Re-Designing Refugee Communities, Settlement Design, Large Community Site Design

A proposal for the refugee crisis...
By Elisavet Logotheti
27 Mar 2016 13:02

Link: https://www.diem25.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=1586

(because "The talk is over. It's time to act!")

... I don’t know your thoughts on the refugee issue, which has felt extremely urgent for a long time without anything happening to spark even the faintest hope of resolution. However, I am writing to you with an idea of how it might possibly be tackled, the only one I could come up with (how else, but by putting myself in their place...). It combines self-management with incentives for volunteering.

The scheme would require a suitable operating system and start with a pilot programme that could be expanded after a given period of time. The ratio of open refugee communities to EU member states (whether they are in the Eurozone or not) and to individual cities/towns could be calculated on the basis of population, area, or some other combination of features.

A prototype refugee camp of this sort could be piloted in Greece and then rolled out to other areas via the interested parties themselves—meaning the refugees themselves who are exhausted, exasperated and trapped with no money and no (immediate) way out in sight, but also everyone else whom the wave of migrants has put under pressure on various fronts. The houses will be built by the refugees themselves with volunteer help in association with the local and central authorities under the auspices of—and with funding from—the EU (One recent example, though barely remembered, upsurge of popular democracy was the US neighbourhood power movement of the late 1960s and ‘70s https://new-compass.net/articles/neighbo ... government).

The scheme will create a micro community (and, later, many micro communities) which, though rooted in solidarity, will also provide incentives to all. Because, even though there can be no hope of an immediate solution to the problem, people will have to face up to it—those, at least, who recognize just how serious it is.

Similar -- open -- refugee camps will then be created in every EU member state, where fast-track classes in the language of the host country will also be provided. In the long term, entire communities/communes could come into being which would rely on self-organization with their own, for instance and where feasible, market gardens, night schools, crèches, nursery schools, doctors’ surgeries, and music/theatre/dance ensembles. The act of providing all of this will engage the trapped refugees with things relevant to their needs, but still more importantly furnish them with an (albeit temporary) identity which they can convey to the community in a hands-on way. At the same time, the refugees will make their eventual liberation more meaningful as they become more self-confident and better acclimatized to their host country.

- Any country whose central government refuses to participate in the programme should be barred from the economic privileges it now takes for granted.

- Every volunteer (whether they are providing their expertise or their labour) will be rewarded with non-financial benefits—tax credits, for example. Of course, all of this must be managed responsibly and seriously (we are dealing with victims of war) and on a time-scale of no less than 2 years. Participating organizations should be selected on the basis of their commitment to seeing the project through to completion.


A parallel system will be in place to evaluate the work of the local and central authorities. The focus here will be on their ability to collaborate and coordinate the volunteers in their community in accordance with the directives received. Of course, the civil servants and functionaries involved can also participate in the volunteer program, but in a capacity divorced from their professional involvement and in line with the program’s needs, not their own.


I will write no more at this stage, though I have been mulling over the issue for months and have analysed it more closely. I believe that, if it proves workable, others with more specialized knowledge than myself will know what needs to be done.

I see this as a great opportunity: Europe has no choice but to treat its Union for the first time as (added) value rather than as an obstacle. It must do so if it is finally to acquire common borders, common principles (not necessarily shared values) and a rationalized economy (which may be a little freer than some would want).

In my opinion, two things are needed:

a) An organization which is not tied up with its own internal problems and which will propose self-management as a solution rooted in solidarity and collaboration (...with the United Nations, for instance). What’s more, the participants will actually be doing something, rather than simply sitting there, arms crossed, waiting to see how events pan out. This organization will have to put its proposal forward in a way which will make it hard to reject—on logical grounds, at least.

And b), an operating system capable of dealing with the various groups involved and their responsibility to bring the project to fruition within a given time period.

There in no doubt, none whatsoever, that there is no practical way at the moment to denounce, or abolish the present political and economical structure of the E.U. However, it is important to act within the system "as is". If, of course, we are sincerely interested in resolving this immense humanitarian issue that we are being confronted with, we need to immediately find a realistic way to help, a way that would give hope to everyone, us included, in case we found ourselves in a similar position, to be forced to flee our fatherland.

https://www.artemisathens.org/en/manifes ... festo.html

" And it is this commonplace (which already exists or should be created) that constitutes the prime space in which we are invited to communicate whatever we have or are set to acquire through a series of successful meetings. The only prerequisite for ensuring participation in a process of this sort: recognizing the necessity of the participation of others." (from the art.emis manifesto: The way to do things with others © art.emis 2007)

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A proposal for the refugee crisis... (Greek Version)
By Elisavet Logotheti
27 Mar 2016 13:02

link: https://www.diem25.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=1586

(because "The talk is over. It's time to act!")

ΘΕΜΑ: Μια ρεαλιστική πρόταση για το προσφυγικό
Επειδή πράγματι: Τα λόγια πλέον περισσεύουν. Είναι καιρός για δράση.

