Modular sustainability within the landscape

This study will examine the ecological and creative potential of sustainable traditional and contemporary hard landscaping materials within the corporate, civic and domestic environment. It will focus on the commonalities and shared design issues which link the architect, landscape architect and the enthusiastic amateur, and how their collective response to sustainability are fundamentally interdependent. Satellite and aerial imagery of the earth reveal patterns of humanity in the form of structural fingerprints on the earth’s surface. At the click of a mouse one is able to zoom in on cities, intersecting highways, parks and factories etc and identify one’s own particular module in the global matrix. This is an unambiguous identifiable visual reference of our significance to the greater blueprint. The sustainability of materials is an intrinsic issue in the process of designing and planning urban landscapes and environments. Embodied energy and remanufactured materials are as significant to the design brief as aesthetic and commercial considerations. There is an array of inevitable practical and procedural concerns that affect both complicated and banal construction and design processes when sustainable materials are recognized and utilized. Car parking for example is an issue that connects the public in more ways than just the obvious. The effect of carpeting of the landscape with asphalt and the direct association with drainage and flooding have an impact on developments ranging from commercial complexes to domestic driveways. These common motifs are applicable to architects, designers and planners, in short, most constituents of property owning societies. The option of turning green to grey on the global blueprint is no longer credible. Complacency is the enemy of creativity. Through a selection of comparative case studies, examples of innovative initiatives and analysis of the role of education and community, the creative potential of restrictive and (paradoxically) liberating sustainable landscaping practices are recognized and discussed

Sustainable Urban Habitats: A study of the threads that connect design intentions to practical implementation

The absence of a shared definition of the variable that is sustainability is a volatile element in the multi factor equation known to us as the urban landscape. The sustainable infrastructure of our urbanised habitats is a fundamental matter for planners and architects et al, but this is often more of a theoretical concern than a practical application of innovative design implementation. The lack of a shared understanding of sustainable practices contributes to a reliance on conventional orthodoxies, and the ‘play it safe’ approach to the design of public spaces structurally and aesthetically. This study focuses on the methodological and creative threads that connect sustainable design concepts to their viable outcomes. The recent phenomenon of significant population growth within UK regional city centres has emphasised the demand for user-friendly ecologically enhanced public spaces. The synthesis of native species ecology and innovative utilisation of hard landscaping is a fundamental element in the establishment of the concepts of ownership and place. The successful employment of these concepts are debatable. The strands that link worthy sustainable architectural and planning design intentions to their seemingly logical conclusions are frayed, tangled and often severed. Through a selection of comparative case studies and examples of advanced initiatives this paper examines the causes of this entanglement and paradoxically also highlights the innovative capacity of reversing the existing ‘fixed mould of aesthetic convention’

Pinter and style

This short article considers Harold Pinter’s dramatic style, looking at the ways in which it has been defined, imitated and parodied over the years, and concludes with an exploration of the way in which some of Pinter’s work may be seen as self-parody. [From the Author

Studies on the major seed proteins of some grain crops

The general properties, classification and distribution of plant proteins are discussed within an agricultural context and the protein content and composition of several grain crops are tabulated. The major proteins of legume seeds are salt soluble proteins (i.e. globulins) and the methodology for their extraction, separation and characterisation is reviewed. The structure, location and distribution of legume globulins are described and the properties of various purified legume globulins are compared. The major seed proteins of Pisum sativum are legumin and vicilin and seed globulins with properties similar to those of legumin and vicilin have been extracted from other legumes. The isolation and partial characterisation of vicilin-like proteins from seeds of Phaseolus vulgaris and Vigna vinguiaulata and of legumin-like proteins from these two species and Phaseolus aureus is described. The potential usefulness of the examination of seed proteins by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis to taxonomic problems in Phaseolus and Vigna is investigated and the data obtained are discussed in relation to recent re-classifications of the species. Procedures for the extraction and partial characterisation of proteins from an archaeological sample of maize grains are described and the proteins from this sample are compared with the proteins from a modern variety of maize. It is suggested that protein data from archaeological samples could be useful in studies of crop plant origins and in cultural studies, and that the procedures employed may be applicable to archaeological samples of other grains. Nutritional aspects of plant proteins are discussed briefly. A possible strategy for the improvement of the sulphur amino acid content of legumes with a relatively low legumin content is suggested and it is demonstrated that polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis may provide a basis for a screening procedure for protein quality in legume breeding programmes

Sustainable Urban Habitats: The Contributory Components of Viable Eco-Diverse Landscapes

