04: Let's unf*ck TOD!

10/08/22 • 35 min

Transit Oriented Development (TOD) in the United States lacks the vitality, affordability, access to nature and open space, and high quality urban spaces found in new European ecodistrics/TOD. They are also much more auto-centric than would be found in EU cities - leading in part to a lower quality of life than should be possible. This is in part due to poor building and land use practices.
In today's episode, we discuss some of the problems with TOD (yep, the double loaded corridor plays a role!). As well as trends in European TOD - and some examples that US cities interested in creating walkable, family-friendly, mixed use TOD with a good economic and social mix of residents should be studying. All of these districts are filled with buildings that would not be legal to build anywhere in the U.S.!
Subjects discussed in this episode include:
Transit Oriented Development
The wonderful Sonnwendviertel Ecodistrict in Vienna - including a great video by Open House Wien (German, hit that translate button for English subtitles)
Munich's Freiham district, presently underway in western section of the city. (German)
Heilbronn's new Stadtquartier - Neckarbogen - surrounded by incredible landscapes.
Lastly, to stay up to date with what Michael Eliason is doing at Larch Lab, be sure to sign up for newsletter updates.

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03: The Heat is On

In a warming world, heat will increasingly be deadly.
The IPCC has stated that extreme heat events are due to global warming – and as we are failing to curb emissions – there is a high confidence they will only get worse. Even if your building doesn’t overheat today – it may well in the future.
In this episode of the Livable Low-Carbon City, we'll explore the problems with overheating, and some of the ways we can mitigate this to make our buildings and cities more climate adaptive, more livable.
Subjects discussed in this episode include:
The British Columbia chief coroner's report on heat-related deaths due to the 2021 heat dome.
National Research Council Canada's report: Climate resilience buildings: guideline for management of overheating risk in residential buildings.
Business Wire report on the $10 million settlement for overheating in a new San Francisco highrise.
Passivhaus Plus article, 'Overheating - a growing threat that mustn't be ignored.'
ACEEE's research report: Cool Policies for Cool Cities: Best Practices for Mitigating Urban Heat Islands in North American Cities.
Recent research on mitigation of overheating in multifamily buildings in the Pacific Northwest: Improving the passive survivability of residential buildings during extreme heat events in the Pacific Northwest.
Stadt Wien's (Vienna) page on their solar protection subsidy program (German).
Lastly, to stay up to date with what Michael Eliason is doing at Larch Lab, be sure to sign up for newsletter updates.

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05: An ARPA for Climate Adaptive Urbanism

A few months ago, Larch Lab was contacted to start discussions of an ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) focused on climate adaptive urbanism, influenced by the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.
With the effects of climate change becoming more frequent and intense than anticipated – we can no longer wait ten to twenty years to adapt to this new normal. Larch Lab believes we need an ARPA-esque project to facilitate the research and development necessary to rapidly roll out high performance, decarbonized buildings, ecodistricts, and cities.
This episode of the Livable Low-Carbon City is a download of themes and topics that we will be discussing in detail over the coming months...
Further reading...
Car-light Ecodistricts:
The 5 coolest trends in urbanism ... in Europe, Michael Eliason's guest op ed in Dave Roberts Volts Substack.
Let’s Build a Dense, Climate-Resilient EcoDistrict in Seattle’s Interbay, Michael Eliason's op-ed in the Urbanist.
Passivhaus:
What is a Passivhaus, the Passivhaus Trust's intro to the standard that should be the baseline of all buildings.
Seattle Must Require Public Buildings Meet Passivhaus Standards to Lead on Climate, Michael Eliason's op ed in the Urbanist.
Zoning reform:
The Impact of Upzoning on Housing Construction in Auckland, Ryan Freenaway-McGrevy and Peter C.B. Phillips paper on upzoning effects.
Upzone the Side Streets!, Henry Grabar's Slate piece on effects of focusing housing on arterials.
Building Code reform:
Unlocking livable, resilient, decarbonized housing
with Point Access Blocks, Larch Lab's report on Point Access Blocks for the City of Vancouver.
Beyond Zoning: Building Circulation Reform and Infill Housing, UCLA Lewis Center's roundtable on unit access and code reform.
Active Solar Protection/Climate Adaptive Buildings:
Throwing Shade at How Buildings Must Adapt to the Climate Crisis, Michael Eliason's in Treehugger on climate adaptive buildings.
Prefabrication & Robotics:
Energiesprong, the Dutch retrofit masters utilizing prefabricated exterior panels.
New forms of Collective Urban Housing:
Larch Lab's page on Baugruppen, self-developed urban multifamily housing.
Bring On the Clusterwohnungen, Michael Eliason's op-ed on cluster apartments.
Productive Cities:
Radical mix of uses incorporating production and industry in cities (Europan).
Sponge City/Blue Green Infrastructure:
ACEEE's report: Cool Policies for Cool Cities: Best Practices for Mitigating Urban Heat Islands in North