Hannover Principles

8/14/2019 Hannover Principles

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The Hannover Principles

Design for Sustaina bility

Prepared for EXPO 2000

The Worlds Fair

Hann over, Germany

William McDonough & Partners

410 East Water Street

Cha rlottesv ille, VA 22902

tel 804 979 1111

fax 804 979 1112

1992 William McDonough Architects

all rights reserved


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I................................................................................................... pages 2-12

2..... In trod uction

3..... Defin ition s:

Sustainability

Design

Design for Sustainablity

5.. .. . The Hannover Pr inciples

1. Insist on rights of hu man ity and na ture to co-exist

2. Recognize interdep end ence.

3. Respect relationships between spirit and m atter.

4. Accept resp onsibility for the consequences of design.

5. Create safe objects of long-term va lue.

6. Eliminate the concept of waste.

7. Rely on natu ral energy flows.

8. Und erstand the limitations of design.

9. Seek constan t imp rovem ent by the sharing of know ledge.

6.. .. . Guidelines for the Competit ion

12... Des igning the Compet it ion

PART II.................................................................................................pa ges 13-59

13... Background Mater ia l

18-26 Decentralization of EXPO 200026-41 The Meaning of Sustainability

42-59 Historical and Philosophical Roots

60... Bibliogr ap hy


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INTRODUCTION

The City of Hannover, Germany, has been designated as the site of the world exposition in the year2000. Hosting the world's fair on the eve of the next millennium is both a great challenge and a gre at

respon sibility. By choosing "Human ity, Na ture, and Technology" as the theme for EXPO 2000, the cit y

has decided to directly address the difficult issue of imagining and encouraging a sustainable future.

Ideally, hu man ity will redefine itself, its placement in natu re, and refine th e role of technology within

the environment.

In order to insure that the d esign and construction related to the fair w ill rep resent sust ainable

development for the city, region, and wor ld, the City of Han nover has commissioned "The Hannover

Principles" to inform the interna tiona l design competitions for EXPO 2000. The Pr inciples ar e to be

considered by designers, plan ners, government officials and a ll involved in setting pr iorities for t h e

built environment. They will help form the found ations of a new design ph ilosophy und erlying th e

future of prop osed systems and construction for the City, its region, its globa l n eighbors and pa rtners in

the world exposition.

World history offers many examples of societies with environmentally sustainable structures and

commun ities wh ich have endu red for thousand s of years. How ever, we have also pursued other p at h s

wh ich h ave led to ecologically u nsustainable practices. For the development and imp rovement ofhum ankind, it is imp erative to renew a commitment to living as p art of the earth by understanding

development and growth as processes wh ich can be su stained, not exploited to imp ractical limits.

It is hoped that the H annover Principles will inspire an appr oach to design wh ich may meet th e needs

and aspirations of the present without compromising the ability of the planet to sustain an equally

supp ortive future.


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DEFINITIONS

Sustainability:

The concept of su stain ability has been introduced to combine concern for the well-being of the p lan et

with continued growth and human development. Though there is much debate as to wh at the word

actually suggests, we can put forth the definition offered by the World Commission on Environment and

Developm ent: "Meeting the needs of the p resent with ou t compromising the ability of future

generations to m eet their own n eeds."

In its origina l context, this d efinition was stated solely from the hum an point of view. In order to

embrace the idea of a global ecology with intrinsic value, th e meaning must be expanded to allow a l l

parts of nature to meet their own needs now and in the future.

Design:

The Hann over Principles aim to provide a p latform upon which designers can consider how to ad ap t

their work toward sustainable ends. Designers includ e all those wh o change the environment w ith t h einspiration of human creativity. Design implies the conception and r ealization of human needs and

desires.

Des ign for Sustainability:

Designing for su stain ability requires awareness of the full short and long-term consequences of an y

tran sformation of the environment. Sustainable design is the conception and rea lization of

environmentally sensitive and responsible expression as a part of the evolving m atrix of natur e.


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PROLOGUE

Human society needs to aspire to an integration of its material, spiritual and ecological elements.

Current technologies, processes and means tend to separa te th ese facets r ath er tha n connect them .

Natu re uses the sun's energy to create interdepend ent systems in wh ich complexity and d iversity im p ly

sustainability. In contrast, indu strialized society extracts energy for systems d esigned to reduce na tu ral

comp lexity. The challenge for hu manity is to develop hum an design processes which enable us to

remain in the n atu ral context. Almost every phase of the design, manufacturing, and construction

processes requires reconsideration. Linear systems of thou ght , or shor t-term programs which justify

ignorant, indifferent, or arrogant means are not farsighted enough to serve the future of the intera ction

between hu manity and natu re. We must emp loy both current knowledge and ancient wisdom in our

efforts to conceive an d realize the p hysical transformation, care and maintenan ce of the Earth.

In this sp irit the Hann over Principles have been assembled, after extensive consultation w it h

representa tives from the d esign, environmental, and ph ilosoph ical commu nities. It is hoped th at, i f

accepted, they will evolve to adapt to the concerns of different cultures and countries across the globe,

so that all may find a w ay to endu re and bu ild into the future w ithout comprom ising the future's ability

to meet its own challenges.


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THE HAN NOVER PRINCIPLES

1. Insist on rights of humanity and nature to co-exist in a healthy, sup portive, diverse and sust ainab le

condition.

2. Recognize interdependence. The elements of human design interact with and depend upon t h e

natu ral world, with broad and diverse imp lications at every scale. Expand design considerations to

recognizing even distant effects.

3. Respect relationships between spirit and matter. Consider all aspects of human settlem ent

includ ing commu nity, dw elling, ind ustry and trad e in terms of existing and evolving connections between

spiritual and material consciousness.

4. Accept responsibility for the consequences of design decisions upon human well-being, the viability

of natural systems and their right to co-exist.

5. Create safe objects of long-term value . Do not burden future generations w ith requirements formaintenance or vigilant administration of potential danger due to the careless creation of products,

processes or standards.

6. Eliminate the concept of waste. Evaluate and optim ize the full life-cycle of prod ucts and processes,

to app roach the state of natural systems, in w hich there is no waste.

7. Rely on natural energy flows. Human designs should, like the living world, derive their creative

forces from perpetu al solar income. Incorpora te this energy efficiently and safely for responsible use.

8. Understand the limitations of design. No hu man creation lasts forever and d esign does not solve a l l

problems. Those wh o create and plan should practice humility in the face of natur e. Treat nature as a

mod el and mentor, not as an inconvenience to be evaded or controlled.

9. Seek constant improvement by the sharing of knowledge. Encourage direct and open communication

between colleagues, patrons, man ufacturers and u sers to link long term sustainable consid erations w it h

ethical responsibility, and re-establish the integral relationship between natural processes and human

act iv i ty .

The Hannover Principles should be seen as a living document committed to the transformation and

growth in the u nderstanding of our interdepend ence with nature, so that they may a dap t as our

knowledge of the world evolves.


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GUIDELINES

The Han nover Principles are a set of maxims that encourage the design professions to t ak e

susta inability into consideration. They are descriptive of a way of thinking, not prescriptions or

requirements. The guidelines below demonstrate the City of Hann over's intention to app ly th ese

pr inciples as elements of the over all d esign comp etitions associated w ith EXPO 2000. They take t h e

form of a framework, based on the enduring elements of Earth , Air, Fire, Water , and Spir it, in w h ich

design decisions may be reviewed and evalu ated . The guid elines offer critical instruction on t h e

responsibility of designers.

It is hop ed that those wh o enter the comp etitions will bring to their task uncommon ability , skill and

care, assuring that their creative acts will be able to blend aesthetic concerns with ecological principles

and provide a new insp iration for the challenge of design. In this way, design becomes a d idactic tool to

dem onstrate that sustainable thinking can be p ut into p ractice in the real world.

ELEMENTS

The five elements provid ed a structure for the ancient wor ld. The world can still be perceived along

these lines, and they are p resented here as an outline to frame the prim ary concerns of t h e

environmental program for the EXPO site.

Earth. In design , the earth is both the context and the m ater ial. For the EXPO site a ba lance must be

struck between context and m aterial wh ich pr ovides a meaningful and livable diversity of scale. A fu ll

range of experience from the "urban" to the "wild" is essential to the land scape w ithin wh ich hum an

culture evolves.

Design solutions should benefit flora and fauna as much as hum ans, upon the notion th at na tu ral

processes take care of them selves best when left alone. The ov erall sense of commu nity, link ing

hu man ity and nature, should be enhanced. A premium value sh ould be placed on unbuilt space,

part icular ly existing und eveloped land s. Re-use and expansion of the existing fabric may offer

alternatives to new construction that will preserve the natural landscape.


