Sustainable Urban Design: Innovations and Case Studies - Essay Example

Sustainable Urban Design

Sustainable urban development implies a new connection between social livelihood, the natural environment, economic and institutional processes, and urban form and structure. It needs an alteration of the current urban design, socio-economic, and environmental settings. Sustainable urban design entitles the natural processes sustaining life to stay intact, and to function alongside inventiveness for the enhancement of the well-being of the society and the quality of life. Urban design projects have sustainable design strategies in terms of greening, water efficiency, energy conservation, walkability, and social sustainability. Social sustainability includes education facilities, public parks, gyms, and workplaces, among others. Good examples of urban design projects include The Urban Village in Oslo, L’innesto in Milan, and the U.A.E. Federal National Council New Parliament Building Complex (Richie & Thomas, 2013).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

U.A.E. Federal National Council New Parliament Building Complex

The United Arab Emirates Federal National Council New Parliament Complex is a structure that has been constructed focusing on sustainability and urban development. The design is outlaid by a striking dome structure that is one hundred meters in diameter which will fabricate a blended micro-environment while hurling Islamic patterns of light onto the Assembly Hall which is made of pure white marble. It is a soaring “flower of the desert”. The edgy building houses the majority of visitors’ programs, meeting halls, and offices. Most social celebrations are held there. The project is a landmark for the conservation of the precious resources of the region and public gatherings. Walkways and extensive gardens design a cooling oasis for visitors and the local population. The dome faces the Arabian Gulf, the water body shared among six of the seven Emirates. With a dramatic glow at night, the dome will be visible from miles across the water body (Ehrlich & Griffin, 2011).

The lattice-doomed parliament building implemented Estidama. Estidama is an Arabic word for sustainability. Estidama is a design methodology applied in the construction and operation of communities and buildings to more sustainability. Ehrlich, in his design, tries to harmoniously balance the tradition and modernity aspirations in regard to Islamic heritage. Energy efficiency and sustainability core the design and the project required to attain a five-pearl rating in Estidama (Saliba, 2016).

Steven Ehrlich Architects was the great designer behind the magnificent lattice-domed parliament building. The project commenced in 2011. Federal National Council New Parliament Complex is located in Abu Dhabi Corniche, where the important civil celebrations and events take place, in the country’s capital. On the project, Ehrlich was joined by two other design firms; one of them being a landscape architecture firm known as Valley Crest Design Group and the other architect was Godwin Austen Johnson (Ehrlich & Griffin, 2011).

The U. A. E Federal National Council New Parliament Complex has been incorporated with sustainable design strategies. The incorporations include desert architectural designs that are unique and passive solar designs. The project ensured that the parliament building did not use energy from the Emirate. The site of the building conveys its importance as a public institution. The colors around the dome are soft, like the sand on the beach (Elliot, 2019).

Solar passive design is the best strategy to limit cooling loads and heat gain for the complex. The architect’s design was a genius invention for sustainability. Thick, bright walls are used to collect heat during the day and release it out during the night as thermal mass. Recessed windows, skylights, and daylighting through light wells will limit the use of feigned lighting during the day (Ehrlich & Griffin, 2011).

The Urban Village in Oslo

The Urban Village project in Oslo, Norway is delineated with sustainability as a conducting parameter. The project that initiates a car-free environment generates a surfeit of energy promoted by passive house principles and solar panels that cover all facades and sun-exposed roofs. The Urban Village project is designed for the production of more energy compared to what it consumes. The project is a carbon-neutral one with the extensive use of renewables and green areas. The Urban Village project achieves a footprint of low carbon by opting for wood products like wood-fiber insulation. The principles of the nature-based design foster pliability to climate change (Roe & Luccarelli, 2016).

The aim of the project is the inclusivity of urbanity while reinforcing society as a modern village. A strong emphasis has been directed to economic, social, and environmental sustainability. The design of the Urban Village reflects flexible, affordable, and diverse housing with great consideration of communal spaces. The recent community house nurtures a courtyard, inter-generational social and cultural exchanges, and a bountiful greenhouse. The sustainable project supports biodiversity and urban agriculture with large greenhouses for vegetables, fruits, or herbs. The green additionally creates different habitats and microclimates to promote the biodiversity of anima sand plant species on the site. Sustainable urban development as a digital solution is connecting people with the environment (Burry et al., 2020).

