Seizing sustainability on the design of urban design: Local implementations through new global initiatives

It is broadly accepted that sustainability is all over the agenda's architecture congresses, professional practice and academic research, yet, to date it has primarily focused on the building realm and its translation to an urban design scale stalls in hiatus. Does the renewed interest in the environmental issues will impact the substance of urban design? Which is the real impact of sustainability in the design urban design? As for sustainability in architecture is the Genzyme building in Cambridge, is there going to be one for urban design? In which ways can urban designers contribute to the sustainable goals in ways that other professions have fewer capabilities to do so? Indeed, many of the literature regarding urban sustainability focus into the main urban systems as water management, traffic, garbage, and others, which no doubt can greatly impact although depend mainly on central government actions and larger institutional initiatives. Meanwhile, the city is designed and built through local actions struggling to cope with the new sustainable technologies. The paper seeks to explore experiences that merge the technical ingenuity of sustainable strategies on the urban infrastructure systems into a compelling local sustainable urban design.