T
he concept of urban adaptive capacity may prove to become a vital strategy to collectively encounter many of the urban challenges mentioned above. This piece aims to start a discussion about a number of conceptual thoughts as new design ecologies which bear the potential to become design strategies to create, sustain and foster urban adaptive capacity.
Brooklyn Grange rooftop farm in Brooklyn, New York, United States, 2011. Image by Florian Lorenz
Urban environments are social-ecological systems and therefore refer to social as well as ecological aspects of adaptive capacity 1. In ecological systems adaptive capacity – understood as the degree of resilience to perturbations – is tied to genetic and biological diversity as well as the heterogeneity of the landscape mosaic. In social systems the existence of institutions and networks which are producing and storing knowledge (of various kinds), creating exibility in encountering challenges and which manage to balance power and interest among interest groups. It is landscape (and urbanism) professionals working in urban contexts which are confronted with both, social and ecological aspects in their work and who are therefore able to build urban adaptive capacity in a social as well as an ecological sense. The subsequent text will discuss some concepts as methodological design ecologies in which landscape professionals may successfully foster urban adaptive capacity.
Roofscape in Shenzhen, China, 2011. Image by Florian Lorenz
Landscape ecological urbanism Over the previous decade, landscape urbanism ( Wa l d h e i m 2 0 0 6 ) , e c o l o g i c a l u r ba n i s m (Mostafavi, 2010), or, landscape ecological urbanism (Steiner, 2011) emerged as models for an urbanism which attempts to negotiate the social and ecological complexity found in contemporary (mega)cities, their rapid urbanization and tenacious infrastructural issues within them. Those approaches are the most straightforward concepts developed up to date for a redesign of urban environments with the goal to accommodate human life under increasing environmental constraints. Starting from such a professional understanding, new design ecologies may successfully emerge to be tested in experimental design and research projects.
Occupy Wall Street in New York City, United States, 2011. Image by Florian Lorenz
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