The Urban Village project lies on a two thousand, two hundred square feet site near the Furuset Center and the subway. The Furuset Center is a typical suburban area and a transportation hub. The site, which has been used as a car park for a long time is projected to house modern developments located in the Grorud Valley, which profits from a municipal and governmental joint effort to intercept the environmental challenges as well as the social challenges facing the local population (Hanna et al., 2020). The project was launched in June 2019. Three main members of the projects’ lead team are OBOS NYE HJEM AS who was the team leader; EFFEKT Architects and SPACE 10 who did the designing, Bollinger, and Grohmann were the environmental experts while the developer was VIEDEKKE (Roe & Luccarelli, 2016).

The plan is to introduce cheaper housing projects that would make it easier to live affordably, and sustainably, and promote more fulfilling norms of existing among each other. That is envisioned prioritizing sustainability, affordability, and sustainability. The Urban Village project offers access to shared services and facilities that are used daily. A gym, shared daycare, communal dinners, shared transportation, urban gardening, and groceries will come alongside the project (Burry et al., 2020).

The project promotes living sustainably as it has integrated sustainable solutions like the production of local food, localized composting, and water harvesting. The project proposes that some social resources could be shared among many and in turn the cost of living would go down. The project adheres to a modular building system where the building materials and components can be replaced and disassembled, recycled, and reused over the project’s lifespan. The Urban Village project will save the planet by waste minimization; people will also be flexible and freer (Hanna et al., 2020).

L’innesto in Milan

Milan’s strategic plan is part of a competition of C40 reinventing Cities. The plan aims at transforming underutilized railway zones in the area of a previous freight terminal. C40 Reinventing Cities selected L’innesto as their winning project in Italy. The L’innesto project zone spreads sixty-two thousand square meters and encompasses three definite parts: a deserted truck facing the west of the Bicocca district, the previous railway station alongside the current Greco-Pirelli station, and a green zone on Via Breda Street. Once completed, L’innesto will be the first Italian carbon-neutral social housing project. The site is located in Northeast Milan (Colombo et al., 2013).

The project presents a valuable opportunity to improve the link between a renewed urban project and a mixed-use ancient neighborhood known as Precotto. Precotto is rich in activities and services. The existence of the biggest railway station that provides suburban services on the connection to Monza, makes the project a paramount convergence in the metropolitan milieu. The site’s redevelopment offers an opportunity to reduce traffic caused by cars and in turn to promote the use of other sustainable transport modes, overcoming the railway hurdle to enable cycling and pedestrian connections to the relative destinations and the station (Bignami et al., 2017).

The project will pry a heating system that is fourth-generational, powered by renewable sources that are on sight and connected to the neighborhood. The project has a target of sixty percent green space. In turn, there will be a limit for other vehicles and a priority for bike parking, a shared neighborhood fleet of cars, and car-charging terminals for electric cars (Bignami et al., 2017).

The design of the project adopts a “Human Adaptive Zone” with an agricultural heart and a collaborative neighborhood. The agricultural appearance will be created by a garden nursery, breathtaking landscapes, green-seeded roofs, and vegetable gardens. Rainwater will be conserved and it will be one hundred percent reused (Della, 2020). That will save the consumption of drinking water by up to thirty percent. Fifteen percent of the wastewater will be treated immediately on-site. Minimization in soil excavation and techniques for treating the bi-remediation will be re-cycled for landscaping. The carbon dioxide balance sheets take into consideration the entire construction process and thirty years of consecutive management. The project has been designed to attain a zero balance all round its lifecycle (Colombo et al., 2013).

The proposed project was presented by a team that included Barecca & La Varra for the architecture and landscaping design, Fondo Immobiliare Lombardia, Stantec for the site remediation, rainwater, and water waste management, InvestiRE SGR as the manager, and Arup Italia for the urban and environmental design. Arup is the coordinator of the project working with the Circular Economy advisor to provide an environmental and sustainable design with a well-planned de-carbonization strategy (Della, 2020).

The plans of the de-carbonization strategy include developing a private carbon fund that will enable a swap system for local carbon emissions. This will initiate the offset of the carbon from the district through continuous implementation of projects that are carbon neutral. Numerous engineered activities are on site like an Energy Showroom, a Circular Economy District, and a Community Food Hub, among others. A district application will be available and will support the future occupants of L’innesto in preserving a sustainable community and in being part of sustainable urban development (Bignami et al., 2017).

References

Bignami, D. F., Vitale, A. C., Lue, A., Nocerino, R., Rossi, M., Savaresi, S. M. (2017). Electric vehicle sharing services for smarter cities: The Green Move project for Milan: from service design to technology deployment.