Greening Cities : Building Just and Sustainable Communities

Greening Cities : Building Just and Sustainable Communities

Greening Cities : Building Just and Sustainable Communities

Author(s): Joan Roelofs

Publisher: Bootstrap Press

ISBN: 0942850351

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Nicholas L. Henry, President, Georgia Southern University:
Joan Roelofs is one of the few persons to see that the dream of the Green City is an attainable reality. She has brought together for us many of the most inspiring projects that are creating more sustainable communities in all corners of the globe. Greening Cities is a very welcome source of information and an inspiration for this process. . . .

Jan Juffermans, policy planner at De Kleine Aarde/The Small Earth in the Netherlands and author of the guide, Sustainable Lifestyles, recently published by Towns and Development, an international network of local authorities, NGOs and community groups:
Joan Roelofs’ Greening Cities represents not only a way to learn about environmental studies, but public administration as well particularly planning for urban areas. It is a unique contribution to the literature, and I can commend it to professors and students of public administration alike.

Book Description:
This book is a treasure trove of practical ideas that embody Green values of social and environmental justice and are actually working on the ground in small, medium, and large cities, as well as some rural communities, all around the world. It shows how these values can and are being incorporated in local government policy and how they shape voluntary efforts by community groups.

From the Publisher:
This book is a treasure trove of practical ideas that embody Green values of social and environmental justice and are actually working on the ground in small, medium, and large cities, as well as some rural communities, all around the world. It shows how these values can and are being incorporated in local government policy and how they shape voluntary efforts by community groups. Topics covered in separate chapters range from urban design, democracy and culture to energy, water, transportation, food, waste, health, economy, and recreation. Originally conceived as a workbook for students in urban and environment studies, public administration, geography, and planning, Greening Cities is also must reading for community leaders, activists, and indeed anyone concerned about and committed to building a more just and sustainable society. Illustrated, index.

From the Back Cover:
Greening Cities is a treasure trove of practical ideas that embody Green values of social and environmental justice and are actually working on the ground in small, medium, and large cities, as well as some rural communities, all around the world. It shows how these values can and are being incorporated in local government policy and how they shape voluntary efforts by community groups. Topics covered in separate chapters range from urban design, democracy, and culture to energy, water, transportation, food, waste, health, economy, and recreation. Originally conceived as a workbook for students in urban and environment studies, public administration, geography, and planning, Greening Cities is also must reading for community leaders, activists, and indeed anyone concerned about and committed to building a more just and sustainable society. About the Author : Joan Roelofs is Professor of Political Science at Keene State

Table of Contents
Chapter 1 – Introduction – What Are Green Cities?
Chapter 2 – Urban Design
Chapter 3 – Energy
Chapter 4 – Water
Chapter 5 – Transportation
Chapter 6 – Food and Agriculture
Chapter 7 – Waste
Chapter 8 – Health
Chapter 9 – Economy
Chapter 10 – Recreation
Chapter 11 – Culture
Chapter 12 – Democracy
Chapter 13 – Eco-City Institutions
Epilogue – What Is a Green City?
Appendix – Organizations Concerned with Greening Cities
Selected Bibliography
Index

Ecocity Berkeley : Building Cities for a Healthy Future

Author(s): Richard Register

Publisher: North Atlantic Books

Paperback: 152 pages

ISBN: 1556430094

ISBN-13: 978-1556430091

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Richard Register belongs to the Ben Franklin tradition of inventors, generalists, and hopeful geniuses. His ideas about ecological cities are a valuable contribution to the great human task of figuring out how to manage a biosphere and enjoy life while we are at it.”
-Walter Truett Anderson, author of To Govern Evolution

“A trailbreaking book, essential reading for anyone concerned with the future of our cities–in a class with the Goodmans’ Communitas and Alexander’s A Pattern Language.
-Ernest Callenbach, author of Ecotopia

Product Description

Ecocity Berkeley offers innovative city planning solutions that would work anywhere, but the book offers a vision of what the future can be like with a fair amount of planning beforehand. This book is very inspirational, and could be used to advocate similar planning improvements in any large city. This book is meant for anyone interested in environmental activism, and anyone looking for serious innovations in their city.

