Energy
The urban energy transition is the shift from a city that burns fossil fuels —in cars, boilers and power stations— to one that moves and heats with renewable electricity, consumes less and produces part of what it uses on its own roofs. Buildings and transport account for more than half of a city's energy.
Retrofitting the envelope of existing buildings is the measure with the best return and the worst execution; energy communities and shared self-consumption let generation happen at neighbourhood scale too. Energy poverty —being unable to heat or cool the home— is the social face of the same transition.
Videos on this term (23)
- Urban ecology
Unequal Connection: Stephen Graham and Technology in the City
Stephen Graham shows that transport, energy and data networks are a geography of power: fragmentation, bypass,…
Stephen Graham 3 min read - Urban AI
William J. Mitchell: The Future City, Information and Connection
William J. Mitchell anticipated in City of Bits, e-topia and Me++ the hybrid city of matter and information: the…
William J. Mitchell 3 min read - Urban ecology
Where Does Your Trash Go? Waste and Environmental Injustice
Household waste ends up burned or buried next to the neighbourhoods with the least power to refuse.
3 min read - Urban ecology
Water, a Resource Not Everyone Can Enjoy Equally
Who runs out of water first is decided by leaks, planning and distribution, not the climate. Cape Town's Day Zero.…
3 min read - Urban form
Rem Koolhaas: Delirious New York and the Culture of Congestion
Delirious New York, Rem Koolhaas's retroactive manifesto: the culture of congestion, Rockefeller Center as a city…
Rem Koolhaas 2 min read - Urban form
Michael Hibbard: Regional Planning for Social Justice
Michael Hibbard defends a regional and community planning that shares development between city and countryside.…
Michael Hibbard 3 min read - Public space
Asef Bayat: Everyday Urban Activism and the Insurgent City
Asef Bayat explains in Life as Politics how the urban poor of the Middle East change the city without organising:…
Asef Bayat 3 min read - Climate change
Urban Resilience and Climate Change: Governing Climate with Justice
Urban resilience to climate change is a way of governing, not a technical attribute. What Pauline McGuirk's…
2 min read - Infrastructure
Graham and Marvin: Splintering Urbanism and Inequality
Splintering Urbanism explains how transport, water, energy and telecommunications networks stopped integrating the…
Stephen Graham 2 min read - Climate change
Harriet Bulkeley: Urban Climate Governance and Sustainability
Harriet Bulkeley explains how cities govern climate through networks, experiments and partnerships, and why that…
Harriet Bulkeley 2 min read - Urban ecology
Circular Urbanism: What It Is and How Cities Apply It
Circular urbanism applies the circular economy to the city: reuse materials, close loops and avoid demolition.…
3 min read - Urban ecology
Regenerative urbanism: polluting less is not enough
Sustainability asks cities to reduce harm. Regenerative urbanism asks them to repair it: to give back more to their…
2 min read - Mobility
Electric Mobility in the City: Benefits, Limits and What to Electrify
Electric mobility cuts emissions and noise but does not solve congestion or space. What Peter Newman and Donald…
3 min read - Housing
Cohousing and Coliving: What They Are, Differences and City Examples
Cohousing is collaborative housing run by its residents; coliving is a serviced rental product. Origins with…
3 min read - Urban geopolitics
Planetary Urbanization: Neil Brenner and Christian Schmid's Thesis
Planetary urbanization holds that the urban has no outside: mines, plantations and networks are part of the city.
Neil Brenner 2 min read - Mobility
Efficient Public Transport: Lessons from Cervero and Kenworthy
Public transport decides whether a city is sustainable and accessible. What sets working systems apart according to…
2 min read - Urban ecology
Sustainable Cities: Girardet, Beatley and Newman
What a sustainable city is and how it is built: Girardet's circular metabolism, Beatley's nature in urban design,…
2 min read - Urban ecology
Urban Energy Transition: Form, Ecological Footprint and Economy
The urban energy transition needs compact cities, lower consumption and renewables. What Peter Newman, William Rees…
3 min read - Urban ecology
Urban Political Ecology: Swyngedouw, Kaika and Heynen
Urban political ecology studies who gets water, air and greenery in the city: water as commodity in Swyngedouw,…
2 min read - Urban ecology
Circular Economy in Cities: What It Is, Cases and Limits
The circular economy keeps materials and products in use instead of discarding them. What Walter Stahel, Ken…
3 min read - Infrastructure
Sustainable Urban Energy: Key Ideas from Peter Newman and William Rees
Urban energy decides a city's footprint and resilience. What Peter Newman and William Rees propose, the three…
3 min read - Climate change
Cities and Climate Change: Mitigation, Adaptation and Examples
Cities emit 70 percent of energy-related CO2 and feel the impacts first. What mitigation and adaptation mean and…
2 min read - Urban AI
Industry 4.0 and Cities: How It Transforms Urban Mobility
Industry 4.0 brings sensors, artificial intelligence and electromobility to the city. What changes in transport,…
3 min read
