Founded on landscape architecture, urban design, and ecological sciences, ‘Biourbanism’ is a city planning and urban design platform that assists mayors, city leaders and planners create healthier, more resilient cities.
Put simply, the research-led platform asserts that cities must be considered a form of nature. Developments in environmental science have underlined humanity’s impact on the planet, signalling earth’s entry into a new epoch called the Anthropocene – a point in evolution where the planet’s wild places have been radically altered by humans; wild places and complex biological systems upon which we dearly depend.
Comprising ten systems managed mutually through data, a paradigm shift in thinking will allow us to quickly decarbonise our cities and transform urban environments into more equitable, vibrant, climate resilient places that are better able to support the needs of their citizens.
These systems are made up of key indicators that can be aggregated as a scorecard for determining the relative health and competitiveness of a region, city or project depending on the scale of investigation. Optimum urban health is achieved if intervention to an individual system does not trigger significant detrimental impact to the remaining nine. The interrelationships of systems are thus managed in a purposeful and mutually beneficial way.
