Urban sustainability is often reduced to a specific set of issues packaged in the notion of ‘green city’ or ‘eco-city’. The idea of eco-city is problematic in terms of pure sustainability, but forms an important motive in urban policy. The architectural policy of Oslo emphasizes sustainability, and ‘greenness’ is a marketable quality which is exploitable in the promotion of cities. Eco-cities are also experiments with future relationships between society, technology and nature. For architecture and urban design the challenge is to look beyond immediate environmental ‘fixes’, and engage the public through representation, iconography and aesthetics and promote variety and experimentation with possible future green cities.
Published in: Luccarelli, M., Røe, P., eds, Green Oslo : visions, planning and discourse