Fourteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

Nature-based solutions (NBS) is an umbrella term for interventions mobilizing nature to advance human well-being through the delivery of ecosystems services (ES). Used intentionally, they can offer an approach to tackling urban sustainability challenges. In a practical sense, NBS in cities are instruments for urban revitalization and transformation, pushing beyond sustainability to regeneration using the built environment. In a theoretical sense, NBS are part of an agenda that imagines new scenarios for urban environments and ways of urban living. Still, at present, NBS are often ephemeral, fragmented, and used in an ad-hoc way. They can be lost in translation between the scientific assessment of ES and the practicalities of local, socio-cultural context, implicating a lack of understanding and management to deliver the most value for the urban sustainability transition and transformation agenda (Kabisch et al. 2016). This dissertation research examines NBS cases ‘as a design consequence,’ considering them as design interventions in complex urban environments, where the interplay between technology, nature, and humans influence how urban nature (i.e., NBS) performs. Through a multidisciplinary case study analysis, based on qualitative data collected from three cities (Milan in Italy, Győr in Hungary and Melbourne in Australia), the research highlights how the design framework can enable the use of NBS in the domain of urban development, and how the understanding of citizens’ usage, needs, values, and perception change the design outcome and implementation of NBS, as a starting point for using regenerative or transition design approaches in general planning more systematically.