Reference: Mostafavi, M; Doherty, G. Ecological Urbanism: Harvard University Graduate Scool od Design: Lars Muller Publishers.
Quotes that relate to our project & provide some inspiration.
'Preamble- The World's population continues to grow, resulting in a steady migration from rural to urban areas. Increased numbers of people and cities go hand in hand with a greater exploitation of the world's limited resources. Every year, more cities are feeling the devastating impacts of this situation. What are we to do? What means do we have as designers to address this challenging reality?' (Doherty & Mostafavi, p 12)
'Because the challenges of rapid urbanization and limited global resources have become much more pressing, there is a need to find alternative design approaches that will enable us to consider the large scale differently than we have done in the past. The urban, as the site of complex relations (economic, political, social, and cultural), requires an equally complex range of perspectives and responses that can address both current conditions and future possibilities.' (Doherty & Mostafavi, p 13)
'The city, for all its importance, can no longer be thought of only as a physical artifact; instead, we must be aware of the dynamic relationships, both visible and invisible, that exist among the various domains of a larger terrain of urban as well as rural ecologies.' (Doherty & Mostafavi, p 29)
'We have already witnessed an increasing interest in new ways of producing food closer to and within cities. The global transportaion and distribution of food is being supplemented by more local growers, whose farmers' markets create temporal events in many cities.' (Doherty & Mostafavi, p 36)
'we have to pay greater attention to the role of the urban as the provider of spaces of difference and disagreement. Disagreement, though, is not about arguing, but what is being argued- the presence or absence of a common object or idea between the participants...The satisfactions of urban life are in part the pleasures of participation in the diversity of the spaces of the other. And it is physical space that provides the necessary infrastructure for alternative and democratic forms of social interaction.' (Doherty & Mostafavi, p48)
"Instead of trying to design institutions which, through supposedly impartial procedures, would reconcile all interests and values, the aim of all who are interested in defending and radicalizing democracy should be to contribute to the creation of vibrant, agonistic public spaces where different hegemonic political projects could be confronted." (Doherty & Mostafavi, p 48)
'Similarily, the intention behind engaging new subjectivities and collectives through the frameworks of ecological urbanism is to engender greater opportunities for social and spatial democracy.' (Doherty & Mostafavi, p 50)
'Politics revolves around what is seen and what can be said about it, around who has the ability to see and the talent to speak, around the properties of spaces and the possibilities of time.' - Jacques Ranciere (2000) (Doherty & Mostafavi, p 49)
'...the bluring of boundaries- real and virtual, as well as urban and rural- implies a greater connection and complementarity between the various parts of a given territory. Conceptually akin to acupuncture, the interventions in and transformations of an area often have a significant impact beyond pereived physical limits. Thinking simultaneously at small and large scales calls for an awareness that is currently unimaginable in many existing patterns of legal, political, and economic activity. One of the major challenges of eological urbanism is therefore to define the conditions of governance under which it could operate that would result in a more cohesive regional planning model.' (Doherty & Mostafavi, p30)
'...Branzi has proposed an adaptive urbanism based on their symbiotic relationship (of the different discuplines). A key feature of this type of urbanism- like the agricultural territory- is its capacity to be reversible, evolving, and provisory. These qualities are necessary in response to the changing needs of a society in a state of constant re-organisation.' (Doherty & Mostafavi, p30)
