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If we design cities like ecosystems, they would have the potential to address many of our most pressing issues.

Of all the things people build, cities are the most important.

Cities are the largest things we build, and most people now live in them. But that’s not why cities are our most important invention.

Cities matter because they represent our greatest hope for long-term survival, not only for humans but for all species. They offer the best chance to dramatically reduce carbon pollution, provide shelter and community for the world’s growing human population, and protect rural habitat for species in decline.

But to make this hope a reality, we must recognize that cities — and people — are part of nature and subject to the same laws as the rest of nature.

For too long we have ignored the relationships between built and natural environments. Economic development has focused on “taming the wilderness” with technology. And while the “wilderness” is strikingly diverse, urban technology has been disturbingly monocultural.

Lore wrote:I've pointed this out years ago as a solution which has long been promoted by the great architect and visionary Paolo Soleri who just passed away this last year.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paolo_Soleri

The cities we should be living in!

Of all the things people build, cities are the most important.

Cities are the largest things we build, and most people now live in them. But that’s not why cities are our most important invention.

Cities matter because they represent our greatest hope for long-term survival, not only for humans but for all species. They offer the best chance to dramatically reduce carbon pollution, provide shelter and community for the world’s growing human population, and protect rural habitat for species in decline.

But to make this hope a reality, we must recognize that cities — and people — are part of nature and subject to the same laws as the rest of nature.

For too long we have ignored the relationships between built and natural environments. Economic development has focused on “taming the wilderness” with technology. And while the “wilderness” is strikingly diverse, urban technology has been disturbingly monocultural.

dohboi wrote:NArz, building a whole set of cities from scratch would be expensive indeed. But not just in money.

The process would take enormous quantities of resources and, no matter how carefully done, create huge amounts of GHGs and other pollutants and waste...

Narz wrote:

dohboi wrote:NArz, building a whole set of cities from scratch would be expensive indeed. But not just in money.

The process would take enormous quantities of resources and, no matter how carefully done, create huge amounts of GHGs and other pollutants and waste...

Housing 100,000 people in a small area will always create less waste than housing 100,000 in a scattered area.

Think about heating twenty houses vs. twenty units in an apartment building.

Being human in our modern age means producing pollution & waste, may as well minimize it.

dohboi wrote:No city (over 1 million) in the world has ever or will ever grow all its own crops and derive all its other raw materials from within its own borders.

A citizens’ group in Minneapolis made the point about bike safety by building pop-up bicycle-only lanes, using DIY plywood planters to separate the bike riders from automobile traffic. Bicycle advocates in Atlanta, Denver, Oakland, Calif., Fargo, N.D., and Lawrence, Kans., followed suit.