s ethi-cal dimension where a normative view implies treatingsustainability as a form of intergenerational equity andfairness. The question of intergenerational equity con-stitutes a growing concern, and our obligation tofuture generations requires us to look beyond short-term public policy preoccupations to anticipate build-ing a better future for all.

Although the process of urbanisation hasoccurred at varying rates throughout human history,the speed and nature of growth in cities in recentyears, and the scale of their environmental impact,means that today our own place in the history of thebuilt environment is unique. Since the middle of the20th century the population of the world’s cities hassoared from 200 million to almost 3.5 billion.Although physically they occupy just 2% of the earth’ssurface, cities consume most of the world’s naturalresources, produce vast amounts of waste, and are themain source of pollution throughout the world.Environmentalists question whether the rapid growthof cities in recent years can be sustained. In the ‘devel-oped’ world urban environments consume so manyresources that they are dramatically reducing the nat-ural capital that we depend upon. Cities in the GlobalSouth, particularly in Asia and Africa, are now grow-ing five times faster than those in developed nations,with a staggering 1 billion people joining the world’surban population by 2020, when 27 mega-cities (withpopulations exceeding 8 million) will have emergedwithin the ‘developing’ nations. While some are flour-ishing, many others contain large and concentratedpoor urban populations living in life-threatening con-ditions caused by environmental pollution, politicalturmoil, social disorder, and economic upheaval. Theaggregate impact of these cities on the environment –a product of the relationship between population, percapita consumption or economic activity, and ener-gy/material flow per unit – must be radically reducedif quality of life is to be maintained.

Alternative approaches to rethinking andreforming the built environment in ways that imply amore frugal use of energy and natural resources, and

a better quality of life, are being explored within aca-demic and policy literature and research around theworld. As part of the activities of the ‘Cluster forResearch in Design and Sustainability (CRIDS) at theDepartment of Architecture at the University ofStrathclyde, Glasgow, this issue of Open HouseInternational addresses various contexts in Scotland,Turkey, the Middle East, and the United States ofAmerica highlighting various theoretical and practicaldimensions of sustainability. It includes research con-tributions on architecture and urbanism as they relateto historical and morphological studies of urbanregeneration (in Glasgow, Scotland), housing typolog-ical transformations (in Konya in the Central Anatoliaregion of Turkey), issues of sustainability and nationalidentity (at Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, UAE and theMsheireb in Doha, Qatar), the impact on sustainabil-ity of housing development patterns (in Doha, Qatarand Dubai, UAE), an exploration of resilience theoryas it relates to urban morphology, research work (inArizona, USA) exploring the boundary between thebuilt and natural environments and the developmentof a Space/Nature syntax methodology, and two con-tributions that examine the theoretical concept ofArcology and the development of the urban laborato-ry at Arcosanti (in Arizona, USA) as both a model forGreen urbanism, and a place to critically evaluate aradical redefinition of the relationship between society,technology, and Nature.

In a European context, Dicle Aydin examinessocial and architectural characteristics as dominantconjoined components of urban planning, through theintroduction of new housing typologies that expresschanging lifestyles, socio-cultural structures, tastesand expectations in the Moram region of Konya inTurkey. Aydin’s morphological, sociological and onto-logical analysis supports his argument that new devel-oper-led dwellings, constructed in the last 10 – 15years, have caused a negative change in the identityand texture of neighbourhoods in Konya, and mightsignal permanent, and irreversible changes, in theurban fabric that endanger values of sustainability.Moving further to the West, the work of Barbour,Romice, and Porta laments the failure of post-wardevelopment in Glasgow to implement housing-ledregeneration and argue that the public sector couldtake a lead by providing development opportunity toinner-city neighbourhoods, supporting methodsderived from traditional master planning processes,and encouraging neighbourhood self-organisationand opportunities for small-scale house building, and‘performative’ design guidance directed towardssocial and environmental sustainability. In anothercontribution, Feliciotti, Romice, and Porta combineestablished knowledge in urban morphology with

FORGING ADVANCES IN SUSTAINABLEARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM.

