Description
Genuine sustainability will require more than ‘ecological restoration’. ‘Zero carbon’ and ‘zero waste’, at best, leave things as they are – we need to go beyond zero to development that delivers positive impacts. Achieving truly massive positive gains calls for a new approach to the planning, design and management of our built environment.Design and planning guru Janis Birkeland presents the innovative new paradigm of ‘Positive Development’ in which the built environment provides greater life quality, health, amenity and safety for all without sacrificing resources or money. Birkeland makes the case that with a different form of design that focuses on what we can do to achieve positive outcomes, not on what we should not do, development itself can become a ‘sustainability solution’. The cornerstone of this new paradigm is nothing less than the eco-retrofitting of the vast urban fabric we already inhabit. The author presents a revolutionary new tool called SmartMode to achieve this end.This challenging book throws down the gauntlet to anyone working in or studying the areas of sustainable development, planning, architecture or the built environment to rethink their current ideas and practices. This title provides fundamental critique of current best practice in planning, design and development of infrastructure. It presents the new paradigm of ‘Positive Development’ – development that enhances and restores the environment without sacrificing resources or money – and shows how we can retrofit the built environment to this standard. It also presents professionals with a revolutionary new tool called SmartMode – Systems Mapping And Re-design Thinking – to help reverse the ecological and social impacts of past development.
