Designing Sustainable Cities

To be sustainable, design professionals must develop innovative and creative solutions that are able to tackle social, environmental and economic issues at the same time - and then to communicate these solutions effectively to planners, developers and policy makers. Addressing sustainability issues in relation to the design and planning of the urban environment is a complex, multi-disciplinary issue, and solutions never arrive from a single perspective. This book uses 'design' to consider when and by whom decisions are made which contribute to sustainability. Using three major city centre case studies, it considers environmental, social and economic factors and examines their relationship to the decision-making process. The book begins by providing a new conceptualisation of the urban design decision-making process, identifying the key processes and lead decision-makers, the following chapters take the reader through a process of understanding the dimensions of sustainability, presenting the tools by which the dimension can be analysed. The later chapters illustrate the trade-offs and the relationships between the dimensions of sustainability, using case study examples, also the use which can be made of IT in making design decisions. Finally the book makes recommendations for future approaches to the design, development and on-going management of urban environments. Designing Sustainable Cities covers: Research data on the urban environment and the interaction between social, economic and environmental issues. Methods of understanding the context in which urban design takes place. Guidance on the codes of practice. Process maps to help understand the context, make trade-offs and develop design solutions that allow for change. Methods of testing and predicting consequences of design proposals. Methods of monitoring design outcomes, identifying trends and envisaging future scenarios.Cooper, Rachel is the author of 'Designing Sustainable Cities', published 2009 under ISBN 9781405179157 and ISBN 1405179155.