Urban Design Theory
City form and Natural Process: Towards a New Urban Vernacular
By Michael Hough
Routledge, London, 1989
Essential
principles are:
- Urban
ecology as healthy basis for shaping cities
- Aim is a
sustainable future
- Maintenance
of biological diversity
- Environmental
view involves economic, politic and planning/design issues
- Urban
problems root in the inner city
- Recollection
of vernacular landscapes (used for food production, pragmatic aims)
- Once: no
abundance of energy à ceased
by the beginning of industrialisation
Design
Processes:
e.g.
geological uplift, erosion, hydrological cycle as well as
changes in community like social
alterations, demographic change and politic shifting
Connectedness of factors is omnipresent
Making the most of opportunities
Making visible the processes that sustain life
CITY à
development to make cities environmentally and socially healthier
à diversity as
precept!
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Using this Theory: Grosvenor Bridge
Grosvenor Bridge as an
energy producing (=water wheel),
biodiverse (=green wall & inner-city forest) and
pragmatic (=rail way level) facility.
= making the most of opportunities!
Visualisation X-section:
Before:
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After:
.jpg)
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