...Δεν γνωρίζω τι σκέφτεστε για το προσφυγικό ζήτημα, το οποίο προ πολλού έχει την αίσθηση του κατεπείγοντος, χωρίς όμως να γίνεται κάτι που να δίνει την παραμικρή ελπίδα επίλυσής του, τολμώ όμως να σας γράψω μια ιδέα για τον τρόπο που, ίσως, θα μπορούσε να αντιμετωπιστεί, τον μόνον εφικτό που μπορώ να σκεφτώ (πώς αλλιώς, παρά μπαίνοντας στη θέση τους...), αυτόν της αυτο-διαχείρισης και σε συνδυασμό με προσωπικά κίνητρα για εθελοντισμό.

Θα χρειαστεί ένα κατάλληλο λογισμικό, να ξεκινήσει ως πρόγραμμα, "πυρηνικά" πρώτα, για να εξαπλωθεί ύστερα σε συγκεκριμένο χρόνο, στη βάση συγκεκριμένου σχεδίου ανάπτυξης: Το πόσες τέτοιες κοινότητες θα αναλογούν στην κάθε Ευρωπαϊκή χώρα της Ένωσης (είτε βρίσκεται στην ευρωζώνη είτε όχι), και στον κάθε τόπο, θα μπορούσε να βρίσκεται σε κάποια συνάρτηση του τοπικού πληθυσμού, του εμβαδού του τόπου και των επιμέρους χαρακτηριστικών τους.

Ένας τέτοιος πρότυπος καταυλισμός, που θα ξεκινήσει πιλοτικά από την Ελλάδα και θα εξαπλωθεί στους άλλους προγραμματισμένους τόπους δια μέσου των ίδιων των ενδιαφερομένων, εκείνων ακριβώς που είναι εγκλωβισμένοι, κουρασμένοι και ταλαιπωρημένοι, χωρίς χρήματα και όπως φαίνεται χωρίς (κάποιο άμεσο) μέλλον, αλλά και εκείνων που δέχονται την σε όλα τα μέτωπα πίεση της μεταναστευτικής ροής: Σε βάθος χρόνου, τις κατοικίες θα τις χτίζουν οι ίδιοι μαζί με εθελοντές και σε συνεργασία με την τοπική αυτοδιοίκηση και την κεντρική εξουσία, υπό την αιγίδα και χρηματοδότηση της Ε.Ε. (ένα σχετικά πρόσφατο παράδειγμα - αν και λίγοι θα το θυμούνται - κύματος "λαϊκής", ή καλύτερα δημοφιλούς, δημοκρατίας στο τέλος της δεκαετίας '60 και '70 , ήταν το κίνημα στις Η.Π.Α "neighbourhood power movement"
(https://new-compass.net/articles/neigbbo ... government)

Θα είναι μια μικρή κοινωνία (και ύστερα πολλές μικρές κοινωνίες) που θα βασίζεται στην αλληλεγγύη, αλλά θα δίνει και κίνητρα, σε όλους, αφού το πρόβλημα έτσι, αν και δεν θα λυθεί άμεσα, κάπως τουλάχιστον θα αντιμετωπισθεί από εκείνους τουλάχιστον που αντιλαμβάνονται τη σοβαρότητά του.

Ανάλογοι καταυλισμοί θα δημιουργηθούν σε όλες τις χώρες που ανήκουν στην Ε.Ε., προγραμματισμένα και με ταχεία εκμάθηση της γλώσσας της χώρας που τους φιλοξενεί (....σε βάθος χρόνου θα μπορεί να δημιουργηθούν ολόκληρες κοινότητες/οργανωμένα κοινόβια βασισμένα στην αυτο-οργάνωση, με δικά τους λ.χ. μποστάνια όπου είναι εφικτό, απογευματινά προγράμματα εκπαίδευσης και ειδίκευσης, βρεφοκομεία, νηπιαγωγεία, σχολεία, ιατρεία, μουσική, θέατρο, χορό, κλπ κλπ... όλα αυτά θα προσφέρονται προκειμένου οι εγκλωβισμένοι να μπορούν να καταπιαστούν με κάτι που θα τους αφορά άμεσα και το κυριότερο, θα αποκτήσουν (έστω και προσωρινά) κάποια ταυτότητα - την οποία θα μπορέσουν βιωματικά να μεταδώσουν, ενώ ταυτόχρονα θα προσδοκούν σε μια ουσιαστική απελευθέρωση, θα ανακτήσουν στο μεταξύ αυτοπεποίθηση, θα εγκλιματιστούν καλύτερα, σε κάθε χώρα υποδοχής, ανάλογα...)

