Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
lack dogma and seek rather to find better ways of living sustainably. The key,
I suspect, is in the unselfconscious and unpretentious 'being' of ecological citizenry.
(2001: 88)
Other examples include Ecodyfi in west Wales, essentially a regeneration project
inspired and emerging from the alternative community that is part of the Centre for
Alternative Technology (CAT) just outside of Machynlleth. Specialist agencies, local
government and community groups are engaged in a range of activities, in which
CAT has developed considerable expertise - for example, community-based water,
wind, solar and wood fuel schemes, and sustainable land management. The overall
aim is to regenerate the Dyfi Valley in a sustainable fashion, building on its local
attributes and engaging local people. Projects include horticulture, ecotourism, new
green business start-ups, affordable housing and community amenity developments.
The Dfyi Biosphere Area is the only accredited United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) biosphere reserve in Wales.
In southern India, the spiritual community of Auroville has the largest concentration
of alternative and appropriate energy systems in the subcontinent, is self-sufficient
in milk and produces half its fruit and vegetables, has reforested many acres, has
an extensive seed bank, and works with other local communities in cataloguing
medicinal plants. In 2003 Auroville won an Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy.
The community also hosts the well-respected Centre for Scientific Research and a
Graduate School for the Environment housed in a the splendid Wales Institute for
for Sustainable Education running with its rammed earth constructed lecture theatre,
wi fi and a range of externally accredited courses on sustainable architecture, energy
and the environment.
Ecocity development: towards an ecopolis
Although a great deal of ecological and bioregionalist thought focuses on the
small scale and the rural, the majority of the global population now lives in cities.
If anything, the most important development in the twenty-first century will be to
ensure that urban development is sustainable - environmentally, socially, economically
and politically. In the second half of this century up to 70 per cent of the global
population will reside in urban settlements. Sustainable urban design is extremely
important, and the utopian, and increasingly the sustainable, city has captured the
imagination of artists, architects, planners and urbanists of various descriptions. The
twentieth century witnessed practical utopian schemes by major architect-planners
- Ebenezer Howard (
Garden Cities of Tomorrow
), Lewis Mumford's and Clarence
Stein's Radburn in New Jersey (USA), Le Corbusier's Radiant City, Frank Lloyd
Wright's Broadacre and, more modestly, Usonia (Hall, 1996). From Paolo Soleri's
'urban laboratory', Arcosanti, in the Arizona Desert, to the Prince of Wales's retro-
new urbanism of Poundbury in Dorset (UK), to the super-modernism of the massive
ecocity developments in China, Masdar in Abu Dhabi, the integration of architecture,
ecology and the planning of communities has seen no shortage of ideals and visions
for those seeking alternative inspiration. However, it is important to make a distinction
between the impractical and sometimes bizarre imaginings of some self-appointed
prophets and visionaries and the more reasoned explorations of designers, architects,
artists and planners who at their core have significant lessons to communicate. Thus,