This study examines the conceptual, ecological and structural elements that contribute to the development of sustainable urban habitats. It is argued that the establishment of genuinely sustainable urban environments has been hampered by the lack of a clear and agreed definition of sustainable practices amongst building professions. Whilst this militates against the synthesis of sustainable architectural and landscaping design methodologies, it also highlights the piecemeal adoption of sustainable design pedagogy within university design departments. With a few exceptions the embedding of sustainable design principles within design departments has been pedestrian. As a consequence this has contributed to the maintenance of fuzzy ideology and practices regarding sustainability within built environment professions. One of the more obvious manifestations of this phenomenon is the absence of creativity when amalgamating relevant native species, ecological diversity and landscaping materials within UK city centers. This can be traced directly to inconsistent pedagogical approaches when addressing ecological applications within the built environment. The paper reviews the threads that connect genuine aspirations for sustainable habitats within built environment professions and university design departments to their inevitable erratic outcomes. The fundamental association of the concepts of place and ownership and the creative application of pertinent eco-diversification are intrinsic to genuine sustainable cityscapes. This matter will not be resolved by tweaking the relevant frameworks and organizations. The ‘play it safe’ orthodoxies of existing professional anatomies and educational structures are not an option, what is needed is the fundamental re-design of the existing modes of practice. The paper will discuss how this is possible, cite institutional and commercial innovation, good practice and outline the potential for genuine sustainable urban habitats

Greening the Grey: The Design Outlook for Ecological Urban Sustainability

The compact city is deemed to be a sustainable city, by governmental agencies, stakeholders and vested interest constituents. Higher density living is seen as a desirable contribution to genuinely sustainable urbanity, the greater number of people, the richer the community; “urbanity is based on density”, urban sprawl in un-sustainable. Development of brown field sites is seen as key to accommodating the exponential rise in the urban population. Former industrial complexes are being ‘revitalized’ into domiciles, centres of commerce and recreation zones, but at what cost? This paper considers the impact of the transition from industrial to residential urban habitats and assesses the role of design in creating harmonious attachments to these developments for their inhabitants. It correspondingly examines the critical application of diverse ecologies in this process and the potential to establish notions of place and a more sustainable environment. The urban landscape is a trans-disciplinary design construct, the creation of ecologically diverse landscapes within brown field developments is an achievable goal, but the design rationale and application should be contextually plausible. These themes are evaluated and the design options reviewed, in the mission to build a more eco-diverse, human friendly, urban renewal design paradigm

Performing injustice: human rights and verbatim theatre

Discusses the theatrical treatment of human rights, by reference to three British productions: Guantanamo: "Honor Bound to Defend Freedom" (2004), My Name is Rachel Corrie (2005) and Called to Account (2007), noting the use of verbatim testimony in such plays. Reviews legal scholarship highlighting the limitations of human rights laws. Considers the theatrical context of each of the plays and the ways in which they represent the status of human rights laws. Comments on the extent of theatre's practical impact on the advancement of human rights

Cross-fertilising scenario planning and business history by process-tracing historical developments: aiding counterfactual reasoning and uncovering history to come

Scenario planning is a tool for considering alternative futures and their potential impact. The paper firstly addresses the paucity of history on management tools by discussing several important lineages in scenario planning’s evolution over time, and the emphasis placed on historical analysis by some specific variants therein. Secondly, it describes how causal analysis can be enhanced in scenario planning by process-tracing important historical developments. Thirdly, it outlines how a scenario planning that incorporates history in this way can assist historians to identify counterfactuals and understand the relative importance of alternative causes, thus enriching historical accounts. It can also enable business historians’ research on the relationship between businesses and their external environments, and on management decision-making. In concluding, scholars of scenario planning and business history are urged to open a mutually-beneficial dialogue. The paper initiates this by setting out some ways in which they can cross-fertilise each other

The siren call of probability: dangers associated with using probability for consideration of the future

Many tools for thinking about the future employ probability. For example, Delphi studies often ask expert participants to assign probabilities to particular future outcomes. Similarly, while some scenario planners reject probability, others insist that assigning probabilities to scenarios is required to make them meaningful. Formal modelling and forecasting methods often also employ probability in one way or another. The paper questions this widespread use of probability as a device for considering the future, firstly showing that objective probability, based on empirically-observed frequencies, has some well-known drawbacks when used for this purpose. However, what is less-widely acknowledged is that this is also true of the subjective probability used in, for example, Delphi. Subjective probability is less distinct from objective probability than proponents of its use might imply, meaning it therefore suffers from similar problems. The paper draws on the foundations of probability theory as set out by Kolmogorov, as-well-as the work of Keynes, Shackle, Aumann, Tversky and Kahneman, and others, to reassert the essential distinction between risk and uncertainty, and to warn about the dangers of inappropriate use of probability for considering the future. The paper sets out some criteria for appropriate use

The implications, challenges and benefits of a complexity-orientated Futures Studies

Complexity science is increasingly cited as an essential component of a Futures Studies (FS) capable of assisting with the wide-ranging and complex societal problems of the 21st century. Yet, the exact implications of complexity science for FS remain somewhat opaque. This paper explicitly sets out the challenges for FS that arise from six complexity science concepts: 1) irreversibility of time 2) path dependence 3) sensitivity to initial conditions 4) emergence and systemness 5) attractor states 6) complex causation. The discussion highlights the implications of these challenges for FS tools such as horizon scanning and weak signals, and sets out the benefits of overcoming the challenges to create an explicitly complexity orientated FS. The discussion concludes with a set of questions summarising the challenge for FS from complexity science with the aim of stimulating a discussion as to how they can be met. The concluding remarks make some initial suggestions in this regard