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New construction, when necessary, should be seen as an extension of the present built fabric, not as

indepen dent, self-contained development. Building m aterials need to be considered for their broad est

range of effects, from emotive to pr actical, w ithin a globa l and local context. Local produ ction shou ld

be stressed, along with ap proaches that em ph asize the regional, cultur al, and h istorical uniqueness of

the place. Designers should consider the interaction and imp lementation of diverse m aterials w ith inlocal climate and cultur e in a meaningfu l and p rod uctive way. They are encouraged to consider the use

of indigenous ma terials and the p ractical and effective u tilization of modern technology, includ ing

advan ced glazing, energy efficient fixtures and app liances, and n on-toxic water treatment systems.

All materials used m ust be considered in the following term s:

Buildings shou ld be designed to be flexible enough to accommod ate many hum an pu rposes, includ ing

living, working or craft, allowing th e materials to remain in place while serving d ifferent need s. Afte r

the EXPO, the use of the site w ill change. Design should includ e altern atives for how the s ite can be

adapted to post-fair requirements.

Materials should be considered in light of their susta inability; their process of extraction ,

manu facture, transformation and degrad ation through p roper resource management and biodiversity on

a global and local scale. All materials should be considered in terms of their embodied energy and

characteristics of toxicity, potential off-gassing, finish and maintenance requirements.

Produ cts used shall not be tested on an imals.

Recycling of ma terials is essential. But recycled m ater ials shou ld not be encouraged if they are t h e

result of a prod uct designed for disposability. Provision should be mad e for the disassembly and re-use

of all produ cts by the manu facturer if necessary. The reuse of entire structures must be considered in t h e

event that building fails to be adap table to future hu man n eeds.

Materials should be chosen to minimize hazard ous chemicals.

Solid w aste left after maximal avoidance mu st be dealt with in a n on-toxic manner. In natu re, was te

equals food. The aim is to eliminate any waste w hich cannot be shown to be part of a n atu ra lly

sustainable cycle.

Life-cycle ana lysis of all ma terials and p rocesses is importan t. (Life-cycle assessment is a process in

which the energy use and environmental impact of the entire life cycle of the product, process, or


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activity is catalogued and analyzed, encompassing extraction and processing of raw materials,

manu facturing, transportation and maintenance, recycling, and return to the environm ent.

The design shou ld qualify the environmental and economic costs such that the benefit of the project in

relation to expense is und erstood in both the short and long terms.

Air. The air is the element wh ose degradation we can sense most imm ediately. When the air is bad ,

all can feel it. Local atm osph eric pollution may hav e felt global consequences, so the over all design

mu st not contribute to further atmospheric denigration of any kind. Designs must be evaluated in terms

of their atmosph eric effects, including those on ozone dep letion and global w arming. Alteration of th e

micro-clima te is equ ally significant. Any possibility for the design to coun ter-balance or contribute to

remediation of existing environmental d amage shou ld be explored.

A ir pollu tion imp lications of all design systems will be considered in the evalu ation of designs.

Genera l air q ua lity issues shou ld also be considered to insure tha t no off-site or on-site a ir pollution

results from the d esign.

Wind patterns in all seasons should be evalua ted for both d etrimenta l and beneficial effects on site

configuration.

Noise pollution should be accounted for and m inimized.

Building design mu st accommod ate ventilation systems suitable to the issues of air quality. This ma y

involve strategies which show concern for dangerous outdoor air conditions as well as efficient indoor

air exchange.

Natu ral ventilation pattern s must be considered at every scale from the urban to the domestic as an

alternative to artificial climate control.

The health effects from ind oor air quality problems m ust be considered du ring the design process.

Fire. Fire is the most d ram atic symbol of the hum an ability to harness natu ral energy. Energy is

requ ired to achieve comfort and convenience and to transform ma teria ls to useful effect. Designers ar e

encouraged to inst ill th eir d esigns w ith t he ab ility to operate based on on-site renewable energy


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sources, insofar as is possible, withou t reliance on fossil fuels or remote electrical genera tion. It is

possible, given technologies and materials ava ilable today, to create buildings wh ich m ain tain

comfort levels passively withou t fossil fuels. This shou ld be considered a minimum cond ition of energy

design.

The design should be awar e of its interaction with renewable natu ral energy flows. Solar energy

should be evaluated in terms of its efficiency and its enjoyment by inh abitants and visitors through out

the ann ua l cycle. This imp lies an understanding of solar access and care for proper screening and

shading techniques.

P ossibilities for on-site energy produ ction must be considered , and accommodations should be

incorporated into design.

Buildings should, w herever possible, be net exporters of energy.

Water heating shall be from r enewable resources and be efficiently incorporated into the d esign.

Transp ortation requirements w ill be considered in terms of the ir imp act on overall energy

consumption. Pedestrian s and bicyclists shou ld have pr iority. Mass tran sit shou ld be efficient and

ava ilable, and priva te autom obile use should be discouraged. Allowances for au tomobiles should be

carefully considered for their present and future implications with regard to energy use, urban planning

and social effect. Auto services should anticipate alternative fuel strategies.

The relationship of the design and the power grid should be considered. Minimum imp act on energy

dem and from the grid is a goal, as well as the value of decentralized energy sources.

The energy "embod ied" in the building materials can have a significant impa ct on the energy

consumption of the project. Embodied energy refers to all the energy necessary to extract, re fine,

transform and utilize the materials.

Water. Water is the most basic element of life on the planet it will be celebrated as a fundamental

life-giving resource. Opportunities to create understanding and enjoyment of water will be encouraged

throughou t the design of buildings, infrastructure and landscapes. Elements which celebrate t h e

profound valu e of this resource on both m ater ial and sp iritual levels deserve serious consid eration .


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Designs will recognize the communal, cultural, historical, spiritual and poetic possibilities of the use of

water an d its central role as a p recondition for life.

Water use mu st be carefully accounted for throughout the entire design p rocess.

Water sources must be protected from contamination and careful consideration given to efficiency

techniqu es at every step.

Potable water consump tion should only be used for life-sustaining functions.

W ater from aquifers, rain water, surface run-off water, gray water, and an y w ater use for sewage

transp ort or processing systems should all be considered w ithin a cyclical concept.

Waste water must be returned to the earth in a beneficial manner. Organic treatment systems should

be considered .

N o ground wat er contamina tion shou ld result from any use of wa ter resources related to t h e

construction or op eration of an y of the p roject's facilities.

Design shall consider rainwater and surface run -off water as a possible resource for inhabitants and in

building systems.

Design should minimize imperm eable ground cover.

Gray water can be treated and app lied to p ractical or natu ral pu rposes suitable to its characteristics.

W ater use in any process relat ed activit y shall be put back into circulation, and toxic chem icals or

heavy metals should be minimized. All discharges of process-related water shall meet d rinking w ate r

standards.

Water, if used for sewage treatment or transportation, shall be restored to drinking water stand ard s

prior to distribution or re-use.


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Spirit. This most ineffable of elements is also the most hu man . Concern for su stain ability is more t h an

a matter of compliance with indu strial regu lation or environm ental imp act analysis. It embraces a

commitment to conceive of the work of design as p art of a w ider context in time and place. The design

for EXPO 2000 must embody the form of the theme "Humanity, Nature and Technology," illustratingand fostering the sense of place essential to any human experience of the meaning of su stain ability . To

present the message of the value of all life and the rightful human place as a p art of this, peop le must

be able to experience the feeling of belonging to the earth firsthand . Living in sustainable arch itectur e

is nothing less than an appeal to accept our place in the world, mediated between human and natural

purposes.

The presence of the element of spirit ensures that design will be seen as only p art of the solution, never

the wh ole. Building on the p rinciple of hu mility, th e design ph ilosophy here should realize it s

inherent limitations in trying to plan and direct both hu man and natu ral p rocesses. Design may

encourage a sense of permanence and commu nity, but it cannot legislate it. Similar ly, no assumed l aw s

of natu re can be the only criteria for evalu ating a design. The solution must present an a es th et ic

statement which sets up h um an society as a conduit toward the further und erstanding of nature, not as

an affront or an enemy to it.

