Urban Design in the Anthropocene

Abstract

Earth scientists have modeled the global impacts of human fossil fuel energy use and heat generation for 50 years as ecologists have tried to propose remedial programs to counter the predicted, impending catastrophe. This paper traces the history of modeling urban form during the same period, interlacing the hybrid discipline of Urban Design between the models of City Planning and Architecture. The paper presumes a familiarity with basic urban design elements such as the enclave, armature and heterotopia. The paper matches these elements against predominant energy supply patterns to trace the contemporary emergence of urban fragmentation and patch dynamics in complex systems. The three models of Kevin Lynch, the City of Faith, the City Machine and the Ecocity form the basis of the analysis framed within a fourth contemporary model, the informational Metacity/Megacity. This model has the capacity to track, trace and manage the previous urban forms and their relationships at multiple scales. The paper shows that heterotopias, ambiguous patches and spaces of change have played an important part in previous energy transitions. The question is whether, given the current global energy bias to oil and gas, new urban life forms can emerge in time to meet the needs of future generations? There remain strange spaces of hope where humans have produced urban environments of beauty under great stress. Such past experiments could possibly provide answers for future conditions.