The built environment and the ecosphere: a global perspective

The human population is rapidly urbanizing, leading many observers to conclude that humans are leaving nature and the countryside behind. This is a perceptual error consistent with the technological optimism inherent in the prevailing expansionist cultural worldview. By contrast, ecological analysis reveals that modern cities are actually increasingly dependent on the goods and services of nature. This fact is merely obscured by technology and urbanization itself. Typical high-income cities appropriate the productive and assimilative capacity of a vast and increasingly global hinterland, resulting in an 'ecological footprint' several hundred times larger than the areas they physically occupy. In the next 27 years, the urban population alone is expected to grow by the equivalent of the total human population in the 1930s. This will double the 1970s urban presence on the Earth. Unfortunately, the conventional development path is biophysically unsustainable, calling for a radical transformation of our thinking about urban form and function. Buildings account for 40% of the materials and about a third of the energy consumed by the world economy. Combined with ecocity design principles, green building technologies therefore have the potential to make an enormous contribution to a required 50% reduction in the energy and material intensity of consumption globally. The needed dematerialization increases to 90% in the high-income countries. Such enormous gains in material productivity are unlikely in the absence of significant ecological fiscal (tax) reform. Ironically, then, the most effective path to green buildings and ecocities may be intensive lobbying for higher taxes on primary energy and materials. La population de la Terre est en voie d'urbanisation rapide, ce qui amene de nombreux observateurs a conclure que l'homme abandonne la nature et la campagne. Cette erreur de perception va de pair avec l'optimisme technologique inherent a la mondialisation culturelle et a l'expansionnisme qui prevalent aujourd'hui. Or, l'analyse ecologique fait apparaitre, au contraire, que les villes modernes sont en expansion dans un contexte de dependance vis-a-vis des biens et des services que procure la nature. Mais cette situation est tout simplement escamotee par la technologie et l'urbanisation. Les villes a revenus eleves s'approprient la capacite de production et d'assimilation d'une vaste zone fonctionnelle globale, en expansion, qui se traduit par une 'empreinte ecologique' dont la surface depasse de plusieurs centaines de fois la surface que ces villes occupent reellement. Dans les 27 prochaines annees, la population urbaine seule devrait voir passer ses effectifs a un nombre equivalent a la population totale du globe de 1930. Ainsi, la part que representaient les villes dans les annees 1970 va-t-elle se trouver doublee. Malheureusement, la filiere du developpement classique n'est pas durable sur le plan biophysique et appelle une transformation radicale de notre maniere de penser en termes de formes et de fonctions urbaines. Les batiments utilisent 40% des materiaux et environ un tiers de l'energie consommes par l'economie mondiale. Associees aux principes de conception de cites ecologiques, les technologies des 'batiments verts' devraient permettre d'atteindre l'objectif vise au niveau de la planete qui est de reduire de 50% la consommation d'energie et l'utilisation de materiaux. Cette dematerialisation necessaire passe a 90% dans les pays a hauts revenus. En l'absence de toute reforme significative de la fiscalite ecologique, de tels gains de productivite paraissent impossibles a atteindre. Il est ironique de penser que la voie la plus efficace vers les batiments verts et les cites ecologiques pourrait passer par le travail de groupes de pression favorables a une augmentation des impots sur les materiaux et l'energie primaire.     

中国城市单位社区的残留现象及其影响因素

运用定量研究方法，基于问卷调查的第一手数据，本文从微观层面研究与中国城市单位居民迁居相伴的残留现象，定量分析影响居民残留的各种因素。在中国住房福利分配制度结束后，单位社区居民开始面，晦着多样化的住房市场选择；但在迁居日益活跃的同时，仍然存在众多“残留”在单位社区中的居民。多元回归分析显示，以进住单位社区居住时间衡量的残留水平受到性别、家庭收入、教育程度和家庭规模等个体因素，以及单位相关因素如单位性质和住房产权等因素的共同影响。在解读转型期重塑中国城市社会空间的力量时，除了对迁出者及其推动郊区化的机制予以关注，也应重视残留在单位社区的居民对于内城社区转型和再生的重要意义。     