One of the most pr evalen t arguments against h olding EXPO 2000 in Han nover is the fear th at t h e

impact of the expected 50 million visitors might d egrade the city and its environs. At the same time, i t

is essential that the principles of sustainability to which Hannover has committed itself could bearticulated in such a way that they reach some of the billions of the earth's inhab itants who w il l

have no opp ortunity to reach the site at all. Therefore, designers are encouraged to consider

app roaches to decentralizing the fair, such that the p lan could incorporate pavilions or centers in oth er

countr ies, scattered across the globe, that migh t be linked by electronic means such as "tele-p resen ce"

commu nications technology. It may then be possible for the wisdom of thousand s of encouraged

"sustainable" solutions and examples to be shared and enjoyed among the world's people in a

"sustainable world's fair".

The philosoph y behind these guidelines is to point those wh o partake in EXPO 2000 in the direction of

greater concern and conception of the endu ring human p lace in nature.


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The Hannover Principles / Design for Sustainability

DESIGNING THE COMPETITION

Designing for Sustainability implies an ecological method whose composite fabric has implications

and opp ortunities for the structuring of the comp etition rules and regulations. We p ropose tha t a sp irit

of cooperation and interconnectedness that per sonifies the H annov er Principles of Design guide th e

design of the comp etition as well. We suggest that the competition be ph ased in three steps:

Phase 1: A symp osium comprised of all comp etitors and a committee of international advisors to review

the idea of sustainable design and to share information. The Hannover Principles will be presented,

debated and expanded there.

Phase 2: An independent design developmen t comp etition based on the criteria contained herein, and

the resu lts of the symposium in Phase 1. After Phase 2 the jury would select three proposals, w h ich

wou ld be further developed in Phase 3.

Phase 3: Ecological success dep ends in the end on cooperation, not comp etition. So we env ision the la s t

step to be a collaborative, cross-disciplinary effort by th e three w inners, the Planun gsbeirat of the C it y

of Hannover, and committee of international advisors, to produce a workable, appropriate design in

which none of the principles are comp romised.

This strategy will result in an interdepen den t, dem ocratic process to build on the d iversity of solutions.

This will achieve a p lurality of ideas and visions wh ich truly must work together to offer a model of

realistic sustainable design for the 21st centu ry. But in sustainable terms, a centu ry is quite a short time.

In the year 2000, one ends, and another begins. More significant is the po ssibility th at an ethos for

design may begin to evolve enabling human settlements to endure throughout the next millennium, or

even longer.


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The Hannover Principles

Design for Sustaina bility

Part II:

BACKGROUND MATERIAL


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This background m aterial is intended to supp lement the principles and gu idelines set up to frame t h e

issues to be considered in the fulfillment of the design program for EXPO 2000 in Hannover. Because of

the ecological imperative associated with the event and its long-term goals, it is important that the

design criteria not be seen as a checklist .

Wh at follows is intended to be a discourse of insp iration , an essay of clues, to encourage creative

responses to the suggested program . It is not meant as a historical or critical an alysis of the t h ink ing

allud ed to, but a suggestion of po tent ial sources. No one knows the righ t answers to the challeng e of

susta inability as of yet. Here we present the reasons the susta inable vision is essential, and some tools

to begin to shape it.

It is imp ortan t from the ou tset to question the very project itself. Does the world need yet anoth er

wor ld's fair? The strongest argument against EXPO 2000 from the point of view of th e env iron menta lly

conscious pu blic is: w ho needs it? What kind of arrogant disp lay of hum an invention and know ledge

could be necessary in a world w ith so many pressing ecological and social problems? And in a na tion

with so mu ch rebuilding to d o, how could su ch pageantry be justified?

EXPO 200 could be an opp ortunity to define goals as we attemp t change th e wa y we live and r elate to

the earth. We recommend tha t EXPO 2000 be built only if it is courageous enough to ad dr ess the w orld 's

problems, concentrating on the ecological links between local and g lobal issues. Every p iece of m at er ia l

used in the construction shou ld have a sustainable origin, and this shou ld be documented so visitors canun derstand h ow many countries and geograph ically disparate ind ustries are represented. The presence

of the diverse cultures of the world should be ensured, but with a serious attempt to avoid the m istakes

so prevalent in p revious fairs, despite their good intentions.

The prob lems as well as the promises of each cultu re need to be presen ted to edu cate visitors a s

to the interconnected issues of the global situ ation. This could be manifest in an allegorical design

wh ich mirrors the world situation according to various mod els: Hav es/ hav e-nots, North / South ,

developed/ developing, indigenous/ colonial. But wh atever pa rt of the h uman and natu ral world is

presented , it should be done in an inv iting, not an aliena ting manner. Any evaluat ion will require an

assessment of the successes and failures of previous w orld expositions.


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SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND MATERIAL

EXPO 2000 as an idea is facing a lot of pu blic criticism. To convince the pub lic, it needs to be an even t

tha t d epicts a worthy cause. That cause should be environmentally sound and susta inable

development.

The challenge of a world eco-exposition is a serious one. There exists no road map to produce it. Th e

document we have produced has been carefully assembled to encourage a new way of thinking about

very pressing problems. History and ph ilosophy are necessary to frame th e situation with insights of

the past.

Most discussion of environmental aspects of the exposition ad dress hu man needs, and then na tu ral

needs. We believe that these two sides of the question are inseparable from one an other. A wh ole new

kind of philosophy on our connection to the surround ing world needs to be estab lished to break th rou gh

the barrier of dualistic thinking.

DECENTRALIZATION OF EXPO 2000

I. What Ever Happened to the Future? Learning from Previous World's Fairs

Every previous world's fair has tried to be an optimistic vision of the solutions of the future. Each of

them tend ed to fail because of their unw illingness to consider the problems of their time. The chan ging

troubles of the twentieth century world were veiled over by cleansed, shiny dreams of a world made

better with new technology.

EXPO 2000 must be d ifferent, because it will specifically addr ess th e ecological problems of our tim e,

and teach the world by example what can be done about them.

II. EXPO 2000 as Global Village

Here we propose the possibility that EXPO 2000 might be decentralized around the world, so t h a t

peop le may par ticipa te in the project with ou t needing to bring too many m illions of people to


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Han nover. This makes sense on ecological grounds as well as informa tive ones, as it w ill bring t h e

message of sustainability to as m any peop le as possible.

The case of transportation is discussed as a specific examp le of how d ecentralized thinking may be

applied to EXPO 2000.

THE MEANING OF SUSTAINABILITY

III. Sustainability Explored

Sustainable d evelopm ent is a tentative concept tha t has not been defined very well. The best

examp les of it come from simpler societies, w ith cities and towns designed so they fit into th e

landscape, using the n atural flows of energy.

But no simple return to vernacular architecture can help us now. We know too much about the globa l

and interconnected aspects of the w orld's problems. Any local land use plan w ill have globa l

implications, and these need to be investigated.

IV. From the Urban to the Wild

Many attempt s at designing new towns and land scapes have tried to plan for a range of scale from

dense structures to th e wilderness.

Many h ave failed because they tried to imp lement specific solutions based on principles too dis tan t

from experience.

Ecological realities like waste managem ent and solar energy opportu nities mu st be integrated into the

EXPO site, not tacked on to a sep arate aesthetically motivated plan.

A new typ e of thinking about design is necessary to expand scientific indus trial th inking to include

the idea of the living machine.

V. Life-Cycle Analysi s: the Quantification of Environmental Responsibility


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Life-cycle a na lysis in design imp lies the study of the entire cycle of ma teria l to construction to

adap tation or recycling of structures w hich will be built.

Usually this information is considered p art of environmen tal imp act analysis, but w e w ant it to be anintrinsic pa rt of the design. Quality of life need s to be imp lied in the design itself, not legislated by a

list of rules.

HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS

VI. The Evolution of the Industrial Age What Went Wrong?

The rise of ind ustr ialism brought a society bu ilt on the extraction of energy from natu re. Th e

ecological society will consider energy u se as pa rt of natu re, eliminating the concept of waste. The i d ea

of returning design to nature is not a new one. But natu re cannot be fixed by our stat istics; it rem ains

unq uantifiable. Nor can w e redu ce it to stereotypes of balance or harmony.

VII. Rights and Responsibility

Hu man rights have been expand ed into natural rights in ecological think ing. We need to design forthe need s of all species, not just ou r own n eeds.

Ecological thinking has a social and a p hilosophical side. The social approach looks for roots of t h e

problems in social structures, and the ph ilosophical app roach looks for these roots in the way we t h in k

about the world. Both app roaches need to be considered by the designer, in understanding t h e

competition an d in d elivering a solution.

Resp ons ibility for the ecological situat ion means that we need to be able to gauge the effects of a

design far into the future.

