Over the weekend, Barbara Wilks and Martin Barry attended the Ecological Urbanism Conference at Harvard University Graduate School of Design. The conference asked:

With the aim of projecting alternative and sustainable forms of urbanism, what are the key principles of an ecological urbanism? How might they be organized? And what role might design and planning play in the process?

To understand the breadth of eco-urbanism – the conference brought together economists, theorists, engineers, historians, environmental scientists, politicians, public health specialists, urbanists, and design professionals. The conference reminded us how exciting and inspiring it is to be part of this new frontier in design.

Barbara and I left with a good understanding of the state of the art, and how we must continue to push for evocative, yet smart ecologically sensitive designs. While looking at a beautiful slide of contemporary iconic buildings, Rem Koolhaas said something interesting about the architecture on his slide [including his] not working anymore. He essentially crossed it out and said that we should move on to a new architecture that demands a more sensitive and ecologically thoughtful approach. As designers, we should be looking for new, bolder, more ecological solutions with a broad range of collaborators.

Photo:

Chuck HobermanHoberman Associates, New YorkAdaptive Fritting, 2009