Post on 10-Apr-2018
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Citysphere: ecosystem lost and found?
Dr Keith Skene
Biosphere Research Institute
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It has been said that
"Geddes's great achievement in life has
been the making of a bridge
between Biology and Social Science"
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Town-planning is not
mere place-planning, nor
even work-planning. If it isto be successful it must
be folk-planning. Patrick
Geddes
The organic city whereculture is not usurped by
technology
Lewis Mumford
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What is the origin of a city?
Depends on who you ask:
Paul Bairoch product of
advent of agriculture
Jane Jacobs origin of
agriculture
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Brendan OFlaherty in City Economics:
Cities could persistas they have for
thousands of yearsonly if theiradvantages offset the disadvantages"
But whose advantage?
- the individual?
- the population?
- the State?
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Folk and place
Our place in the world is central to our
understanding of who we are
So who are we?
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IDENTITY
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Identity in time
Are we moving towards a better andmore perfect identity?
The noosphere ofTeilhard de Chardin
Or away from our true identity? The garden of Eden
Bosch
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Do cities need to return to the Garden
or provide the structure for a Utopian
world?
Is our true identity best served by the
past or the future?
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Progress vvs The Golden Age
Palazzo Pitti in Florence
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Not in Utopia,subterranean Fields,
Or some secreted Island, Heaven knows where!
But in the very world, which is the world
Of all of us,the place where in the end
We find our happiness, or not at all!
WilliamWordsworth
The French Revolution as It Appeared to Enthusiasts atIts Commencement
Map of Utopia
by Ambrosius Holbein
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Identity in space
Function vvs Form:
Form: the sensual world
- may facilitate function - has greater diversity than function
- and greater freedom
Structural identity
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The five portals of reality
SIGHT SOUND TASTE TOUCH SCENT
Our empirical reality
Platonic shadows on a cave wall
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Function
Single unifying theme across the
Biosphere: life as an energetic function
Function is a thermodynamic outcome
A living organism defies entropy,
briefly, as a flying bird defies gravity
A rationalist reality
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Whatever else we are, we are, primarily,
energy transformers
And live within an energetic context
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So what is the unit of identity?
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Identity in a biological context
Individuals are composed of communities of cells
That live and work together for the greater good
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Individuals are embedded
within the greater
ecosystem
Our identity as a unit, a
community and a part of a
larger whole
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John DonneMeditation 17Devotions upon Emergent Occasions
"No man is an island, entire of itself; everyman is a piece of the continent, a part of themain. If a clod be washed away by the sea,Europe is the less, as well as if a promontorywere, as well as if a manor of thy friend's orof thine own were. Any man's deathdiminishes me, because I am involved inmankind; and therefore never send to knowfor whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee..."
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Aldo Leopold
The natural world as a community to
which we belong the actions of humans are embedded
into an ecological network that should
be ignored at our peril
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Actor-Network Theory
Society and Nature are one
Humans cannot be seen in isolation
from what makes them purposeful
Humans and non-humans areintermeshed
Thanks to Nick Barter, University of St Andrews
Bruno Latour Michel Callon
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Ecosystem lost
Ecosystem detachment
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Identity crisis
Like a fish out of water, the loss of our
relationship with the ecosystem is
significant
Like a cell without its body, the
individual without its ecosystem issomehow incomplete
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The city as our ecosystem?
More than half the worlds population
lives in cities
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Thus the city has replaced the
ecosystem as our context
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A personal perspective
The citys true function is to provide a
simulated ecosystem for its inhabitants
Allowing them to re-integrate with theirgreater identity
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Escape from the city on a hill
Calcata, Italy
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Cities are isolated, non-integrated spaces
possibly stemming from:
- military protection
- industrial efficiency
- and tight work/sleep cycles
But they are here to stay
CHALLENGE
How can we re-integrate the city and re-
vitalize our greater identity?
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72 % greenspace
More than a third of the city
located in the Peak District
National Park
150 woodlands and 50 public
parks within Sheffield
Over 44 per cent of Sheffieldresidents live within a five minute
walk of a wood and half the citys
population live within 15 minutes
of the open countryside.
SHEFFIELD
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2. Productive integration
Embedding people into the city byintegrating their activities with the city
Replace non-fruiting plants with fruiting
plants
Roof gardens/ balcony gardens
Set up community stores on each
street/sector, selling local producepicked/made and crafted by residents
Money raised for community activities
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3. Seasonality
Celebrate seasonality a key ecosystem
property
Reflect seasonality in events/food/colours
Local produce stores will contribute to this
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How do these elements relate to
Geddes?
Geddes: A celebration of folk and place
Resonance with spatial identity
Resonance with temporal identity
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Exploration
Stimulation from spatial heterogeneity
Stimulation from temporal heterogeneity
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Sub-optimality in city function
Natural systems are sub-optimal at each
level
E.g. predator-prey; squirrel-nut stash
Evidence of importance of other levels in
each level
Demands of one level requires sub-optimality at others
Need for tolerance in design and process
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Summary
Re-integrating the city with the ecosystem
Re-integrating us with our ecosystem identity
The ecological context is an essential part of us
Significant implications in terms of the great
environmental issues facing us
By escaping from the isolated city on a hill