Sustainable Urban Planning and Design in reality

The UBC Commission on Urban Planning organized 7th Seminar in Kolding, Denmark 24-26.04.2003. The seminar has been prepared within the Work Package no 1 of the ABC Project financed by Interreg III B.

In the Seminar the participants from ABC partner cities and towns (in total 27) and some from other UBC cities concentrated on what sustainability means in urban planning and urban design.

Sustainability is an empty phrase, if it refers to all the good things in planning and building on a regional or city levels or designing a single building. This keyword means decreasing the consumption of energy, hot water, fresh water and high level treatment of waste water. It also means saving raw materials in construction. But does the sustainability also means a principle: designing a city without thresholds, or the long memory of the buildings in the townscape and high quality of architecture ? Why has sustainability in dense urban area been so often understood only as a biological diversity? A good example of this is the EU Natura 2000 Directive.

The planners and designers from the UBC cities and towns are tried to define its meaning during the Kolding Seminar. The themes of the workshops were:

Sustainability in urban renewal
- New use of old building structures
- Restore housing schemes
- Add quality to urban area

Commerce and infrastructure
- Future for City centre
- Regional commercial structure
- Infrastructural consequences

Sustainability in new housing schemes
- Construction and materials
- Technical solutions, supply of energy, infrastructure
- Housing, landscape and nature

Participants brought with them related solutions from their cities - good and bad - but relevant to the workshop discussions.

The co-operation is deepening between the UBC cities and towns in the field of urban planning and public design - that was our seventh seminar.