- Κάθε χώρα που η κεντρική εξουσία της θα αρνείται συμμετοχή στο πρόγραμμα θα αποκλείεται από οικονομικά προνόμια τα οποία θεωρεί σήμερα δεδομένα

- Κάθε εθελοντής (είτε είναι επιστήμονας, είτε είναι εργάτης), θα (αντ)αμείβεται για την εθελοντική εργασία του με ...κίνητρα, όχι χρήματα - όπως είναι συγκεκριμένες φορο-απαλλαγές/φορο-ελαφρύνσεις. Αυτό βέβαια, θα γίνεται υπεύθυνα και σοβαρά (έχουμε να κάνουμε με θύματα πολέμων), σε βάθος χρόνου (minimum χρόνος 2 έτη, σα σύμβαση...), και με κριτήριο το βαθμό αφοσίωσής του στο έργο που θα έχει αναλάβει να φέρει εις πέρας.
- Αναλογο σύστημα αξιολόγησης της (διόλου εθελοντικης όμως) εργασίας τους, θα ισχύσει και για όσους εργάζονται στις εμπλεκόμενες τοπικες διοικήσεις και στην κεντρική εξουσία, και το οποίο θα βασίζεται πάνω στην ικανότητα τους, να συνεργαστούν και να συντονίσουν τους εθελοντές της δικής τους κοινοτητας, σύμφωνα πάντα με τη ντιρεκτίβα. Οι δημόσιοι υπάλληλοι και λειτουργοί, βεβαίως και θα μπορουν να συμμετέχουν στο εθελοντικό προγράμμα, εκείνοι όμως διακριτά απο την επαγγελματική τους ιδιότητα, σύμφωνα με τις ανάγκες του προγράμματος κάθε φορά, και οχι τις δικές τους.

Δεν θα γράψω παραπάνω, αν και σκέφτομαι το θέμα εδώ και μήνες και το έχω αναλύσει με περισσότερη λεπτομέρεια ...γιατί πιστεύω ότι αν, είναι εφικτό, ορισμένοι πολυ ειδικότεροι απο εμένα, γνωρίζουν πολύ καλά τι πρέπει να γίνει... Κατά τη γνώμη μου, είναι μεγάλη ευκαιρία: η Ευρώπη - αναγκασμένη - να πρέπει να αντιμετωπίσει για πρώτη φορά την Ένωσή της, ως (υπερ)αξία και όχι ως εμπόδιο, για να αποκτήσει επιτέλους κοινά σύνορα, κοινές αρχές (και οχι απαραίτητα κοινές αξίες) και μια εκλογικευμένη οικονομία (λίγο πιο ελεύθερη απ' ό,τι ίσως θα ήθελαν ορισμένοι)..

Χρειάζονται δύο πράγματα κατά τη γνώμη μου:

α) Κάποιον φορέα που δεν θα είναι ο ίδιος "εγκλωβισμένος" σε εγγενή προβλήματά του, και που θα προτείνει αυτήν τη συγκεκριμένη λύση της αυτο-διαχείρισης, ως λύση αλληλεγγύης και συνεργασίας (...με τα Ηνωμένα Έθνη παραδείγματος χάριν), αφήστε που, κερδίζει κανείς χρόνο μέχρι να δει και τις εξελίξεις, χωρίς να κάθεται με σταυρωμένα τα χέρια.. Ο φορέας αυτός θα πρέπει να κάνει την πρότασή του με έναν τρόπο που θα είναι δύσκολο να την αρνηθεί κανείς, με τη λογική τουλάχιστον.

και β) ένα λογισμικό το οποίο θα προβλέπει για την οργάνωση των διάφορων "ομάδων" και της ευθύνης που θα αναλαμβάνουν να φέρουν εις πέρας σε συγκεκριμένο χρονικό διάστημα.

Δεν χωρά αμφιβολία, καμία, ότι δεν υπάρχει ο χρόνος αυτήν τη στιγμή να αποκηρυχθεί, μήτε να καταργηθεί η παρούσα πολιτική και οικονομική δομή της Ε.Ε. Όμως, έχει σημασία η δράση μας εντός του συστήματος, ως αυτό "εστί και ευρίσκεται". Αν, βεβαίως, μας ενδιαφέρει η επίλυση του μέγιστου ανθρωπιστικού ζητήματος που αντιμετωπίζουμε, οφείλουμε άμεσα να βρούμε ρεαλιστικό τρόπο να βοηθήσουμε, έναν τρόπο που θα έδινε ελπίδα σε εμάς τους ίδιους, στην περίπτωση που εμείς βρισκόμασταν στην τραγική θέση, αναγκασμένοι να δραπετεύσουμε από την πατρίδα μας.

https://www.artemisathens.org/el/manifesto.html

"Kαι είναι ακριβώς αυτός ο κοινός τόπος (που υπάρχει ήδη ή που πρέπει να δημιουργηθεί) ο κατεξοχήν χώρος στον οποίο καλείται κανείς να επικοινωνήσει όσα διαθέτει ή πρόκειται να αποκτήσει μέσω μιας σειράς επιτυχών συναντήσεων. Mοναδική προϋπόθεση για την εξασφάλιση της συμμετοχής σε μια τέτοια διαδικασία είναι η αναγνώριση της αναγκαίας συμμετοχής των άλλων." (από το μανιφέστο της art.emis: Ο τρόπος να κάνεις πράγματα με άλλους © art.emis 2007)

 

Innovation Conference on Integration

Conference on the challenges of migration - Full Listing of Projects and Innovators:

• Link to Conference Documentation (public) by Ashoka
  
  English and German versions available.
  
  https://ashoka.app.box.com/s/5t7ybrt6d6117ildmn2t9h68en0800kl

Via this link it is possible to download pdf versions of the conference booklet and additional listings - detailing all Social Innovation exhibitors and website/contact details.

