With recent gas prices fluctuating due to the high demand for oil and a lack of resources, ASU’s College of Design and the Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory have joined forces to create a solution.

The Post Petroleum Phoenix Initiative focuses on slowing down the process of using up peak oil resources, or the “end of the era of plentiful and inexpensive oil,” said Nancy Levinson, director of the Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory and editor of Places Journal: Forum of Design for the Public Realm, a journal highlighting design, art and social sciences.

“The main goal of the project is to explore how you can use urban design as a tool to reduce the energy demands of cities,” Levinson said.

Although gas prices are an issue, this is secondary to the issue of depleted energy resources, Levinson said.

Levinson is joined in the project by Kenneth McCown, an associate professor of landscape architecture in the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, part of the College of Design.

The outline for the project includes an analysis of available resources and the current situation of the cities in the first year, a plan for the redesign and adaptation of the city for the second year and eventually an exhibition at the Arizona Science Center and the Burton Barr Library, McCown said.

The purpose of the project is to decrease dependence on oil by adapting fundamental urban patterns, including buildings and transportation — as well as landscape, power, water, waste and agriculture — to a more energy-conserving design, Levinson said.

“The urban design profession has a major role to play in meeting the sustainability challenges,” Levinson said.

By redesigning and adapting urban systems, not only are energy and oil saved, but air, water, health, food and social qualities are also improved, she said.

By using less oil and requiring less energy for cars and other forms of transportation and buildings, there will be less pollution, she added.
“The challenge is to adapt to low-dependency on cars and more than one form of transportation,” Levinson said.

People can learn to be more resilient with more than one form of transportation in case resources run out, Levinson said.

In Phoenix and other sprawling cities modeled after the World War II era, people are mainly dependent on cars, she said.

“Our transportation system is predominantly an autocentric system. We don’t have a mass transit system that has been successful in getting people out of their cars,” Levinson said.

The beginnings of the design and adaptation projects are put into play at various studios situated near Phoenix, where students help design and plan projects of reducing energy use for the cities, McCown said.

A new studio in Scottsdale, which students help manage, will be unveiled this spring. Funding will come from the City of Scottsdale. There are already three other studios in areas surrounding Phoenix, McCown said.

The main goal, though, is to create a studio in Phoenix when the city can afford it, McCown said.

The Post Petroleum Phoenix Initiative project started around eight months ago with the expertise of McCown, who did a similar peak oil project at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona for Ventura, Calif.

“Our alternative technologies are not going to be able to handle the demand that’s coming,” McCown said in defense of the cost of the project.

The expense is due to the extent of the project in redesigning and adapting current buildings, transportation systems, landscapes and other urban systems in the city, he said.

Students can become involved in the projects through the College of Design, where McCown teaches.

Reach the reporter at reweaver@asu.edu.