Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
strip malls, and so on. As Lewis Mumford (1966b: 564) lamented, the suburb repre-
sented a childish view of the world, serving largely 'as an asylum for the preservation
of an illusion. Here, domesticity could flourish, forgetful of the exploitation on which
so much of it was based', undermined by a social and psychological emptiness.
Another twentieth-century architect whose utopian vision misfired was Le
Corbusier, whose Contemporary City and Radiant City seem to be a high point of
modernism, emphasizing clean lines, high densities and efficient living - a synthesis
of collective order and individual freedom, geometry and nature. For Le Corbusier,
homes, or cells, were machines for living in, and, although he too felt the car was
a liberator, he took no account of garaging or the effects of pollution. Nevertheless,
Le Corbusier was drawn to what he considered to be organic and biological designs,
although his schemes, reflecting the era of assumed fossil fuel abundance, were far
from being environmentally sustainable. Jencks writes:
His general scheme for the Radiant City develops on the biological analogy with
the business centre as the head, housing and institutes as the spine, and factories,
warehouses and heavy industry as the belly. The biological analogy leads of
course to the separation of functions, or 'organs'. Le Corbusier makes this his
keynote. A plan arranges organs in order, thus creating an organism or organisms.
Biology! The great new word in architecture and planning.
(1987: 123)
Although very different from Wright's vision, and sometimes associated with
dehumanizing urbanism, some city planners, particularly in Japan and China, are
relatively comfortable with marrying neo-Corbusian solutions to the very pressing
problems of urban growth and development. However, Le Corbusier's and Wright's
visions offer both negative and positive lessons about utopian thinking, planning for
the future and sustainability. Both contrast significantly with the eco-anarchist
communities advocated by Bookchin and Callenbach, the ecological architecture and
building at Findhorn, and the grader schemes of ecological master planners and
architects.
For Australian ecoarchitect Paul Downton (2009: 21) an ecocity is a city that
recognizes itself as being part of the overall biosphere and one that 'generates health
and dynamic ecological stability'. Designing and developing an ecocity involves
ensuring that the biophysical environmental processes of a region are sustained
through active and sensitive management by citizens who seek to fit their activities
within the constraints and limitations of the biosphere while building environments
that support and nurture human culture. In other words, an ecopolis is about process
- always a work in progress, always working in co-operation rather than in conflict
with nature, always promoting a design for living that maintains cycles off water,
nutrients, atmosphere biology in health and in balance. It also encompasses social
equity, empowerment, participation and democracy. Inevitably, developing an ecopolis
and a sustainable way of living and working will entail major cultural and political
changes of which access, mobility and transportation are of key importance. For
many people private cars are essential to contemporary living, to social status,
economic progress and even to a sense of political freedom. In the year 2012-13,
3.23 million passenger vehicles were produced in India and production is expected
to grow at a rate of 13 per cent during 2012-21 according to the Automotive
