SUSANNAH HAGEN
University of East London

Within the ‘sustainable city’ discourse, the relationship between density and environmental impact is a complex one. Environmentally-determined urban densities don’t sit well with the current fashion for compaction and densification. Arriving at an acceptable residential density in an urban context therefore requires the development of criteria that balance conflicting environmental constraints as well as cultural ones.  Referring to research in progress on a site in Sao Paulo, Brazil, one of the largest, but not densest, cities in the world, this paper examines ways in which density functions as the link between environmental and social objectives in any urban design. In so doing, it challenges the current dominance of the ‘Compact City’ model in urban regeneration, whose sole parameters are transport and some notion of traditional European urbanity.