Neil Murphy Feed Your Curiosity Sustainable Urbanism
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Transcript of Neil Murphy Feed Your Curiosity Sustainable Urbanism
2/12/2010
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Sustainable urbanism
Context
Why sustainable urbanism?
Defining qualities & characteristics
Why it hardly happens, and how it can
Some thoughts and issues for Newcastle
Rising population
Increasing consumption
Increasing resource use
Falling water tables
Shrinking cropland
Shrinking rangeland
Declining soil quality
Declining ocean fisheries
Shrinking forests
Worsening air quality
Declining climate stability
MACROTREND
MACROTREND
Between 1980 and 2002,
energy use in the thirty
richest countries rose by
23%...
...in the years 2000 to
2006, the rate of global
CO2 emission increases
tripled... global CO2 is
increasing at over 3%
per annum...
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“In societies where income differences between rich and poor
are smaller, the statistics show not only that community life is
stronger and people are much more likely to trust each other,
but also that there is less violence... that health is better and
life expectancy is several years longer, that prison populations
are smaller, birth rates among teenagers are lower, levels of
educational attainment among school children tend to be
higher, and lastly, there is more social mobility. In all cases,
where income differences are narrower, outcomes are better”
Richard Wilkinson, co-author, The Spirit Level
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“Across the richest 25 or 30 countries there is no tendency
whatsoever for health to be better among the most affluent
rather than the least affluent countries. The same is also
true of levels of violence, teenage pregnancy rates, literacy
and maths scores among school children, and even obesity
rates. We have reached a level of development beyond
which further rises in absolute living standards no longer
reduce social problems or add to wellbeing.”
Richard Wilkinson, co-author, The Spirit Level
“We shape our buildings and
afterwards our buildings shape us”
Winston Churchill
“Place, it seems to me, is a much more empathetic way of
talking about the environment, not least because it assumes
humankind to be an embedded part of the environment
rather than a species standing apart from the environment…”
Jonathon Porritt
In the hydrocarbon economy we valued mobility over accessibility,associating it with freedom and aspiration – and lack of it withpoverty or failure – and shaped our environments accordingly
We shaped space defensively and compartmentalised our lives –
you don’t live where you work, work where you shop, shop where
you live... ‘sense of place’ gave way to no place in particular: civility
and interdependence is destroyed...
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Regeneration and economic opportunity were equated with
property development; scale and concentration – the basis of
vigorous exchange of goods, services and ideas – was lost.
Above all, we confused what’s good for business with what’s good for the economy, and what’s good for consumers with what’s good for society... the ultimate failure of planning
Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, 2007
“We must learn to see that every
problem that concerns us
conservationists always leads to the
question of how we live”
Wendell Berry
How shall we live?
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Technotopia?
“Neighbourhoods, towns and cities were invented to facilitate
exchange. Exchange of information, friendship, material goods,
culture, insights, skills and also the exchange of emotional,
psychological and spiritual support. For a truly sustainable
environment we must maximise this exchange while minimising
the travel necessary to do it.”
David Engwicht, Towards an Eco-city
...or back to the future?
The upside of down: good
urbanism enables people to
live sustainably and well
Diversity,
adaptability
and continuity
Ever-changing
yet never-
changing
Urban and
green
Public and
private
Vibrant and
quiet
The good city
Sustainable urbanism because...
• Economic – it concentrates, promotes interaction and
the easy contact and exchange (of stuff and of ideas)
that characterises productive and successful places
• Social – it reduces the realm of private difference and
promotes the common good, where necessary trading-
off individual please-yourself; it’s pro-poor and
inclusive (at both ends)
• Environmental – it grasps the limitations of the
technology-replacement view of the ‘low-carbon
economy’ and creates the conditions for genuinely
sustainable culture
Doing
everything
differently
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Interlaken East Station Switzerland
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Urban & rural together – resilience and interdependence....
