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Low Carbon Infrastructure in Garden City Design
- 1. Low carbon as a critical element in landscape regional infrastructure Anastasia Nikologianni, Professor Kathryn Moore and Professor Peter Larkham This paper explores how two entries in the 2014 Wolfson Prize competition for new garden city proposals dealt with issues of “low carbon” at the scale of a garden city. Originally presented at the conference “Planning for sustainable urban form”, Swedish School of Planning, Blekinge Institute of Technology, Karlskrona, 2014
- 2. How do we think about low carbon design of new urban areas ? Garden Cities Louis de Soissons, illustrated by Francis Nugent Cachemaille-Day, ‘Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire: town plan indicating zones, road and rail communications, buildings and open spaces’, 1920. RIBA Library Drawings Collection. Geoffrey Jellicoe, Motopia, A Study in the Evolution of Urban Landscape, 1961.
- 3. Sustainability ? What does sustainability / low carbon look like? What elements do we expect from a low carbon infrastructure project? Helmut Jacoby, MK in 1990, Aerial Perspective, Graphite, Milton Keynes Main Centre 1974-1990, 1974. Courtesy of Derek Walker. Studio Linfors (Clouds Architecture Office), Cloud Skippers, 2009. c Studio Lindfors. The floating city re-imagines community as it focuses on sustainability both in the air and with its fixed resources.
- 4. Garden Cities: The Wolfson Economics Prize 2014 Uxcester Garden City / Urbed Stoke Harbour Garden City, Hoo Peninsula, Medway, Kent / Shelter & PRP How would you deliver a new Garden City which is visionary, economically viable, and popular? ‘’…Whatever is built has to be inspirational, has to inspire people to want to build it. I would like to live there. …’’ Lord Wolfson - Wolfson’s Economics Prize 2014 Launch event
- 5. Uxcester based on a Snowflake – Trellis – Vine concept Stoke Harbour designed with the principle of Integration with landscape infrastructure. ‘’Each of the component neighbourhoods of the Garden City needs a trellis to give it a clear, legible structure as well as balance and beauty. This is the masterplan that gives shape to its streets and spaces’’. ‘Landscape approach is driven by the principle of integration with existing topography, water courses, agricultural patterns and movement networks’’.
- 6. Uxcester based on a Snowflake – Trellis – Vine concept Stoke Harbour designed with the principle of Integration with landscape infrastructure. 1Ha of green areas for every Ha of built infrastructure Economically vital Access a huge area of countryside that was private Sustainable neighbourhoods Walking/cycling routes and public transport Avoid flood plains Self build housing Renewable energy schemes 40% green space Own economic purpose Access to green areas, parks, tree avenues, allotments, orchards Polycentric city / neighbourhoods / walkable distances Walking/ Cycling routes and public transport Water a defining feature / flood defence Self build housing Grid for renewable energy
- 7. Stoke Harbour Garden City Hoo Peninsula, Medway, Kent Water Strategy Swales: Sustainable urban drainage (Low Carbon) Swales and rain gardens/ Designed for flood defence or drought Valley water courses Interaction with the riverHarbour at low-lying brown field land Harbour is a buffer to sensitive areas and flood defence mechanism (Low Carbon) All districts close to water edge Irregular water not repetitive Use canals to link the heart of the city with the harbour Integration with the topography Water: Defining feature Uses together with green strategy to define districts Water in districts. Use it to power energy Water links
- 8. Stoke Harbour Garden City Hoo Peninsula, Medway, Kent Green Strategy Linear Parks and green network Increase O2, Decrease CO2 (Low Carbon) Tree lined avenues Orchards/Allotments Local production (Low carbon) Irregular green (again) Not repetitive All districts close to green edge Use green routes to link the heart of the city with the countryside Green links to the Countryside
- 9. Stoke Harbour Garden City Hoo Peninsula, Medway, Kent Neighbourhoods Walkable districts Less use of car, minimizing CO2 emissions (Low Carbon) Polycentric City Polycentric city Divided to neighbourhoods Each centre connected with two more nearby All centres around 800m away from the main city centre
- 10. Stoke Harbour Garden City Hoo Peninsula, Medway, Kent Main Transport Strategy Connection with the heart of the city Peripheral Road Roads develop a grid Bus route only described in text not presented on masterplan Traffic calms naturally Alternative/relief routes Avoid traffic (Low Carbon) City bisected by the railway Area bounded by main road and coast Connection with city nearby Re-opening the passenger rail service River Ferry (Described in text only) Footpaths (Low Carbon) Cycling routes Main Transport Links
