Overview of 2012 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 with exceptionally talented people, NGOs and universities internationally, on some of the most urgent challenges of our day -- climate change, resource depletion, and degradation of the natural and human environments.  It turns out that these issues are more connected than they may appear. 

We work to develop and share exciting new tools and strategies to unlock the capacity of neighborhoods, cities, towns and countrysides, to improve quality of life, to promote resilience and sustainability, and to reduce resource depletion and contributions ot climate change. Examples include:

- Wiki neighborhood tools (with Ward Cunningham, inventor of Wiki and board member)
- Pattern Languages (with Christopher Alexander, inventor, and other collaborators)
- Carbon emissions modeling tools (with leading researchers)
- Capacity-building tools (with other NGO collaborators)
- Sustainable development implementation tools (with governments, NGOs and others)

We were formed in 2007 to facilitate neighborhood-led recovery planning work in New Orleans, and we have gone on to address neighborhood-scale capacity building issues on an international level.   This last year we collaborated on work in our home city of Portland, Oregon, as well as Medellin, Colombia; Glasgow, Scotland; Guayaquil, Ecuador; Paris, France; Mexico City, Mexico; and other cities with representative challenges for neighborhood sustainability, resilience, and quality of life.

Our board expanded in 2012 and now includes exceptional researchers, practitioners and supporters:

Christopher Andrews, architect, Oakland, CA
Ward Cunningham, software engineer, Portland, OR
Bernie Franceschi, investment advisor, Portland, OR
Susan Ingham, architect, Seattle, WA
Kathryn Langstaff, Autopoiesis LLC, Portland, OR
Amy Macklin, fundraising expert, Atlanta, GA
Michael Mehaffy, Structura Naturalis Inc., Portland, OR
Kyriakos Pontikis, professor, Cal State Northridge, CA
Yodan Rofe, professor, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, IS

Michael Mehaffy, our executive director, is a researcher, author, educator, consultant and practitioner in sustainable urban development.  Michael is the author of many journal papers and popular articles (h-index = 6), as well as eleven book chapters, and he is a member of the editorial boards of three international research journals in sustainable urbanism.  He serves as a consultant to governments, university research projects and others.  His expertise in sustainable urban development and climate change was recognized when he was invited in 2009 to present a paper at the prestigious IARU Scientific Congress in Copenhagen, a briefing session for the treaty negotiations of December 2009.

Our major areas of research and publication in 2012:

• Climate change and urban form (with colleagues at Delft University of Technology, University of Strathclyde, University College London and others)
• Walkable cities and “Place Networks” (with colleagues at University of Strathclyde, including Sir David Anderson Fellowship by Michael Mehaffy ending March 2012)
• New applications of pattern languages and wiki technology (with Ward Cunningham, Christopher Alexander, Nikos Salingaros and other colleagues)

Conferences, Symposia and Meetings:

• “Retrofitting Healthier Suburbs,” Rickard J. Jackson, UCLA; Metro; Portland Sustainability Institute; Sustasis Foundation (moderated by Michael Mehaffy)
• “Suburban Retrofit in Portland” (CNU-Cascadia, Ellen Dunham-Jones, Portland Sustainability Institute, Sustasis)
• “Will there be a there there?  A conversation about preservation, development and sustainability” with Steven Semes, University of Notre Dame; Historic Preservation League of Oregon; Sustasis Foundation (moderated by Michael Mehaffy)
• CNU Sprawl Retrofit Retreat, Miami, FL (co-organized by Michael Mehaffy)

Public Interest Events and Inquiries:

• White paper evaluating three Paris tall building projects, Council for European Urbanism and Sustasis Foundation
• Public comment on Eastbank Plan, City of Portland, Kathryn Langstaff and Michael Mehaffy
• Conway Site Public Interest Review by Alternative Design (PIRAD), Sustasis Foundation

General Publications:

• “The real reason cities can be so much greener than other places,” Michael Mehaffy, The Atlantic Cities
• Frontiers of Design Science: Five Part Series, Michael Mehaffy and Nikos Salingaros, Metropolis POV
  
• Science for Designers: Five Part Series, Michael Mehaffy and Nikos Salingaros, Metropolis POV
• Op-ed: “Green is more than modern,” Steven Semes and Michael Mehaffy, The Oregonian
• Op-ed, “How sprawl is killing us,” Richard J. Jackson and Michael Mehaffy, The Atlantic Cities
• Article, “The modern genius of traditional urbanism,” Michael Mehaffy, Traditional Building
  
• Book chapter, “Art Vitiating Life,” in Territorial Claims, Michael W Mehaffy
• Book chapter, “A Pattern Lingo,” in Charter of the New Urbanism, Second Edition, Michael W Mehaffy

 
Public Lectures and Speeches:

• Keynote Speech to University of Medellin, Colombia, “Redes de Lugar” (“Place Networks” - patterns of connectivity), Michael Mehaffy
• Keynote Speech to VistA Software Conference, Seattle, WA., on concepts of Alexander's The Nature of Order, and innovative applications to software. Michael Mehaffy
• Presentation to Congress for the New Urbanism,  “New tools for neighborhood generativity,” Michael Mehaffy
• Lecture to Notre Dame University, “The Languages of Place,” Michael Mehaffy

Evolving Collaborations, Research and Development:

• Ongoing collaborations with Westwind Stewardship Group board members (Michael Mehaffy, Ward Cunningham)
• Smallest Federated Wiki (new wiki tools), Ward Cunningham, Michael Mehaffy
• Build Tomorrow (SFW-based tool), Michael Mehaffy, with Ward Cunningham, Delft University of Technology colleagues, University of Utah colleagues, State of Oregon, Metro (Portland).
• Pattern Language Repository (Michael Mehaffy, Yodan Rofe', Lev Elezier)
• SFW prototypes: pattern languages, generative tools, etc)
• Generative module for SmartCode (Michael Mehaffy with Andres Duany and Bruce Donnelly)

 
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 our further work on these urgent topics possible!