What Is A Biophilic City? with Dr. Tim Beatley

Today's episode features Dr. Tim Beatley, who is the Teresa Heinz Professor of Sustainable Communities in the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning, School of Architecture at the University of Virginia, where he has taught for the last twenty-five years.

Much of Tim’s work focuses on the subject of sustainable communities, and creative strategies by which cities and towns can fundamentally reduce their ecological footprints, while at the same time becoming more livable and equitable places.

Tim Beatley believes that sustainable and resilient cities represent our best hope for addressing today’s environmental challenges, but as he says in this episode, "we have to move quickly." Join us as we talk with Tim about what makes a Biophilic City, the importance of sustainability and resilience in city planning and design, and our ethical obligation to create a better future.

Mentioned In The Episode

Biophilic Cities, founded by Tim Beatley, partners with cities, scholars, and advocates from across the globe to build an understanding of the value and contribution of nature in cities to the lives of urban residents. As a central element of its work, Biophilic Cities facilitates a global network of partner cities working collectively to pursue the vision of a natureful city within their unique and diverse environments and cultures.  These partner cities are working in concert to conserve and celebrate nature in all its forms and the many important ways in which cities and their inhabitants benefit from the biodiversity and wild urban spaces present in cities. Biophilic Cities acknowledges the importance of daily contact with nature as an element of a meaningful urban life, as well as the ethical responsibility that cities have to conserve global nature as shared habitat for non-human life and people.

Researchers at the University of Virginia partner with city collaborators to assess and monitor biophilic urban qualities and conditions, to identify obstacles and impediments to achieving more biophilic cities, and to identify and document best practices in biophilic urban design and planning. The Biophilic Cities Network helps to foster discussion and dialogue between and among researchers, planners, and policymakers in partner cities; periodically convenes researchers and practitioners; and publishes working papers, reports and a journal that disseminates best practices.

Green Urbanism: Learning from European Cities

Robin C. Moore is the director of the Natural Learning Initiative and a professor of landscape architecture.

Bill Browning founded Terrapin Bright Green in 2006 along with Rick Cook and Bob Fox. TBG leverages high-performance design, whole systems thinking, and research in biophilic design to reconnect people with the environment. They believe this will lead to a healthy, prosperous, and regenerative future for all. Look for the Serenbe Stories episode featuring Bill Browning and Catherine Ryan later in season 4.

SXSW Eco

Amanda Sturgeon is the regenerative design lead for Mott MacDonald.

The Biophilic Institute envisions a world in which individuals take local and global actions that nurture the living, social, and economic systems that will sustain future generations. It was established in 2013 by a group of engaged professionals from a range of disciplines who share a common passion for educating and sharing best practices in fields that promote well-being, prosperity, and a sustainable future. Each year, The Institute - along with Biophilic Cities - hosts the Biophilic Leadership Summit at Serenbe, which provides a platform for biophilic leaders to gather with their peers to learn about and discuss the most impactful biophilic projects, principles, and research.

The Living Building Challenge encourages designers to create buildings that generate more energy than they use, capture and treat all water on-site, and are made using healthy materials. This framework helps to create spaces that reconnect occupants with nature.

Dianna Budds, Curbed is a New York–based writer interested in stories about how design reflects and affects culture: everything from the hidden inequality of streetscapes to how algorithms are reshaping our world and the environmental crisis.

Ethical Land Use: Principles of Policy and Planning

1918 Influenza Pandemic

Singapore - The City in Nature

Ryan Gainey’s The Well-Placed Weed

Environmental Resilience Institute at the University of Virginia

Zealandia is an impressive experiment in Wel- lington, New Zealand. Here, native species of birds have been largely decimated by the intro- duction of non-native species. Zealandia, a large forested wild zone in the middle of the city, en- circled by a 2.2 meter tall predator-proof fence, seeks to change that. The tagline for Zealandia is “bringing birdsong back to Wellington,” and already it has had considerable success. The numbers of the Kaka parrot have increased from a low of 6, when re-introduced in 2002, to as many as 250 today. Importantly, many of these birds now are being seen in other areas of the city, especially in the so-called “halo” zone sur- rounding Zealandia. It is an interesting story and a bold goal for the city; the notion that wherever you live in this city, whatever neighborhood you reside in, you ought to be able to hear and enjoy bird song. It is a different way to judge the long term success of the planning and environmen- tal design efforts. It also is a metric to gauge the progress of the city using a target more in line with the goals and vision of a biophilic city.

Nina Marie Lister’s natural garden in Toronto, Canada

Nygren Placemaking

The Nature of Cities documentary explores both the nature in the backyards of Austin and San Diego - and the possibilities in projects of cities of the future - Malmo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Freiburg, Amsterdam and Paris. The film features Sustainable Communities professor Timothy Beatley as he tours these places with City Planners, Landscape Architects, Ecologists and Residents. Commentary by Richard Louv (Last Child in the Woods) and Dr. Stephen Kellert (Biophilic Design) provide the background for looking at the living possibilities of how we can be in an urban environment integrated with the nature around us.

Dr. Stephen R. Kellert was a revered professor of social ecology at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES) whose research and writing advanced the understanding of the connection between humans and the natural world. He helped pioneer the theory of “biophilia.”

Winter Months Edmonton CA film

The SHIFT Awards recognize individuals, initiatives, or organizations that make innovative, impactful and replicable contributions to the advancement of the health benefits of time outside.

Richard Louv is a journalist and author of ten books. He is also co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Children & Nature Network, an organization helping build the movement of connecting children, families, and communities to nature.

“Why not put green roofs on buses?” - Fast Company article about the Phytokinetic Bus in Girona, Spain.