Dive in deeper. Scroll down for peer reviewed academic publications
The death of the city…
It has become commonplace for articles and presentations about cities to start with facts such as that in 1950, 30 per cent of the world’s population was urban and by 2014 that number had reached 54 per cent. Reference to this trend is invariably followed by an assertion that the trend must inevitably continue into the future, suggesting, for example, that by 2050, 66 per cent of the world’s population is projected to be urban. In this article I ask whether we have the courage to question whether this trend is inevitable or, indeed, desirable?
Human settlements arranged as networks of regenerative villages with nature-based infrastructure ecosystems | journal paper
Civil infrastructures have historically been developed as highly centralised, extensive, and complicated systems. Recent advancements in the development of energy micro-grids have opened the possibility of localised, intensive, and complex, nature-based infrastructure ecosystems. The land area required for this approach challenges the orthodoxy of ever-increasing urbanisation, greater density and centralisation of populations in cities. To determine whether centralisation or decentralisation is the optimal strategy we examine research in various disciplines. We argue that a conclusion can be confirmed when different disciplines arrive at that same position. We show that literature in town planning, regional economics, ecological economics, and public health all support the argument for decentralisation reached through civil engineering systems.
Design Guidelines for 21st century Garden Cities | Journal paper
This paper advances the development of a hypothetical, systems-based approach to the design and development of smart rural villages – a network of circular economy villages (CEVs). The method is to assimilate visionary ideas from 20th century town planning literature related to decentralisation and the development of new towns in rural areas, identifying key design principles.
Strategic Planning for a Network of Regenerative Villages | Journal paper
Whilst the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables offers significant environmental benefits, the other transition – from a centralised to a distributed energy system – underpins a disruptive model for planning cities, towns and villages. This paper asks: Is it inevitable that large cities will keep growing, while rural communities will continue to be deprived of resources and opportunities? Is the flow of people into cities inevitable? By contrasting the current centralising city model with a distributed network of villages, this paper offers ten reasons why the distributed network is preferable to centralisation.