‘This is a wonderful book that should be on the desk of every architect and planner. It shows how

Are there examples of planning that do not trade-off nature for development?
Yes. There are examples of commonsense modifications to conventional planning and resource 
management that improve environmental conditions. The city of Curitiba is a well-known example 
of practical planning that aims to create whole system efficiency and multiple benefits through small-
scale, community-based solutions.
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Curitiba is the capital city of Paran in Brazil and, like most cities 
in developing nations, it faces problems of poverty, overcrowding, pollution and limited funds. From 
the early 1960s, under the leadership of Jaime Lerner, the city embarked on a team design effort to 
address social, economic and environmental problems. Rather than spending on capital-intensive, 
large-scale engineering projects, they invested in on-ground, people-oriented solutions. Curitiba 
now has an exceptional public transport system, recycling programmes, increased public parks and 
community services, revitalized historic districts – and civic pride. Its achievements are celebrated 
in many sustainability texts and forums. For example:
•
Recycling
: Curitiba’s approach to recycling enables the poor to exchange scavenged metal
and glass waste for fresh produce. This builds health and safety improvements into the waste
solution, while providing supplemental income for the poor.
• 
Green space
: Curitiba built housing for squatters in order to relocate them off a floodplain
that was subject to periodic flood damage and water contamination. Then it converted the
floodplain into public parkland that can manage occasional floods. By reclaiming land for
public parks, Curitiba now has more green space per person than other Brazilian cities.
• 
Historic preservation
: Curitiba preserved old buildings using transferable development
rights (TDRs) [Chapter 11]. This enabled owners of old buildings to use their development
rights to build elsewhere or sell these ‘unused’ rights to others. Historic areas were preserved

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Design for Eco-services
in this way, and have since become multi-use tourist destinations.
•