VIII. Humility in Design


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The built fabric of our world tends to alienate peop le from natu re. It simu ltaneously encourages us to

imagine that we comp rehend systems more complex than w e can ever know.

When our d esigns affect the natural world, we must be hu mble enough to acknowledge the unknow n.

We gauge the success of a d esign by the experience of it throu gh time. It cannot be judged against a

pre-existing checklist of criteria.


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IX. Cooperation as Excellence

There should be no single winner to the competition. We adv ocated a diverse group of designers wh o

can offer a stronger combina tion of diverse kinds of expertise than any on e person.

Previous wor ld's fair projects are discussed as positive examp les of solutions that evolved th rou gh

cooperative working relationships.

The sustainable imp erative demands that designers work together in a spirit of affirmation and

optimistic support.

DECENTRALIZATION OF EXPO 2000

I. What Ever Happened to the Future? Learning from Previous World's Fairs

For the EXPO 2000 we need structures whose conceptu al use will endure as much as th e bu ilt fa br ic.

Think of the remind ers of wor ld's fairs past wh at is left of them . The Eiffel Tower is perhaps t h e

best examp le, as it is the surv iving centerp iece of the exposition of 1889. Though once considered a neyesore, it has now become the emblem for an entire na tion. Harmonizing beauty w ith the prom ise of

engineering, it was for its time the world's tallest building. It is doubtful today tha t we need to prove

this kind of point with the fair of the centur y's end, but creating an emblem for the site and the moment

could be an imp ortant part of the solution.

It has not worked this way for all such fairs. Little is left of the great Colum bian Exposition of 1893,

and the one surviving monument of New York's 1939 World's Fair is a hollow aluminum globe, left to

corrode as the remn ant of a site w hich has faded into pub lic obscurity. To be considered su stainab le a

fair must become a community, merging with the surrounding land- and city-scape once its celebratory

role is reduced.

The Disneyland effect is a direction to be avoided h ere. EXPO 2000 shou ld not become a theme-park for

the sensitive promises of tomorrow it should p rove the value of the sustainable path by trying to pu t

this into practice. Yet how is this different from, say, the wor ld's fair of 1939, wh ich had as its th em e


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"The World of Tomorrow"? This celebration introduced television, hom e air cond itioning, t h e

fluorescent light, and the prom ise of leisure, wh ich only World War II put at bay. "It is imp ortant t o

remember," said the narrator at th e exh ibit on the future of the autom obile, "tha t the peop le of 1960

will have more time, more energy, and m ore tools to have fun." Now w e know firsthan d the libera tion

and destruction the car has wrough t on mod ern civilization. The futu re from the perspective of the year2000 should embrace criticism as well as promise.

In 1939 the most popular exhibit was Futurama, built by General Motors as a model of a future

city based on the id eas of Le Corbusier, with a city center at the intersection of two hig h w ay s

symmetrically surrou nd ed by skyscrapers. Another mod el was Democracity, a radial plan based on t h e

geom etrically precise suggestions of Ebenezer Howard 's garden city, wh ere rings of greenbelts

alternated with industry and housing out from the city center to the wilds beyond. Each of th ese

images has to some degree been pu t into practice over the interven ing fifty years, but neither has done

mu ch to prom ote any organic sense of place. They rema in fan tasies or plans, distan ced from experience

through the minds of their creators.

It mu st be stressed that pu tting a model up for disp lay as an id eal tends to separate it from its

context and may detract from its exemp lary value. Witness "main street USA" at D isneylan d ,

Disneyworld, or Euro-Disney, wh ere something is bu ilt that looks like a friend ly town, but more

resembles a bleak shopping mall hidd en behind a quaint facade, w here all is for entertainment and

consumption, without encompassing the full range of hum an life which mad e such a place so sign ifican t

for those visitors who can remember when towns were more than intersections, more necessary than

abstract plans. (One of the only resident s of ma in street USA was Walt Disney him self.) Later, w hen

Disney introdu ced EPCOT (the Experimen tal Prototyp e Community of Tomorrow) in Florida , t h eysidestep ped t he challenge of creating a real commu nity. Peop le do not live th ere, so visitors ar e

seduced by displays of optimistic forward-looking ideas as advertisements for the giant corporations

that pay for them.

If EXPO 2000 is to engage in pred iction and im agina tion of how we migh t live furth er into t h e

centur ies, it should d o so by example. That is why the design should aim from the outset to link the key

elements of hu man ity, natu re, and technology throu gh th e litmu s test of sustainability.

The kind of world exposition we need now is noth ing th at blind ly co-opts the insigh ts of th e

wor ld's peop le to suggest that they all agree and are ready to join together in to a common futu re.

Diversity of cultures and of solutions to living with nature need to be celebrated, and this means real

conflicts need to be add ressed. Previous world's fairs have more often tried to simulate harmon y w h ile

cloaking over dispu te. At the Vancouver Expo of 1986, General Motors sponsored someth ing called t h e

"Spirit Lodge," aiming to integra te the voice of native peop les into th e fair's stated message of benign

and wonderful technology for the coming future. A Kwakw aka'w akw storyteller add resses a giant

plastic raven and demands that the wise bird tell him what has gone wrong with the world:


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"Maybe all the modern changes of the last century are your trickery. Then again, p erh ap s

change is an illusion, thin as smoke. For what has really changed? Our machines have changed, but

our d reams remain the same."

The Native American ponders the situation and ha s a sudden conversion over to t h e

technological worldview:"I took another look at th is world's fair and saw tha t the new science of transp ortation seeks

nothing new. It reaches for the same old dream th at my Grand moth er knew was good. It reaches for

the magic canoe. Each small improvement brings us closer to that day, when w e will only hav e to step

inside, wish where we want to go, take one stroke, and w e'll be there. The d ream is as real and as old

as life. For life and the freedom to move are as one."

This facile appropriation of indigenous modes of thinking to justify technological progress is

easy to see through. But the imp ortant point is that all previous w orld expositions have imagined th at

they were presenting encouraging visions of how the world w ould embrace a wond erful tomorrow . These

symbols of wor ld achievement have always been bu ilt to bolster our confiden ce, not edu cate us as to t h e

seriousness of our problems. To meet these goals, the previou s world 's fairs have always been full of a

lot of lies.

In Hannover in the year 2000, we wan t to be honest about the p rospects of futu re civilizat ion by

creating an exemp lary place of possibility. But the ha rsh rea lities of our global social and ecological

crises should not be ignored or hidden behind the smiling veil of corporate or ideological sponsorship.

Even the ideology of "sus tain ab ility" must contain criticism of itself and its limita tion s. Th is

exposition will achieve greatness only if it makes people think, not just gives visitors a giddy feeling of

how fascina ting th e unknown future will be. EXPO 2000 is a cause for education as much as forcelebration.

We start from the p remise that the last several w orld's fairs have been failures a t

realistically add ressing the historical occasions that gave rise to them . Alexand er Wilson describes i t

well in The Culture of Nature:

"It is a failure of imag ination . The modernist vision of EPCOT Center and th e Can ad ian

EXPO's of 1967 and 1986 discards the history of genu inely utop ian in itiat ives of the wor ld's p eoples in

favor of an ideology of grow th and developmen t. For all the scientific exactitude of these futu rist

plan s, they are incapable of moving beyond a rigid technological d eterm inism. A future of

emancipation, on the other han d, can only be reclaimed by a society willing to debate its own su rv iva l.

This century 's wor ld's fairs stand squa rely in the way of th at debate and condemn us to a recurrent and

eternal present."


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II. EXPO 2000 as Global Village

There has been some discussion that the very idea of an event involving an expected 50 million peo ple

represents an impossible pr emise for susta inable developm ent. Witness some of the unnecessarybuild ing done for the sake of the Olympic gam es: In Lake Placid, N Y, huge stad iums and w inter sports

arenas have been built for a deman d that w ill never return, un less the winter games are brought back to

this tiny town in the midst of the nation's largest wilderness park. Wha t remains is empty

overdevelopm ent, and th e city struggles to find w ays to attract visitors to fill all the emp ty ho tels and

convention centers. Too much was p lanned an d constructed, and the imagined gr owth in the region

simp ly cannot be su stained.

How can Hannover avoid this? There is the possibility of temporary but architectu rally significant

structures, like th ose of the Columbian Exposition of 1893. There is also th e possibility of ad ap tin g

existing structures. A third possibility is the conception of a fair w hich makes use of the v ir tu al

realities characteristic of today's global system. Work an d life occur not alway s in person, but across a

global network of commu nication lines. Could a sense of ecological comm un ity be based on th is electronic

web of connections as much as the inheren t web of food an d energy chains?

