This paper documents the interim findings of the BEQUEST
(Building Environmental Quality Evaluation for Sustainability)
network and the project´s investigation of sustainable
urban development. The network has its origins in an
international conference: ´´The Environmental Impact of
Buildings and Cities´´, held in Florence in 1995 (Brandon et
al. 1997). More recently the network has been supported
with funding from the Research Directorate of the EU Framework
4 Programme. The project sets out to develop a common
language and approach to Sustainable Urban Development
(SUD) and aims to produce a framework, directory of
assessment methods and set of procurement protocols for
such purposes. The said framework, directory of assessment
methods and procurement protocols, are currently in the
process of being linked together in the form of a tool-kit. It
is anticipated this instrument will be of particular use for
those advising on the sustainability of urban development,
taking decisions about the city of tomorrow and its cultural
heritage. Collectively these deliverables are aimed at building
environmental capacity, qualifying and evaluating the
sustainability of urban development.
Reporting on the BEQUEST project and its methodology,
the paper outlines the interim findings of work carried out
on two of the project objectives: the framework for a common
understanding of sustainable development (its foregrounding
of the urban question) and the movement towards
a directory of methods able to assess the sustainability of
urban development in particular. |
