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City of the Future

A life without… cars…

4 Comments

• On 05.25.09 Kevin said:

  I told you about European village design 2 years ago, but it’s nice that the NY Times has caught up.

  Most of Europe was redesigned in-part my American rebuilding efforts after WWII. Is 60 years too soon to bring some of that back home?

• On 06.16.09 Joe said:

  …or the city of the past? We spent a week in the main village of the tiny greek island Folegandros, where they permit no cars (except for trash collection, store stocking etc. and that off hours). A very pleasant place to be — and I get the sense that it’s been like that for hundreds of years, that instead of banning cars, they just never let them in.

• On 07.23.09 Scott Fossel said:

  Have visited the Vauban on a number of occasions and had a personal presentation and tour from the Chief Urban Planner there. Was not as impressed as I was with BO01 in Sweden, where I also had a one-on-one interview and tour from one of its lead architects, but still one of only a few places around the world that sets the standard for new construction ecocities or ecotowns. Europe is easily 10-15 years ahead of the States in this regard, which can only boast at this scale of such lighter green developments as Portland South Waterfront, and Asia and the Middle East will be similarly a decade ahead in only a few more years due to their astonishing pace. Currently America is destined to become a bit of a backwater in ecocity development, though conceptually and technologically it is still way ahead in so many ways!

• On 12.12.09 Kevin said:

  The ‘city without cars’ is a suburb of Frieburg, also the leading edge city of the European solar revolution.

  Your City 2.0 project will have to be located where the population and poverty are both highest, where reducing the urban sprawl will have the greatest effect on improving land value, and effective & efficient use of human resources will save lives and measurably improve the planet.

  With a small amount of capital you will make the greatest impact on locations like:
  1. Mumbai, and it’s surrounding suburban sprawl, India
  2. Lagos, Nigeria
  2. Haiti, any urban center. Most people are pedestrian, or on bicycles already, but the population has stripped the land to the bone, to the point that erosion will soon destroy any chance of ecological recovery soon. If a requirement for low-cost high-rise dwellings is the maintenance of urban victory gardens, the seeds of knowledge and interest will be sewn.

  Solar thermal is cheaper, and all of these locations are perfect for reusable energy generation. Add a few windmills (for evening power) & solar thermal concentrators (for daytime energy collection) to each arcology blockhouse and they will provide the residents with modern amenities as well as salable excess.

  The promise of long term family domiciles can allow you to reduce the cost of labor, employing local talent. The poorest nations are awash in resources no first-world countries need: Trash. Recycle the tires for paving, the plastics & discarded wood for construction meterial, plant & vegetable refuse for mulch. The bricks & mortar of their current slum dwellings as raw material for steel (or other metals), and concrete accretion.

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