Certainly Marshall McLuhan th ough t so. The Canadian commu nication theorist saw possibilities for a

brand new tribalism in the world shown on television and the promise of the computer. In th e ea rl y

1960s he praised the w ide reach and personal touch of the kind of world w e now take for granted: "Oursis a brand-new world of all-at-onceness. 'Time' has ceased, 'space' has vanished. We now live in a

global villagea simultaneous happening. We are back in acoustic space. We have begun again to

structure the p rimord ial feeling, the tr ibal emotions from which a few centuries of literacy divorced

us."

These are strong word s. They suggest a full-scale historical cycle, in which the best of the past m ay be

recovered with the latest of machines. By accepting electronic technologies as instruments to coax

par ticipation out of us, we might constitu te a comp lete human community out of virt ua l mater ials and

invisible networks. The key is choosing the right tools, or perhap s more accurately, finding the ri gh t

side of our tools the side wh ich invites us into new encounters by rem aining ambiguous, as opposed to

the other side which overburdens us with a fountain of information and precision beyond our ability to

assimilate.


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Those wh o work on electronic networks, to say noth ing of business by teleph one, und erstand how en tire

cycles of work and society can be created w ithou t ever meeting face to face. This is the w ay much of our

linkage from the local to the global is perceived . (The intern ationa l flow of resources, man ufacturing,

and d esign is mu ch hard er to perceive.) But McLuhan is quite optimistic. Although h e anticipated t h e

global information explosion, he d id not think m uch abou t how restrictive the n ew technology really is.Only the privileged throughout the world's nations have access to computers and modemsthey are

more expensive than typewriters and telephones.

There are many problems with the world formed out of electronic, virtual links between people who

never actually meet each other. The lack of genu ine contact certainly contributes to the aliena tion and

detachment characteristic of mod ern society. But we do not want to suggest that information technology

is only a problem. We hope tha t it is possible to find a w ay to ad apt this pr evalent technology to

encourage real community building and the exchange of information between people who would

otherw ise have little chance to pa rticipate in this new technological development. If sust ainab le

concerns are brough t into the progress of cyberspace in its current, early stages, it migh t develop into a

technology which could encourage, and not stifle, community.

But if EXPO 2000 could find a w ay to encourage mass communication from remote outposts in th e world

with the central facility in Hannover (or between regional sites), this could become a realistic fair of

the global village . Imagine a pa vilion in Sri Lanka where a farmer could go in and commu nicate

directly with other farmers in Nigeria or Urugu ay, discussing wh at to look for in a variety of rice. Th e

conversation could be much quicker than that media ted by a trav eling expert from the West. Suchdecentralized access points could be pa rt of the fu nd amen tal design of the event , recognizing th at i f

community is to become a global concept, it must manifest the invisible and instantaneous ways

communication can flow across the planet.

Analysis may reveal that inviting man y millions to one site wou ld be an ecological disaster. If so, t h e

celebration need not be rejected. It may instead take place all over the world, with H annover as a p oint

of insp iration, rather than a physical gathering. Though this fair is based on ecology, it is not opposed

to technology, but shou ld instead show how it can be d irected to sustainable ends. So if d evelop ing

"virtual presence" means of communication through high-definition computer screens and interactive

three d imensional grap hics prove to be feasible in the coming years, their role in promoting re a l

commu nication between people of different cultures should be considered . It could be a sp ecial p rio rit y

of the fair to get th is technology to p eople who wou ld otherw ise be unable to afford or experience it.


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THE EXAMPLE OF TRANSPORTATION

Design for sustainability involves rad ically chang ing the principles wh ich g uid e the process of design.

Our primar y aim is to present the framework necessary for the adop tion of such thinking. Th e

app lication of specific formal and conceptual design d ecisions should remain the respon sibility of t h edesigners who will participate in the EXPO comp etitions. The Principles imp ly a structural m etap ho r

of interconn ected concerns suggesting linked global, bioregional, and local imp eratives. It is like a set of

interconn ected circles located w ithin the larger circle of global sustainability. It is informed by current

und erstanding of the w orld and allows for creative evolution . Here are a series of imp erativ es from

local to global scales and back again:

Local Imperative: Promote Zero-Emission Vehicles

A city's land use defines its transport system more than any traffic planner or engineer can. Mi ch ae l

Renner writes in Rethinkin g the Role of the A ut omobile that "a more comprehensive transportation

policy must recognize that tran sportation needs are not abstr act. Wh at peop le need is access to jobs,

homes, and services. More compact and integ rated commu nities can prov ide such access without long

commutes. If urban design - creating new communities as well as reshaping existing urban landscapes -

can become an integral component of future transp orta tion po licies, th e contrasting ind ivid ual inter ests

in mobility and societal interests in fuel sup ply, security, environmental p rotection, and urban in teg rity

may be reconciled."

The Kronsberg site shou ld be restricted to zero emission vehicles.

The public transpor tation shou ld be extensive and accessible, reaching all aspects of an in tegr ated

land use plan.

It shou ld run on clean renew able energy sources. Current techn ologies poin t to hyd rogen pow er

realized from solar collection, electric power from solar, wind, tidal or geothermal sources, and

magnetic levitation from superconductors. Each of these technologies should be evalua ted with li fe -

cycle analysis. EXPO must emp loy the most efficient system av ailable at the time. However,

"efficiency" must be assessed in terms of the functioning of the system as a w hole, not only it s

expediency. Therefore an evaluation of the transport system must consider its side effects on the site,

region and world as well as its specific practical performance.


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The City of Hann over should encourage the use of pu blic transportation by offering tran spor tation

vouchers to residents and man ufacturers w ho p ractice sustainable and responsible habitation.

Bicycles should be given pr iority w ithin the EXPO village. Connections to pub lic transp ort shou ld

encourage bicycle use. Transpor t vehicles shou ld provide sp ace for bicycles. Roadw ays sh ou ldbe designed to encourage bicycle use as a pr imary means of ind ividu al transportation.

Bioregional Imperative: Respect Natural Borders

A bioregion may be defined as a structural unit, forming a cluster of ecosystems arranged

top ograp hically and climatically to produce a distinct and iden tifiable region. Translate th is as a

means of und erstand ing hum an transp ortat ion structures, so that each a spect of the bioregion must be

und erstood as it operates and contributes to the whole. For example, the EXPO will need th e cap acity

to move many people by pu blic tran sportation over a limited per iod of time. Even if the number of

peop le traveling to EXPO is reduced, this will greatly exceed the eventual transp ortation needs of th e

EXPO village after the fair. Framing this need as a bioregional constraint offers many p ossib ilities,

includ ing th e following:

Link the concept that nature p rodu ces no waste with the und erstanding that the force of evolution is a

creative one by designing transport vehicles of flexible utility.

Specifically, design non -polluting mass transp ortation for use du ring EXPO. From the beginning, design this transp ortation system to be incorporated into existing infrastructures

wh ere possible. After the fair, in stall the surplus tran spor t vehicles in a sister city in former

eastern Germany that would benefit from the new technology . By supporting the bioreg iona l

needs of reu nification and the sh ort-term needs of the EXPO, we can est ablish a clean

transp ortation system for both the EXPO village and her sister city.

Encourage pu blic tran sportation to the EXPO by offering incentives to those w ho tr avel by train or

some other means of collective, alternative fuel vehicle.

Global Imperative: Promote Remediation

Estimate the number of people who will come to the fair and offset the CO 2 produced by

planting tr ees. The establishment of a remed iation level commensurate with the profound impact of

the EXPO will allow the new EXPO village to grow after the fair and still keep air pollution under


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control. Furtherm ore, as new non-polluting method s of transp ortation evolve, existing forests w ill be a

resource for the dev eloping communities. These forests must be ha rvest ed sus tainably, as a mod el of

responsible resource management, to ensure long-term viability.


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Global Imperative: Reduce transportation loads through advances in communication

A challenge: bring fewer people to the site yet make EXPO more accessible to more people.

Initially this may seem to be contrad ictory, but thr ough adv ances in Virtual Presence it may be possible

to link up peop le in very distant places throu gh three-dim ensional interactive computer environments.By the year 2000 this technology may improve enough to offer a real alter na tive in communication.

This strategy might also:

Reduce CO2emissions that would result from transport to the EXPO.

Redu ce hu man load on th e EXPO site and the H annover metrop olitan area.

Revitalize existing Fair groun ds as commu nication satellites

Promote an interconnected worldview based up on biomes rather than national borders.

