As we have learned when we were focussing on mega-cities, by 2050, an estimated two-thirds of the world’s population will live in urban areas, imposing even more pressure on the space infrastructure and resources of cities, leading to social disintegration and horrific urban poverty. To grow enough food to feed the people, if traditional farming practices continue as they are practiced today, an estimated 109 hectares of new land (this about 20% more land than is represented by the country of Brazil) will be needed. Today, almost all of the fertile ground all over the world is in use. New solutions have to be developed to avoid an impending disaster.
A potential solution to approach the problem is skyfarming. Skyfarming or vertical farming is a conceptual form of agriculture done in urban high-rises. In these high-rises (also called "farmscrapers") food such as fruit, vegetables, fish, and livestock can be raised by using greenhouse growing methods and recycled resources year-round, allowing cities of the future to become self-sufficient.
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Which infrastructural improvements do you anticipate for the districts, in which such arenas are going to be built?
Less infrastructure. More on site sustainability. More functional off grid built space.
Which personal benefits could be a result, in your opinion, from potential changes in social structure and job market situation?
Individual and community independence. Live and work.
In how far does a new arena change the skyline of a city? Do you know any example personally?
The skyline i see does not extend above the canopy. I see most of the built space in the US to become non functional in the next thirty years minus discovery of new energy source equal to oil.
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Ever since our cities became areas of continuous interaction and ever-expanding exchange the term “exotic” - understood as counterpart to the “local”, the “native” or even the “authentic” - has become a rather vague term. Who – in actual fact - is still able to distinguish between the one and the other, between the exotic and the local? Who would be interested anyway? Yet, once again, there seems to be an increasing fascination with, and interest in, importing and seeing certain urban elements from other parts of the world in our own cities. There are, apparently, more Japanese people visiting the fake Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas than the original in Paris. What makes this displacement so interesting today?
The fascination with the “exotic” and its appearance in our cities has a long history, although at first merely going in one direction: from the “West” to the “East”. Interest in the exotic by the Western World was first stimulated by trade with the Eastern World back in the 16th century. But right from the start there has always been this intriguing contradiction in the term “exotic” as being on the one hand associated with fantasies of opulence and barbaric splendour, yet on the other hand considered as integer, uncorrupted and tasteful. The charm of the unfamiliar with its thrill of menace hasn’t lost its attraction even today and has been turned into a global phenomenon that can no longer be discussed within the narrow-minded Orient – Occident dialectic. These days, all kinds of foreign urban elements evoke the atmosphere of far-off lands all over the world. A finish sauna can be as exotic in Sao Paulo as Islamic ornamental motifs on a building in New York City.
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General @ 31 Mar 2008 09:12 am by Robert Schmidl
The Eiffel Tower is an iron tower built March 31, 1889 (hoisting the flag to the top) for the Universal Exhibition in celebration of the French Revolution on the Champ de Mars beside the Seine River in Paris. The tower has become a global icon of France and is one of the most recognizable structures in the world.
Now, the Société d’exploitation de la Tour Eiffel has just announced that the tapering signature of the Eiffel Tower is to be reshaped, altering the skyline of Paris, in time for the structure’s 120th anniversary next year. Serero Architects of Paris have won the open competition to redesign the structure’s public viewing platform and reception areas as a celebration of the 120th birthday of Gustave Eiffel’s original creation. Aiming to “create a temporary horizontal extension of the third floor of the tower in order to increase the quality of the access of the public as well as experiencing the fantastic 360 degrees sight of Paris.”, the designers project will extend the top floor plate of the tower by grafting a high performance carbon Kevlar structure on it. The winning design (above), which will be 276 metres (905ft) above the ground, will not require any permanent modification of the existing structuref. It will double the capacity of the public viewing area on the tower’s top floor.
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In the light of our PerfectCity Charter and the poll on environmental conditions and sustainability, we would like to go to detail on another factor or rather on the goal of the factor “green public transportation”: car free cities.
To realize car free cities there is a movement in which individuals and organisations (including urban planners, transport planners, cyclist and others) work together believing that cars are to far dominant in most modern cities. The movement’s goal is to create places where the use of cars is limited to a minimum or even eliminated. Thus, the recovered space like roads and parking space could be used for public and to rebuild compact urban environments where most destinations are within easy reach by public transport, walking, or cycling.
The big challenge is to remove cars and trucks from cities while at the same time improving mobility and reducing its total costs. But what is a solution for that?
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General @ 13 Mar 2008 09:51 am by Daniel Appell
Recently our provincial government (British Columbia) proposed a budget that introduced a carbon tax. This was described by our finance minister, Carol Taylor, as a "small first step" to discourage the consumption of fossil fuels and support emerging sustainable technologies. Ours is the first large jurisdiction in North America to introduce a carbon tax.
Reaction has been moderately positive. Most of us in the environmental movement are giving it two thumbs up. I heard pundits on the radio talk about "tax restructuring". Instead of taxing positive things, such as productivity and the accumulation of wealth, we are taxing negative behavior; waste and unbridled consumption. I think our government deserves some kudos for this move, and I look forward to further ‘restructuring.’
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Which infrastructural improvements do you anticipate for the districts, in which such arenas are going to be built?
The main infrastructural improvements concern transport: public transportation infrastructure and road network/parking. Arenas are able (and are made) to host big events, like concerts or sport’s games. Therefore, it is crucial to guarantee the access, both by public and private transport, to that place of the city, in those specific periods.
This poses a challenge for transport and urban planning. Public transport is made to serve large numbers of people, on a regular basis. Events, on the other hand, create a very high demand in a very short period of time and in specific days, often in offpeak hours. How to conceptualize a public transport system that is suited for that?
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General @ 23 Jan 2008 08:00 am by Robert Schmidl
Urbanisation and globalisation will be important topics of the World Economic Forum 2008. The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an annual meeting of top business leaders, national political leaders (presidents, prime ministers and others), and selected intellectuals and journalists usually held in Davos, Switzerland. This year’s Annual Meeting will take place from 23-27 January. Meanwhile business leaders and politicians have accepted the relevance of those subjects.
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PerfectCity Charter @ 03 Nov 2007 09:37 am by Eurohypo
The PerfectCity Charter is on its way with the next Issue Housing and Architecture. As the first dossier has been finalized, a new Poll is coming up. This time the principles of housing are of interest. The goal is to extract the most important factors and determinants in this matter. With regard to basic aspects and rules of housing, the upcoming poll aims to identify what you think is most important when thinking about the City of The Future in terms of housing. Therefore, we have listed several potentially relevant factors below.
- NEIGHBOURHOOD
- HOUSING STANDARDS
- HOUSING INFRASTRUCTURE
- FINANCE AND MANAGEMENT
- ECO HOUSING
- FUNCTION, CONSTRUCTION AND FORM are of equal value and together. None should have priority over the others.
- FUNCTION AND CONSTRUCTION are useful elements whose fulfilment should be a natural matter in building. Only when they are raised to an aesthetic level a building becomes architecture.
What do you think about these, and do you see opportunities to build clusters? Is something missing or redundant? Which factors would you put up for voting in a poll?
We look forward to your comments and ideas!
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