Reflecting on sustainable architecture and urbanism as 'an ecology of living'

Abstract

The article provides a short overview reflecting on sustainable architecture and urbanism in terms of 'an ecology of living' - and the nature of what constitutes sustainable architecture in those terms might seem rather obvious. This would be architecture of buildings and places that meets our needs by responding to the environmental, social and economic imperatives laid out by Brundtland and beyond. But scratch below the surface and you start to find that what's considered sustainable in architecture and urbanism depends very much on where you are coming from on this topic. In relation to buildings, for instance, your wonderful green high rise might be my problematic vertical cul-de-sac. So, in this short article, I try to sketch out how our understanding of sustainable architecture (mostly reflected in building design) has evolved; some of the areas of contestation about what constitutes such sustainability and suggest tentatively some salient characteristics that sustainable architecture and urbanism might share.