Sustainable urban planning projects in Europe (largest, crime, regional, architect)
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Could anyone fill me in on what the most ground-breaking, and successful sustainable urban planning projects in Europe have been so far? Ones that have already been set in motion are preferred to ones in their initial stages, as I am doing a paper on the topic and scholarly journal articles are a must.
Are you looking for large urban development projects? I would say most large European cities have at least one
London: Canary Warf
Berlin: Potsdamer Platz
Montpellier: Antigone
Amsterdam: Eastern Docklands, Amsterdam Zuid
Dublin: IFSC and Point Village
Vienna: Kaisermuhlen
Malmo and Copenhagen have new (re)developments in their harbour as well.
Some cities were completely or largely destroyed during WWII and rebuilt/are rebuilding their city centers like Berlin and especially Warsaw and Dresden.
Yes, but sustainable ones. Ones that are made specifically to be energy efficient, carbon neutral, with a closed waste loop, short commutes, with compost facilities on site--that sort of thing.
I don't think the ones you listed are sustainable. Looked up Canary Wharf and nothing written about that.
Canary Wharf is a secondary business district a few miles from the old financial district. It's sustainable in the sense it's well connected to existing transit, doesn't use up much room or encourage sprawl I guess. Commutes to Canary Wharf are sometimes rather long, but it's London.
Thanks for the information. That's not radical enough to be of interest/use though.
For anyone else interested on this, here are the examples I'v found so far, just in note form:
>One Planet village in UK, by Bio Regional
>fuel cell hydrogen buses project across Europe by CHIC
>Alidhem in Sweden
>cloughjordan – ecovillage, ireland
>biosphere reserve: french-german cross-border protected area. UN>Unesco>Man and the Biosphere Programme
>Stockholm – Green Capital awarded in 2010
-750 km of bike lanes
-hammarby sjostad eco-district, development began over decade ago
-energy from waste. 3 types of waste (3 bins) are transported in separate underground chutes. Self-empyting bins.
-congestiont taxes
-bio-gas buses
-stockholm royal seaport: to stop sprawl, reuse brownfields. With traffic hierarchy: pedestrians first, bikes second.
-recognizes importance of aesthetics and user-friendliness
-organic garabage disposal in sink
>Malmo, sweden (3rd largest city)
-storage of cold and heat for later use/opposing seasons
I grew up as an Army brat, I had lived in Germany during the mid 60s (Düsseldorf) and early 70s (Ilvesheim, between Mannheim and Heidelberg) and remember seeing a lot of buildings that were bombed during WWII, also saw a lot of old men missing arms and legs and otherwise disfigured. I remember seeing a lot of construction cranes in the big cities in certain sections.
When I was a teenager I went to Düsseldorf in 1979 and again in 1980. Their way of life is much different than the US, most people live in apartment buildings, owing your own home with a 3 car garage in a subdivision on an acre lot is unheard of. Owning a car there is a pain in the butt, first off just finding a place to park is a challenge in some areas and at the time the price of gas was around 1DM/liter which was over $2/gallon. I had gotten a pass to ride the strassenbahn and could go anywhere I wanted, they have taxis but I never had to use one. Life is actually easier there if you don't have a car. I had a cousin there that could not wait to turn 18 so she could get a drivers license any buy a car, by the time she was 20 she sold it, I had another cousin there who was my age, he could not believe that I was only 16 and had a license to drive a car in America.
Another major differences is their big cities are more liveable than big cities in the US, there is way more effort in up keep and cleaning, even buildings built in the 1500s in die Altstadt are in better condition than any American inner city, urban decay was just never allowed to happen. The streets were kept a lot cleaner, you just did not see trash in the streets anywhere. The level of crime is also a lot lower, it was never any big deal for me to walk from one place to another alone at night anywhere in the city.
Not really urban planning, rather sustainable architecture, but it is being implemented on a large scale, for example in the Hannover-Kronsberg district. The label (Passivhaus) is increasingly popular in other European countries, too.
I grew up as an Army brat, I had lived in Germany during the mid 60s (Düsseldorf) and early 70s (Ilvesheim, between Mannheim and Heidelberg) and remember seeing a lot of buildings that were bombed during WWII, also saw a lot of old men missing arms and legs and otherwise disfigured. I remember seeing a lot of construction cranes in the big cities in certain sections.
When I was a teenager I went to Düsseldorf in 1979 and again in 1980. Their way of life is much different than the US, most people live in apartment buildings, owing your own home with a 3 car garage in a subdivision on an acre lot is unheard of. Owning a car there is a pain in the butt, first off just finding a place to park is a challenge in some areas and at the time the price of gas was around 1DM/liter which was over $2/gallon. I had gotten a pass to ride the strassenbahn and could go anywhere I wanted, they have taxis but I never had to use one. Life is actually easier there if you don't have a car. I had a cousin there that could not wait to turn 18 so she could get a drivers license any buy a car, by the time she was 20 she sold it, I had another cousin there who was my age, he could not believe that I was only 16 and had a license to drive a car in America.
Another major differences is their big cities are more liveable than big cities in the US, there is way more effort in up keep and cleaning, even buildings built in the 1500s in die Altstadt are in better condition than any American inner city, urban decay was just never allowed to happen. The streets were kept a lot cleaner, you just did not see trash in the streets anywhere. The level of crime is also a lot lower, it was never any big deal for me to walk from one place to another alone at night anywhere in the city.
Europe is all about regulations. They are so stringent. For example, Europe has banned around 1,100 cosmetics ingredients, whereas America has only banned 10. They are more cautious and thoughtful in their planning, laws, guidelines. And it sure does pay off.
It's not in Europe, but Masdar City might be worth looking into.
A green city in the country with the fourth most crude oil exports in the world? Interesting..
But my paper is strictly on Europe examples, since my class in on Europe.
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