Book Review: The Sustainable Urban Design Handbook

Nico Larco and Kaarin Knudson, The Sustainable Urban Design Handbook, New York: Routledge, 2024; 464 pp.; ISBN: 9781138945692, £39.99 (pbk); ISBN: 9781138945678, £135.00 (hbk); ISBN: 9781315671239, £35.99 (eBook)

Overview

Making sustainability accessible to broader audiences is essential, and the Sustainable Urban Design Handbook is a valuable contribution to the expanding scholarship in this area. While we know how much damage humanity has done to the environment, and research points to the gravity of the problem for the future, widespread and popular solutions remain relegated to quick fixes like electric cars and plastic recycling. Although these developments are necessary, they fail to recognise the true scale of the problem. Cities are responsible for a large percentage of carbon emissions, and therefore are the places where green solutions can be found, making urban design and architecture essential in the decarbonising process. Despite the 1987 Brundtland Report’s urgency, only recently have architecture organisations around the world declared a climate emergency and begun to take action. As Till and Wigglesworth pointed out in 2002, sustainable approaches must be the norm, emphasising the agency of design through practical approaches in an era of scarcity. Following this trend, the newly published book by Kaarin Knudson and Nico Larco provides a comprehensive overview of sustainable urban development that places a significant emphasis on design. This book is an expansion of Larco’s earlier Sustainable urban design framework (2015) reviewed by Wheeler (2015). As such, it provides a positive and rich contribution to the research and practice of sustainable urban design, by adequately addressing a range of issues mentioned in Wheeler’s review, such as the importance of social sustainability and the difficulty of translating solutions to different parts of the world.

Relevance to contemporary urban challenges

The Sustainable Urban Design Handbook is a valuable resource for practitioners and lecturers in urban design and architecture. Knudson and Larco’s book aligns with significant contributions of long-standing scholars such as Jane Jacobs, Jan Gehl, Bernard Rudofsky and Kevin Lynch in terms of a human scale design and priorities of public spaces. The book also integrates the work of scholars like Beatley (2011), who advocates for a ‘biophilic’ approach to urban design that prioritises the integration of natural systems in cities.

The book discusses many of the urgent issues facing contemporary cities, including climate resilience, resource efficiency and social equity. Taking a holistic approach to urban planning, the authors argue for a paradigm shift towards sustainability that balances environmental stewardship with social and economic objectives. The book is organised in practical and useful categories, which make it a didactic piece for both students and practitioners. The connection between different chapters through key words and cross-referencing is also a very useful tool. This may look complicated at first, but once you are familiar with the layout, the book forms a very useful system for reading about specific aspects across different categories. The implementation section at the beginning of each chapter is very helpful, as it gives a quick visual aid to the cost and difficulty of each aspect of urban design in the context of greenfield and retrofit. A very good example of this is the ease and lower cost of designing effective public transportation networks in newly designed networks, as opposed to existing networks that have much higher political challenges. In particular, the well-structured presentation of topics, such as density and proximity, is insightful and relevant. Providing practical solutions for medium and high-density contexts, the water management and ecology section is also thorough and technically comprehensive. The diagrams about fabrics, mixed use and density are very useful in principle, but they do not acknowledge the valuable research done in the field by European scholars such as Malfroy and Caniggia (2021), Berghauser Pont and Haupt (2005) or Hausleitner (2019). However, the diagrams, graphics and photographs are clear and informative, enhancing understanding of the concepts presented.

Critical perspective

The text relies heavily on scholarship about transport infrastructure, urban fabric and ecology, making it comprehensive and thorough, while the chapters on politics and inequalities are less comprehensive. While the handbook provides a solid foundation in sustainable design principles, it could benefit from a more critical examination of the socio-political barriers to implementation, such as those brought up by Carmona’s (2009) three tyrannies. The absence of discussions on gender, class, or other issues of inclusion is a notable omission, considering their relevance in contemporary scholarship and practice. Moreover, the handbook could go further in exploring the intersections between sustainability and social justice, particularly in relation to issues such as housing, gentrification and displacement, as seen in the work by Auerbach (2021). As urban areas become more desirable due to sustainability interventions, there is a risk that low-income residents may be displaced, exacerbating social inequalities. The authors briefly touch on this issue but do not provide a comprehensive analysis nor offer strategies for mitigating these negative impacts. Incorporating insights from Agyeman’s (2020) work could enhance the handbook’s discussion of sustainability and social equity, thus providing a more robust framework for addressing these challenges.

Conclusions

A key strength of the Sustainable Urban Design Handbook is its practical orientation based on thoroughly investigated and long-standing research in the area. From green infrastructure initiatives to transit-oriented development and community-led planning, the authors present numerous case studies of cities that have successfully implemented sustainable urban design initiatives. Using these case studies as examples, practitioners can better understand how urban environments can be transformed and the quality of life improved through sustainable design interventions and how they can be applied to a wide range of settings, from dense urban areas to suburban neighbourhoods. This diversity of examples reflects the authors’ understanding that sustainability is not a one-size-fits-all solution but rather requires context-specific approaches that consider the unique characteristics and needs of each community. The case studies also highlight the importance of adaptability and flexibility in sustainable urban design, as cities must be able to respond to changing conditions and emerging challenges. The book’s timely publication and potential for long-lasting impact in practice make it a very valuable addition to the field.

References

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