This edited volume centers around the concept of BioCities, which aim to unify nature and urban spaces in order to reverse the effects of global climate change and inequity. Following this principle, the authors propose multiple approaches for sustainable city growth. The discussed concepts are not only relevant for newly constructed cities, but offer transformative perspectives for existing settlements as well. Placing nature at the forefront of city planning is not an entirely new concept, so the authors build on established ideas like the garden city, green city, eco-city, or smart city. All chapters aim to highlight aspects to develop a city that is a resilient nature-based socio-ecological system. Many of these concepts were formed in an effort to copy the best traits of a forest ecosystem: a home for many different species that build complex communities. Much like many of our forests, urban areas are managed by humans for multifunctional purposes, using living and abiotic components. This viewpoint helps to understand the potential and limitations of sustainable growth. With these chapters, the authors want to inspire planners, ecologists, urban foresters and decision makers of the future.

A lo largo de estas paginas y bajo el formato de un diccionario selectivo de terminos queremos identificar una nueva voluntad arquitectonica. Una voluntad basada en un cambio profundo de miradas, criterios, instrumentos, conceptos y actitudes que une hoy, entre si, inquietudes compartidas y objetivos comunes producidos mas alla del contexto, en diversos espacios culturales. Quiere abordar sin remoras ni complejos, sin predeterminaciones ni formulas establecidas, con desinhibicion, pero tambien con energia y precision, aquellas parcelas clave que definen la propia realidad contemporanea. En este sentido, se ha decidido definir aquellos terminos susceptibles de reflejar el ambito, las caracteristicas y las repercusiones de dicha arquitectura avanzada en base a un diccionario selectivo: una arquitectura inscrita en la sociedad de la informacion e influida por las nuevas tecnologias, la nueva economia, la atencion por el medio ambiente, el interes hacia el individuo... La pluralidad de los autores y de las aportaciones especiales debe considerarse como una decision inicial destinada a favorecer el cruce y la complicidad de visiones y apuestas en esta direccion.

Description: The Media House Project is the result of a strategic alliance between the Metapolis Group from Barcelona, the MIT Media Lab, and the Fundacio Politecnica de Catalunya, with the collaboration of the consortium I2Cat and the Elisava Design School. In order to build a prototype of an informational house, this project tests the progression of informational techniques beyond computers, and integrates it into everyday life. As seen here, the Metapolis architects have developed an informative structure, which incorporates in just one element--a house--the physical structure and electrical and data networks that enable a dynamic and configurable link between the entities (people, objects, space, limits, networks, contents) and that which create an inhabitable environment.