New | Looking at the past to find solutions for the future

Around the world, huge amounts of human energy are spent in the pursuit of sustainable cities. Beijing alone, intent on rehousing 100 million rural people in cities in the next six years, has set ambitious targets for greener building. With the earth's resources now undeniably finite, it is the holy grail of urban architecture.

But what if much of all this brouhaha boils down to reinventing the wheel? Could the obvious in terms of sustainable design have been with us for hundreds, if not thousands, of years?

Jason Pomeroy, a British architect and academic who founded Pomeroy Studio in Singapore in 2012, believes so.

Pomeroy, who sits on various green building boards and has penned two books on eco-architecture - The Skycourt and Skygarden: Greening the Urban Habitat and Idea House: Future Tropical Living Today - wants to travel with China on the road to sustainable urban development, and he is doing it by looking forward, with a view to the past.

Pomeroy says he has always been fascinated by the concept of living in harmony with nature.

He says that childhood interest is perfectly timed, given the growing need for sustainable, eco-friendly solutions to meet the challenges of urbanisation in Asia.

Pomeroy, who is special professor at the University of Nottingham and the Universita Iuav di Venezia, reels off a clutch of data. "Fifty per cent of our carbon emissions are associated with the built environment, and 80 per cent of this is associated with cities. By 2050, 9.6 billion people may be walking the face of this earth. In 2030, 50 per cent more energy will be consumed by that additional population and 40 per cent more water; plus we will need about 35 per cent more food."