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Resilience in Ecology and Urban Design pp 63–78Cite as

Integral Urbanism: A Context for Urban Design

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Part of the book series: Future City ((FUCI,volume 3))

Abstract

This chapter reviews the broad tendency within contemporary urban design to draw inspiration from natural systems. Described as “integral urbanism,” these practices draw inspiration from ecosystems, thresholds, ecotones, tentacles, rhizomes, webs, and more. Integral urbanism demonstrates functional, social, disciplinary and professional re-integration. In contrast to the modernist attempt to remove spatial boundaries or postmodernist fortification, integral urbanism generates permeable membranes and emphasizes movement through space as well as time via circulation systems and built-in flexibility. The resulting urban design pays attention to borders, edges, and networks. It values system diversity and is dynamic and self-adjusting through feedback mechanisms. Integral urbanism infuses the inherent wisdom of nature with contemporary sensibilities arising primarily from new technologies. This quiet revolution in the field of urban design figures within a larger reorientation in Western society that might be characterized as a shift from acceleration, accumulation, irony, and escapism towards slowness, simplicity, sincerity, and sustainability.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. City and Metropolitan Planning, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Nan Ellin

Authors
  1. Nan Ellin
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Correspondence to Nan Ellin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Sharon Turnpike 2801, Millbrook, 12545-0129, New York, USA

    S.T.A. Pickett

  2. , Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Shields Avenue 1, Davis, 95616, California, USA

    M.L. Cadenasso

  3. , Sch Constructed Environments, Parsons the New School for Design, East 13th Street 25, New York, 10011, New York, USA

    Brian McGrath

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Ellin, N. (2013). Integral Urbanism: A Context for Urban Design. In: Pickett, S., Cadenasso, M., McGrath, B. (eds) Resilience in Ecology and Urban Design. Future City, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5341-9_4

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