- 11. Stoke Harbour Garden City Hoo Peninsula, Medway, Kent Green Analysis Public and private green spaces Linear parks Link public spaces All the areas and buildings have access to green space (Low Carbon) Dense green infrastructure 40% Green Spaces Less dense
- 12. Stoke Harbour Garden City Hoo Peninsula, Medway, Kent Housing Strategy Low density houses Other commercial facilities Self-build for individual style Not repetitive Less dense settlements Semi-detached Medium density housing Living & Leisure space Interaction with the river Medway Up-market waterfront properties Heart of city Shops, services, open spaces in short distance (Low carbon) Housing Density Low Medium Centre
- 13. Stoke Harbour Garden City Hoo Peninsula, Medway, Kent Structure of the Settlement District heating (Low carbon) Savings in carbon emissions Low Carbon Infrastructure for energy suggested in text Where is this evident in masterplan? Why Grid? Easier to integrate the different grids Power station Movement Grid Green Grid Blue Grid Energy Grid Grid strategy
- 14. Country parks at the edge of every extension (Repetitive) No green strategy that links with the heart of the city Smaller parks between the neighbourhoods (Repetitive in all the extensions) However all neighbourhoods have parks nearby (close to nature concept) Decrease CO2 (Low Carbon) Green Strategy around the new extensions Green areas New green areas around the extensions Parks between the neighbourhoods Uxcester Garden City Green Strategy
- 15. Uxcester Garden City Water Strategy Water Presence at the masterplan Two repetitive areas of water at the surroundings of each extension No link presented with the heart of the city and the water No visible strategy of flood defence/buffer strategy (that could be low carbon) No access to water from the districts Not used to define districts Water Links
- 16. Uxcester Garden City Neighbourhood Strategy Some neighbourhoods further away from city centre Walkable (Low Carbon) One centre of the city Many smaller squares in each snowflake, but not centres Always five round shape neighbourhoods Each centre connected with the others Seems to have walkable districts Each one 10mins away from open space ‘Extensions’ Links
- 17. Uxcester Garden City Main Transport Strategy All the neighbourhoods have to go through the same road to visit city centre Congestion/no Low Carbon Neighbourhoods follow the trellis for road development One main motorway towards the city Congestion ? Links to the country parks Tram is proposed not presented. Maybe is the red line, but it is not clear Walking and cycling routes are not clear Bus route is not shown Main Road Infrastructure
- 18. Uxcester Garden City Green Strategy Neighbourhood Local park A few green avenues in main streets Employment and retails areas, just trees not green open space Repetitive green in housing Green space/residential areas Orchards/ Allotments are not presented Links to Country Parks
- 19. Drawing submitted in the final proposal Uxcester Garden City Housing Strategy Is there a distinctive difference? No shopping. Only a few in the periphery. Main shops in the city No Low Carbon Heart of neighbourhood All buildings repetitive No employment between the settlements Employment on the outskirts Housing Density Low Medium Centre
- 20. Uxcester Garden City Landscape Integration
- 21. Stoke Harbour Garden City Landscape Integration
- 22. Visualization of Uxcester Visualization of Stoke Harbour Modern housing Green space on the outskirts No water interaction Walking and Cycling routes design, but will they work without any motivation? Water and green areas defining features Allotments, orchards and open spaces as part of the plan Canals and swales designed for floods and as a social attraction Employment into the city Motivation for low carbon life
- 23. Times ‘words’ appear in the document
- 24. Next Steps Interviews and workshops with designers Analysis of more garden city designs upon the Wolfson Prize and significant infrastructure projects Exhibition as part of the methodology – two groups Case study (visits)
- 25. Thank you for your attention
Editor's Notes
- We all live in times that words as sustainability, low carbon, climate change and environmental interest are used broadly from a wide range of professional disciplines and the public. But what do we actually mean with these ? What is their impact on urban areas and in large scale infrastructure projects? It is relatively easy to describe a low carbon house or a sustainable and innovative technology. But how do we do this in regional scale or urban areas? Garden cities is perhaps one of the most enduring concept of new urban form that has heavily influenced UK’s New Town Planning. Ideas as neighbourhood units and community (Welwyn garden city), new transport solutions (Motopia) and green infrastructure are coming a long way back.
