GEOG 346: Day 22 Fusing the Natural and Built Environments

Housekeeping Items Film on mining impacts Next Tuesday night, there will be a film, “Defensora,” on the conflict between a Canadian mining company and an indigenous Guatemalan community. It starts at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 1 st in Building 200, Room 203.

Housekeeping Items I promised to show you some images of Barcelona architect, Antoni Gaudi.

Can There Be A Peaceful Co-Existence Between Nature and the City? Some resources: e_s_genius_in_architecture and _action. e_s_genius_in_architecture _action

Fusing the Natural and Built Environments There are a whole array of strategies:  Greenbelts  Greenways/ core and corridor systems in the city that serve as habitat/ wildlife migration corridors and also as alternative transportation pathways  Parks of varying degrees of wildness  Conservation subdivisions  Botanical gardens  Japanese gardens/ quiet oases in the city  Community gardens  Green buildings, green roofs, “living buildings”  Alternative stormwater management systems (swales, etc.)  Living walls

Randall Arendt on Conservation Design He contrasts conventional subdivision design with conservation subdivision design. Conventional design is “where all the land is divided into houselots and streets, with the only open space typically being undevelopable wetlands, steep slopes, floodplains, and stormwater management areas” – or SLOAP, Space Left Over After Planning. In these subdivisions, there are usually few places to walk, for community events, or children to play. The Planned Residential Developments (PRDs) of the 1960s were somewhat more flexible in layout, but they didn’t provide better treatment of open space. [See

Randall Arendt on Conservation Design In conservation subdivision design, at least 50% of the site is reserved for open space, and half of that in a relatively natural state. The other half can be used as playing fields or parkland for picnics, etc. The half of the land that is developed contains as many units as would exist in a conventional subdivision – that is, to say, the development is “density neutral.” It achieves this either through narrow, smaller lots and narrower houses or through duplexes, townhouses, or other denser forms of housing. The key thing is to select the conservation lands first. See next page for contrasting examples.

Conventional Design Conservation Design

Role Play Context: Vancouver, which is undergoing a high rate of change, given its attractiveness as a world city and as a profitable place to development and speculate on real estate. Four Groups: 1)developers; 2)city officials (council members and city administrators); 3)environmentalists; 4)neighbourhood groups alarmed by the pace of change and concerned with affordability issues. I will randomly assign you to a group. Determine what the goals and outlook of your group are. What is it you want and why, and how do you justify/ rationalize that? Try to negotiate a constructive solution that satisfies all parties.