Toxic Free Neighborhoods Community Planning Guide

Order From: Environmental Health Coalition
Attn: Publications
1717 Kettner Blvd., Suite 100
San Diego, CA 92101
FAX: (619) 232-3670

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Urban low-income communities of color often endure a disproportionate share of the health and economic burdens created by toxic chemicals. The Toxic Free Neighborhoods Community Planning Guide provides an opportunity to reverse this trend and create healthier neighborhoods through citizen participation, effective public policy advocacy, well-directed public education efforts, and pollution prevention approaches. Grassroots and environmental justice groups along with elected officials, academic institutions, city planning and zoning departments will find this guide vital to effective environmental planning and redevelopment in urban areas.

The New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of Community

The New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of Community

The New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of CommunityAuthor(s): Peter Katz, Vincent Scully

Publisher: McGraw-Hill

ISBN: 70338892

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245 pages December 1993

An exploration of new suburban communities and neighborhoods on the edge of the 21st century.

The New Urbanism is a movement that seeks to restore a civil realm to urban planning and a sense of place to our communities. It is a tangible response to the failed Modernist planning that has resulted in unchecked suburban sprawl, slavish dependence on the automobile, and the abandonment and decay of our cities. Katz, who heads a marketing and design firm, brings together in this informative and accessible book the voices and case studies of the young architects and planners who practice the New Urbanism–Peter Calthorpe, Andres Duany, and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, among them. They gear their designs to the scale of the pedestrian and seek to promote a symbiotic relationship between urban development and public transportation. An often published example of this movement is the community of Seaside, Florida. Extensively illustrated with plans, diagrams, and color photographs and renderings, this highly instructive book is a must for architecture and urban planning collections, and suitable for general readers.
– Thomas P.R. Nugent, New York
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Table of Contents:

I. Introduction;

II. Examples of the New Urbanism:

  • Satellite Towns;
  • New Towns on the Edge;
  • Urban Insertions;
  • Urban Reconstruction;
  • Regional Plan, Policy Studies;

III. Appendix, Reference Material. Index. 11 x 8 1/2. 500 illustrations.

The Architecture of Affordable Housing

The Architecture of Affordable Housing

The Architecture of Affordable Housing

Author(s): Sam Davis

Publisher: Univ California Press

ISBN: 0520208854

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The Architecture of Affordable Housing

Paperback, 220 pages
Publication date: June 1997

From Booklist , 04/15/95:
The architecture of affordable housing has assumed as many forms as the very nomenclature. Davis presents a history of poor, low-income, social, and subsidized housing using examples of Frank Lloyd Wright, the WPA, and contemporary case studies in the most expensive state in the union, California. These examples illustrate that while the beliefs surrounding affordable housing have changed, the need has been steady, if not growing. They also illustrate many myths, one being that affordable housing most often isn’t any cheaper to build than market-rate housing. The in-depth documentation of the community planning process shows just how passionate the contesting parties are and how complex the issues have become. While not offering Wright’s technical secrets on cost cutting, the California case studies lend the book a credibility from which both laypeople and architects can benefit. But, ultimately, the 10 award-winning projects the author presents as evidence of good architecture fulfilling a social need skirt the real issue: Why is it that award-winning projects can turn into unlivable places and that less attractive ones can be wonderful places to live? While the book is valuable, Davis does not address the issue of place-making and community, which many believe is the heart of the affordable housing crisis. Copyright© 1995, American Library Association. All rights reserved

Synopsis:
Architect Sam Davis contends that a country of wealth that cannot provide sound housing for those in need is a national embarrassment. Here Davis explores the design possibilities of dignified affordable housing for those not served by the private sector and how that housing could fit comfortably into our communities. 108 illus.

Table of Contents
Introduction
1. The Architect and Affordable Housing
2. The Process: The Long and Winding Road
3. Why Affordable Housing Isn’t
4. Design: Things Big and Small, Far and Near
5. Is Affordable Housing Significant Architecture?
Afterword
Notes
Illustration Credits
Index

Good Neighbors : Affordable Family Housing (Design for Living)

Good Neighbors : Affordable Family Housing (Design for Living)

Good Neighbors : Affordable Family Housing (Design for Living)

Author(s): Tom Jones, William Pettus, Michael Pyatok

Publisher: McGraw-Hill

ISBN: 0070329133

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Good Neighbors : Affordable Family Housing (Design for Living)

Hardcover, 240 pages
Publication date: December 1996

Design family housing that only looks like it cost a fortune. Discover how America’s most creative, resourceful builders and communities are solving affordable housing problems by applying the design and construction techniques detailed in Good Neighbors: Affordable Family Housing by Tome Jones, William Pettus, and Michael Pyotok. Filled with real-life examples ranging from small towns to inner-city locations, this hands-on resource gives you a brief history of affordable housing in the USA and shows you how to develop these units with a mix of government and private financing, you get revealing profiles of people who live in affordable housing. . .essential data on the factors that influence affordable housing design. . .and dozens of illustrated case studies of developments from coast to coast. The book showcases the work of William Tawn Associates, Cooper Robertson Partners, Marquis Associates, Solomon, Inc. and other innovative firms.

