Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 21:34:12 -0700

From: "Kirstin L. Miller" <kleighmi@flash.net>

The Ecocity Sessions

taught by Richard Register, President, Ecocity Builders

March 7 - April 11

Wednesday Evenings, 7 to 9:30pm

Jerry Brown¹s We the People

200 Harrison

Oakland, Ca

Richard Register has over thirty years experience in ecological city theory and design. In fact, it was Register who invented the term ³ecocity² in 1978. His Ecocity Berkeley, Building Cities for a Healthy Future, has been a classic in eco-urban circles since it was first published in 1987. He is also the author of three other books, including Village Wisdom, Future Cities and the upcoming Ecocities.

Register founded the International Ecocity Conference Series in Berkeley in 1990, and has since co-organized three more: Adelaide, Australia in 1994; Yoff, Senegal in 1996; and Curitiba, Brazil in 2000. The Fifth International Ecocity Conference is currently in planning stages for Midrand, South Africa, October, 2001. This International Series brings together the best innovators, educators, administrators and activists in the field.

Register¹s non-profit, Ecocity Builders, is dedicated to returning healthy biodiversity to the heart of our cities. Ecocity thinking visualizes a future in which prosperous downtown centers are open for pedestrian¹s feet, curious children, fish, frogs and dragonflies. Ecocities also build thriving neighborhood centers while reversing sprawl development, effectively creating whole cities based on human scale needs and transportation rather than the current pattern of automobile driven excess, wasteful consumption and the destruction of the biosphere. Working through ecological design, planning, projects, advocacy and education, we will be able cast aside our dependence on the automobile and recreate our human habitat in balance with nature.

This six week course is open to those seriously interested in helping to create a better world for people and nature through the reshaping of the built human infrastructure. Basic ecocity theory will be presented, as well as an overview of the city in evolution, the city in nature, the city in history and the city today. We will focus on the Ecocity toolbox of reshaping methods and strategy guidelines for activism. Come prepared to listen, think, ask questions and get to work drawing, mapping and testing out your new ideas.

Week One: Evolution, biological analogy and whole systems vision for the built habitat.

Week Two: Parameters of the disaster--effects of the anti-ecological city on localities and the whole world, nature of the car/sprawl/highway/oil infrastructure contrasted with the pedestrian city. The creative, positive, fun approach.

Week Three: Great Examples from around the world.

Week Four: More great examples, emphasis shifting to the local.

Week Five: Tools to fit the task, including mapping workshops, TDRs, car-free housing.

Week Six: Where do we go from here? Using the tools, changing ourselves and the world we live in.

Prerequisites: a pioneering spirit and a fondness for thinking outside the box.

Cost: $135

Class size limit: 30 people.

To reserve a space, send $135 to Ecocity Builders, 1678 Shattuck Ave., Suite 66, Berkeley, CA 94709.