Urban Ecological Design: A Process for Regenerative Places by Danilo Palazzo and Frederick Steiner (review)

As we enter an era with more than half the world’s population residing in urban areas, it is widely acknowledged that the design of urban spaces has profound social and environmental impacts. In this rapidly urbanizing setting, the significance of green infrastructure within the built environment is becoming widely recognized the more we understand the essential ecosystem services provided by our landscapes and open spaces. In rethinking the city as a “human ecosystem,” urban design is emerging as one tool for adaptation as we face complex, wide-ranging issues from food security to sea-level rise. With a growing number of projects illustrating the promise and potential for integrating ecological concepts into our cities, Urban Ecological Design: A Process for Regenerative Places provides an adaptable framework for students and professionals engaging and interacting with the urban design process.

While the term “urban design” may initially seem self-explanatory, the book’s introductory quote by urban design theorist and scholar Ali Madanipour notes that its definition remains ambiguous. Palazzo and Steiner elaborate that while not considered a discipline alone, the practice of urban design is interdisciplinary in nature, often claimed by several professions and residing somewhere at the intersection of urban planning, architecture, and landscape architecture. Clarifying the definition of urban design for the purposes of this book, the authors’ primary intent is to present the interdisciplinary process behind it. Noting parallels between urban design and urban ecology, they advocate the potential for both fields to make connections and reveal relationships when applied to human and ecological systems. With increasing attention as to the benefits and ecosystem services provided by urban green space, integrating urban design and urban ecology ensures that cities won’t diminish these services, but moreover enhance the underlying natural processes.

Offering an in-depth examination into this interdisciplinary process, the authors outline ten phases, which have been organized into the chapters of the book: Process, Prerequisites, Knowledge, Synthesis, Options, Dialogues, Master Plan, Presentation, Details, and Implementation. The chapters follow an ideal chorological sequence, however, despite the simplified, linear depiction, Palazzo and Steiner strongly emphasize that this systematic approach is “highly optimistic” and is “rarely followed in full.” Open-endedness is important; nonetheless, envisioning a final outcome without being confined by a single solution is essential. In this sense, the process outlined in Urban Ecological Design is seen as a guide that can be enhanced or simplified, offering “not-only-one solution” but moreover a road map for the planning and design process.

The importance of identifying and understanding the significance of ecological systems in the early phase of an urban design project is fundamental in advancing their integration and application later in the process. As a growing number of firms and clients begin to recognize the importance of ecosystem services as demonstrated in this book, the role that ecologists play is becoming ever more critical in helping other professionals involved in design and planning understand, assess, and restore these services. It is only with a stronger interaction and dialogue between professions that we can design with urban and natural systems to create safe, healthy, and livable urban spaces.

Beyond applying traditional ecological knowledge to understanding a site, one interesting urban design - ecology parallel noted in the book describes the work of urban planner Kevin Lynch. In his study of American cities, Lynch classifies the urban form into five recurrent elements: paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks. This approach is strikingly similar in concept and terminology used by ecologists and landscape ecologists in reading landscapes. Noting that when applied to urban design, these elements can be used to determine the legibility of a city and define its sense of place. This thinking reinforces that whether understanding complex spatial data and relationships between human systems and/or natural systems, the ecology between them is seen as a unifying thread amongst the professional disciplines involved in...