I got my copy of Ecological Urbanism in the mail yesterday. It's...bigger...than I thought it'd be. In an attempt not to reveal myself as the intellectual lightweight that I am, I sat down and read the introductory essay, Why Ecological Urbanism? Why Now? by Mohsen Mostafavi. Although I'm no fan of being asked to wrap my head around academic babble like "the ecosophic problematic," the book does a good job of seducing you into reading the entire essays by sprinkling it with full page color photos (lightweight) and quotes from Felini movies:
"The city is so vast and we have so much to say to each other." -Nights of Cabiria
The essay and the book provide advocacy and critical thought on how urban planners and landscape architects can best respond to the new demand to make human spaces fit into the realities of the environment and ecology that they are situated in. Mostafavi introduces some of the new thinking on urban centers put forward by Andrea Branzi. I especially liked the idea that cities, like agricultural territories, can have the features of being "reversible, evolving, and provisory."
It seems the main purpose of the book–and the events, exhibits and conferences accompanying it–is to address the fact that design practices, historically and as they are followed now, are not intended-and therefore not yet able–to address the true scale of the ecological problems caused by and affecting large urban developments. Ecological Urbanism is presented as a "set of sensibilities and practices" to guide relevant professions and fields in coping with the new scale and demands of cities located within and dependent on ecological forces.
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