A culture of sustainability
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“Tell me, I forget
Show me, I remember
Involve me, I understand”
What normally happens
1. Developer acquires land; professes commitment to “exciting new high-quality residential/ commercial/ mixed-use development”
2. Developer appoints professional team
3. Professional team designs policy-compliant scheme
4. Team meets planners and a few other gatekeepers
5. Public exhibition is held – whizzy CGI, smiling faces, no cars... PUDDLE
6. Submits planning application
7. Builds (unsustainable) rubbish
From NIMBY to BANANA...
According to the consultancy firm Saint, 85% of
British people are opposed to any form of new
development where they live
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to
From
Beyond Green placemaking projects 2002-2010
• Harlow North (28,000)
• 2012 Olympic Legacy (10,000)
• West Southall (4,000)
• Rugby Radio Station (6,200)
• Stanton Ironworks (5,000)
• 4 years strategic advice to New East
Manchester URC
• Community Enquiry for S&N brewery site,
Newcastle
• Competition for Irvine Harbourside, West
of Scotland (800)
• Walker Riverside Community Enquiry
• Etc, etc...
In a nutshell:
• High-quality, sustainable mixed-use development costs more
upfront but offers better longer-term returns
• Upfront land prices destroy viability – so find owners/partners
with patience willing and able to share in longer-term value
creation
• Retain some ownership to profit from medium-to-long term
value growth (vested interest) – ‘estate’ model
• Work at scale – units of walkable urbanism
• BlueLiving Ltd established in 2006 to promote and deliver large-
scale residential-led, mixed-use sustainable developments in the
UK
• Joint Venture with UK commercial property fund Development
Securities plc - £10m fund for initial site acquisition (via option or
stake) and promotion
• Current projects
- Pincents Hill, Reading – 750 homes
- North East Norwich – 4,000+ homes over 25 years
- a.n.other – 6,000+ homes in negotiation...
Pincents Hill: scheme summary
• Compact mixed-use walkable neighbourhood
• 750 homes in a range of types, sizes and tenures, including 35%
affordable; generous volumes
• Productive roofs for energy, food growing, outdoor eating and
ecology
• Comprehensive mixed-use strategy including hotel/restaurant,
business centre, library, health centre, primary school
• Adaptable buildings to allow increased local retail and commercial
uses over time & housing responsive to residents’ changing needs
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Pincents Hill: scheme summary (cont.)
• “Car freedom” strategy for sustainable transport including
localised mixed-use, excellent cycle & pedestrian connections,
new bus route, 50-space car club, electric car facilities, strict
parking ratio & leased permit parking
• CHP energy network with biomass boilers and solar PV for 17% of
electricity demand – overall 60% renewable energy – managed by
on-site ESCo
Detailed Cameo of Block N7
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10 tenets of sustainable urbanism
1. What’s the purpose of development - “how shall we live?”
2. A process: it starts from the city’s values, self-image and way of thinking
3. Because of reciprocal determinism we have to involve people (rather than ‘engage’
them or ‘consult’ them) in understanding and deciding how
4. Its organising imperative is the movement economy – and in the best cities the
walking economy – and the economic, social and cultural outcomes it makes
possible
5. Cardinal characteristics of city planning: compactness, connectedness and diversity
6. Diversity x4: in the (walkable) neighbourhood, the (fine-grained) block, the
(adaptable) building, the (mixed) community – take anyone out and the whole piece
falls short
7. The public realm: the business incubation space of any good city
8. Importance of the ‘good ordinary’ – not just icons + housebuilders
9. Whole-life values and patient finance – new development model needed
10. Get all this right and then (and only then) ‘sustainable design’ has true value
Implications
• What kind of society, and what kind of ‘competitiveness’? Catch-up, or new paradigm?
• ‘Business friendly’ or economy friendly?
• Movement across the Tyne, and consequentials...
• Big projects vs the great ordinary...
• New development economics and the role of the public sector
• Regional and city-regional relations
• How to systematise...
In the middle of the road, you get
knocked over
www.beyondgreen.co.uk
www.blueliving.co.uk