Designing Innovative Sustainable Neighborhoods

Designing Innovative Sustainable Neighborhoods

This book covers the key principles of residential planning and offers principles for sustainable neighbourhood design. Written by a designer and instructor, the book’s fully illustrated chapters provide detailed insights into contemporary strategies that architects, planners and builders are integrating into their thought processes and residential design practices.

Past approaches to planning and design modes of dwellings and neighbourhoods can no longer sustain new demands and require innovative thinking. This book explores new outlooks on neighbourhood design, which are propelled by fundamental changes that touch upon environmental, economic and social aspects. It presents contemporary well-designed and illustrated examples of communities and detailed analysis of topics including the depletion of non-renewable natural resources, elevated levels of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. It also explores the increasing costs of material, labour, land and infrastructure that have posed economic challenges, as well as social challenges including the need for walkable communities and the increase of live-work environments.

The need to think innovatively about neighbourhoods is at the core of this book, which will be useful to students and practitioners of urban design, urban planning, geography, and urban systems and architecture studios focused on sustainable residential development.

Content

1.  Designing Sustainable Environments  
2.  Planning with Nature  
3.  Moving in Neighbourhoods  
4.  Mixing Land Uses and Sense of Place  
5.  Public Open Spaces  
6.  Livable Denser Places  
7.  Weaving Old and New  
8.  Edible Landscapes and Landscaping  
9.  Alternative Energy, District Heating, and Waste Management  
10.  Innovative Dwelling Concepts  
11.  Low Carbon Residences

About the author

Avi Friedman, PhD, co-founded the Affordable Homes Program at the McGill School of Architecture where he is a Full Professor. He also holds a Visiting Professor position in Lancaster University in the U.K. Known for his housing innovation, Avi is the author of 25 books. He is the principal of Avi Friedman Consultants Inc., a residential design firm, and the recipient of numerous awards including the Manning Innovation Award, Lifetime Achievement Award from Sustainable Buildings Canada and the World Habitat Award. He was named by Wallpaper magazine as 1 of 10 people from around the world "most likely to change the way we live."