Reimagining Urban Cities
Most cities are built based on outdated designs, it's time we seriously consider some updates
Hiya!
In case you haven’t seen the news, global warming is raging. It seems we barely make it a week without a new climate disaster happening. Seeing so many images of destruction only heightens my anxieties about what’s to come. It also makes me ask a question I may not want the answer to — is my city prepared?
I think it’s safe to say, humanity is wholly unprepared for what nature is throwing our way. Climate change is a large and complicated issue with dozens of moving parts that will require everyone’s participation. One of which is urban design. Thankfully, scientists, researchers, designers, and architects are working on solutions. Let’s take a look at some.
Current Urban Design
Since the invention of cars, urban design has focused on accommodating them. Additionally, urban populations continue to sky-rocket as more people move to cities from less populated areas.
According to a climate report by the United Nations, about 56 percent of our global population lives in cities— by 2050, it’s expected to rise to two-thirds. Yet, already, urban areas contribute nearly 75 percent of global CO2 emissions — primarily thanks to heating and cooling systems, lights, cars, and building construction.
Urban emission rates are already much too high. But, considering that by 2050, hundreds of millions of people are predicted to migrate due to global warming, the rate will soon become whatever is worse than catastrophic. Regardless, our cities will have to adapt to accommodate growing populations. So why not try and make them more sustainable in the process?
Sadie Morgan, an architect, and chair of the Quality of Life Foundation told Reuters,
"It's about reminding ourselves that we all have a shared responsibility to ensure that we use less resources. We just have to be open to new ways of living. When designing new structures, for instance, architects should think about how the buildings can be deconstructed and recycled at the end of their life cycle, or transformed for other purposes.”
If we’re going to accomplish such a daunting task as sustainable urban designs against global warming, we need to analyze and break down the problems. While also opening our minds to change and new perspectives. This is the fun part if you ask me because we get to be creative.
Four Parts of Urban Design
While looking for solutions, it’s always good to evaluate the way things have been done to find areas in need of an update. For instance, there are typically three areas representing specific aspects of planning when it comes to urban design. But a fourth emerges when we include global warming in the equation. Let’s take a quick look at each.
The first attempts to design, or redesign, an entire city all at once with the intention it will last forever. It’s often used when developing a brand new city. In the future, for instance, cities could be metrofitted to make it easier to modify them according to changing circumstances.
The second looks for solutions to specific problems that can be easily replicated — like cars for transportation and air conditioners for poor ventilation. The third design pertains to building one structure at a time — the way architects create homes or buildings according to the needs of each client.
So far, most of our issues can and have been solved using one of these strategies. However, they aren’t without flaws. Each solution is excellent on the surface, but add global warming as a variable, and they’ll either take too long or create additional issues.
Take the second one, for example. Designing mass-producible products to solve a bunch of specific problems is, on the surface, a great idea. But the products rarely consider cultural differences between communities — resulting in a one-size-fits-all model — and dismiss other problems they create.
For instance, air conditioners seem like a brilliant solution to combat poor ventilation in buildings and homes. But they’re also expensive and unaffordable for many creating a class division. They also use a lot of energy, are noisy, and spit hot air at people walking by. Technically, they solve the issue of poor ventilation, but they also create more problems in the process.
“Okay, so what’s the fourth one?” I hear you asking. Well, it refers to what’s called pattern thinking. Not in the sense of replicated products like your cellphone though, more like patterns of behaviors — the relationships and interactions we have with things.
An article by The Conversation goes into further detail, but essentially, designers observe how the setup of a city impacts how we behave within it. For example, when a city is designed around driving, everything is more spaced out, and roads and parking spaces replace walkways and nature.
Using pattern thinking, urban designers look for ways to redesign features of a city to encourage behavior from its residents. For instance, by adding more street lights and broader sidewalks, people feel safer and walk more often.
Ideal Designs
As I mentioned before, hundreds of millions of people are predicted to relocate over the coming decades. While it’s tempting to dream of crafting brand new cities, it’s unrealistic to replace all of our existing ones. Let alone the costs, labor, and pollution these new cities would require to construct. This means we need to find ways for our current cities to adapt.
Although there is only so much urban designers and architects can do, we also need government contribution. I know, no one is thrilled with the government’s sloth-like pace these days, let alone the lack of support. But we don’t need federal action right now. Change can happen city-by-city. In fact, it’s already is.
Cities worldwide are making strides to become carbon neutral. There’s even a global network of mayors from “world-leading cities” called C40. They are working together on “a science-based and collaborative approach to help the world limit global heating to 1.5°C and build healthy, equitable, and resilient communities.” Stockholm, Sweden, is one of them and has already begun its strategy to become the first carbon-neutral city by 2025.
This approach allows different cultures and regions to try new ideas which similar cities can then replicate. We’re learning what can work and what might be better suited for other risks. So far, I’ve noticed a couple of common themes already spreading rapidly.
Integration of Nature
The first is integrating nature into urban design. For decades, our focus has been on growth and finding ways to pack more people into less space. In the process, nature took a back seat to designers’ priorities since land is more profitable when buildings or apartments are built on it than as, say, a park. But this trend appears to be changing.
Science repeatedly shows connections between our mental health and spending time in nature. We’re healthier, physically and mentally, when we have access to nature, we’re also more productive. So it only makes sense to incorporate nature within urban living. Not only do we, as a species, benefit from this idea, but as global warming makes more habitats inhabitable, we can’t afford to keep nature beyond our city limits.
An article by Architectural Digest (AD) explores this further, along with some other excellent concepts worth reading about. Including examples of private owners taking things into their own hands rather than waiting for government action. Specifically, the article mentions a building constructed in the 1980s located at 550 Madison in New York. Now it’s undergoing a significant renovation that will almost double its original size.
What is designer Snøhetta doing with the additional space? Creating the area’s largest public green space, including a water feature, trees, and a garden for both the building’s residents and the public.
Discouraging Cars
We all know cars and transportation contribute large amounts of emissions every year. Yet, the design of many cities makes it nearly impossible not to drive. Especially when commuting to work, school, even grocery stores. Very little is within walking distance, biking is often unsafe, and while some cities have public transportation, many of them are sorely outdated. This makes it difficult to ditch our cars even if we want to.
In 2021, Portland, Oregon, started the Way to Go Plan which lays out concrete steps instead of just a vision. The plan focuses on ways to shift the city’s design away from driving and toward choices like walking, biking, or using scooters over the next two years. While considering policy discussion, there are two questions city officials keep in mind — “Will it advance equity and address structural racism?” and “Will it reduce carbon emissions?”
However, plenty of urban designers are strategizing about how to construct sustainable cities from scratch. In fact, there’s already a circular 175-acre experimental city located at the base of Mt. Fuji in Japan, called Toyota Woven City.
Its use of natural and renewable energy is brilliant, but I find the way the city’s roads are designed even more interesting. The streets are divided into three lanes, or segments — one for vehicles, another for other modes of transportation like bikes or scoots, and the last is pedestrian and nature only. The city’s design and roads work together to create a safe outdoor area for pedestrians while allowing easy access to buildings.
Perspective Shift
It’s time we shift our perspectives when considering future urban designs. We can start by reevaluating the way we live and what we prioritize. We don’t need to wait for the slow-moving bureaucracy of the federal government to get started, either. We can begin in our own homes, towns, and cities.
Right now cities place automation above everything. Continuing along with the way things have always been done, got us to this point. But perhaps in the future, we can keep our mental health and needs at the forefront of urban design. We’re a smart, adaptable, and creative species capable of beating dire odds.
Either way, change is coming. If we act now, we might at least have some control in how it plays out.
Good way to think!