Symbiotic Urbanism: Looking Beyond Sustainability

Given the inherent ecological damage associated with post-industrial sites, their remediation offers an opportunity to apply the concept of symbiotic urbanism, a type of urban development that not only prevents ecological degradation, but also restores the natural environment while concurrently benefitting adjacent communities and economies, to their rehabilitation. Analogous to symbiotic urbanism, definitions of regenerative urban development and regenerative cities capture the notion of urban development that goes beyond preventing environmental damage to also encompass the replenishment of natural resources, but few case studies of how the entirety of the idea can be implemented exist. In contrast to commonly referenced examples of regenerative urban development this paper will discuss an application of symbiotic urbanism that offers a proposal for the comprehensive rehabilitation of a post-industrial site. The proposal uses the site’s industrial legacy as inspiration for entering a new era of production that engages in the research and development of innovative technologies that simultaneously remediate existing environmental degradation while stimulating new economies and opportunities and reconnecting communities to long-abandoned places.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.Intl.2018.9

Volume Editors
Ángela García de Paredes, Iñaqui Carnicero & Julio Salcedo-Fernandez

ISBN
978-1-944214-18-0