Geddes Conference 2010

8/8/2019 Geddes Conference 2010

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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

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Geddes Conference 2010

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