Journal of Biourbanism 01/2011

Issue 1st, Year 1st | December 2011

www.journalofbiourbanism.org | ISSN 2240-2535 | Biannual review edited in Rome, Italy

 

The contributions of the authors for this first issue have been selected attentively in order to facilitate the beginning of refined discussions on these themes; the main intention is to generate a fine line upon which, either theoretical and/or scientific advancements on Biourbanism could be easily disseminated to vast expert audiences worldwide.

Biophilia and Gaia: Two Hypotheses for an Affective Ecology

In his paper Dr. Giuseppe Barbiero introduces Affective Ecology, which is primarily concerned with emotional relationships between human beings and the rest of the living world and also elucidates our affiliation to Mother Earth, Gaia (The Gaia Hypothesis), hence our natural relationship with Biophilia, our inherent inclination to focus upon life and life-like forms (The Biophilia Hypothesis).

Green infrastructure planning: A contemporary approach for innovative interventions in urban landscape management

In the second paper Dr Ian C. Mell explains the importance of green infrastructure and how specific interventions according to this central approach to landscape planning in the UK, Europe and North America meet the challenges of population growth, transport and recreational needs with intend to support economic growth.

How to investigate and improve legibility of urban projects to make them understandable for blind people? Contribution of Social and Behavioural Sciences Methods to Design for All Approach

In their paper Ewa Kuryłowicz and Zuzanna Bogucka report and analyse legibility of urban space by referring to cognitive tactile maps, which can help blind people to move freely in certain spatial systems at design stage of Olympia Park in Berlin.

Stormwater management: Designing urban hydrological systems as infrascapes

In Amiyo R. Ruhnke’s paper, we learn about water infrastructure, which has been designed as networked natural systems, such as the self-organizing systems of mycelia fungi applied to a site in New Orleans in order not only to improve the quality of the open space, but also to link storm water management with engineering and urban design strategies (urban landscape as a continuous infrascape).

Sustainable refurbishment as a driving factor of urban regeneration

And finally in her paper, Evgenia Budanova discusses advantages of the process of refurbishment and how this may affect the environment and urban fabric; this author has revised a successful case study of sustainable refurbishment of an industrial building in Moscow with the use of TAS software to confirm that, a dwelling in that refurbished industrial building is now capable to consume less energy than a conventional one.

It has been a great pleasure to act as Editor in Chief of this issue and I should like to thank all the authors who have taken the time and effort to produce the published papers. However, I should also like to thank those authors who submitted papers, which did not attain the review process before the publication deadline. Therefore, I look forward to seeing also these papers published in our next issues in the near future.

I also believe that many interesting issues have been raised in each of the papers by all authors. Thus, I am convinced that all these issues are likely to get further debate. I should also like to encourage all readers and scholars to participate in additional written discussions and papers in the near future, if they wish, so that indisputable developments of the discipline of Biourbanism could take place at any time, as an incessant evolution of its principles and practices.

Editorial:
Eleni Tracada
University of Derby Faculty of Arts, Design and Technology – eleni.tracada@jbu.org