Cities are bad for us. Let's fix them
Cities can be inspiring places that bring out the best in us. But they’re often concrete jungles that make us ill and are still designed around the automobile. What if they were places in which you could thrive rather than simply survive? Another model is possible, writes Rasmus Astrup in the December 2024 issue of Monocle.
Storm surge protection in an age of uncertainty
Why Darkness Matters: Acknowledging the Rhythms of Nature
When did you last see a starry night sky? For city-dwellers, this experience may feel like a distant memory. Our extensive use of artificial light has turned ‘darkness’ into a diminishing phenomenon – not only affecting stargazers but also the health of humans, wildlife, and trees. As Pernille Bech-Larsen, lighting designer at SLA, will unfold, we have plenty of good reasons to let a little more darkness into our cities.
The Values of Nature:
A Need for a New Driver of Urban Development
Imagine your quality of life being just as dependent on urban development as on social media. What would that lead to? The answer to that question depends on the drivers of urban development.
Our economies, livelihoods, and well-being all depend on our most precious asset: Nature
These were the opening lines of Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta’s report “The Economics of Biodiversity” and were also at the center of the conversation our CEO, Mette Skjold, had with Dasgupta at the UIA World Congress of Architects CPH 2023.
They agreed that we, as humans, depend on nature – not only as a source of resources and wealth but also as the foundation for our physical and mental well-being. We are not separate from nature. We are nature.
Rasmus Astrup: 'City Nature' - The 2022 Cornelia Hahn Oberlander Lecture
In spring 2022, SLA partner and design principal Rasmus Astrup was invited to give the annual Cornelia Hahn Oberlander Lecture by the UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture in Vancouver.
City Nature: It's how it feels and functions. Not how it looks.
Themes such as nature-based design, biodiversity, and green cities are becoming more and more popular. But what do we actually mean when we talk about ‘city nature’ and ‘quality of nature’?
How to fight the climate emergency with nature-based design
How can we design nature-based solutions when mitigating our cities and societies against climate emergency?
Small town values: When villagers drive the development
How do citizens – and not just municipalities and experts – drive the strategic development of villages?
An interdisciplinary approach to terror prevention
Why is it important to address the threat of terror through an interdisciplinary design approach?
City Nature
A definition
City nature is not just a whim of fashion. A completely new form of nature in the city is what can best, cheapest and fastest clean up all the mess we have created for the planet with our built order, says Stig L. Andersson.