Sustainable Urban Districts: 2015 Global Review (WWF)
Reviewed eleven exemplary districts worldwide and published what actually makes sustainable urban development work.
- Client and partners
- WWF, Lafarge
WWF and Lafarge wanted original research that would move the construction sector, not another set of principles. Except examined eleven exemplary urban districts, among them Hammarby Sjostad in Sweden, Lyon Confluence in France, Dockside Green in Canada, Masdar City in the UAE and Jinshan in China, each traced from inception through to habitation. We looked for where they succeeded, where they failed, and what the pattern across all eleven says about how sustainable development actually gets built. The findings were published as an illustrated book in two parts: one of lessons and conclusions, one of the projects themselves.
The Problem
Sustainable district development was full of showpieces and short of evidence. Projects were published at launch, when the renders are fresh and nothing has been lived in, and rarely revisited once people moved in. The sector kept repeating the same mistakes at each new site, and developers and their financiers had no way to tell which ambitions survive contact with construction, occupation and operation.
The research had to reach past the marketing. Each district was examined from inception to habitation, with the parties involved asked what they were actually responsible for and when. The question was not whether a district was sustainable, but which decisions made it so, and which of those decisions travel to the next project.
Process
Eleven districts, inception to habitation
Each district was reviewed across its whole life rather than at its launch, on five continents and at every stage of maturity. That range is what made comparison useful: a district occupied for a decade answers questions a district still under construction cannot.
A timeline of responsibility for each project
Every project is drawn as a schematic timeline showing which party held which responsibility at which moment. Laid side by side, those timelines reveal the blueprint of a project's planning process, and the oversights built into its character. Sustainability targets turn out to change the practice of urban development itself, and with it the roles of everyone who contributes to and benefits from a district.
Lessons for a project, and lessons for a sector
Part one covers how sustainable urban development differs, holistic design and 360 degree scope, building to be resilient, ambition setting, business models, work culture, performance monitoring, and a road map for sector change. Part two shows the eleven projects applying those strategies, so each recommendation is answerable to a real site.
Outcomes
- Districts reviewed
- 11
- Across five continents, from Hammarby Sjostad to Masdar City and Jinshan.
- Expert contributors
- 11
- From WWF, Lafarge, UNEP, WBCSD, FIDIC, World Steel and British Glass.
- Published
- 2015
- An illustrated book in two parts, readable online.
Gallery
Credits
Except team: Tom Bosschaert (Director).
With: Elias de Valk (Industrial Ecologist), Matthew Fraser (Industrial Ecologist, Designer), Michiel van der Vight (Senior Associate), Laila Petrie (Project Lead, WWF), Vincent Mages (Sponsor Partner, Lafarge), Rachael Visser (Executive Assistant).
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