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Abstract
This paper reflects upon a wide range of strategies focused on increasing sustainability
of urban design beyond and within the scope of individual buildings. By examining
the case study of the Australian city of Newcastle, the paper provides a context for
a general debate about the urban design of a sustainable city centre, and discusses
how urban design is affected (and can be expected to be even more affected in future)
by the new paradigms of ecology. In this context, the author presents the case study
of ‘SolarCity’, which is based on a vision for the revitalisation of Newcastle’s city
centre. It is an in-progress research and demonstration project, involving Australian
and German architects, engineers and industry partners. It deals with cross-cutting
issues in architecture and urban design and addresses the question: How to best cohesively
integrate all aspects of energy systems, transport systems, waste and water management,
climatisation, etc., into contemporary urban design and the environmental performance
of eco-buildings? The ‘SolarCity’ project encapsulates a vision based on the belief
that urban revitalisation can be achieved and facilitated through the use of sustainable
urban design principles. Consequently, this paper addresses the fundamentals of urban
sustainability, such as orientation to the sun, and general strategies for more compact
communities. As we begin to fully understand the consequences of our dependency on
fossil energy and the automobile, the cost of mobility, and ways to integrate sustainability
systems into buildings, it becomes apparent that the common knowledge of aesthetics
of urban composition is no longer sufficient.