This type of urbanism has a central scope of four main objectives: compactness, complexity, efficiency, and stability.
[1] "Ecological urbanism" was coined by architect and planner Miguel Ruano in his 1998 book Eco-Urbanism: Sustainable Human Settlements, 60 Case Studies.
The term first appeared as "EcoUrbanism", which is defined as "the development of multi-dimensional sustainable human communities within harmonious and balanced built environments".
Notably, the Harvard University Graduate School of Design has conducted a conference, held an art exhibition, and published a book all centered around ecological urbanism.
[10][11][12] The book has a long list of contributors, including Rem Koolhaas, Homi K. Bhabha, Mitchell Joachim, Andrea Branzi, and about 130 others.
"[34] Mohsen Mostafavi, Gareth Doherty, Marina Correia, Ana Maria Duran Calisto, Giannina Braschi, and Luis Valenzuela produced a Latin American Ecological Urbanism project, resulting in the 2019 Spanish and Portuguese book Urbanismo ecológico en América Latina.
These are expensive schemes with a commercial and esthetic purpose that satisfy a local or regional ambition to invest in ecology or sustainability without posing a more globally applicable approach.
[38][39] Discerning the potential quality of wild nature in the city is a first step to see how new urban ecology might be developed.