City Planning

   by

Anders Nyquist

Text  by Andreas Willfors

On Thursday, 13 February 2014, Anders Nyquist, architect, presented about city planning and design for a sustainable future. The concept he uses is called ecocycle-design. Mr. Nyquist believes that it is vital to live as you teach, he himself lives in an ecocycle-adapted home and village. This sustainable lifestyle makes him more credible as a consultant, showing clients that it is possible to live and work this way.

There are many reasons for designing sustainably, e.g. population growth and resources depletion. Especially Africa faces these problems, but also poorness. A sustainable city has to be socially, ecologically, technically and economically sustainable, as well as healthy to live in. Sustainable cities are adapted to local conditions. Life-cycle cost, local building material and expanding housing after need are important factors. There are examples of cities being eco-designed, e.g. Bagamoyo, Tanzania, and other cities being planned as well.

EcoCycleDesign as a method studies flows in the built environment. It has a holistic approach, as well as combining aesthetics with system perspective. Solar energy is vital for this, as well as closed-loop design. It can be used for new buildings and retrofitting. A self-sufficient city with 40 000 inhabitants is possible, even in the Nordic countries, e.g. with city farmland and transport by folding bike. Cities today are not sustainable. One main problem is how to change cities from imbalanced to balanced systems. Human activity is a part of nature and should act this way.

Anders Nyquist's slide, presenting his ecocycle-designed house, with features making it sustainable, as an example of sustainable design.