国外大型公共建筑建设与城市的发展互动及其启示

当前，城市政府已把增强城市软实力、彰显城市品牌形象和提升城市综合竞争力作为城市建设的重要目标。具有城市景观展示和形象塑造功能的大型公共建筑的建设成为了城市实现上述目标的重要途径。在此背景下，研究国外著名的城市公共建筑建设与城市发展的互动关系，总结其成功的经验具有很强的现实意义。通过对大型公共建筑的概念进行界定，在回顾前人研究成果的基础上，文章选取国外著名的公共建筑建设及其与城市发展互动案例进行研究，得出其建设成功的启示，给我国相关项目的建设予以借鉴。     

漕运文化与中国城市发展

以漕运制度为切入点，分析了漕运文化与都城及商业城镇发展的关系，进而探讨了城市滨河地区及其建筑在漕运文化影响下的兴衰和变迁，对理解我国城市的发展沿革和当前的城市更新具有积极和创新的意义。     

Movement on Shifting Sands: Deinstitutionalisation and People with Intellectual Disability in Australia, 1974–2014

This article reviews four decades of deinstitutionalisation policies in three Australian states, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. It seeks to understand the factors influencing the slow and haphazard progression of the movement and its more contested outcomes such as the redevelopment of some institutions and their replacement with other congregate or cluster housing models that are at odds with the original visions of community care and normalisation. The article highlights the consistent and effective opposition to deinstitutionalisation from some families of institution residents, and the shifting policy frameworks and ideologies—from ‘normalisation’ to ‘choice’—in which it progressed. In particular, the article highlights the intersections between deinstitutionalisation and urban policy. The article is based on a review of existing scholarly literature, policy documents, inquiry reports and media sources.     

The development of grade separation pedestrian system: A review

During the past century, numerous cities around the world have introduced Grade Separation Pedestrian System (GSPS), including Underground Pedestrian System (UPS), skywalk systems or a combination of both, as an alternative way for pedestrian circulation to overcome the limitations of congested and traffic compromised street networks. This paper provides an overview of the development of GSPS across the world, and discusses the varied issues and debates relating to the development rationale and impacts of GSPS. The literature review indicates that GSPS were implemented in various cities due to various considerations and they have varied impacts on the city and its people both positively and negatively. As a relatively new topic in urban and transport studies, GSPS highlights important issues and questions that are deserving of more in-depth research. This research suggests that five research aspects need to be updated: new drivers beyond what has been presented in previous research; evidence-based research of GSPS in different cities; quantitative assessment of the development of GSPS; comparisons of the development patterns of such systems in the world; and the development of GSPS in developing countries.     

瞭望台MVRDV与勃兰卡·耶欧设计的西班牙马德里社会住宅

文章结合对MVRDV“三维都市”概念的解读,介绍了MVRDV与勃兰卡·耶欧在西班牙马德里合作的社会住宅项目“瞭望台”。     

基于城市功能转型的空间结构调整研究——以邯郸市峰峰矿区为例

城市功能与城市空间结构紧密相关,城市功能引导城市空间结构不断调整,而城市空间结构的改进又带动城市功能的不断完善.邯郸市峰峰矿区作为我国典型的煤炭资源型城市,正面临城市功能转型的严峻挑战.尽快实现城市功能的转型及相应的城市空间结构的调整,是峰峰矿区实现可持续发展的关键,是把握新的发展机逼的必由之路.     

Crisis! What Crisis? Retooling for Mass Markets in the 21st Century

From his base in Southeast Asia, Tom Verebes , Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), asks what the hardcore realities are for robotics in architecture in this new ‘Asian Century’. At a time when China strives to accommodate 10 million new urban citizens each year by rolling out high-rise residential blocks with standardised serial production techniques, what hope is there that the homogeneous Chinese city will apply robotic tools of mass customisation for the construction of distinctive, rather than generic structures?     

‘Remember Who You Are Designing For’: An Interview with Baroness Sally Greengross OBE

Baroness Sally Greengross has a long and deep knowledge of issues surrounding ageing. Until 2000 she was Director General of Age Concern for 13 years, and also joint Chair of the Institute of Gerontology at King's College London and Secretary General of Eurolink Age. She is now President/Chief Executive of the International Longevity Centre-UK (ILC-UK), an influential think-tank impacting policy on longevity, ageing and population change. Since 2000, she has been a crossbench (independent) member of the House of Lords and she chairs five All-Party Parliamentary Groups: Dementia, Corporate Responsibility, Intergenerational Futures, Continence Care, and Ageing and Older People (Co-Chair). Here, the Editor of AD, Helen Castle , interviews her on shifting attitudes to ageing and the importance of designing for the older population.