Supporting sustainability issues in urban transformation

Bringing together research and practice, this paper presents the tests carried out to evaluate environmental impacts of a proposal for urban development in Buenos Aires. The building forms, according to present codes, result in free-standing slabs, clearly differing from the existing low-rise residential area and street frontages, typical of most Latin-American cities. A large metropolis with a population of over 10 million inhabitants, Buenos Aires has many features in common with other cities in the region founded by the Spanish colonial power and laid out with the orthogonal grid. The development of an urban sector, promoted by the Buenos Aires Municipal Government for private initiative and currently under public discussion, replaces an urban motorway project from the period of military rule. This specific case study is used to test techniques and tools for application in current and future proposals and demonstrates implementation for sustainability in the urban design and planning process. The example focuses on the environmental impacts of the built form in the context of urban transformation to provide valuable information during project development or when planning codes and building regulations are modified. It also demonstrates the importance of experimental and decision-making supportive techniques for designers, developers and planners.