There is also an additional listing of all the attendees and additional social innovation projects not exhibited at the conference, plus website and contact details.

The TEDxTalks that took place on Saturday will soon be available here. search for "TEDxBerlin "Migration. Chances. Challenges."

 

Tweet by
Samira Lindner
@SamiraLindner


"Need to apply urban planning to #refugee camps says @KilianK
at #rpTEN @BMZ_Bund #bmzdigital @republica"

BMZ Bund
reublica



link to original tweet : https://twitter.com/SamiraLindner/status/727812051339513856

 

Geoff Lawton, on Urban Permaculture Possibilities

 

GCoT Literature Review (Draft Paper)

The GCoT Model – A Complex Systems Model For Spatio-temporal Settlement Design, Planning, Adaptation, Ecological Restoration, Economic Growth and Biourbanism; Employing Fractal Geometry, Recursion, Complexity, Emergence, Landscape Ecology, Biological Remediation, Agroecology and Central Place Theory


Abstract

Synthesis of related subjects into synergistic models for planning communication can facilitate multi-disciplinary strategy, for adaptation planning. This is relevant for planning and adapting complex systems such as cities and other human population centres. This paper combines three fields within an holistic model proposed for elucidating urban complexity, improving energy efficiency, and for adaptation planning. Idealised models for transport infrastructure, mixed-use spatial design and, green infrastructure for ecosystem services are combined forming a holistic model. This model is presented with reference to peer reviewed articles and other publications. An implementation approach is proposed, showing its scalability, how diversity may be maintained in urban form, and function, reconciled with unity in spatial planning, achieved through participatory urban planning approaches combined with established methods for ecological landscape restoration to achieve regenerative and sustainable development. A conceptualised, scaled and scalable spatial pattern is presented at city-scale, as an ecologically regenerative “smart” garden city model, and is referred to as the GCoT Model – acronym for Garden City of Today (Busby, 2014). This is presented for prospective use as an operational model and conceptual aid for strategic and adaptation planning, urban design and urban modeling.


direct link : https://www.academia.edu/24779851/The_GCoT_Model_A_Complex_Systems_Model_For_Spatio-temporal_Settlement_Design_Planning_Adaptation_Ecological_Restoration_Economic_Growth_and_Biourbanism_Employing_Fractal_Geometry_Recursion_Complexity_Emergence_Landscape_Ecology_Biological_Remediation_Agroecology_and_Central_Place_Theory

 

Essential Listening/Reading

Video Presentation with Geoff Lawton speaking re urban developments





Original Article posted on Permaculture Research Institute


References:

Village Homes - designed by Michael Corbett - Masterplan description and slideshow

Video Tours of Village Homes



Video Interview with Architect Michael Corbett

Permaculture Designers Manuel by Bill Mollison (Chapter 14 referred to by Geoff Lawton)


ARTICLE : Wack, P. (2005) "Village Homes, Davis, California: A Learning Lab for Future Planners" FOCUS: Journal of the City and Regional Planning Department (Cal Poly) Vol.2:1 Article 10 pp36-39.

Built in the 1970s, Village Homes is an extremely successful housing development in Davis, California, and considered a model of sustainable community design. Energy-conscious houses are organized around a system of pedestrian-friendly streets and open spaces, with community facilities, shared gardens, orchards, and vineyards, all managed by residents..

by Paul Wack
Associate Professor
City and Regional Planning Department
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=crp_fac

Also available at: https://works.bepress.com/pwack/1

See also :
Village Homes
A model solar community proves its worth
By Bill Browning and Kim Hamilton
One of the articles in Designing A Sustainable Future (IC#35)
Originally published in Spring 1993 on page 33
Copyright (c)1993, 1996 by Context Institute

Article: https://www.context.org/iclib/ic35/browning/
Journal : https://www.context.org/iclib/ic35/

New Wikipedia Entry : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Village_Homes

 

Designing A Sustainable Future
Making our buildings, neighborhoods, and cities sustainable
Originally published in Spring 1993
Copyright (c)1993, 1996 by Context Institute

https://www.context.org/iclib/ic35/

About This Issue
by Robert Gilman

Building Scale
Restorative Design an interview with Bob Berkebile, by Robert Gilman
Design that nurtures the heart and heals the environment.

Working With Light by Karl H. Maret
An Amsterdam bank building provides a decade of good results.

Audubon’s Living Building by Mark Worth
This recycled Manhattan building is a whole-system success.

Institutional Inefficiency by Amory Lovins
Perverse incentives are perpetuating wasteful energy habits.

Small Is Beautiful by Matt Holland
Small houses for a changing population

Energy Stars & Green Builders by Doug Seiter
Austin’s rating system for green homes.

Resource-Responsive Housing by Pliny Fisk
Eco-friendly grow homes.

Clearing the Air by John Bower
Seven do’s and seven dont’s for clean indoor air

Thirty Ways to Get Sustainable – At Home by the CI Staff

Community Scale
Eco-Community Design by Guy Dauncey
Bamberton: a plan for an ecological, humane community.

Transforming Inner-City Los Angeles by Lois Arkin
This inner-city neighborhood is ready for an eco-renaissance.

