Biophilic Cities: Integrating Nature into Urban Design and Planning

198 Pages·2011·10.221 MB·English

by  Beatley, Timothy

Biophilic Cities
Timothy Beatley
Biophilic Cities
Integrating Nature into
Urban Design and Planning
Timothy Beatley
Washington | Covelo | London
© 2011Timothy Beatley
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without
permission in writing from the publisher:
Island Press, Suite 300, 1718 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20009
ISLAND PRESS is a trademark of the Center for Resource Economics.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Beatley, Timothy, 1957-
Biophilic cities: integrating nature into urban design and planning /
Timothy Beatley.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-59726-714-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-59726-714-7 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59726-715-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-59726-715-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. City planning—Environmental aspects. 2. Sustainable development.
3. Human ecology. 4. Urban ecology (Sociology) I. Title.
HT166.B3927 2010
307.1'216—dc22
2010011658
Printed using Bembo and Korinna
Printed on recycled, acid-free paper
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Keywords:biological diversity, biomimicry, biophilia hypothesis, bioregional planning,
ecocity, environmental education, green building, green urbanism, green streets, light
pollution, nature deficit disorder, stormwater management, sustainable, community
design, urban ecology, urban parks, urban planning and design
To Jadie and Carolena,
and the next generation of urbanites
who will care about the nature around them.
Contents
Preface xi
Foreword xv
Chapter 1 The Importance of Nature and Wildness in Our
Urban Lives 1
Chapter 2 The Nature of (in) Cities 17
Chapter 3 Biophilic Cities: What Are They? 45
Chapter 4 Biophilic Urban Design and Planning 83
Chapter 5 New Tools and Institutions to Foster Biophilic Cities 131
Chapter 6 Concluding Thoughts: Growing the Biophilic City 151
Endnotes 159
Bibliography 175
Index 181
Preface
This book is a first effort at explicating and tentatively defining what a
biophilic city is and what it might look and feel like. While the title will be
a bit unfamiliar to planners and urban designers today, part of the purpose
for writing this book is to change that and to squarely place connections
with and care for nature in urban areas on the agenda for these disciplines.
There are several parallel geneses of this book that should be cred-
ited. The first is a highly stimulating conference organized by Professor
Stephen Kellert, through the auspices of the Yale School of the Environ-
ment, in the spring of 2006. It brought together an amazing “who’s who”
of theoreticians and practitioners in the area of green design. The presenta-
tions were innovative and heady, and it felt very much like we were collec-
tively breaking new ground, and we were. The outcome of that meeting
was the subsequent publication of the groundbreaking book Biophilic Design:
The Theory, Science and Practice of Bringing Buildings to Life,1edited by Kellert,
along with Judith Heerwegen and Marty Mador.
Biophilic Design has been very well received, especially within the
architectural community, and there is no other book quite like it. But it is
heavily focused on buildings. I was asked to write a chapter in that book on
biophilic cities, and it is one of the only pieces that extend the discussion
beyond the structure, building, and site. The Kellert book was a tremendous
advancement to the design literature but served to further convince me of
the need for a stand-alone book about biophilic cities, which you now hold
in your hands.
This book is also intended to serve as a companion (of sorts) to the
2009 documentary film The Nature of Cities (NOC). The making of this
film has served as another important point of learning and inspiration for
the book. Special thanks are due my Colorado-based filmmaker–collaborator
Chuck Davis, whose creative eye and stimulating questions helped to propel
this book forward as well. Chuck’s last film, Transforming Energy, received
critical acclaim and was widely aired on PBS stations around the country,
and there is every expectation that NOCwill be equally successful as it airs
xi
xii Preface
in the months and years ahead. But while the book benefits from the film
and tracks it in many ways, it is broader and more inclusive, tackling issues
(such as what precisely a biophilic city is), stories, and examples not covered
in the film (or that could not be adequately covered in a short documentary
film). Nevertheless the two are quite complementary and should be seen as
useful companions. The film is a visual and sensory celebration of the green
and natural qualities of many cities and features faces and smiles and won-
drous looks on people living and working on the greening of their cities,
and this is a useful thing indeed.
What follows is a relatively compact book, modeled after E.O.
Wilson’s The Creation2—beautifully written and illustrated, provocative and
thoughtful, and highly accessible. I’m not sure if I’ve reached these lofty as-
pirations, but I have given a try. The subject deserves nothing less.
As will be apparent, the book draws heavily on the actual condi-
tions, experiences, and programs under way in a number of cities around
the world. The bulk of the examples and stories, however, are from North
Ameri can, European, and Australian cities where the author’s own work has
focused. This is a limitation and one I hope will be addressed (perhaps by
others) as the ideas and concepts of biophilic cities and biophilic urbanism
catch on and move forward. Are these ideas and design and planning ex-
pressions as easily applied in larger cities of the developing South, for in-
