Publisher: ORO Editions, ISBN: 9781957183640, Author: Dr. Rafael Luna, Format: Softcover, 24.8 x 18.3 cm, 250pp
With a large number of Australian authors from RMIT, UTS and University of Qld as well as Australian practising architects, this book departs from reflection on contemporary issues of environmental and social sustainability. Working across three cities in the Asia Pacific Region, including Brisbane, and deploying research techniques ranging from critical observation to speculative modelling, the book presents projects that seek to retrofit an existing urban environment with a productive program.With buildings and cities being one of the primary accelerators of climate change, the tightening of urban environments is one of the mechanisms by which architects and urban planners can affect change. To date, models of urban densification and compact cities have been focused on sites of urban consumption — residential, commercial, civic and social spaces. Little thought has been given to the vast productive hinterlands around the world that support cities, through the growing of food, generation of power, production of goods and disposal of waste.The purpose of this project is to describe a series of models for the folding of production into our cities, with ambition of consolidating all components of human inhabitation within a smaller overall physical and environmental footprint.