Reclaiming Community by Matt Holland
Cohousing in inner-city Portland.

Village Homes by Bill Browning and Kim Hamilton
A pedestrian-oriented solar community comes of age.

Community-Scale Technology by Bruce Coldham
Finding appropriate scales

Living Machines by Mary Guterson
Integrating wastewater treatment into daily life provides a lesson about efficiency and the harmony of nature.

Winslow Cohousing: A Self-Portrait by Sarah van Gelder
Residents of the first member-developed cohousing community in the US share their experiences after one year of living together.

Urban Scale
Urban Ecosystems by John Lyle
Cities of the future will embrace the ecology of the landscape, rather than set themselves apart.

Cities of Exuberance by Sarah van Gelder
Strategies for transforming cities and their sprawling suburbs, with a focus on the tie between transportation and land use, plus a sidebar on Reurbanizing Toronto.

Reshaping the Urban Design Process by Wendy Morris
Urban planners in Melbourne, Australia, are building consensus among building professionals about building sustainably, plus a sidebar on Women and Suburbia.

The Evolution of Eco-Cities by Tony Dominski
A three-step process toward restoring cities: reduce, reuse, recycle.

Anthropolis by Dan Fischer
A whole-systems vision of a humane, sustainable city

It’s Time to Rebuild! by Robert Gilman
We have the skills, technology, and compelling reasons to do it; it’s time to begin redeveloping our obsolete built environment.

 

Permaculture update from the lowest place on earth




Published on May 10, 2016
Here is our recent update from the Greening the Desert the sequel site. Where we are showing you what can be done using Permaculture Design in some of the most difficult arid land situations, with chicken tractor compost systems, worm farms, reed beds and much more, we can create abundance anywhere!

 

Home / About In Context / Designing A Sustainable Future
About This Issue
By Robert Gilman
One of the articles in Designing A Sustainable Future (IC#35)
Originally published in Spring 1993 on page 1
Copyright (c)1993, 1996 by Context Institute

Let’s start with the bad news: our approach to creating our cities, neighborhoods, buildings, and transportation systems is literally killing us. It is the source of vast, though largely unperceived, negative effects on the natural environment, our economy, our communities, our health, and the quality of our lives.

• We’re building structures and communities that alienate us from each other and from the natural environment.
• The materials used in the construction of buildings normally contain enough toxins to make some of us very sick and many of us chronically uncomfortable.
• Many popular building materials are extracted at enormous cost to fragile ecosystems in various parts of the planet.
• Land-use patterns in many areas make life without an automobile nearly impossible, contributing to our wasteful use of finite fossil fuels and to the automobile’s dubious distinction as the world’s largest single source of pollution.

Meanwhile, we ignore or waste resources freely provided to us in the form of indigenous materials, rain, sunshine, fresh air, and landscaping.

The scope of the problem is vast. For example:

• Buildings account for more than 40 percent of all US energy use, in terms of both energy for materials and construction, and energy for heating, lighting, equipment, etc.
• Building placement – land use – dictates much of our need for transportation, which accounts for 26 percent of US energy use.

So altogether, about two-thirds of US energy use is determined by the current way we design our buildings and our communities. This energy use in turn has major impacts on global warming, acid rain, the trade deficit, and our foreign policy.

Clearly, there is simply no way we can achieve a sustainable future without major changes in our built environment.

Fortunately, as the articles in this issue demonstrate, there is a lot of good news. Sustainable design has matured to the point where it can deliver a built environment with a much lower environmental impact while enhancing health, community, and quality of life – all while saving money!

Indeed, the news about sustainable design is so good that we are likely on the verge of a revolution in the building industry that will totally reshape our communities over the next few decades.

This issue is a report from the front of that revolution.

 

How does the GCoT model accord with the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals?

please see posts #40 - #45 for Table 1. Listings of Reported Health Effects

Exploring Connections among nature, biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human health and well-being: Opportunties to enhance health and biodiversity conservation. -Extracts from full article


Extracts from full article, written by:

Paul A. Sandifer, Ariana E. Sutton-Grier and Bethney P. Ward


Published in the journal for Ecosystem Services 12 (2015) 1-5

Available online 8 January 2015.

Available here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212041614001648

Citation and Full Article:

Sandifer, P.A, Sutton-Grier, A.E. & Ward, B.P (2015) Exploring connections among nature, biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human health and well-being: Opportunities to enhance health and biodiversity conservation. Ecosystem Services12 (2015) pp.1-15. Elsevier B.V. Http://dx.doi.org/101016/j.ecoser.2014.12.007 2212-0416/


Abstract

The authors “assessed the state of knowledge on relationships between human health and nature and biodiversity, and prepared a comprehensive listing of reported health effects.”

Identifying that “Also needed are re-envisioning of of land use planning that places well-being at the centre, and a new coalition of ecologists, health and social scientists and planners to conduct research and develop policies that promote human interaction with nature and biodiversity. Improvements in these areas should enhance human health and ecosystem, community, as well as human resilience.


