THIRD WHITEPAPER SERIES BY BAUHAUS EARTH

Third Whitepaper Series "Building For The Future" by Bauhaus Earth looks at Urban Scale

Release Date:
1970.01.01

Within the Building for the Future Collection, a third series of Knowledge Products supported by the Toni Piëch Foundation, Bauhaus Earth is highlighting the focal role of urban design and city planning in elevating the challenges faced in the built environment. These challenges, and a vision for a regenerative future built environment has been explored in Series 1 Setting the Frame, while Series 2 Regenerative Buildings outlined the - equally important to the urban context - obstacles, opportunities, and solutions for this vision on the building scale.

Urban areas already account for over 70 per cent of global CO₂ equivalent emissions. In addition, urbanization and land-use changes are among the most significant drivers of environmental degradation. At the same time, cities are home to the greatest socio-economic disparities and bear the brunt of climate change impacts. An estimated 1.2 billion urban dwellers currently lack reliable, safe, and affordable access to basic urban services. By 2050, 800 million people in coastal cities are expected to be exposed to sea level rise of at least 0.5 metres, while 1.6 billion urban dwellers will be exposed to extreme heat.

However, the way cities are designed and managed can significantly influence the trajectory of these challenges.

Adopting Compact and Mixed-Use Planning

How we develop and organize individual neighbourhoods and entire cities has a significant impact on their environmental footprint, both in terms of resource use and carbon emissions. The urban form, the use of urban spaces, the provision of infrastructure and mobility create a collective impact on energy and material use, waste management, biodiversity, disaster risk, health and socioeconomic opportunities. It provides examples of compact and mixed-use developments and how they are contextualised in different urban planning concepts and contexts.

Green and Blue Spaces – Reintegrating Nature in Cities

The design, establishment and maintenance of green and blue spaces in urban areas has many environmental and socio-economic benefits. Not only does access to green and blue spaces have a positive effect on the human psyche, but these spaces are also particularly important for biodiversity, flood risk mitigation and strongly influence the local microclimate. Find out more about challenges, opportunities, and case studies. For example, how the city of Medellín has managed to reduce ambient temperatures by an average of 2°C through a network of green spaces.