01.11.2021
How to fight the climate emergency with nature-based design
How can we design nature-based solutions when mitigating our cities and societies against climate emergency?
How can we design nature-based solutions and biodiversity to address the needs of cities to mitigate against the effects of climate change and specific issues like extreme urban heat?
These are amongst the themes discussed in the American Planning Association’s ‘People Behind the Plans‘ podcast series, where host Courtney Kashima, AICP, is joined by SLA partner and design principal Rasmus Astrup.
The two also discuss a few of the projects that SLA worked on from places around the globe like Toronto, Abu Dhabi, Copenhagen, and Detroit. They also dig into the significance of local knowledge and expertise when taking on projects as well as how to deal with the disproportionate impacts on more vulnerable populations.
Listen to the episode below or wherever you get your podcasts.
Perspectives
The Values of Nature:
A Need for a New Driver of Urban Development
Imagine your quality of life being just as dependent on urban development as on social media. What would that lead to? The answer to that question depends on the drivers of urban development.
Our economies, livelihoods, and well-being all depend on our most precious asset: Nature
These were the opening lines of Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta’s report “The Economics of Biodiversity” and were also at the center of the conversation our CEO, Mette Skjold, had with Dasgupta at the UIA World Congress of Architects CPH 2023.
They agreed that we, as humans, depend on nature – not only as a source of resources and wealth but also as the foundation for our physical and mental well-being. We are not separate from nature. We are nature.
Rasmus Astrup: 'City Nature' - The 2022 Cornelia Hahn Oberlander Lecture
In spring 2022, SLA partner and design principal Rasmus Astrup was invited to give the annual Cornelia Hahn Oberlander Lecture by the UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture in Vancouver.