Introduction

Human health and well-being can be considered as the ultimate or cumulative ecosystem service (Sandifer and Sutton-Grier, 2014). The World Health Organisation (WHO, 1946) defines health as “...a state of physical, mental and social well-being and not merely an absence of disease or infirmity.” Health or health and well-being, are also described as including a supportive environment, personal security, freedom of choice, social relationships, adequate employment and income, access to educational resources, and cultural identity (Diaz et al., 2006; MA (Millennium Assessment) 2005).

Strengthening the focus of nascent science efforts in this area on a much deeper understanding of nature-biodiversity-ecosystem -service-health linkages could play a critical role in supporting growing policy efforts to incorporate more natural areas and biodiversity in the design and protection of our cities and coastal communities, with concomitant public health effects.

We use the generally accepted definition of nature as the physical world not manufactured or developed by people. We were interested in the health effects of human exposure to to natural elements such as parks and managed forests and wildlife sanctuaries, and undeveloped landscapes, seascapes and, in some cases, even agricultural lands. Based upon language from the Convention on Biological Diversity (United Nations, 1992) Duffey et al. (2013) describe biodiversity as “the variety of life, encompassing variation at all levels, from the genes within a species to biologically created habitat within ecosystems.” Nature is not biodiversity, nor a proxy for biodiversity, but certainly encompasses biodiversity. Ecosystem services are the specific benefits people derive from nature (MA (Millennium Assessment), 2005).

Based on our findings, we suggest that new research and policy strategies, involving collaboration among ecological, environmental health, biomedical, and conservation scientists, as well as urban, land and coastal planners, and social scientists, are needed to make critical progress...



3. Results

3.1. Biodiversity, ecosystem processes, and ecosystem services

It has long been recognised that human health is markedly affected by environmental conditions. Although not everyone agrees [e.g. see (Ridder, 2008)], much recent ecological literature strongly support the hypothesis that maintaining natural biodiversity, particularly functional biodiversity (the range of functional traits demonstrated by individual species or groups of species), is fundamental to sustaining ecosystem processes, functions and the continued delivery of ecosystem services upon which human survival and welfare depend (Diaz et al. 2006; Cardinale et al. 2012; Worm et al. 2006; Beaumont et al. 2007; Delegates of the World Conference on Marine Biodiversity, 2008; Gamfeldt et al. 2013; Haines-Young and Potschin, 2010; Loreau, 2010; Loreau and Mazancourt, 2013; Mace et al. 2012; Naeem et al. 2012; Norris, 2012; Palumbi et al. 2009; Reich et al. 2012). Diaz et al. (2006) suggested a possible general mechanism by which biodiversity supports the provision of ecosystem services: “By affecting the magnitude, pace, and temporal continuity by which energy and materials are circulated through ecosystems, biodiversity in the broad sense influences the provision of ecosystem services.”

note..*****Find Geoff Lawton quote “increasing the enrtropy within a landscape system...”*** permies discussion here ​

Ecosystems that are stressed by a variety of factors are likely to have impaired or reduced ecosystem services, with consequent potential for negative impacts to human health and well-being (Sandifer and Sutton-Grier, 2014). While an ecosystem services approach may lead to a human-centric view of the biosphere, a focus on managing to conserve key components of ecosystems, principlly natural biodiversity, responsible for delivery of services to huan should result in better long-term health of ecosystems with consequent continued delivery of services critical for survival of other species as well.

Based on our review, the significance of biodiversity to human welfare is immense. Diaz et al. (2006) stated it simply as “human societies have been built on biodiversity.” A major concern of many ecologists is that the loss of biodiversity will negatively impact human access to reliable food, clean water, and raw materials (provisioning and regulating ecosystem services) (Diaz et al. 2006; Cardinale et al, 2012), and will likely have greater impact on poor and vulnerable people (Diaz et al. 2006).

...based on our assessment, we believe that the weight of evidence supports the concept that natural biodiversity sustains the delivery of many ecosystem services upon which human health and well-being depend, and hence a loss of biodiversity leads to decreases in some aspects of human health and well-being.


3.2. Human health and nature

There is a large and growing body of literature that demonstrates that contact with nature (broadly defined in the introduction and including urban green space, parks, forests, etc.)

can lead to measurable psychological and physiological health effects, as well as numerous other positive health effects (Table 1).

...what we gleaned as exceptionally important from our assessment is the apparent generality of a wide range of positive health responses to some kind of cues from environments which are more natural, and sometime more obviously biodiverse, than city streetscapes or workplaces (Table 1). Although there are a few studies that report no positive effects of nature exposure [e.g. Huznh et al. 2013; Richardson et al. 2010)], these are far outweighed by evidence for positive mental and physiological health measures and general findings of well-being.

 

continued from post #131...

