Contact

Building 1 / Room 523
Phone 069 1533 2753
Mail: jeffrey#punkt#kenworthy#ät#fb1#punkt#fh-frankfurt#punkt#de 

 

Subjects

Sustainable Cities
Monday 8.30 - 11.45
Room 624/1

Studium Generale
Wednesday 14.15 - 17.30
Room 624/1

 

Consultation

Monday 14.00 - 15.00

Sustainable Cities

Wahlpflichtfach für Diplom Architektur, Master Architektur und Bachelor Geko

This course will be taught in English on Mondays 08:30– 11.45 Room 624/1

Sustainable Cities

The overall objectives of this course are to:

(1) give students a solid understanding of the many problems facing cities today, particularly those related to       automobile dependence, urban sprawl and environmental deterioration, and;
(2) show how these problems can be mitigated through physical planning policies and strategies directed primarily at land use and transport and greening of the city.

It has a focus on international comparisons of cities in order to understand the different types of cities around the world, and in particular, the kind of physical planning policies they are using to move towards a more sustainable and livable urban environment.

Although the course explains many of the problems confronting the development of cities today, it has a focus on solutions. Its basic philosophy is that the problems facing cities are resolvable, but whether this happens in a particular city will depend to a very large extent on the effectiveness of public planning for the "common good". For public planning to be effective, in particular physical planning, its practitioners must be aware of the issues at stake. There must be a vision of how the city might become more sustainable and livable, and there must be a commitment on the part of those in planning to work with communities in realising positive changes in cities. Wherever possible, examples of positive practices and strategies from other cities are used to illustrate an approach to a particular issue that might be applied more generally in other places. Lectures will contain a significant amount of visual material from cities around the world to enable students to better conceptualise the problems and solutions.

More detailed objectives of the course can be summarised as follows:

- To provide an understanding of the multitude of problems and issues confronting urban development today which are forcing a rethink of the way cities are being designed and built. The course has a particular focus on the problems related to automobile dependence in cities;
- To stress the importance of physical planning in attempting to resolve these problems;
- To give students an appreciation of the physical evolution of cities over the centuries, in particular the role of transport technology and other infrastructure in shaping urban form and function;
- To show how cities around the world today can be classified according to their degree of automobile dependence, and to understand quantitatively the range of land use and transport characteristics associated with different levels of automobile dependence;
- To consider in some detail, energy (oil issues) and transport planning methods as factors in the physical planning and the future of cities;
- To look closely at non-motorized modes and public transport systems in the future of cities;
- To examine central city environments around the world and the kind of trends in physical planning which are attempting to reshape this important part of metropolitan areas;
- To develop an understanding of the factors which are forcing a review of low density suburban development practices, the kind of land use alternatives which are being offered instead, and their advantages;
- To appreciate the many positive physical planning policies and achievements in cities around the world today and be able to integrate this knowledge and the policy material in the course into a holistic understanding of what might constitute a 'sustainable city'.
- To develop some capacity in applying the concepts in the course to real situations in our own cities.

In auto cities such as Los Angeles most land is consumed by sprawl, roads and car parks. In the City of Vancouver where no freeways were built many compact, mixed land use developments have been built which accommodate people in a green, attractive environment which is either traffic free or severely constrained for cars.

Central city areas are fundamentally important in setting the feeling and tone of any city. Here in München and Barcelona significant areas of the central city have been converted to superb urban public space which attract hundreds of thousands of people everyday. In order to achieve such results, parking has to be de-emphasised and public transport, walking and cycling given priority.

In large sub-centres within any urban region it is important to create walkable places and create enough density of activity for public transport to operate efficiently. Here in Arabella Park in München a large district centre has been created around an U-Bahn station, providing an attractive human and largely traffic-free setting for in excess of 10,000 residents and 18,000 employees.

The public realm of cities must be respected everywhere, even where streets perform a strong traffic function. In many parts of Auckland, New Zealand, pedestrians feel insecure and alien in the road-dominated environments that have been created. In Vancouver on Robson Street in the city’s West End, pedestrians feel comfortable even though there are many cars. Footpaths are wide, there are many colourful shops and restaurants that relate to the footpath and there is a frequent electric trolley bus serving the street.

 

 

Vita

JEFF KENWORTHY

BSc. (Hons), PhD Murdoch
Professor in Sustainable Cities
Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy
Murdoch University

 

Jeff Kenworthy has spent 28 years in the transport and urban planning field and currently teaches courses and supervises postgraduate students in the city policy and urban sustainability fields. He is co-author (with Peter Newman, Felix Laube and others) of a number of books. These include:

 

 • Cities and Automobile Dependence: An International Sourcebook, a major study comparing 32 cities in Asia, North America, Australia and Europe;

 • Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependence;

 • An International Sourcebook of Automobile Dependence in Cities, 1960-1990.

• Back On Track: Rethinking Transport Policy in Australia and New Zealand.

 • Winning Back the Cities

 

As well, he is author and co-author of over 200 other book chapters and journal publications in the area of city policy. He has extensive experience in the areas of compact housing developments, public transport systems and sustainable transport policy and has worked as a consultant for local, state and federal governments in Australia, as well as private organisations and the World Bank. He has also acted in an advisory capacity in the Premier's Department in WA. Dr Kenworthy has lectured internationally in 20 countries and over 50 cities to universities, government agencies and community organisations on city policy issues.

 

He was for three and a half years Project Director in ISTP for a large project called the Millennium Cities Database for Sustainable Transport for the International Union (Association) of Public Transport in Brussels (UITP). This study includes 100 developed and developing cities in every part of the world and includes comparative data on urban land use, transport, economics and the environment of cities.

 

Jeff Kenworthy received the Australian Centenary Medal from the Australian Prime Minister’s Office for service to planning and sustainability in relation to public transport and urban form.

 

From September 1, 2007 until August 31, 2008 Professor Kenworthy is teaching at the Fachhochschule - Frankfurt am Main on a DAAD visiting professor fellowship.

Publications