I have been looking forward to this topic. I am very interested in the idea of “new urbanism”. It really provides the antidote for the terrible feeling of being in the suburbs. I was born and raised in the suburbs of Toronto, in the “city” of Brampton. It is hard to call the place I grew up a city, due to the fact that in reality it is just an endless grid system of suburbs. The transit system is pathetic at best, and with a population around 450,000 people there is traffic everywhere. There are no central areas for community development or social interaction (unless you consider the two Wal-Marts we have within a 15 min drive of each other a social experience.) Development is surging in Brampton with suburbs continuously encroaching and consuming the farmland to the north. The combination of suburban development coupled with strip malls containing (it is very possible that we have more Montana’s, Kelsey’s and East Side Mario’s than anywhere else in Canada) the same damn stores and restaurants has left the city I grew up in a bastardized suburban wasteland. It is for this reason that I find the concept of new urbanism and sustainable cities so refreshing.
Suburban Scene
http://parsnipdanslaville.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/suburbia1_thumb.jpg
New urbanism and the idea of sustainable cities focus on people and the ability to interact and develop social capital. These cities provide a dense functional and pleasant environment which is walk-able and full of green space; in essence, a place that you are happy to be. A sustainable city will have goods and services available within walking distance and provide a thorough public transit system that will allow a person to not rely on a car (imagine no more traffic jams!!). The “densified” urban area would have stores and markets with apartment’s right above mixing the use and diversifying the area. The energy in the sustainable city will come from clean and renewable resources and the city will be self reliant in terms of local food and energy production. Most importantly, there is a focus on social gathering. Creating major hubs or nodes for people to WANT to come together and make connections. Check out the link and video for some more info!!
Comparing the ideas above to a place like Brampton, it sounds a little like a utopian fantasy. There are issues with utopia however. The biggest issue is that in order for these cities to become a real solution we would need to retrofit our existing cities or build entirely new ones. In terms of retrofitting our existing cities it seems highly unlikely that the upfront capital would ever be provided. Not to mention that the sheer size of the project would be insane. It is more likely that to change our current cities we will need to “fill in the gaps” and “densify” what we already have. This will not solve the current problems with our cities but may help improve them. Check out this research paper for detailed info on increasing suburban density!!
Are there any new sustainable cities being planned? Well in fact there are many examples of sustainable cities being developed. For example the Chinese city of Tanjin which will be home to 350,000 people. The majority of the city will be powered by solar and geothermal and will incorporate huge amounts of green space. 90% of the transportation will be achieved through the use of public transport. Another example which is extremely ambitious (and perhaps slightly flawed) is the United Arab Emirates city of Masdar. The city will incorporate solar power as its primary energy source. Masdar is planned to be completely car free incorporating an extensive electric powered subterranean transit system along with some interesting electric personal transit vehicles (check link below). The city will be home to 50,000 all within a traditional walled city. The idea of a sustainable city in the middle of the desert is a little bit hard to believe and there are some issues that I’m sure will have to be faced, mainly water security. There are many other examples of planned cities and projects. My next blog post will detail more cases of sustainable development in practice much like these!! Check out the video below for info on Masdar!!
On a more obscure and slightly sci fi note, the architect Vincent Callebaut has created a number of designs for sustainable for cities for numerous countries. These amazing designs may be a bit far from our current reality, but they represent a potential future solution to the many sustainability issues our current cities face. One of the most interesting concepts is the floating “lily pad” ecopolis environmental refugee camp. Essentially a giant man made floating island that will house the many people displaced by the future climate change consequences. The island city will incorporate numerous energy generation systems and will be totally self sufficient. This sounds farfetched right now, but who knows where the future lies. Check out Vincent Callebaut’s website the various projects are quite amazing!! http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/07/10/lilypads/index.html
Sorry about the subtitles, But the video out lines some of the awesome ideas!!
One could go on and on about the potential for sustainable cities. There is endless room for improvement of our current cities. The important thing to keep in mind is that the sustainable city will increase social capital while at the same time protecting the natural environment as much as possible. This is achieved through smart and thorough planning which avoids traditional sprawling suburbs. This would bring back the idea of “great” cities like those in Europe. Cities we can be proud to be a part of and proud to pass on to future generations.
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