ECODESIGN FOR CITIES AND SUBURBS
A New Free Internet Course Offered on edX by the University of British Columbia
Architects, urban planners, real-estate developers, landscape muraledesign architects, and anyone else who is interested in the future of cities – especially students in all these disciplines – should check out this free, open course, taught by Larry Beasley, the former planning director of Vancouver, who is the Distinguished Professor of Practice at the University of British Columbia, and Jonathan Barnett, a noted authority on urban design from the University of Pennsylvania.
The whole mechanism of city planning and urban development, worldwide, is producing a form of urbanization which is not compatible with our environment. Almost everything that is being built is making the problem worse, and climate change and rapid population growth are turning a badly flawed system into something that could literally end in disaster.
Using real examples from around the world, Beasley and Barnett show how integrating planning, urban design and the conservation of natural systems can produce a sustainable built and natural environment, implemented through normal business practices and the kinds of capital programs and regulations already in use in most communities.
The first session of the course will start April 4th. Here is a link to the full course description and the intro video.
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