Based on our review, experiencing nature can have positive effects on mental/psychological health, healing, heart rate, concentration, levels of stress, blood pressure, behaviour, and other health factors (Brown and Grant, 2005). For example, viewing nature, even through a window, improved recovery from surgery (Ulrich, 1984), while exercise outdoors in a natural environment improves mood and self-esteem (Barton and Pretty, 2010) and is more restorative than exercise outdoors in an urban environment (Hartig et al. 2003). In another example, Coon et al. (2011) assessed the effects on mental health of short-term outdoor (natural environment) physical activity compared with physical activity indoors. In more than half of the studies reviewed, participants' mood and attitude were significantly more positive following outdoor compared to indoor activity. Participants reported greater revitalisation, self-esteem, positive engagement, vitality, energy, pleasure, and delight, as well as lower frustration, worry, confusion, depression, tension, and tiredness. Similarly, a recent meta-analysis assessed changes in mental health before and after short-term exposure to facilitated outdoor exercise (Barton and Pretty, 2010) and determined that exercise in green places improved both self-esteem and mood. The type of green environment experienced affected the mental health benefits and exercise associated with waterside habitats revealed the greatest positive change for both self-esteem and mood. In addition, green spaces in urban areas have the ability to temper other factors that negatively affect human health, such as poor air quality and heat stress effects (Brown and Grant, 2005).

Several robust studies demonstrate associations between nature exposure and a reduction in physical disease, not just a few physiological measurements. Mitchell and Popham (2008) sampled green expoure and mortality data based on samples from the entire 2001 census population of England and utilised over 366,000 individual mortality records to evaluate potential asscoiations between exposure to green and mortality. They found significant reductions in total mortality and that from from circulatory disease for those individuals who lived in the greenest areas, including those classified as income-deprived...

to continue...

 

These made from hemp or other bio based plastic etc ._preferably soluble and recastable

.https://www.i-domehouse.com/

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=598173653692216

 

Via @MoreThsh the MoreThanShelters modular DOMO

 

https://www.dezeen.com/2016/02/19/w...lenge-ikea-foundation-democratic-design-days/

Dutch organisation What Design Can Do has launched an international competition to help find solutions for refugees facing a wide variety of challenges.

The What Design Can Do Refugee Challenge was announced today at the Ikea Democratic Design Days in Zürich, Switzerland, with Dezeen joining as media partner.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Ikea Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Swedish furniture giant that was behind the design of its flat-pack refugee shelters, are both supporting the competition.

According to statistics from the UNHCR, there are currently around 20 million refugees worldwide, with number steadily increasing.

Approximately 60 per cent are living in urban areas, creating a significant housing and infrastructure challenge for local and national governments, as well as for the refugees themselves.


What Design Can Do founder Richard van der Laken said "daring and innovative ideas are needed to deal with the long-term needs" of refugees
"Daring and innovative ideas are needed to deal with the long-term needs of so many new residents in many areas of life," said What Design Can Do founder Richard van der Laken. "This is what designers are good at."

"The What Design Can Do Refugee Challenge is a global design competition that calls on the creative community to come up with game-changing ideas for accommodating, connecting, integrating and helping the personal development of refugees."

Designers are invited to submit ideas for the challenge up until 1 May 2016. Twenty-five will be shortlisted in the run up to What Design Can Do's annual conference in Amsterdam, which will take place from 30 June to 1 July 2016.

A jury will then select five finalists, with the list set to be revealed at the climax of the conference.

Each will receive €10,000 (approximately £7,800) and mentorship from established designers to help develop their idea for the rest of 2016.

More information on how to enter can be found at whatdesigncando.com/challenge, and ideas can be shared on social media using the tag #refugeechallenge.

 

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10153512425271512

Binishell Dome Homes Made from Inflatable Concrete Cost Just $3,500

 

• The Challenge
• Background
• Brief
• Process
• View Ideas
• Jury
• Blog

The What Design Can Do Refugee Challenge is a global design competition in search for game-changing ideas for accommodating, connecting, integrating and helping the personal development of refugees. The challenge specifically focuses on refugees in urban areas, as nearly 60 percent of the world's 20 million refugees now live in urban areas.

The Refugee Challenge is a joint initiative of What Design Can Do (WDCD), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the IKEA Foundation. The call for entries has now ended, but you can still participate by sharing your thoughts and giving feedback on the submissions. Simply register on the platform, comment on the ideas entered and help make them even better.





We’ve received an overwhelming amount of entries for the Refugee Challenge. In the Contribute Phase, which lasts until 29 May, anyone who is logged in on this platform can view, vote and comment on the projects that have been entered. That means you can help the creators to improve their proposals, increasing their chances at winning the competition and bringing their ideas one step closer to implementation. Read more about the Challenge process here.




https://refugeechallenge.unhcrideas.org/Page/Home

 

UNHCR & IKEA Foundation "What Design Can Do" Proposal

Smart Garden City - alternative refugee settlement design
by Marcus Busby on 05/19/2016 06:51 PM BST

My idea is:
Building on an existing great initiative, product or service

Which best describes you?
Designer

What is the name of the company, organization, team, or group you're entering with? (if applicable)
Circles Design and Build

Please describe your idea in max 250 words:
A scalable spatio-temporal complex systems model. Providing a tangible framework combining innovative approaches to spatial design, natural capital restoration, economic development and integration; capable of catalysing emergent economies, knowledge, experience, innovation; fostering integration, skills-development, entrepreneurship, employment, quality education, growth, ecological restoration and climate adaptation, for long-term prosperity and resilience; exemplifying the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Capable of receiving high volumes of people from diverse backgrounds in short time-frames, applicable in any region of the planet. To provide short to long-term housing, water, food, energy, health and opportunity. After a comparable start-up investment period, it becomes economically autonomous, then an economic driver.