stance? How relevant is biophilic design to the billion or so residents of
slums in large cities around the world. Will biophilia have any practical mean-
ing or use in the favelas (slums or shantytowns) of São Paulo or Rio de
Janeiro or the shantytowns in cities like Lagos in Nigeria or Mumbai (for-
merly Bombay). Indeed, the issues of balancing nature and human needs are
undoubtedly different in those locations. As I am writing, a conflict has arisen
in Rio over the building of a series of walls separating favelas from sur-
rounding remnants of the very biodiverse Atlantic forest, ostensibly to pre-
vent further encroachment. In Mumbai, for instance, population growth and
urban expansion have virtually eliminated the diverse system of mangroves
that protected that urban estuary from floods. In other megacities, such as
Mexico City, smog and air pollution take priority on the environmental
agenda. Despite the severity of these urban problems, it is my hope that the
goals and aspirations of biophilic cities, the desire to create the conditions
of urban life in close contact with the natural world, will prove relevant and
compelling throughout the world, but that will have to await future writing
and research and the works of others to follow.
In that vein it is worth emphasizing that what follows here is not
the definitive work on what the biophilic city is or could be. Rather, the
goal is much more modest: to at least begin to talk about what a biophilic
Preface xiii
city might include or feel like or look like. It’s meant to be more exploratory
than thorough, more provocative than comprehensive. I will await others
who will pick up the gauntlet and carry through with what will likely be
more ambitious agendas and scholarship. I am happy to mark an important
beginning in thinking about cities through a biophilic lens.
What follows are six chapters that together begin to sketch out
what a biophilic city is or could be. Chapter 1 explores the history and
meaning of the concept of biophilia and how it might be useful in shap-
ing the design and planning of cities. A number of arguments are made on
behalf of efforts to integrate nature into cities and urban neighborhoods.
Chapter 2 is an exploration of the wondrous and amazing nature that does
in fact exist in cities; from the microscopic to the large, from the visual
to the auditory, from the discrete to the enveloping, nature is everywhere
and ubiquitous, though often hidden and unnoticed by urbanites. Chapter
3 is an initial attempt at defining what a biophilic city is, or might be, and
what some of its main qualities and key principles are. What does a biophilic
city look and feel like, and what are its sensibilities and values?
A number of specific strategies for planning for and designing in
nature are examined in chapter 4, with many examples offered from North
American, European, and Australian cities. From larger-scale plans for restor-
ing natural systems and green infrastructure to the site level and building
scale, this chapter provides a comprehensive introduction to the state of the
practice in biophilic urban design. Chapter 4 also explores the design and
functioning of biophilic urban neighborhoods. Again with many examples
of existing neighborhoods across the country and world, the main question
is, What will be necessary to make nature a (the) central organizing element
of the urban places in which we live and play and raise children? Chapter 5
is an exploration of what is needed beyond physical design and planning—
what are the institutions and organizations, the urban capabilities, the grant
programs and new urban codes needed to stimulate and in some cases man-
date biophilic cities and urban design. Finally, chapter 6 provides concluding
remarks and some speculations about future directions in research and prac-
tice in the area of biophilic cities.
Foreword
Beautiful, benevolent, and soul restoring, nature waits for us to bring
her home.
It is not so much that humanity has destroyed a large part of the
natural world and withdrawn from the remainder. We have also expelled it
needlessly from our daily lives. Today, the number of people living in urban
areas has passed the number living in rural areas. Simultaneously, the home
range of each person on average, the area traversed on a regular basis, is de-
clining steadily. In the cities we do not grow our own food or hunt for it.
Mostly, we pick it up at a market and have little idea of its origin. Our eyes
are fastened upon the digitized images of screens. Even the images of nature
we see are those of remote places, taken by other people.
No matter, we say—the city sustains us, and we are happy. But
so are cattle in a feedlot. They are provided with the essentials of mainte-
nance but can never live the lives true to their species and the epic million-
year evolution that put them on Earth. They cannot visit the habitat
in which they were born. They cannot roam freely, explore, learn the dan-
gers and discover the delights that shaped their bodies and brains. And to
a lesser degree, the same is true of humans in most of the cities around
the world.
Cities—rural villages in the beginning—have been in existence for
only about ten thousand years, and then for most of the ensuing time for
only a very small percentage of the population. In Biophilic Cities: Integrating
Nature into Urban Design and Planning,Timothy Beatley shows that in creat-
ing them, we have carelessly left out part of the environment vital to the full
development of the human mind. The evidence is compelling that frequent
exposure to the natural world improves mental health, it offers a deep sense
of inner peace, and, in many ways we have only begun to understand by sci-
entific reason, it improves the quality of life.
Beatley also demonstrates the many ways to design urban land-
scapes and buildings to bring nature into the hearts of our cities. He shows
xv