M ake the EXPO accessible to a broad range of peop le for whom th e tran sportation costs would

otherw ise be economically pr ohibitive an d ecologically unten able.

Promote environmentally responsible technology in d eveloping nations.

Solution in terms of the nested circles of scale

From a consideration of the issue of tran sportation , an ecological app roach rev eals tha t the solution

recommends electron ic commu nication as much as moving peop le from one place to anoth er. Th e

Hannover Messe (industry) and CEBIT (computer fair) are already the largest in Europe and happenevery year. If we aim for an aud ience of 20 million rath er than the 50 million expected, ecolog ical

effect may be kept under control. Through the latest telepresence technologies which make virtual

communication more real than ever before, the improvement in electronic linkage will be tremendous.

People from all over the w orld w ill be able to participate in the m essage of EXPO 2000 withou t needing

to travel to the city of Hannover in person. Such tools hav e just as much potential to alienate th ei r

users as earlier advances, but it is a challenge to those developing and m anaging them to make the new

techniqu es part of a su stainable global vision.

THE MEANING OF SUSTAINABILITY

III. Sustainabili ty Explored


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Sustainab ility is a load ed and slippery term. It nam es those activities wh ich can be continued far into

the future, defining a way of life th at w ill last. The trouble is that it is nothing newbusiness and

indu stry have always hoped that wh atever course they choose will be the sustainable course, one th a t

will not push them out of business. In a sense, there is no pr actical need to scold business too much. I f

environmental considerations are something tha t can really be add ressed, t hey hav e to encouragebusiness activity, rath er than forbid it. Busin ess will not change overnight . Will it chang e fast enough

to respond to ecological need s? That is another question.

"Sust ainab le developmen t" imp lies a kind of grow th that w ill be able to go on. Will ther e be a poin t

wh en we will have to chastise growth itself? That is just wh at the ind ustrial commu nity does not wa nt

to hear. This is wh y the definition of sustainable d evelopmen t is couched so carefully by t h e

Brun dtland Comm ission: "Meeting the needs of the present w hile not compromising the ability of t h e

future to meet its own need s." If hum ans in the future decide it is time to forsake the Ear th , t h is

definition says nothing to stop it. The ph rase is intentiona lly weak , to garner the most chance of

accepta nce. It says: at least make it possible so that the future will h ave a choice. They shou ld not

regret their past.

World Bank economist Herman Daly points out the kind s of definitions of sustainab ility that he finds

to be counterprodu ctive. They includ e "sustainab le development is development th at sustains t h e

high est r ate of economic grow th without inflation ." That 's just business as usua l, described a li t t le

differently, so that our present notion of growth will keep its course. Or: "Su stain ability considers t h e

expand ing needs of a growing world p opu lation, imp lying a steady and necessary growth." It im p liesthat development will need to be continuou s and steady, instead of requiring an y leveling off to meet a

carrying capacity. Formulations like these are inad equate, so Daly himself proposes three spe cific

rules of sustainability to make sense in economic terms:

1. Harvest renewab le resources only at the speed at wh ich they regenerate.

2. Limit wastes to the assimilative cap acity of local ecosystems.

3. Require that p art of the profit be pu t aside for investment in a renewable substitute resource.

And for him, sustainable development does not follow from more free trade between production and

consumption ecosystems across global lines. For a nat ion to create a sustain able economy, it must step

back from the global economy. Sust ain ability requires a smaller scale bound in which to be tested . I t

will begin as an experimen t, not as law. This is the remarkable poten tial of EXPO 2000. Imagined as a

sustainable community, it will be a model for the planet of what a sustainable settlement might look

like in our increasingly comp licated world.


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Examples of susta inability are not hard to cull from the h istory of world cultur es. But most often th ey

are sm all scale social solutions that involve a sm all number of peop le wh o do little or no damage t o

the ir surrounding ha bita t. And often ther e is no design or designer which gu ides the inh abita tion of

the place. But now the complex of hum an/ nature interactions is more intr icate and overlapp ing, a ndthe scale of change gets faster all the tim e. We cannot simply set up a benign situa tion and let an

innovative solution slowly evolve to meet ecological constraints. Design is necessary, but a very sp ecia l

kind of design that d oes not claim to control more than it knows.

We find hopeful, if distant, examples in works such as Bernard Rudofsky's Architecture without

Architects. Villages, cities, fortresses, and monasteries are presented from tra d ition al cultures across

the globe. Buildings are arranged so that the flows of wind are channeled and ha rnessed, not blocked

and diver ted. It is clear tha t they ha ve had the luxury of time: no one commissioned these structures

and d emand ed them built and ready for use in a year or two. Intervention w as slow enough to be teste d

by the strength of natu ral forces and the sobering sp irit of time. Still, the structures of less mech an istic

cultur es are those that have end ured th e longest, suggesting that susta inable bu ilding relies less on an

absolute coherent plan than on the cooperation between d esigners and end-users.

Often they were the same people. But a change in attitude can also link the two groups. In t h e

Himalayas, for example, the mostly stone houses are never considered fixed, finished buildings. The y

evolve as the usage changes, with new rooms and structures built to flow out of existing walls, gradually

forming the irregular urban fabric where no angle is exactly ninety degrees and no street follows anexact grid, even thoug h these principles may have had a hand in the original thoug ht behind t h e

town. (Now the Sherp a h ave cut down all of their previously renewable forests to fuel the tour ist

trad e.) Similarly, the beloved an d varied land scape of European country villages was not plann ed by

any overseeing authority, but developed slowly and tent atively. Communities organized th em selves,

and because each environmental intervention took so much longer then than now, the expectation from

the change was so much less. The coherence of regionalism can avoid the kitsch problem asso ciated

with the blanket appropriation of nostalgic models of land planning.

When we ask for a design cognizant of long-term susta inability, we mean something that w il l

be able to adapt to the unknow n future. Thus it cannot legislate so much that what is not known will be

mad e invisible at some later date. The plan must leave room for changing human understanding of

what nature m eans.

The forthcoming Agenda 21 Docum ent, which will comprise the main p olicy statement from t h e

Jun e UN CED conference in Brazil, states:


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(Section I, Chapter 6 of Agenda 21; document A/ CONF.151 / PC/ 100/ Add .7).

"By th e year 2025, 60% of the Ear th's pop ulation will live in cities. Degrad ation of t h e

environment an d h um an living cond itions is already seen in cities, particularly in d eveloping countries.

Cities also generate 60% of gross national product worldwide, and can develop the capacity to sustain

their productivity."Proposals the United Nations is considering focus on sustainable planning and management

methods that will meet the housing, wat er, san itation, safety, and w aste management needs for

billions of people.

"Solutions to problems caused by human settlements are linked to issues of energy, air, and

wa ter on a global scale. Intern ationa l organ izations and fund ing sources shou ld provide both hum an

and financial resources. Traditionally, fund ing for hum an settlements has been low."

This is rather vague, but illustrative of why th e sustainable settlements of the future will need

to be very different from the beau tiful organ ic examp les prevalent in th e historical record of verna cular

architectur e from around the globe. The environmental criteria for sustaina bility are tod ay sim p ly

global in scope, as we know too much about the d amage the tot ality of the hum an species can in flict

upon the wor ld. The greenhouse effect and the widen ing ozone hole ar e two grap hic and unintended

consequences of worldw ide indu strializationno one planned them, yet they are the clear results of th e

combination of all our energy interventions. A way of life based on building w hich w ill last must als o

consider the full range of atm ospher ic in which local events affect g lobal. The plan etary must be

combined w ith th e regional. This is a stand ard by which th e picturesque examp les of previous such

communities cannot be jud ged, as every new development we begin is mu ch more connected to the globa l

netw ork of resource use than an y Italian hill town or Yemenite fortress. Every bit of energy expended inthe creation of the project must be accounted for, and the g oal of the eliminat ion of all waste shou ld

hold from the material side to the spiritual side.

The strategy for sustainability published by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature

(IUCN), Caring for the Earth, takes an ecological tack in the definition of sustainable development:

"improving the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting

ecosystems." The carrying capacity of an ecosystem, biome, or bioregion is challenged d ifferen tly by

less ind ustrial cultures with a high pop ulation growth and d ensity, or a more ind ustrial culture with a

more stable pop ulation but with mu ch higher per capita energy use. W orld Resources 1992-93 lists the

general direction resource use within carrying capacity limits needs to be explored:

"Sustainable development necessitates protecting the natural resources needed for food production and

cooking fuels, while expand ing produ ction to meet the needs of growing popu lations. These ar e

potentially conflicting goals, and yet failure to conserve the natural resources on which agriculture


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depends would ensure future shor tages of food. Sustainable development means more efficient use of

arable lands and water supplies, as well as development and adoption of improved agricultural

pr actices and technologies to increase yields . It aims to avoid overuse of chem ical fertilizers and

pesticides, so that they do not degrad e rivers and lakes, thr eaten wild life, and contaminate hu man

food and water sup plies. It mean s careful use of irrigation, to avoid water logging of cropland . It meansavoiding the expansion of agriculture into m arginal soils that would rapid ly erode."

