Produced by Architectural Digest in association with BBC Studios Natural History Unit & Moondance Foundation. #OurFrozenPlanet brings you urgent stories about the effects of climate change around the globe, and accounts of the people dedicated to championing positive change to protect the future of our planet.
No roads, cars or emissions, it will run on 100% renewable energy and 95% of land will be preserved for nature. People’s health and wellbeing will be prioritized over transportation and infrastructure, unlike traditional cities. Only 200 meters wide, but 170 kilometers long and 500 meters above sea level.
THE LINE will eventually accommodate 9 million people and will be built on a footprint of just 34 square kilometers. This will mean a reduced infrastructure footprint, creating never-before-seen efficiencies in city functions. The ideal climate all-year-round will ensure that residents can enjoy the surrounding nature. Residents will also have access to all facilities within a five-minute walk, in addition to high-speed rail – with an end-to-end transit of 20 minutes.
Where is the best place to live? What makes a city tick? How can we improve our lot? Monocle’s Quality of Life Survey has posed this question for the past 15 years and 2022’s July/August issue contains the latest. How does your city fare? Plus: hot looks, sunny stays and the perfect summer playlist.
Mumbai is a city of contrasts. Here, the super-rich and slum dwellers live side by side. As more and more luxury skyscrapers go up, slums are forced to make way for them. Conflicts ensue. So what is life like, in a megacity with 20 million inhabitants?
In Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, more than a million people live in extremely crowded conditions. But the neighbourhood is dynamic. We meet Mahesh, 27, who was born in the slum and has never left. Today, he runs a recycling plant that employs about 20 people. Dharavi’s shadow economy is said to bring in 800 million euros a year.
However, the future of the neighbourhood is uncertain, as it sits on valuable property — located right in the city centre. With the support of local authorities, real estate magnate Babulal Varma is tearing down slums to build luxury housing for the upper classes. Will Dharavi survive? Mumbai is already one of the most populous cities in the world.
By 2035, the population is projected to rise drastically — to 30 million. The city’s inevitable expansion affects not only the people who live there, but also the forests that surround it. These include the “Sanjay Gandhi National Park”. Now, the leopards living in the park have started to make regular forays into new housing developments, looking for food. They attack stray dogs, as well as humans. As urbanization continues, the conflict between humans and wild animals is sure to become more dire.
As the sea level rises on the shores of Copenhagen—likely by at least a foot and a half by the end of the century—the city will become more vulnerable to flooding during storms. So the government is now making plans to take a drastic step as part of its plan for protection: Over the coming decades, it will build an artificial island to hold the rising water back, while doubling as room for new housing.
From the Champs-Élysées to the Eiffel Tower, the French capital is getting the mother of all makeovers.
Designed by PCA-stream, the makeover plans will not be set in motion before the 2024 summer olympics, as reported by the guardian. the plans include the reduction of vehicles by half, transforming roads into green areas dedicated to pedestrians, and creating tunnels of trees that will help to improve the overall air quality of the area which is quite polluted — even more than the frequented périphérique ring road.
The Avenue des Champs-Élysées is an avenue in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, 1.9 kilometres long and 70 metres wide, running between the Place de la Concorde and the Place Charles de Gaulle, where the Arc de Triomphe is located.
…Sweden is pursuing a hyperlocal variation, on a national scale. A plan piloted by Swedish national innovation body Vinnova and design think tank ArkDes focuses attention on what Dan Hill, Vinnova’s director of strategic design, calls the “one-minute city.”
A vision for a decentralized urban area that allows residents to meet their daily needs within a quarter-hour walk or bike from their homes, the concept has been pursued as a means of cutting greenhouse emissions and boosting livability in a host of global cities — especially Paris, where Mayor Anne Hidalgo has embraced the model as a blueprint for the French capital’s post-Covid recovery.
Called Street Moves, the initiative allows local communities to become co-architects of their own streets’ layouts. Via workshops and consultations, residents can control how much street space is used for parking, or for other public uses. It’s already rolled out experimentally at four sites in Stockholm, with three more cities about to join up. The ultimate goal is hugely ambitious: a rethink and makeover of every street in the country over this decade, so that “every street in Sweden is healthy, sustainable and vibrant by 2030,” according to Street Moves’ own materials.
Urban life is humankind’s biggest experiment to date, our cities are constantly evolving and adapting to climate and economy. The cities we have today are not necessarily the ones we need, but big and small innovation is rethinking visions of urbanization.
Together with pioneering research and design agency SPACE10, we present future-orientated design which enhances quality of life and makes our urban spaces more vibrant.
As technology and urban life edge ever closer, The Ideal City explores the ambitious actions and initiatives being brought to life across the globe to meet tomorrow’s demand in clever, forwarding-thinking ways. From pedestrian infrastructure to housing, the book uncovers what is being discussed at the forefront of urbanism through expert essays and profiles.
SPACE10 is a Copenhagen-based research and design agency that is on a mission to enable a better everyday life for people and the planet. They specialize in innovation and future-living, often presenting models both for urban spaces or food that could lead to me a more sustainable future.
Imagination of walking towards nature——
From the edge of the city as a starting point, an invisible path is created that stretches to the forest, along the sleepers, passing by the trees, and winding in freely in accordance with the original terrain, because of the old container buildings opened by this path The body, the ambiguity of the boundary instantly permeates with the surrounding environment, and people, sunlight and air flow in the natural place like this.
This is a single but not monotonous space. The coffee shop is converted from old containers. It uses rusty iron that echoes the original material as a contrast. The logs that change the quality of the space are used as sections to provide a coffee shop. Representing the soul, the continuously extending bar fully presents the barista’s posture, and the linear free flow also gives this store its exclusive posture and appearance.
Through the formation of individual terrain and the creation of tiny corners, it produces freedom like walking in nature, and develops a rich and diverse space experience. In this rare urban corner, take a breather, take your own way, or Stop or go and find your own place.
Boomers Daily 