 

Synopsis:
Based on the lauded AIA Design for Housing initiative and supported by an NEA grant, here is the first truly authoritative guide to modern affordable housing design. This landmark book provides architects, landscape architects, planners, developers, advocates, government officials, and policy makers with workable answers for the design of affordable, anesthetically pleasing housing.

Ancient Futures : Learning from Ladakh

Ancient Futures : Learning from Ladakh

Ancient Futures : Learning from LadakhAuthor(s): Helena Norberg-Hodge, Peter Matthiessen

Publisher: Sierra Club Books

ISBN: 0871566435

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The swiftly evolving socioeconomic life of Ladakh, whose people struggle to balance growth and technology with cultural values, offers crucial lessons in sustainable development. This gripping portrait of the western Himalayan land known as “Little Tibet” moves from the author’s first visit to idyllic, nonindustrial Ladakh in 1974 to the present, tracking profound changes as the region was opened to foreign tourists, Western goods and technologies, and pressures for economic growth. These changes in turn brought generational conflict, unemployment, inflation, environmental damage, and threats to the traditional way of life.
Appalled by these negative impacts, the author helped establish the Ladakh Project (later renamed the International Society for Ecology and Culture) to seek sustainable solutions that preserve cultural integrity and environmental health, while addressing the Ladakhis’ hunger for modernization. This model undertaking effectively combines educational programs for all social levels with the design, demonstration, and promotion of appropriate technologies such as solar heating and small-scale hydro power.


Examining how modernization changes the way people live and think, Norberg-Hodge challenges us to redefine our concepts of “development” and “progress.” Above all, Ancient Futures stresses the need to carry traditional wisdom into the future—our urgent task as a global community.

 

204 pages Publication date: September 1992

From Eco-Cities to Living Machines : Principles of Ecological Design

From Eco-Cities to Living Machines : Principles of Ecological Design

From Eco-Cities to Living Machines : Principles of Ecological DesignAuthor(s): Nancy Jack Todd, John Todd

Publisher: North Atlantic Books

ISBN: 1556431503

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From Eco-cities to Living Machines presents the ecologically-based working designs and prototypes of biologist John Todd and writer and environmental activist Nancy Todd. Since 1969 with the founding of New Alchemy Institute on Cape Cod, the Todds have become known world-wide for their leadership in the restoration of pure water, bioremediation of wild aquatic environments, food production, and urban design. In this new book, the Todds further develop the idea of Eco-cities, designs for integrating agriculture and flowing pure water into green urban settings and introduce Living Machines, a family of technologies for purifying wastewaters to tertiary quality effluent without chemicals. Provocative and grounded firmly in the principles of biodiversity, the Todds’ work encompasses site-specific technological interventions and systems-wide ecological planners and designers, environmental economists, and systems-based engineers working to change the way we utilize production, technology, water and energy.

2nd Edition
Paperback, 185 pages
Publication date: April 1994

Table of Contents
Preface: The Years Between
Ch. 1. New Alchemy: Where It All Began
Ch. 2. From Bioshelters to Solar Villages to Future Human Settlements
Ch. 3. Emerging Precepts of Biological Design
Ch. 4. Redesigning Communities
Ch. 5. The Surrounding Landscape
Ch. 6. The Transforming Energy
Epilogue: Living Machines and the Years Ahead
Notes and References
Index

Design Outlaws on the Ecological Frontier

Cover, Design Outlaws on the Ecological Frontier Author(s): Chris Zelov, Phil Cousineau and Brian Dantz

Publisher: Chelsea Green Pub Co

ISBN: 096503061X

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Paperback Publication date: April 1997

300 pages, 225 photos

Buckminster Fuller was a design outlaw. He shattered preconceived notions of how buildings and machines should be put together. The result was the geodesic dome, the 60 mile-per-gallon Dymaxion Car, the self-sufficient Dymaxion House and host of other inventions that influenced a new wave of designers. In making their award-winning film, Ecological Design, Chris Zelov and Phil Cousineau interviewed 26 present-day design outlaws. To expand on the film, they published this book. Both the film and the book are brimming with the ideas and prototypes of the trailblazers who have defined ecological design over the past thirty years.