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amaresilience theory to define five proxies of resilience,

discussing interdependencies between constituent ele-ments of the physical city incorporating the element ofchange, and the dimension of time, that determine theform of cities.

The emerging importance of the context inthe Middle East is examined in two papers selected todemonstrate different aspects of concern for sustain-ability in the region. Weidmann, Salama, and Ibrahim,in discussing some of the outcomes of an on goingcollaborative research project of the Qatar NationalResearch Fund (QNRF), present an overview of currentdevelopment patterns, and offers a sustainabilityframework to enable a preliminary assessment oflarge-scale affordable housing projects in the Gulfcities of Doha and Dubai. The assessment reveals dif-ferences between two major projects and their impacton the environment, economy and society in theMiddle East. In reframing the notion of sustainableurban development in the Middle East, SamerBagaeen, reflects on some underpinning assumptionsand inequalities, and invites us to consider the aggre-gate impact of individual master planned projects onthe urban fabric of fast growing cities and to thinkabout how projects such as Masdar City in Abu Dhabiand the Msheireb downtown redevelopment in Dohademonstrate how sustainability and nationalist dis-courses are intertwined.

Munro and Grierson invite us to consider howwe can maintain a human connection to Nature in anincreasingly urbanising world. Based on their currentresearch work on the development of a Space/NatureSyntax methodology, the paper supports the BiophiliaHypothesis in attempting to understand how designingto maintain our instinctive bond with Nature can pro-mote social interaction and inform future designchoices within built environments. The authors presentinitial findings, achieved through recent case studywork at Arcosanti, in Arizona, USA, and outline futuredevelopment of the methodology. The urban labora-tory at Arcosanti, and Paolo Soleri’s Arcology theorythat underpins it, provide the context for the remainingtwo contributions to this special issue. The work ofRuth Rae examines how the concept of Arcology andthe development of the Arcosanti prototype encom-pass principles of Green Urbanism and sustainabledevelopment, and describes how it is that the labora-tory, through a dual process of experimentation andconstruction has attracted over 7,000 participantssince 1970, and continues to provide positive experi-ential learning opportunities within a relevant modelof sustainable urban living. David Grierson, in hisreflective piece, argues that the positive utopiantendencies in Paolo Soleri’s work should be reaffirmedand, at the same time, he underlines an urgent needfor multi-aspect and multi-disciplinary research, andpostgraduate education, to be undertaken atArcosanti, to test the parameters of micro- and macro-structures within alternative models of ecologicaldesign as a major contribution to understanding thecomplexities of sustainability and the reformulation ofthe built environment. Both Grierson and Rae, in theircontributions, give acknowledgement to the ongoing

work of the Cosanti Foundation’s Board of Directorsand its new Strategic Plan Steering Committee, andtheir commitment to attract renewed levels of financialand human resource in support of the urbanlaboratory’s unfinished business.

It is clear that the discourse and researchfindings on sustainable architecture and urbanism thatare discussed in this issue of Open HouseInternational, represent serious attempts on the part ofacademics and practitioners from across the world toshift our thinking and practice in the built environmentaway from a current condition of unsustainable activitytowards a process of improvement and increasedquality. The task of building a better world for all, asdemonstrated by the 8 contributions by 12 scholars,remains hugely challenging and complex.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTAs guest editors of this special issue, we would like toacknowledge the resources and support offered by theDepartment of Architecture at the University ofStrathclyde toward developing this volume. Thanks aredue to the reviewers and contributors for their valuablework throughout the peer review process.

Guest Editors

David Grierson and Ashraf M. Salama

Department of ArchitectureUniversity of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1XJ, United Kingdom Emails:d.grierson@strath.ac.uk; ashraf.salama@strath.ac.uk