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Q&A: UK’s Ecotowns
Vikki Miller, Guardian
Later this month, the government is to announce the 10 locations chosen to become Britain’s first green communities. But the controversial plans have already sparked nationwide protests. Vikki Miller takes a look at what the developments will entail.
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What is an ecotown?
Ecotowns will be entirely new settlements of between 5,000 and 20,000 homes, designed to a strict set of environmental criteria. Most important, the whole town has to be carbon neutral. This means the amount of energy taken from the national grid to run the town is less than or equal to the amount put back through renewable power.
The government has also said that each new place should have a “separate and distinct” identity with good links to surrounding towns and cities for jobs, transport and services. At least 30% of the homes have to be affordable and a secondary school, shops, business space and leisure facilities are also required. Each town should also be an exemplar in at least one area of environmental sustainability.
When will they be built?
It is expected that there will be up to five ecotowns by 2016 and 10 by 2020.
(13 February 2008)
Related from Guardian: Eco-towns are the greatest try-on in the history of property speculation (Simon Jenkins opinion)
Protesters promise a fight to halt eco-towns
Peak Moment: Energy and Climate Initiatives in Santa Barbara (audio and video)
Peak Moment via Global Public Media
Santa Barbara is lowering carbon emissions starting with a greenhouse gas emissions study; adding solar panels to city buildings; requiring lower energy usage for new buildings; converting vehicles to biodiesel and/or hybrids; giving free bus passes to downtown workers. City councilmember Das Williams urges citizens to push officials to make substantive (i.e., funded) changes to mitigate the effects of peak oil and climate change. (www.santabarbaraca.gov)
(13 March 2008)
Green Architecture and Urbanism: Council Report VII
Laurence Aurbach, Ped Shed
Green building today is well-defined and increasingly popular. However, green urbanism is only starting to coalesce as a defined or systematized approach to the built environment. The Council Report VII features 21 articles on sustainable construction and placemaking by leading practitioners of new urbanist design, planning and education.
As sustainability techniques are adapted from the building scale and applied to the neighborhood and regional scales, a number of critical issues arise. In the rush to go green, we are seeing more instances of misplaced priorities and poorly conceived approaches to scaling up green techniques. That leads to unintended consequences and worsened environmental performance. Therefore, the Council Report VII addresses questions like:
- What are the best principles and techniques now being developed to coordinate sustainability measures and functional urban design? What are the advanced tools now being developed by urban designers to code and build sustainable urbanism?
- How are firms redefining themselves to focus on sustainability as a foundation of their practice?
- What lessons are offered by leading examples of sustainability policies, built projects, and plans? What are effective guidelines for communicating and marketing sustainable communities? What are the definitions of sustainable urbanism, and how do we measure or quantify it?
- What is research telling us about the sustainability of traditional architectural design and construction techniques, and their performance relative to modernist styles?
- How are universities incorporating sustainable urbanism, and what programs and initiatives are now underway?
- What are the philosophical underpinnings of green urbanism and what are the proposed agendas for future research and advocacy?
In the extended entry, a complete table of contents and a summary of each article. …
As editor of the “Council Report VII: On Green Architecture and Urbanism,” I am pleased to announce that the publication has been printed and is now available for order (PDF).
(3 April 2008)
