ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies strategic principles for design decisions to maintain ecosystem functions. It uses case studies from the developing world to indicate how the discussed tendencies physically manifest at different scales. Researchers of urban biodiversity and design acknowledge two critical aspects of urban areas as laboratories: they are experimental areas, and they offer different fields of experience between humans and nature. Two qualities of urban areas as test sites have proved fruitful in capturing and measuring more values in design. To create a unique urban experience, the design team set out to change land cover and sense of place. The public realm needed re-configuration to give an aesthetic experience derived from the development of a threshold between public and private spaces. The project illustrates how a highly controversial development in a sensitive biodiversity hotspot area, has been effectively managed over nearly 20 years to maintain the benefits of nature in this urban area.
