Rule of three
I have more than 10 years’ experience covering urbanism and design conferences, so it’s not often that I come across a statistic that stops me in my tracks. But at last week’s Urban Transformation Summit, hosted by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in San Francisco, that was precisely what happened. Printed across a wall in the plenary hall was the statement, “Sixty per cent of buildings that will exist by 2050 haven’t been built yet.”
It was a reminder of the pace and scale of construction that will take place over the coming decades as standards of living improve across the globe and emerging economies continue to develop. And it made me wonder: how can we still deliver quality in built environments? Three key themes soon emerged at the summit, all of which are time-tested methods. Practitioners and urban leaders, it seems, don’t need to reinvent the wheel.
1. Start with the public realm
Making plazas, parks and footpaths accessible to all can help to create healthy, connected communities. To do so, private and public developers should reorganise spaces to prioritise people, constructing cycle lanes and footpaths, as well as well-connected public transportation networks. A case in point is Tom Lee Park in Memphis (see The Project below). Part of the landscape along the Mississippi was redesigned to prioritise bike riding, walking and socialisation, allowing Memphians to reconnect both with each other and with the river.
2. Embed environmental resilience
Embracing nature is important. As well as enhancing beauty, increasing the amount of green space can help to cool urban areas and promote good public health, while reconnecting citizens with indigenous plants and animals. It is estimated that a 10 per cent increase in urban tree canopy can decrease air temperatures by 2C.
3. Build better
The average lifespan of a building in the US is just 60 to 80 years. To extend this, the WEF encourages developers to build with functionality, the environment and a sense of place in mind. Neglecting any of these will not only adversely affect the quality of a building but also its longevity.
Carlota Rebelo is Monocle’s senior foreign correspondent and producer of ‘The Urbanist’ on Monocle Radio.