Here’s a partial list of the outlaws: Brendan O’Reagan, Ian McHarg, Douglas Adams, John Todd, Jay Baldwin, Stewart Brand, Mary Catherine Bateson, Paul McCready, William McDonough, Amory and Hunter Lovins, Hazel Henderson, Pliny Fisk, Paolo Soleri, Christopher Alexander, John Connell and many more. These forward-thinking designers have defied convention with new ideas on shelter, energy, transportation and industry. In addition to being thought-provoking, these colorful characters are very entertaining.

Table of Contents

Chapter One:
Into the Fuller Universe
Thomas Hughes: The Frontier Spirit of Invention
Harold Cohen: Design as a Way of Making the World Work
Brendan O’Reagan: Outlaw Creativity
Douglas Adams: The Mad Ones; The Original Ones
John Todd: The Innovator’s Sense of Urgency
J. Baldwin: Encounters with the Mentor
Ian McHarg: Fuller’s Contribution
Paul MacCready: The Inventive Process

Chapter Two:
From a Machine for Living to Living Machines
Ian McHarg: Why is Architecture Oblivious to the Environment
James Wines: Towards a New Architecture
Edmund Bacon: Nature as Design Paradigm Stewart Brand: Sitting at the Counterculture
J. Baldwin: Into the Design Revolution
Tony Gwilliam: Organic Building
Mary Catherine Bateson: Understadning Natural Systems
William McDonough: Not a Machine for Living in – A Living Machine!

Chapter Three:
The Intelligent Use of Energy
Amory Lovins: The Road Least Taken
Hunter Lovins: The Rocky Mountain Institute
Peter Calthorpe: Whole-Systems Design
Hazel Henderson: Redefining Wealth
J. Baldwin: On Tools
Harold Cohen: Money is Money
William McDonough: Designing for Interdependance

Chapter Four:
The Galactic Explorer Perspective
Paul MacCready: The Galactic Explorer Comes to Visit
Brendan O’Reagan: Thinking in Interplanetary Terms
Pliny Fisk: Systems in Continuous Evolution
John Allen: The Cosmic Drama
Harold Cohen: Making the World Work for All Humanity
Duane Elgin: The Univeral Liturgy
John Todd: The New Alchemists
William McDonough: Reviving the Ancient Art of Design
James Wines: Developing a New Iconography

Chapter Five:
The Emergence of an Ecological Design Science
Ian McHarg: On the Origins of Ecological Design
Brendan O’Reagan: Heading for an Aesthetic of the Invisible
William McDonough: The Multiplier Effect in Design
Carol Franklin & Lesley Sauer: Synergistic Solutions
Tony Gwilliam: Comprehensive Anticipatory Design
Christopher Alexander: Design for Living Structures
Gail Vittori & Pliny Fisk: Obstacles to Sustainable Design
Mary Catherine Bateson: Making the Earth Our Home

Chapter Six:
The New Collective Dream
Paolo Soleri: Tranforming the Urban Condition
Tony Gwilliam: Integrated Architecture
Amory Lovins: Retrofitting Our Cities
Leslie Sauer & Carol Franklin: The Greening of the City
Christopher Alexander: The Living Structure Approach to Design
Mike Corbett: Why Can’t We Build Better Communities?
Virginia Thigpen: Community – Conceived Designs
Jaime Lerner: The Collective Dream

Chapter Seven:
Writing the New Codes
Peter Calthorpe: The History of the Codes
Douglas Adams: The Infinite Virtual Address
Duane Elgin: Mutually Assured Development
Paul MacCready: Education as an Odyssey of the Mind
James Wines: Design Education
Ian McHarg: Teaching the Ecological World View
Mike Corbett: Reinventing Design Education
Hazel Henderson: The Importance of Self-Education
William McDonough: a Shift from Style to Substance
Tom Casey: The Transformation of Business
J. Baldwin: Future Housing
Mary Catherine Bateson: A Future that Looks Like Home

Afterword: Toward a Design Curriculum for the 21st Century

Biography: R. Buckminster Fuller J. Baldwin: Teaching Comprehensive Design Science David Sellers: Antiques of the Future John Connel: Towards A Design Curriculum Anthony Walmsley: Ecological Design: Myth or Method