Biophilic Cities Research Articles

Green urbanism in the Indian Ocean region

The world is facing an ‘age of scarcity’ which will challenge all cities to reduce their resource footprint, especially carbon, improve biodiversity and at the same time continue to create economic opportunities and liveable places. This is green urbanism. These problems are being understood and cities are taking steps to resolve them. Around the world there are many emerging signs of green urbanism. This is a time for the Indian Ocean region, with its unprecedented urbanisation, to demonstrate to the world how to create a different kind of global economy that is more sustainable. Asia's cities are predicted to be home to more than 60% of the world's urban dwellers by 2050 and Africa will become even more dominant after that. The growth pressures in the region are clearly now dominating global urban demographics, but is the Indian Ocean region part of the solution or part of the problem? The first signs of the green economy are investigated through the theory of innovation waves and seven archetypal city types: renewable energy cities, bioregional carbon-neutral cities, distributed cities, biophilic cities, eco-efficient cities, place-based cities and sustainable transport cities. The first assessment of the contributions being made in the region shows considerable innovation happening in Asia. The opportunities for the region to lead the world in green urbanism are real.

On the Possibilities of a Charming Anthropocene

The Anthropocene—the geological epoch in which human activities are signaled in Earth's geological records—often appears as an age to be met with grim resignation. Anxiety-driven narratives about this era can translate into very material landscapes of surveillance, tightened borders, farmland acquisitions, and so on, landscapes where speculation shapes lived realities. This article proposes that instead of joining the chorus of dark predictions, or rejecting the flawed concept altogether, geographers are well positioned to experiment with articulating a different Anthropocene. Fragments of a beautiful Anthropocene are already under design: agroecology, green roofs and buildings, distributed renewable energy systems. Yet to weave together a vision compelling enough to provoke cultural and political change, other elements are necessary: a reawakened sense of wonder, an ethic of care, and aesthetic and cultural production around these. This article proposes enchantment as a concept to evoke these elements and discusses the merits and dangers of imagining an enchanted Anthropocene. It looks at emergent alternative framings for thinking about a human-shaped earth and examples of related practices—rewilding, biophilic cities, planetary gardening, smart landscapes—which could make for a more habitable and welcoming epoch.

Biophilic Cities Are Sustainable, Resilient Cities

There is a growing recognition of the need for daily contact with nature, to live happy, productive, meaningful lives. Recent attention to biophilic design among architects and designers acknowledges this power of nature. However, in an increasingly urban planet, more attention needs to be aimed at the urban scales, at planning for and moving towards what the authors call “biophilic cities”. Biophilic cities are cities that provide close and daily contact with nature, nearby nature, but also seek to foster an awareness of and caring for this nature. Biophilic cities, it is argued here, are also sustainable and resilient cities. Achieving the conditions of a biophilic city will go far in helping to foster social and landscape resilience, in the face of climate change, natural disasters and economic uncertainty and various other shocks that cities will face in the future. The paper identifies key pathways by which biophilic urbanism enhances resilience, and while some are well-established relationships, others are more tentative and suggest future research and testing.

Urban Biodiversity Gains New Converts

Nature is being brought back into urban life—and that bodes well for efforts to conserve global diversity. Cities are supporting a range of efforts, including restoring watersheds; expanding and linking conserved areas; encouraging green roofs and local green gardening; reintroducing native fauna and flora to parks and walkways; removing the constructed covers over brooks, streams, and rivers (referred to as daylighting waterways); and encouraging educational outreach programs and green architectural design. From Stockholm and Malmo in Sweden to Copenhagen, Denmark; Curitiba, Brazil; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco; Chicago; New York City; and Singapore, cities are revitalizing the potential for biodiversity. There is much new thinking going on. Timothy Beatley, University of Virginia professor of environmental and urban planning, extends biophilia— biologist E. O. Wilson’s term for an inherent human affinity for other species and natural communities—to city planning. His “biophilic cities” steward and restore their natural and cultivated biodiversity. Beatley details this urban vision in Biophilic Cities: Integrating Nature into Urban Design and Planning. “My vision of a vibrant, compact, walkable, sustainable city has within and without it lots of nature— horizontally, vertically in all the spaces of the city,” he said Summit convened for the second time. The summit was held in Hyderabad, India, in conjunction with the biannual Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Attended by over 500 people, including over 60 mayors or municipal leaders, the Cities for Life Summit showcased the CBD-requested report in an interview. New parks are being planted with native species, and many experts write about the health benefits of urban biodiversity. “With nature in the city,” Beatley explains, “we are more social and healthier. Nature... is uniquely suited to bring us together.” Urban biodiversity got a boost in October 2012, when the Cities for Life

Biophilic Boulder: Children's Environments That Foster Connections to Nature

Across the United States, the movement to reconnect children with nature has grown immensely in the past decade. Many urban children are disconnected from nature, yet nature can provide many important benefits and freedoms for these same children. Biophilic cities seek to incorporate nature into urban life at many scales. Because nature can play an important role in childhood development and because children operate at such small scales, this paper examines the characteristics of a biophilic city in the context of children's experience. Using case studies from Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A., we illustrate various aspects of biophilic cities that are successful in fostering nature experiences for children and provide design recommendations for other cities that may wish to incorporate biophilic elements into urban design.

Biophilic City Design Principles Applied, Vancouver Style

(2011). Biophilic City Design Principles Applied, Vancouver Style. International Journal of Sustainable Building Technology and Urban Development: Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 118-122.