- However, there are still questions like How sustainable urban form looks like? What elements do we expect from a low carbon infrastructure project? Green areas – open spaces – a forest city (Milton Keynres) cycle and walking routes – public transport …. Etc. Are these efficient? Are all these enough to name an urban area as low carbon or environmental friendly? As we can understand from these examples, during the years, have been developed many different ideas and visions. But we are still not sure to what extend spatial quality can be delivered to urban form and what’s the impact of low carbon on the masterplan. What we have done in this study is to analyse and unpack two of the current garden cities proposals for UK.
- To provide you with a bit more context before we start… Garden Cities Wolfson’s Economic Prize is the second biggest prize after Nobel and this year the entrants had to answer to the question How would you deliver a new Garden City which is visionary, economically viable, and popular? It worth to refer that Lord Wolfson stated in the initial presentation of the award ‘’ …. ‘’ So we have analysed so far two of the entries of the competition, trying to understand what does work as attractive, how low carbon is presented and how all these look like in an urban environment. You see the final plans for Uxcester and Stoke Harbour garden cities. Uxcester is the winner of the Wolfson’s economics prize a proposal that suggests a snowflake-trellis system …. ++ Stoke Harbour the runner up, a proposal based in Kent, UK which visualises a polycentric garden city ++ During the analysis phase we found out that even if the projects share more or less the same ideas in terms of green spaces, low carbon, transport, water the result has a huge difference.
- Uxcester is the winner of the Wolfson’s economics prize a proposal that suggests a snowflake-trellis system …. ++. It is based in a fictional area ‘Uxcester’ Stoke Harbor the runner up, a proposal based in Kent, UK which visualises a polycentric garden city ++ During the analysis phase we found out that even if the projects share more or less the same ideas in terms of green spaces, low carbon, transport, water the result of the design between them has a huge difference. Even if their approach is different (Urbed proposes extensions on to the strong root-stock of an existing city and focuses on economics // Shelter focuses on the integration with the landscape infrastructure and emphasizes key features as water, water courses, hedgerows , parks) the main characteristics they want to achieve are very similar. And these are …
- Uxcester is the winner of the Wolfson’s economics prize a proposal that suggests a snowflake-trellis system …. ++. It is based in a fictional area ‘Uxcester’ Stoke Harbor the runner up, a proposal based in Kent, UK which visualises a polycentric garden city ++ During the analysis phase we found out that even if the projects share more or less the same ideas in terms of green spaces, low carbon, transport, water the result of the design between them has a huge difference. Even if their approach is different (Urbed proposes extensions on to the strong root-stock of an existing city and focuses on economics // Shelter focuses on the integration with the landscape infrastructure and emphasizes key features as water, water courses, hedgerows , parks) the main characteristics they want to achieve are very similar. And these are …
- We have tried to unpack all these information from the masterplans and see how low carbon and spatial quality is presented and what is the visual impact on the design process. Starting with the Runner up project, Stoke Harbour from Shelter. Water Strategy : We clearly see that water is a defining feature and it is one of the key features in the design. Irregular water, not repetitive areas. Link with the heart of the city and interaction with the river. Using the water to create a harbour district and as a buffer to flood areas. Explain the drawing. ++
- Green Strategy : Interaction and many different links with the green space. We see irregular green spaces, facts that make it not repetitive and it’s clear that all districts are close to green edges. Orchards, Allotments and linear parks are presented and consist a ‘low carbon’ element since decrease CO2. As we see blue and green infrastructure is the key for the Urban Form of Stoke Harbour.
- Stoke Harbour has been designed as a polycentric, walkable city. Each neighbourhood has a diameter of 800m fact that encourages less use of cars (low carbon)
- Transport Strategy: A careful plan about public and private transport has been proposed. Railway and bus routes improvements have been suggested but also have been designed many ‘traffic relief’ routes to avoid congestion. Connections with the key green and blue forms and also nearby towns are shown.
- It is stated from the designers that 40% of the total area will be green space. One of the things we could highlight here is that these open green spaces are different and not repetitive. They vary from linear parks, to allotments and from private green spaces to long tree avenues.
- Housing Strategy. A zone housing strategy it is proposed. Higher density is in city centre and family houses are located on the outskirts. If we look closely, we’ll see that lot’s of different types, shapes and sizes of housing are provited (water district – city centre – allotment area). Fact that gives a specific character to each area and creates a unique atmosphere.
