Sustainable urban regenerative process and densification: theory and practice

摘要

This paper will define the theoretical premise of sustainable design and its practice. This theory is then formulated into a sustainable planning and design process, which was used to develop the regenerative sustainable community proposal for the authors' city of residence - Pullman, Washington, USA. The proposal was awarded a gold medal at the UN Habitat-II Conference in Istanbul, Turkey. Probably more importantly, it has increased community concerns for sustainable development. The proposal can be reviewed on our web site (www.arch.wsu.edu/sustain). The Pullman regenerative and densification proposal stands upon the ecological modeling techniques which carefully balance on-site interchanges between the unique human and environmental systems. The amount or percentage of renewable human and environmental resources used by a development is a useful "indicator" or measurement of the degree to which sustainability is achieved. The primary ecological or biological variables used in this process were air, water, food and fiber, energy, and human ecology. These interchanges became indicators of sustainable development and define inherent qualities and the carrying capacity of the city. This approach allows this community (as well as others) to model, measure and program a series of design strategies for sustainable development as well as monitor the city's regenerative process. The authors have researched and documented how the selected strategies have been successfully applied in other vernacular and contemporary cities and architecture throughout the world. The resultant program and plan was an effort to revitalize the existing community, enhance its sense of place and human/social, economic, and environmental qualities. The critical integrated levels of sustainable, regenerative intervention permeates all scales of the defining qualities of this place, defined in a nested hierarchy including the region, city, neighborhood, clusters and dwelling units. The proposal, its theory and methodology have created a useful model and method for this city (and others) to evaluate the effectiveness of various planning and citizen initiatives as we work towards a sustainable future.