ABSTRACT
An ecosystem-based biomimicry approach to regenerative architectural or urban design is closely related to its physical site, in terms of ecology, climate and culture. Because of this, a series of case studies of how ecosystem services biomimicry could be applied to a specific existing urban context are discussed. This illustrates how the approach can be employed to evaluate built environments and help to devise sustainability or regeneration oriented goals for their re-development. Three cities were chosen to represent a range of climates, ecological contexts, ages of settlement, states of development, rates of urbanisation and cultural conditions. Cities selected were Wellington, New Zealand; Havana, Cuba; and Curitiba, Brazil. This chapter begins with a brief climate description, ecological history and built environment context for each city. Following this, examples are given of how urban design goals and performance targets can be devised for each of the three cities related to the seven ecosystem services for a built environment devised in Chapter 5. The chapter concludes that while the idea of regenerative urban environments relating to ecological performance is philosophically appealing, making this a reality in existing urban environments is likely to be very difficult in most cities in the near future.
