City futures : exploring urban retrofit and sustainable transitions

Eames, D; Dixon, T; May, TP; Hunt, M

Abstract

Cities are responsible for up to 70% of global carbon emissions and 75% of global energy consumption. By 2050 it is estimated that 70% of the world's population will live in cities. The critical challenge for contemporary urbanism, therefore, is to understand how to develop the knowledge, capacity and capability for public agencies, the private sector and multiple users in city-regions (i.e. the city and its wider hinterland) to re-engineer systemically their built environment and urban infrastructure in response to climate change and resource constraints. To inform transitions to urban sustainability, key stakeholders' perceptions were sought though a participatory backcasting and scenario foresight process in order to illuminate challenging but realistic socio-technical scenarios for the systemic retrofit of core UK city-regions. The challenge of conceptualizing complex urban transitions is explored across multiple socio-technical ‘regimes’ (housing, non-domestic buildings, urban infrastructure), scales (building, neighbourhood, city-region), and domains (energy, water, use of resources) within a participatory process. The development of three archetypal ‘guiding visions’ of retrofit city-regional futures developed through this process are discussed, along with the contribution that such foresight processes might play in ‘opening up’ the governance and strategic navigation of urban sustainability.

Citation

Eames, D., Dixon, T., May, T., & Hunt, M. (2013). City futures : exploring urban retrofit and sustainable transitions. Building Research and Information, 41(5), 504-516. https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2013.805063

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Jul 12, 2013
• Publication Date: Jul 12, 2013
• Deposit Date: May 10, 2013
• Journal: Building Research and Information
• Print ISSN: 0961-3218
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 41
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 504-516
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2013.805063
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2013.805063
• Related Public URLs: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rbri20/current
• Additional Information: Funders : Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)