Contribution to the Establishment of Green infrastructure as an Equal Element of the City Morphology in the Service of the Future City
Aljosha Shopar
https://doi.org/10.60152/1ofm7wkz
Abstract: The rapid urbanization that began with the Industrial Revolution and continues to this day has dramatically increased the pressure on urban dynamics. From this fast and substantial enlargement of our cities, a new city element has emerged. This element, which is the primary motive and focus of this research, is called “green infrastructure”.The main goal of this study is to try to make a paradigm shift, at least by a small increment, in our traditional perception of our cities by changing it from ”grey” to ”green” (blue). This task should be achieved with the theoretical defining of the term Green infrastructure as a spatial constituent, through a description and classification of its elements, their arrangement, and values within the city morphology. As far as we can reach in our history we can see that the city has existed as a system of irreducible complexity with all its parts arranged in their place. City elements by association are integrated into entities of higher complexity and quality, of a higher order (emergence), so the room emerges into a house, the house into a block, the block into a quarter, and the quarter into a city. The discussion about green infrastructure and its application in a city by examining case studies will highlight and strengthen its rightful place among other city elements. This applies both to the transformations that take place within the built city structures and to the newly planned city spaces. This approach positions the green element within the city morphology making it a dynamic part that instigates added value by introducing new socio-cultural activities that upgrade the existing urban system. By gaining equal status with other city elements, the notion of green infrastructure is becoming yet another segment of urban complexity. In its journey, it has come a long way being coded as a green luxury until the late XIX century, implemented as a green necessity in the early planning stages of modernization, and established as green leisure in the late XX century. This paper aims to acknowledge a new scenario for the future city, in which the green infrastructure rethinks its previous connotations in a new ‘green’ approach that engages productivity as a major concern, and thus creates a concept that further enhances relations between the elements of the contemporary urban morphology.
Keywords: Green Infrastructure, Urban Morphology, Urban Complexity, City Elements
How to cite this Paper (Harvard referencing style):
Shopar, A. (2024) ‘Contribution to the Establishment of Green infrastructure as an Equal Element of the City Morphology in the Service of the Future City’, in R. Bogdanović (ed.) On Architecture — Shaping the City through Architecture, Proceedings. Belgrade, Serbia: STRAND, pp. 68–81.