- Structure of the settlement: Stoke Harbour is based on a grid. As we see from the analysis the design includes blue, green, energy and movements plan. Especially the energy grid, which highlights the district heating policy helps to our understanding of the design.
- Existing and proposed infrastructure for Uxcester. You see where is the floodplanes in the upper diagram and where the extensions have been proposed. Each of the ‘snowflakes’ for Uxcester it is assumed to be the approx. the same scale with Stoke Harbour, so some of the analysis will be in smaller scales. Even if the green areas seem to be generous, we have again the same repetitive areas to all the extensions. Each one of them have country parks at the surroundings with very few and very small parks in between. Moreover, there is no green strategy that links with the heart of the city that will help at the creation of a habit ‘cycling – walking’ towards city centre.
- Uxcester Water Strategy. Even if we the fictional place has a flood problem the water strategy doesn’t reminds us at all Stoke Harbour. We only see two repetitive areas of water – possibly lakes – around the ‘extensions’. Assume that each extension is the size of Stoke – since they have 5 neighbourhoods as well. Of course the topography here is different than the one in Stoke, however there is no link of the water with the heart of the city and no interaction at all with the flood areas. It seems it is just a try to avoid the areas than integrate them to the plan and designing trying to solve the problem.
- Neighbourhood Strategy. All the extensions have 5 neighbourhoods in walkable distances. As we see each neighbourhood square is connected with others and they are all close to open spaces. However, according to the designer’s plans, very few have employment and shopping areas. Residents will have to travel to city centre which will be 20mins by tram from where they will live. And as you may see and you’ll see it more clear in the next slide …
- The connection with the city centre is possible through one of them. As it is shown from the main transport strategy analysis, there is only one main motorway that connects all the extensions with city centre. Isn’t this going to cause big congestion problems? Especially when most of the employment and shopping areas will be located in the city? Tram or bus routes are not clearly presented and walking or cycling routes are not shown either.
- Green Strategy for one of the ‘’extensions’’. Size almost the same as Stoke. Here we have most of the green areas to be in between the buildings with no public access. One small square in each neighbourhood and 2-3 main links to the Country parks outside of the neighbourhood. One of the main difference is that we see the same repetitive green everywhere. There is no distinction between large linear parks, tree avenues, open spaces, allotments, orchards or green belt.
- Housing Strategy. Even if it is proposed self build housing – as it was planned for Stoke Harbour as well - in order to give personal character and avoid repetitiveness, the design doesn’t have the character that it is presented in Hoo Peninsula. Of course there are proposed areas of dense and less dense housing, but the structure and layout are all based in the ‘’trellis’’ system that creates a repetitive layout of more or less the same blocks with maybe different buildings. The fact that there will be no employment or shopping in most of them and that the school facilities are located on the outside, raise question about the sustainability of the neighbourhoods and how the residents will be encouraged not to use their vehicles.
- One more step on our way towards what can we understand from this proposals had as a result the analysis of the integration with the landscape. Trying to compare the same scale I have used one extension (5 neighbourhoods) of Uxcester. As we see here the neighbourhoods – Yes they have green space around- but this is clearly separated from the settlements. The thick lines represent the border between the landscape and the new built settlement and there are only 2 areas where country parks are located, but again there is no link with the neighbourhoods.
- In contrast Stoke Harbour seems to be far more integrated with the landscape. In this drawing I have tried to represent the different links of the Stoke Harbour with the surroundings. There are plenty of thin or thicker edges, trees that go into the green space or not clear borders with the city. This creates a more natural and attractive environment. Doing this analysis as part of the research methodology we aim to understand how words are interpreted to design and what’s the connection between the drawings and the words, the words and the drawings. How low carbon looks like in new urban form and what it is really sustainable and inspiring.
- How open green spaces are interpreted by designers and why they have made these decisions? This research is broadly spreading of design, drawing and communication ideas. We are trying to unpack what has been done in these projects and if it is possible to suggest ways of effective low carbon design.
- The aim of this research is to understand to what extend low carbon and spatial quality can be delivered in urban forms and how visual representations contribute to the design process. As part of the methodology will be interview the designers of the proposals in order to see what are the main ideas, if these have been communicated in the drawing and if not, why. Of course the analysis of more projects will continue and plans for an exhibition exist. Final masterplans as well as original drawings and sketches (from the workshops and interviews) together with the researchers analysis will be presented to professionals aiming to get their interpretation of the result, the impact on the design process and their impressions. Public access will be allowed different days, in order to get some of their ideas and impressions.