ABSTRACT
A search for the ideal urban form for tomorrow’s sustainable cities is going on worldwide. Tomorrow’s urban precincts will have to generate at least half of their power themselves, while offering new forms of public green spaces, both for recreation and to mitigate a warmer urban climate. In addition, future urban precincts will be test beds for new low carbon construction systems. None of this will be possible without zero-energy and even plus-energy buildings. To create integrated urban developments with a focus on energy, construction systems, water, greenery and the urban microclimate, urban designers and planners will need to engage with policy makers in order to drastically reduce our cities’ consumption of energy and resources. This chapter introduces several important aspects of low carbon cities, including the following:
• precincts that generate more on-site energy than they consume, so-called plus-energy districts;
• precincts that are transformed towards decentralized infrastructure and carefully densified;
• prefabricated low carbon construction systems using engineered timber, for a new generation of carbon-engineered, high-performance buildings;
• the reintroduction of urban greenery into the city, using green roofs and façades.