A seed for a new economic growth cycle, based upon emergent green-blue circular economies of proximity, combining new technologies, established design approaches and equal advances in ecological restoration techniques.

The model facilitates contemporary emergent growth in the latter Kondratiev, by emulating macrocosmic transitional growth at microcosmic levels – for specialised and localised successional growth. A built environment tailored to emergent economies.

Differing from urban and refugee camp designs, using complexity and emergence as a creative starting point generates a different spatial form, allowing “place”, belonging, uniqueness, identity and cross-cultural collaboration, whilst planning, management and administration is streamlined.

A template for transit-orientated, complex, fractal, scalable and sprawl-mitigating, zero-carbon, climatically resilient, walkable, metabolic and ecologically functioning settlement in dynamic equilibrium.

Explanatory Video - Make a one minute introducing yourself and your idea. The video should include: 1. A title beginning with #RefugeeChallenge (title of your idea); 2. Introduction of yourself/team; 3. Explanation of idea; 4. Why you think it matters. The video does not need to be professional, a smart phone movie is fine.

Growing a Garden City of Today v2.0 from Fractal Cities on Vimeo.

Images - Upload images or photos to illustrate your idea or solution (max 5)


Tags: refugeeCamp,smart-city,scalable,ecologicalDesign,community,integration,adaptation,participation,cohesion,complex-systems

Attach an additional file about your idea (PDF Max 5MB)

• 5 PAGES GCoT Marcus Busby WDCD 2016.pdf
  by Marcus Busby

 

What is it?

The Smart Garden City (also called GCoT Model) is a modular, scaled, scalable, spatio-temporal, settlement planning, implementation and adaptation tool.
As an holistic, regenerative, development model, it represents the synergy and progression of the three spheres of sustainable development resulting in ecological, social and economic recovery, growth and regeneration.

As a planning aid, it provides a supportive framework to facilitate the management and implementation of rapid and also, long-term settlement needs and scenarios.

In both instances, it is accordant with, and facilitates all 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The GCoT model provides a spatio-temporal strategy capable of accommodating short to long-term settlement, adapted to both temporary and permanent integration and settlement planning.

“Shared space, shared future”

Employing this model will result in an organised but diverse settlement, with open space for green space and transit routes. Green spaces enable ecological restoration, community gardening and farming at a variety of scales. Transit routes initially tracks and pathways, hierarchically ordered, form the basis for a fully-developed and integrated modern transport system, again opening up more advanced employment opportunities.

The design expands easily, with simple techniques without detriment to the established whole. The nature of the pattern, which is fractal, allows the design and implementation of the settlement to be undertaken at varied scales and time-frames. This allows for a variety of scales of management and operation.

The spatial pattern is about the space that is not built, as much as the built space. Land use is intensified, diversified and integrated, meaning more happens within the same space, a greater diversity of interrelated activities and functions provides greater system stability, economically, socially and ecologically.

Its complexity is based upon that of nature, where the whole is more than the sum of its component parts. The model is gestalt in principle and fractal in structure and enables successional growth by emergence.

Sector design, green space and transit are multilevelled, multifaceted and integrative, accommodating and combining various cultural, social and economic needs and activities.

This is a framework for a wholistic settlement which can operate sustainably and restoratively at all time and space scales in any location, in any culture. It can go from “emergency” to establishment by a process of strategic transition and emergence, employing a temporal development plan. The age of the settlement determines the degree of development.

Employment is created, community roles recognised and developed, skills are expressed, community can function, responsibility is shared, normal relationships can grow in a safe and nurturing environment.

This proposal is the result of 12 years independent study around the research question “How to ensure the future vitality and viability of a settlement centre?” The proposal takes into account and mitigates potential pitfalls and obstacles observed in established and advanced settlements in developed economies, as well as facilitating remediation and economic development models in operation for the developing world.

A model at the leading edge of urban design, complex systems, ecology and spatial complexity in Europe, America and Asia.

A synergy of complimentary mixed-use zoning, unity in infrastructure, and diversity in socio-economic and cultural activities, it embodies the drivers for successful population centres.

As a stand alone development, surpluses can supply markets outside of the settlement; gradually integrating into the wider economy. As an urban extension, it is an innovation district for the evolution of skills, products and services, supporting the adaptation and amelioration of existing population centres. Jobs and community roles are created and developed, making use of existing and local skills and furthering their application by acting as a centre for opportunity and education.

The model has initially been presented at city-scale. The concept operates at all scales, ranging from 7-50 residents, to city-scale; anything over 120,000 residents and beyond. The framework is intended for receiving large numbers of migrants, to be received and settled as members of a functioning community within a short time-frame.

Links to more images and further reading:

Online forum and related links: https://bit.ly/RefForum More images: https://bit.ly/GCoTpics
Garden City of Today (GCoT) Version 2.0: https://bit.ly/GCoT20 Twitter: www.twitter.com/fractalcities
GCoT Model Literature review and v2.2: https://bit.ly/LitRevGCoT Blog: www.circlesdesign.blogspot.com