Overview of 2011 Activities
 
“Sustasis” is an ancient Greek word that means “a coming into collaboration” or “coming into integrality.”  We are a small, catalytic NGO that works to facilitate collaborations between others on urgent challenges of our time, with a focus on the quality and sustainability of the built environment.  We were formed in 2007 to facilitate neighborhood-led recovery planning work in New Orleans.  That work inspired our understanding that more comprehensive “bottom-up” strategies are needed to achieve more resilient, more sustainable cities, towns and countrysides.  Since then we have been partnering with other NGOs and NGO networks, including A World Institute to Serve Humanity, a global umbrella “incubator” institute.

Our current focus is on how the built environment can affect the issue of climate change, and the related issues of pollution, resource depletion and ecological destruction – all of which are profound economic issues as well as issues of social and environmental health.  In particular, we have been focusing especially on the particular topic of urban form, and its role in affecting emissions of greenhouse gases.

We are also working to develop and evaluate new urban design tools, including tools that can help citizens, political leaders and professionals to take a more “bottom-up,” capacity-building approach to the generation of neighborhoods that are a better fit with human and ecological needs.  In this work we collaborate with colleagues at the University of Strathclyde, Delft University of Technology, University College London, Tec de Monterrey, and other leading institutions. 

Our work in 2011 continued collaborative projects developed in previous years, and extended in to several exciting new areas. 
 
We continue our initiative to lead the research coordination network called the “Environmental Structure Research Group.” (See e.g. www.aboutus.org/ESRG). (We formed this work as an outgrowth of our work with Christopher Alexander at the Center for Environmental Structure.)  We can report several exciting initiatives for this year, including a co-hosted symposium at Arizona State University with colleagues from the Santa Fe Institute on the ideas of Jane Jacobs on “organized complexity” and the dynamics of generated urban systems, and on lessons from urban scaling phenomena. 

We are also continuing several important initiatives to develop new applications of pattern language technology.  We conducted research in January with the Center for Aesthetics in Practice on “Project Pattern Languages,” early results of which were presented at the 2011 Congress for the New Urbanism.   This work will continue. We also conducted research with the Phoenix Urban Research Lab and ASU to further develop Project Pattern Languages and in particular, “Place Patterns,” a model related to the “Place Types” model used for some light rail transit-oriented developments.  We also continue to develop a “Generative Module” for the Smart Code developed by Duany Plater Zyberk and colleagues from the Center for Advanced Transect Studies. This module also employs patterns as model implementation agreements for transactional modificaitons to urban form (related ot our colleage Sergio Porta's work on “Plot-Based Urbanism” – see below.)

We continue to lead efforts of the USA chapter of INTBAU, a patronage of the Prince of Wales dedicated to heritage preservation, and new construction that preserves and builds upon traditional fabric and cultures. After our chapter launch in New Orleans, we did a second annual conference in Chicago, and a third one in Baltimore. Last year we did our fourth very successful conference in Chicago.  In 2011, we have also begun offering study tours for members, beginning with a study tour in Sicily, co-sponsored by INTBAU-Italy. If you are interested in this and upcoming trips, please contact us for more information!
 
We also look forward to important synergies with our project consultancies, and the ability to cross-pollinate important benefits. These include new technologies for sustainable buildings and urbanism, new financial instruments, and other new strategies and insights.
 
A summary of our completed and currently planned activities for the year:
 
Facilitated Collaborations

• January: collaboration with the Center for Aesthetics in Practice, University of Trento, Italy, in “Project Pattern Languages,” biophilia, and evidence-based design
• March: collaboration with the University of Strathclyde (and Sergio Porta and Ombretta Romice) at on pedestrian networks and “plot-based urbanism”
• May: Collaboration with the City of Glasgow and Sustainable Glasgow to create a partnership with the Portland Sustainability Institute and participate in the October “EcoDistricts Summit”
• September:  Collaboration with SOS-Paris, citizen group concerned about sustainable development, and the Council for European Urbanism, to research new proposals and develop a policy White Paper
• October: Colleaboration with the University of Trento, Center for Aesthetics in Practice, on “Biophilia, Evidence-Based Design in Healthcare” - a possible new research center to be established with other partners, including Yale and UCLA
• September-December: Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory, and Arizona State University, “Assessing and Promoting Walkability on the Phoenix Light Rail Corridor” (Michael Mehaffy, Principal Investigator)
• September-December: Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory, and Arizona State University, “Unlocking Development Potential on the Phoenix Light Rail Line: A 'Toolkit' Approach” (Michael Mehaffy, Principal Investigator)
• September-December: City of Phoenix, and Arizona State University, “Unlocking Development Potential on the Phoenix Canals: A 'Toolkit' Approach” (Michael Mehaffy, Principal Investigator)

 Co-organized Symposia and Lectures

• January: Lecture at University of Trento on “Complexity Theory and Generative Design”
• March: Lecture at University of Strathclyde on “The Modern Structure of Walkable Cities”  
• May: Symposium at Delft University of Technology on “Urban Morphology and Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Toward a Dynamic Model”
• June: Congress for the New Urbanism, delivered academic paper on "Horizons of Pattern Languages," Madison, WI.
• June: Congress for the New Urbanism, session co-organization, moderation and presentation on "Retrofitting Sprawl", Madison WI
• September: Keynote speech at WHO “Age-Friendly Cities” conference, Dublin, Ireland, on “The Structure of Age-Friendly Cities”
• October: Lecture to City of Glasgow staff on “The Modern Structure of Walkable Cities”
• October:  “Biophilia and Evidence-Based Design,” ESRG co-organized conferences in Cesena and Rome, Italy, with The University of Trento, the Pontifical Council for Culture and LegaCoop Italy.  
• October: “Scaling in Cities,” Symposium co-organized with Arizona State University and the Santa Fe Institute, with Geoffrey West, Luis Bettencourt, Luc Anselin, Mike Batty, Jose Lobo, and other physicists, economists and urban scholars.  What are the dynamics of sustainable urban form?  What promising new directions are opening up from the latest complexity science?

 
 
Essays, papers and book chapters

• Book project, The Sustainable Community Guidebook (Steven Coyle, Ed.): Several chapters, co-editing.  John Wiley and Sons.
• The Atlantic - Cities (blog), “The Unbearable Cost of Sprawl” (with Galina Tachieva)
• The Atlantic – Cities (blog), “In Defense of Portland's Orenco Station”\
• Metropolis Magazine/Blog, 5-part series:  “The Radical Technology of Christopher Alexander” (with Nikos Salingaros)
• Metropolis Magazine/Blog, 5-part series:  “Frontiers of Design Science” (with Nikos Salingaros)
• Urban Land Institute, Urban Land magazine, “Is it fair to blame closed-end funds for the financial crisis?”
• Urban Land Institute, Urban Land magazine, “Reduce, Reuse – Recycle?”
• Urban Land Institute, Urban Land magazine, “Good Morning Vietnam” (a profile of sustainable development in an emerging economy)
• Urban Land Institute, Urban Land Magazine, 6-part series:  coverage of the latest economic developments and trends at ULI Fall 2011 Meeting
• Planetizen, “The Power of Jane Jacobs' 'Web Way of Thinking'”
• Urban Morphology, “A City is Not a Rhinoceros: On the Aims and Opportunities of Morphogenetic Design.” 

As always, we welcome suggestions about our work and the ways that we might develop more effective collaborations. And as always, we are very grateful for any and all collaborations, and any other support, that make work on these urgent topics possible!