Next generation infrastructure: Principles for Post-industrial Public Works - Hardcover

Hilary Brown

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1597268054 ISBN 13: 9781597268059

Publisher: Island Press, 2014

Synopsis

The 2007 bridge collapse in Minneapolis-St. Paul quickly became symbolic of the debilitated interstate highway system, and of what many critics see as America's disinvestment in its infrastructure. The extreme vulnerability of single-purpose, ageing infrastructure was highlighted once again when Hurricane Sandy churned its way across the northeast United States. Inundating New York City's vital arteries, floodwaters overwhelmed tunnels and sewers; closed bridges; shut down mass transit; curtailed gas supplies; and destroyed streets, buildings, and whole neighbourhoods. Next Generation Infrastructure takes a critical but ultimately hopeful look at how our infrastructure networks can be made more efficient, less environmentally damaging, and more resilient. Brown argues that, if we're to chart a course for global sustainability, we must begin to design, regulate, and finance infrastructure that decouples carbon-intensive and ecologically harmful technologies from critical infrastructure systems, namely the essential systems for contemporary society: water, wastewater, power, solid waste, transportation, and communication. The book highlights hopeful examples from around the world, ranging from the Mount Poso cogeneration plant in California to urban rainwater harvesting in Seoul, South Korea, to the multi-purpose Marina Barrage project in Singapore. Brown encourages us to envision infrastructure within a larger economic, environmental, and social context, and to share resources across systems, reducing costs and extending benefits. This is a must read for professionals and students interested in a more resilient urban future including urban designers, architects, urban planners, urban policymakers, landscape architects, and engineers.

About this title

About the Author

Hillary Brown, FAIA, is Founding Principal of the firm New Civic Works and Professor at the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York. Previously, Brown served as Assistant Commissioner of the City of New York, where she was the founding director of New York's Office of Sustainable Design. Brown led publication of the nationally recognised City of New York High Performance Building Guidelines and co-authored High Performance Infrastructure Guidelines. She has served on both the national and New York Chapter Board of Directors for the U.S. Green Building Council and is a Fellow of the Post-Carbon Institute and the CUNY Institute for Urban Systems.

Edition details

• Publisher: Island Press
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1597268054
• ISBN 13: 9781597268059
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 224