TY - CHAP
T1 - Cities as Organisms
AU - van den Dobbelsteen, Andy
AU - Keeffe, Greg
AU - Tillie, Nico
AU - Roggema, Rob
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - Since the UN report by the Brundtland Committee, sustainability in the built environment has mainly been seen from a technical focus on single buildings or products. With the energy efficiency approaching 100%, fossil resources depleting and a considerable part of the world still in need of better prosperity, the playing field of a technical focus has become very limited. It will most probably not lead to the sustainable development needed to avoid irreversible effects on climate, energy provision and, not least, society. Cities are complex structures of independently functioning elements, all of which are nevertheless connected to different forms of infrastructure, which provide the necessary sources or solve the release of waste material. With the current ambitions regarding carbon- or energy-neutrality, retreating again to the scale of a building is likely to fail. Within an urban context a single building cannot become fully resource-independent, and need not, from our viewpoint. Cities should be considered as an organism that has the ability to intelligently exchange sources and waste flows. Especially in terms of energy, it can be made clear that the present situation in most cities are undesired: there is simultaneous demand for heat and cold, and in summer a lot of excess energy is lost, which needs to be produced again in winter. The solution for this is a system that intelligently exchanges and stores essential sources, e.g. energy, and that optimally utilises waste flows. This new approach will be discussed and exemplified. The Rotterdam Energy Approach and Planning (REAP) will be illustrated as a means for urban planning, whereas Swarm Planning will be introduced as another nature-based principle for swift changes towards sustainability.
AB - Since the UN report by the Brundtland Committee, sustainability in the built environment has mainly been seen from a technical focus on single buildings or products. With the energy efficiency approaching 100%, fossil resources depleting and a considerable part of the world still in need of better prosperity, the playing field of a technical focus has become very limited. It will most probably not lead to the sustainable development needed to avoid irreversible effects on climate, energy provision and, not least, society. Cities are complex structures of independently functioning elements, all of which are nevertheless connected to different forms of infrastructure, which provide the necessary sources or solve the release of waste material. With the current ambitions regarding carbon- or energy-neutrality, retreating again to the scale of a building is likely to fail. Within an urban context a single building cannot become fully resource-independent, and need not, from our viewpoint. Cities should be considered as an organism that has the ability to intelligently exchange sources and waste flows. Especially in terms of energy, it can be made clear that the present situation in most cities are undesired: there is simultaneous demand for heat and cold, and in summer a lot of excess energy is lost, which needs to be produced again in winter. The solution for this is a system that intelligently exchanges and stores essential sources, e.g. energy, and that optimally utilises waste flows. This new approach will be discussed and exemplified. The Rotterdam Energy Approach and Planning (REAP) will be illustrated as a means for urban planning, whereas Swarm Planning will be introduced as another nature-based principle for swift changes towards sustainability.
KW - Biomimetrics
KW - Carbon neutrality
KW - Energy neutrality
KW - Organisms
KW - REAP
KW - Sustainable development
KW - Swarm Planning
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85051941424&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-94-007-4378-6_9
DO - 10.1007/978-94-007-4378-6_9
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:85051941424
SN - 978-94-007-4377-9
VL - 48
T3 - Advances in Global Change Research
SP - 195
EP - 206
BT - Swarming Landscapes: Advances in Global Change Research
A2 - Roggema, Rob
PB - Springer International Publishing Switzerland
CY - Netherlands
ER -