A Comprehensive Approach to Sustainable Urban Design
AICP CM for this meeting is #9305502
Despite wide agreement about its importance to the future of humanity, sustainable urban design remains a complicated, largely fragmented field of practice. The diversity of issues, scales, disciplines, and contexts make it challenging to deliver integrated outcomes that measurably advance sustainability goals.
The Sustainable Urban Design Handbook hopes to change this–through the presentation of a comprehensive approach that makes sustainable urban design achievable in every project, at every scale, in every city. Authors Nico Larco, Professor at the University of Oregon, and Kaarin Knudson, Mayor of Eugene, Oregon, will share their work and introduce this comprehensive approach.
Speakers
Nico Larco, AIA – Professor, University of Oregon
Nico Larco, AIA, is an urban designer, architect, and professor. He leads ELEMENT/Urban Design, a design and consulting firm, and has been a Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at the University of Oregon since 2004 where he is also the Director of the Urbanism Next Center and Co-Director of the Sustainable Cities Institute. Since 2018, he has also been a Strategic Advisor and Researcher at TNO, a Dutch national think-tank.
Prof. Larco researches and teaches sustainable urban design, has developed the Sustainable Urban Design Framework, is the co-author of the Sustainable Urban Design Handbook published in 2024, and assists cities and projects on how best to apply these principles and approaches. His work around Urbanism Next is focused on how technological advances such as shared mobility, self-driving cars, e-commerce and the sharing economy are changing city form and development. Prof. Larco assists cities and projects in future-proofing to thrive amidst these advances, has run workshops and charrettes nationally and internationally on this topic, and has coordinated work in this area with various municipal and state agencies across North America and in Europe.
Prof. Larco has published in various academic and professional journals and his work has been covered by Wired, the New York Times, Fast Company, Bloomberg News, Forbes, the Financial Times of London, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. He was a Fulbright Scholar in 2012/13 in Spain at the Polytechnic University of Catalunya and at the University of Navarra, a Visiting Professor at TU Delft in 2018/19, and was a Fulbright Scholar in 2019 at the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Chile. He has testified on his research to the US Congress, has worked on research for the European Commission, and was a speaker at TEDx College Park.
Kaarin Knudson, AIA – Mayor, City of Eugene
Mayor Kaarin Knudson is an architect, writer, and educator with more than 25 years’ experience in design, sustainability, and community building. Trained as a journalist before becoming an architect, her work has always focused on people and place. In 2017, after a decade in architectural practice, she organized the public-interest project Better Housing Together to address Lane County’s housing crisis. This work supported the creation of Eugene’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund, Lane County’s first Affordable Housing Action Plan, and Oregon’s landmark middle housing reforms. In 2024, she was elected with 73% of the primary vote and 96% in the general election.
Mayor Knudson teaches planning and urban design at the University of Oregon, and she speaks at regional and national conferences about sustainable cities, housing, and the work of guiding community change. She is co-author of the new textbook, The Sustainable Urban Design Handbook (Routledge).