TY  - JOUR
TI  - Towards sustainable cities: about redundancy, voids and the potentials of the land
AU  - Roggema, Rob
T2  - Smart and Sustainable Built Environment
AB  - PurposeWith future (extreme) change ahead of us, there are many serious problems humankind has to face. The pace of mitigating climate change through an energy transition to renewables is slow, global mean temperature is increasing and sea level seems to rise at an accelerated pace. This puts many livelihoods at risk and communities have to face an uncertain future. Therefore, continuing the way contemporary cities are developing and developed is not an option. The new normal should also be reflected in urbanism. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, the answer to this question is sought in understanding traditional attitudes to living and their relation to the land. How these cultures have been capable of coping with disruptions lies in the way their mental paradigm respects their environment. A more resilient future can be achieved when the traditional values of the relation of societies with the land they live on are considered important and indigenous knowledge and perspectives are used to design cities.FindingsCurrent society seems to have forgotten what it means and how to put into practice sharing resources and space, giving back more to the environment than used to live. Also, mankind seems to be lacking the ability to move and search for the potentials where to live. Furthermore, choosing to live in safe places, hence being less vulnerable for disruptions, is a principle that has long been neglected. These characteristics of traditional cultures are translated in four principles that are valuable in design processes: first, making use of the energy and power a disaster might bring and turning it into an advantage; second, using imagination to anticipate an unknown future; third, accommodating all paces of urban change; and fourth, designing redundancy for flexibility. The use of these principles is illustrated in three Sydney-based examples.Originality/valueThe link between indigenous knowledge and current urban design practice is new.
DA  - 2020///
PY  - 2020
DO  - 10.1108/SASBE-07-2019-0092
VL  - 9
IS  - 3
SP  - 283
EP  - 306
LA  - English
SN  - 20466099
UR  - https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/towards-sustainable-cities-about-redundancy-voids/docview/2532983587/se-2?accountid=12372
AN  - 2532983587
DB  - ProQuest Central
KW  - Australia
KW  - Cities
KW  - City
KW  - Climate change
KW  - Climate change mitigation
KW  - Coal mining
KW  - Coal-fired power plants
KW  - Collaboration
KW  - Culture
KW  - Design
KW  - Disaster
KW  - Disruption
KW  - Energy transition
KW  - Environmental Studies
KW  - Housing
KW  - Indigenous knowledge
KW  - Land
KW  - Livelihood
KW  - Native peoples
KW  - Pollution
KW  - Principles
KW  - Redundancy
KW  - Sea level
KW  - Sea level changes
KW  - Spatial redundancy
KW  - Sustainability
KW  - Sustainable city
KW  - Sustainable urbanism
KW  - Sydney New South Wales Australia
KW  - Traditional knowledge
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Uncertainty
KW  - Urban design
KW  - Urban planning
KW  - Urban resilience
KW  - Urban voids
KW  - Urbanism
KW  - Void
ER  -