Ecologies of Prosperity for the Living City is a collection of writings, interviews, and projects exploring themes introduced during the 2016 Woltz Symposium: Novel Synergies, the Instrumental Commons, and Dispersed Concentrations. With new material from speakers Philippe Rahm, Nina-Marie Lister, Marina Alberti, Paola Viganò, Niek Hazendonk, Albert Cuchí, and Jedediah Purdy, the dialogue is framed by a series of seminal texts from the 20th century and reimagines existing urban challenges through exemplary design projects of today. Structured as a reader for students and design practitioners, it promotes urban design as a catalyst for cultural, social, and environmental transformation within cities, towns, communities, institutions, and individuals faced with today's most pressing urban challenges.

A selection of architecture, landscape and urbanism works from aldayjover | architecture and landscape, an office based in Barcelona, Spain and Virginia in the United States. A collection of projects -- designed from their local and territorial DNA -- that respond in new ways to the global socio-ecological crisis in which we have been in engaged with since the beginning of the 21st century. Featured works include public spaces, architecture and urban studies that incorporate natural dynamics and that also emphasize -- recovering in some cases -- legal access among all citizens and equal access to the city and its opportunities. The works presented are particularly renowned given their leadership role in a new approach to the relationship between cities and rivers, in which natural dynamics become part of the public space, eliminating the effect of “catastrophe”.

This publication is a summary of the content, ideas and thoughts that were discussed in the seminar on the current situation of the Mediterranean forest, systems of timber construction, stakeholders, designers, and industries that are shaping the non-extractive architectural principles it fosters. With the seminar The Tectonics of Non-extractive Architecture, compiled here, ETSALS introduced ALEC, a new research line in the framework of La Salle R+D, aimed at making our society, industry and designers ready for a post-carbon future based on new strategies for architectural design and construction.

Our cities are plagued by problems of congestion, waste, and pollution that deplete natural resources, damage the environment, and reduce the quality of life for their citizens. The irony is, as this fascinating new study shows, it doesn’t have to be like this. Building the Ecological City describes the problems we face and puts forward solutions to the question – how can we build cities that provide an acceptable standard of living for their inhabitants without depleting the ecosystems and bio-geochemical cycles on which they depend? The book suggests and examines the concept of urban metabolism which characterizes the city as a set of interlinked systems of physical flows linking air, land, and water. A series of chapters looks at the production and management of waste, energy use and air emissions, water supply and management, urban land use, and air quality issues. Within the broader context of climate change, the book then considers a range of practical strategies for restoring the health of urban ecosystems from the remediation of ‘brownfield’ land to improving air quality and making better use of water resources. A major contribution to better urban management and planning for both citizens and the environment, Building the Ecological City is an invaluable sourcebook for urban and national planners, architects, and environmental agencies.

The term “urban ecology” has become a buzzword in various disciplines, including the social and natural sciences as well as urban planning and architecture. The environmental humanities have been slow to adapt to current theoretical debates, often excluding human-built environments from their respective frameworks. This book closes this gap both in theory and in practice, bringing together “urban ecology” with ecocritical and cultural ecological approaches by conceptualizing the city as an integral part of the environment and as a space in which ecological problems manifest concretely. Arguing that culture has to be seen as an active component and integral factor within urban ecologies, it makes use of a metaphorical use of the term, perceiving cities as spatial phenomena that do not only have manifold and complex material interrelations with their respective (natural) environments, but that are intrinsically connected to the ideas, imaginations, and interpretations that make up the cultural symbolic and discursive side of our urban lives and that are stored and constantly renegotiated in their cultural and artistic representations. The city is, within this framework, both seen as an ecosystemically organized space as well as a cultural artifact. Thus, the urban ecology outlined in this study takes its main impetus from an analysis of examples taken from contemporary culture that deal with urban life and the complex interrelations between urban communities and their (natural and built) environments.

Interdisciplinary in content as well as approach, this collection of original essays takes a fresh look at the ecology of urban communities. Written by experts from a variety of professions―academic researchers, private and public program managers, and citizen activists―the book explores issues of geography, ecology, landscape architecture, urban forestry, law, and environmental education. Contributions include broad overviews of common problems a well as detailed case studies of specific programs.

Most of the world's population now lives in cities. So if we are to address the problems of environmental deterioration and peak oil adequately, the city has to be a major focus of attention. EcoCities is about re-building cities and towns based on ecological principles for the long term sustainability, cultural vitality and health of the Earth's biosphere. Unique in the literature is the book's insight that the form of the city really matters-and that it is within our ability to change it, and crucial that we do. Further, that the ecocity within its bioregion is comprehensible and do-able, and can produce a healthy and potentially happy future. EcoCities describes the place of the city in evolution, nature and history. It pays special attention to the key question of accessibility and transportation, and outlines design principles for the ecocity. The reader is encouraged to plunge in to its economics and politics: the kinds of businesses, planning and leadership required. The book then outlines the tools by which a gradual transition to the ecocity could be accomplished. Throughout, this new edition is generously illustrated with the author's own inspired visions of what such rebuilt cities might actually look like.