BIO-1

This is my WRITER bio

I’ve written dozens of published non-fiction magazine articles, book chapters, academic and conference papers over the years and one magnum opus Ecopolis – Architecture and cities for a changing climate, published by Springer and the CSIRO in 2009.

I was co-winner of an Environmental Journalism Award with Gar Smith, editor of the Earth Island Journal (Berkeley, 1992).

Commissioned works include several pieces for Artlink magazine  and a ‘provocation’ called  Sea Wall (Chapter 43 of Urban Planet, Cambridge University Press 2018)

My publishing history includes brief pieces in magazines (eg., Kangaroo Avenue in Raise the Stakes, Shasta Bioregion circa 1989), a booklet containing a short story as part of community engagement exercise in a major urban design project (Whyalla – Why not? Adelaide, 1996) and three self-published books of poetry that appear to have been written by my dog (The Carrum Doggerel Collection 2019 and Beach Buddies, Carrum, 2020 and The Dogs’ Breakfast, Carrum 2021).

My first piece of published fiction was a short story for a university student newspaper about a group of young ecology activists being white-anted (UWIST, Cardiff 1975).

I wrote (with Chérie Hoyle) and drew Supersheep a ‘political’ comic strip for the radical Welsh magazine Arcade: Wales Fortnightly back in the early 1980s.

I worked professionally as an editor and contributing author of the third edition of the Your Home Technical Manual of Residential Design for the Australian Greenhouse Office (Australian Federal Government, 2005 – 2006) and was editor & principal author for the completely revised fourth edition of Your Home for the Department of Environment, Heritage, Water and the Arts (Australian Federal Government, 2007 – 2008)

In 2018 and 2020 I served on the international executive judging committee for the Stories of The Nature of Cities (New York).

I’ve been an invited speaker on architecture, urbanism and climate change on 6 continents and these days I write a lot of fiction and poetry in addition to non-fiction – search for Downton at The Nature of Cities for many of my best articles.

BIO-2

This is my ‘other’ bio Dr Paul Downton BSc (Hons), BArch, PhD

Architect, writer, independent researcher and urban evolutionary.

Paul is acknowledged with Richard Register, as a founding pioneer of the global ecocity movement and sees ecocities as a global imperative and evolutionary adventure.

Paul’s many years in practice, academia and advocacy include designing the uber-green London Shed for the ANU’s coastal campus at Kioloa, co-convening the 1992 Second International Ecocity Conference, co-initiating and designing the ground-breaking Christie Walk inner-city eco-housing development, working with organisations in China on transitioning China to ecocities, leading research with Deakin University on biophilia for Melbourne’s new metro stations, designing an undergraduate program in Ecological Urban Design for China’s DeTao Group and initiating and designing the legendary Halifax EcoCity Project (awarded World’s Best Ecocity Project by Ecocity Builders in 1994).

Paul has written widely on his vision for “ecopolis” and has pursued the concept of “urban fractals” for two decades. He is author of Ecopolis – architecture and cities for a changing climate (Springer 2009) and has been an invited speaker on architecture, urbanism and climate change on 6 continents.

Current projects include the Fractal Handbook for Urban Evolutionaries, The Wild Cities of Half Earth series of graphic novels, a book of poetry,  looking for the perfect agent for his novel and attending to his dog’s aspiration to be a poet.