The full effects of each intervention on th e fragile and h eavily used north Germ an environment, part of

the t emp erate forest biome, needs to be considered at each step . The larg e scale ram ifications of an

event that will draw m illions to the region by car, bus, train and p lane need to be carefully managed so

that a sud den onslaught of visitors does not irreparably degrad e the site.

German y, w ith a pop ulation of 77,573,000 is the tw elfth largest country in the wor ld. At 1.4 tr illi on

dollars, it is fourth highest in GNP, and at 1.14 billion tons CO 2 equivalent, the country is sixth

high est in greenhouse gas emissions. With a land area of only 137, 801 square miles, Germany is t h e

fifty-seventh largest country on the planet. The incongruity of pop ulation and available land m akes

environmen tal pressures among the country's top concerns. Most of Germany is p art of the tem pera te

forest biome, which covers only 4% of the world's surface, despite its preference by humans as h a b it a t.

So from the po int of view of other species in this type of life commu nity, preserv ing forests is of utmost

importance. Forest dam age from acid rain is visible throughou t the nation, and as much as 50% of a l l

trees are though t to be dam aged. Heavy metals and toxic effluents lace th e waters, and air qu ality i s

often threatened. And m uch of the wooded area is so rigorously managed that nothing near the optimallevel of biodiversity is encouraged.

An examp le of the possible ecological richness this ha bita t could sustain may be found in Polan d 's

Bialowieza National Park, an area of 47.4 square kilometers, protected by a buffer zone, 15 kilometers

wide, of managed forest. Among the mammals thriving there are lynx, wolf, wild boar, elk, red d eer,

roe deer, and the celebrated European bison, re-introd uced a fter near extinction in 1929. The unique

value of this fragmen t of an ancient forest has been ap preciated by the nation under successive forms of

government, and is respected around the world as well. Perh ap s some analogous kind of recovered

ha bita t could be plann ed for the d istant future as part of EXPO 2000. With the merging of East and

West Germany in 1990, the West inher ited a land of severe env ironm ental d egrad ation. By 1996, even

the eastern p arts of Germany will need to meet the waste, wa ter, and air pollution standar ds of th e

European Comm un ity. EXPO 2000 wou ld be an ideal time to celebrate the meeting of these requirements

as Germany sets itself up as a model of sustainability for the next millennium.


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IV. From the Urban to the Wild

A complete fair w ill offer the full range of land scape experience from civility to th e

wilderness. It is over the full course of possible interactions w ith the ecology that the m eaning ofnature is articulated . We need a range of built scales, like the non-modular rhythm s of the na tu ral

world, not imposed, but suggested. Previous attemp ts to plan for d iversity hav e usu ally legislated too

mu ch, and mad e it all look far too artificial.

Most famous in modern times is the garden cities movement, led by Ebenezer Howard, which tried to

specify not only the physical layout of the ideal urban form, but also took a stab at defining the socio-

economic and ph ilosop hical basis for a modern way of life w hich would bring its inhabita nt s into

contact with nature even as ind ustr ialization grew. Agriculture and industry were to be linked in a

design where financial equity would be shared with the residents. The socialists Charles Fourier and

Robert Owens had come up with similar ideas in the midd le of the nineteenth century, but they usu ally

envisioned a single building surrounded by produ ctive land . Not ha ving firsthan d experience w it h

building the environment, their ideas were more soph isticated than their models. How ard 's visions

were diagram matic and geom etric, not so mu ch specifying building type as how open space, streets, and

bu ilt sections were to be laid out. The idea w as socialist, but the picture was orderly and somewha t

tot alita ria n. The notion th at new developmen ts could be conceived not as suburban spr aw l, but as

independent self-sufficient commu nities offered a profound alter na tive to the rap idly growing urban

centers. Here is how H oward d escribed Welwyn, a garden city seen as a satellite of Lond on in 1919:"The town w ill be laid ou t on gard en city principles, the town area being d efined and the rest of

the estate permanently preserved as an agricultural and rura l belt. Particular care will be taken, in the

arrangement of the town, to reduce internal transport and transit, whether of factory and office

workers, or of good s, to the practicable minimu m. A pop ulation of 40-50,000 will be prov ided for, efforts

being made to anticipa te all its social, recreative, and civic need s. The aim is to create a self-cont ained

town , with a vigorous life of its own indep end ent of Lond on."

Though garden cities did try to mix housing, wor kp laces, and commerce, it w as wrong to imagine t h a t

they could be closed systems, autonomous and detached from the rest of suburban sp raw l. Macro-

economic catastrop hes like the Great Depression began to control the ir fiscal situa tion, and it w as

difficult to maintain the co-own ership over any length of time. Welwyn was eventu ally taken over by

a developer, and now it is pr imarily a resident ial suburb. An other of How ard's garden cities at t h e

out skirts of Oslo, Norway, at Ullevl, orig ina lly conceived as worker hou sing, is now considered so

pictur esque that only the most wealthy can afford to live there. That is a mark of both its success and


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failure : Sup erior to the more lifeless suburbs that follow ed it, th e garden cities now are v alu ed

nostalg ically, more as places of resid ent ial luxury than anyth ing else. They h ad the forces of a

growing economic system against them, and they had to defer to external demographic change before

their own sustainability could be tested.

The great modernist Le Corbusier had his own principles for how the city could embrace its location,

and in principle they do not seem so different from th e kind of things proposed today:

1. We mu st decongest the center of our cities.

2. We must augment their density.

3. We must increase the means for getting about.

4. We must increase parks and open spaces.

So mu ch for principles! The problem is in th e lack of concern for the "edges" between these conflicting

aims, and the street sepa ration between the par ts of the plan. Corbusier enjoyed h uge hig h-r ises

overlooking independent countryside, and when you look at the places where he was allowed free

reign, such as his wh ole new cities in northern Ind ia, you see the imposed exact geometry of modernism

turning aw ay from a natu re left unconsidered outside the city wa lls. This kind of rigid sep aratio n

encourages the id ea th at human interests are separate from natura l interests, assuming they w il l

alway s conflict. This div ision pr ecludes creative solution, and speaks again for the v irtue of mod esty

in urban planning. Lewis Mumford later called Corbusier's well-articulat ed vision the picture of th e

"anti-city:"

"The first mistake was the overvaluation of mechanization and standardization as ends in themselves

without respect for hum an purpose. The second was th e theor etical destruction of every vestige of th e

past, without preserving any links in form or visible structure between past and future, thereby

magn ifying the importance of the present and at the same time threatening with destruction wh at ev er

perm anent values the present might in turn create... This is the error of the disposable urban container.

Finally Corbusier's concept carried to its extreme the necessary reaction against urban overcrowding:

the m istake of separating and extravag antly over-spacing facilities whose topograp hic proximity is

essential for their daily use."

Corbusier's greatest contribution to plann ing was to liberat e the plan from pre-cond itioned constra ints.

With the new materials of reinforced concrete and steel, he demon strated that w hole new env ironments

could be conceived, based on the designer's experience of the site. His best work is on a sm aller sca le

wh ere the sculptu ral nature of his architecture d efines fascinating spaces. He just tried to expand th ese

ideas too far, beyond the limits of their ind ifference to context. And yet the m ainstream ap plication of


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his ideas proved even worse tha n the monum ental mod els: Subu rbia as it ha s turned out lacks an y

organic focus, because it is seen as a place to live, not to work, thereby separating livelihood from home.

How could anything bu t alienation result?

The backlash to the sterility of New Town theory can be said to have begun with the work of JaneJacobs, wh o argu es as a writer from outside th e arch itectu ral profession th at the congestion and mixed

use of older cities supp orts a vitality and genuine commun ity wh ich the planned does not. The orig ina l

city was based on the intermingling of people from different social classes and the cultural value of

chance meetings in streets with a past. Can such a trad ition al wa y of life be simu lated ? A successful

community needs a locus mundi wh ere an identifiable center for human interaction and interchange i s

scaled to social and cultur al dem ograp hics. There needs to be a well p oint where unplanned

communication can occur.

