Category:

2016 thru 2020

Truly Sustainable Cities Are All About Balance: “Smart urban growth hailed by global organizations is not always a smart move for nature,” wrote Vitaliy Soloviy in an article posted by Sustainability Times


“Yet the successes of sustainable cities show that progress is possible. Effective planning and urban governance, as well as a focus on livability, are all essential elements of sustainable cities. Emerging sustainable technologies promise a thrilling future. Still, even the most developed sustainable cities of tomorrow will have a few things to learn from ecovillages and slow cities that have already learned to live sustainably in the now,” wrote Vitaliy Soloviy .

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THE RESTORATION ECONOMY: “During the last two decades of the twentieth century, new development lost significant ‘market share’ to another mode: restorative development,” wrote Storm Cunningham, author & futurist (2002)


“How could we miss a story like that? More importantly, why is it happening? Primarily, it’s because we’ve now developed most of the world that can be developed without destroying some other inherent value or vital function,” wrote Storm Cunningham. “The major driver of economic growth in the 21st century will be redeveloping our nations, revitalizing our cities, and rehabilitating and expanding our ecosystems. Those leaders who become aware of this vast new frontier of opportunity, and guide their community, national, and company futures in this direction, will be the foremost leaders of the 21st century.”

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“The Liuzhou Forest City is the first experiment of the urban environment that’s really trying to find a balance with nature,” said Stefano Boeri, an internationally acclaimed architect


In 2016, China’s State Council released guidelines shifting the focus to the “economic, green and beautiful.” This shift created the opportunity for Stefano Boeri to implement his Forest City vision. The project comes on the heels of Vertical Forest, two residential towers in Milan covered in the equivalent of five acres of forest. “We started to imagine if it was possible to create an urban environment created from many of these vertical forests,” stated Stefano Boeri.

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DESIGN WITH NATURE: Renowned developer and urban thinker Jonathan Rose argues for new criteria for urban planning and development in his epic book ‘The Well-Tempered City’


“The well-tempered city is not just a dream. Our current best practices in the planning, design, engineering, economics, social science, and governance of cities are moving us closer to increasing urban wellbeing. Even if these actions have only a modest effect when taken alone, their power emerges when they are integrated. Well-tempered cities will be refuges from volatility,” wrote Jonathan Rose.

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