Is the recovery of tradition compatible with the ecological imperatives of using solar-based renewable

energy and eliminating the concept of waste? The planners who bu ild on Jacobs' ap pr oach, such as Leon

Krier, Peter Calthorpe, and Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, are less motivated by

ecological worry than by the social boredom of most post-World War II building worldw ide. There a re

so many aspects involved in design that even well-intention ed planning strategies m ay go awry . It is

important that design not constrain the human or natu ral economy; people sh ould be free to d etermine

spatial utility.

Design should never dictate, but be did actic only as part of a larger environmental edu cation. Ifecological constraints are too strong, it may be best not to build anything new, but instead retro fit w h a t

we hav e so that as little dam age is done as possible, wh ile ensuring that the city allows for th e

presence of nature throu ghou t its fabric. Corridors of green such as Frederick Law O lmstead 's

ninet eenth -century "emer ald necklace" in Boston and Wash ington now may be seen to have valu e for

wildlife in itself, not just for hu man enjoyment, but the stra tegy is still the same. It shou ld be stressed

that the d iversity of scales and hab itats should be accessible to everyone. Ha bitats should not be

arranged as if in a mu seum, but readily experienced in d aily life.

It is a great challenge to link environm ental conscience with end ur ing design. John Todd , founder of t h e

New Alchemy Institute on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, has worked for several decades on "living

machines" conceived as min iatu re earths containing many components of a food chain. More t h an

greenhouses, they represent a synthesis of solar, wind, biology and electronics for cultivating food and

sustaining a comfortable environment. He imagines them all over the futu re hum an environment:


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"A living machine is a device mad e up of living organism s of all typ es, usua lly housed w ithin a casing

or structure of 'gossamer' materials. Like a conventional machine it is comprised of interr elated p ar ts

with separate functions and u sed in the performance of some type of work. They are engineered w it h

the same design principles used by nature to build and regulate its great ecologies in forests, lakes,

prairies, or estuaries. Their primary energy sou rce is sunlight. Like the planet they have hyd rologicaland mineral cycles. They are, however, totally new , contained env ironments.

The full expression of the living machines is far from being realized . I pr edict th at it w ill become an

integr al par t of the ar chitectur e and design of towns, villages, and city neighborhoods. Urban

agriculture will be widesp read and produ ctive. Sewage will be treated and recycled in livin g

machines. With plan ts, anim als, soil, wa ter, and pu rifying gases, these structures w ill become t h e

workhorses of a solar age."

The following table d emonstrates h ow living m achines differ from conventional technologies in

regard to energy use:

Liv ing Machi nes Convent iona l Techno logy

primary sources: the sun fossil fuels, nu clear p ow er

secondary sources rad iant energy com bu stion and electricity

internal biogenesis

of gases

capture of external energy in trinsic rareto design

internal storage heat, nutrients, batt eries

and gases

efficiency low biological high in best technologies

t ransfer efficiency low when total infras tructure

in subsystems, is calculated

high in overall

aggregate efficiency

l i fespan long, to centu ries sh ort, to d ecad es

recycling internal and intrinsic pollution control devices

if anything

material parts are livinghardware based

populations


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These comp arisons suggest the goals of such technology, but it requires creative und erstand ing on

the p art of the d esigner to create real places from such organic devices. On a trip w it h

anthr opologist Margaret Mead , Todd visited Bali, wh ere they experienced villages w h ich

fused p ractical, artistic, and religious elements in their dealings with the natu ral world. H e

realized that the organic constructions he was trying to envision as part of a city were tooind ividu ally conceived, too much like single buildings, than whole plans that add ress t h e

complex ways peop le live. The ecological imp erat ive of thin kers like Todd fails if used to

rep lace arch itecture, rath er than supp lement it. The designer's challeng e is to combine

engineering philosophy with aesthetic and stylistic planning constraints.

App ropr iate solutions also involve a certain specific attention to the site at han d. Local

know ledge is essential to guar antee ecologically aware designs. Roberto Bur le Marx, celebrated

Braz ilian land scape ar chitect, uses 50,000 species of plan ts rath er than the 12,000 species of

the European world. This respect for the gr eat trop ical diversity leads to an ecological

sensibility:

"People are so uneducated. Na tu re is always d estroyed in the name of progress. N atu re is a

cycle of life that you mu st un der stand in order to take liberties w ith it in good conscience. Th emean s at our disp osal like the gr eat bu lldozers, fire, defoliants, can just as well be used for good

as for evil but in Braz il they are used to create misery." But th is ecology is not extremist: " I

don't say that in my gardens I don't plant foreign plan tsI d o. But they must fit in to our

landscape. It is importan t that a d esign is a result of our existing land scape an d flora."

In most cases, the trad itional division between settlement, agr icultu ral, and forestry land use

patterns ma y be preserved. If care is taken w ith the existing landscape, its features may be

preserved as new d evelopm ent is put on the site. How ever, in Germany it may be useful to t a k e

an over-managed mon oculture forest and change it into a mixed stand simply to demonstrate t h e

failings of previou sly restrictive forest man agement.

A truly sustainable community will need to be far more integrated than most planning or

environmental experimen ts to date. An insp iring example is Cur itiba, Braz il, a city of 1.6million inhabitants wh ich has mad e environmental concerns a priority of developm ent. H ig h -

rise development is encouraged only in structural axes with central, special lanes for buses.

Instead of huge, expensive downtown renewal projects, the city has favored small-scale projects

that preserve traditional localities and as much park land as p ossible. Separation of trash for

recycling by individual families is encouraged by exchanging garbage for food and bus vouchers

in the p oorer pa rts of town. Environmental edu cation is institu ted a t all school levels. As a

result of its commitment to providing a high quality of life, the city is a favored site for new

industries of local and foreign origin.

It is not design's place to create a religion of app ropr iate h abitation , but that may be

hap pening of its own accord as attention to ecology becomes a fact of our present life, much li k e

attention to progress was earlier on in this century . Ecological thinking mu st not become too thin

and scattered. It is an impor tant asp ect of life, but not a self-contained 'new system.' Design can

teach both a practical involvement with natural cycles as well as an aesthetic celebration of

the range of possible ways to live outw ard into the natural and social world. It need never h id e

the ind ividua l in a sealed box of his own making. These are the qu alita tive concerns.

Quan titative asp ects are d iscussed in the next section:

V. Life-Cycle Analysi s: the Quantification of Environmental Responsibility


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The environmental imp erative is more than an app eal to a return to more trad itional, tim e-

tested aesth etic routes which do not overrun the rich range of natu ral experiences. We ar e

asking for a consideration of the full life cycle of mater ials and constructions such that a

realistic, sustainable interaction with the natural world is achieved.

With the end orsement of "Life-Cycle An alysis," we are suggesting one of many ap proaches to

environmental impact stud y, not as any sole criteria, but as one pa rt of the evalu ation process.The biggest ad vanta ge this method has over other comp arable ones is tha t it encourages

op timiza tion : that is, find ing a solution, rat her than just pointing out the p roblems. Systems

ana lysis of the entire life-cycle of each part of the b uilt environment is an outgrowth of t h e

modeling pioneered by the Limits to Growth Reportwritten at MIT in the early 1970s, applied

at a much more specific and smaller scale.

The Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry states that "the life-cycle assessment

is an objective p rocess to evaluate the environmental bu rdens associated with a prod uct, process,

or activity by identifying and qu antifying energy and ma terial usages and environmental

releases, to assess the imp act of those energy and ma ter ial uses and releases on th e

environment, and to evaluate and implement opportunities to effect environmental

improvements. The assessment includes the entire life-cycle of the produ ct, process, or ac tiv it y,

encompassing extracting and processing of raw m ater ials, man ufacturing, tran sportation , anddistribution, use/ re-use/ maintenance, recycling, and final d isposal." The following items a re

from their report, A Technical Framework for Life-Cycle Assessment:

There are three phases to the analysis:

InventoryThe da ta-based process of quan tifying energy and raw ma terial requirements,

including air emissions, waterborne effluents, solid w aste, and all other releases incurred

throughout the life-cycle of the activity.

Impact AnalysisThe qualitative and quantitative method to assess environmental loads

identified in by inventory, including hu man an d n on-hum an health considerations.

Optimization A systematic evaluation of the needs and opportunities to reduce theseenvironmental loads throughou t the entire life-cycle under scrutiny, using both qu an tita tive

and qualitative measures of improvements

Documents

Hannover Principles