Urbanization
Since 2008, more than half of the global popuation lives in urban areas. In 2030, 60% of the population will live in cities, which means 2 billion new urban citizens. We are building the equivalent of a city the size of Vancouver every week and most of this growth takes place in developing crounties, creating so-called mega cities. The growing group of urban consumers will demand more and more remarkable, daring, innovative and sophisticated goods.
Sustainability
Our society is going through a funnel; we are running out of materials for our products and oil for our energy. We are dealing with human caused global warming because of greenhouse gas emissions and we are detoriating the earth by extracting the last bits of material and oil we can find underneath its crust. Because we are living in the time of peak oil and peak material, we are paying more and more for the same oil and material. We are either ethically or economically forced to look for options for sustainable living and this trend will only grow as the world will go further into the funnel. It seems hard to get of our addiction, but in the end we will have to switch to business as unusual.
Urbanization and sustainability combined result in a future scenario: sustainable (mega)cities of the future.
Megacities are cities with more than 5 million inhabitants. It is estimated that in 2015, there will be 60 of those megacities, together housing more than 600 million people. Two thirds of the megacities will be located in developing countries. There are several challenges related to this future scenario. Each of them is a huge design assignment in itself, with an extensive range of possible solutions.
Urban sustainability challenges to be faced:
Waste and pollution
Waste and pollution in cities is mainly generated by households, transport and industries.
Households are the main producers of a city’s waste. In developed countries, the collection of waste and either landfilling, burning or the recycling of waste is institutionalised. Waste separation differs between countries: in India, the re-use and recycling of waste is a natural part of product lifecycles since the value of waste is a source of income for individual waste collectors, whereas in Western societies, the value of waste is relatively low. In the United States, household waste is mainly dumped in landfills, which is cheaper than burning or recycling waste. The European Union is stimulating the recycling of waste.
Personal and goods transport produce emissions, which result in the direct pollution of the local environment (e.g. air quality impacts related to emissions of NOx, CO and fine particulates (PM), leading to smog, acid rain and negative effects on human health).
Secondly, the emissions from transport contribute to climate change. These emissions increase with increasing transport needs.
Some industries (like chemical and heavy metal industries) are producing hazardous waste, however most industrial waste is non toxic. It is a challenge to use the waste from one industry as raw material for another.
Furniture manufacturer Herman Miller makes Cradle to Cradle office chairs, according to the phylosophy of zero waste. Architecture firm 2012 makes buildings from local waste materials, which they harvest like we did 1000 years ago (and many rural villagers are still doing today). UK based RecycleBank offes money to citizens in exchange for waste materials.
Water and energy supply shortages
Water is an essential resource for life and good health. A lack of water to meet daily needs is a reality today for one in three people around the world.
The situation is getting worse as needs for water rise along with population and prosperity growth, urbanization and increases in household and industrial uses.
With frightening names like ‘Peak Oil’ and ‘Energy Crisis’, energy supply shortage is a big issue for companies, the economy and individuals. Global political instability and the shrinking oil reserves result in rising energy prices and research and development into renewable energy sources.
Local, self-controlled and renewable energy might seem the ideal alternative. A good example is DonQi, an urban windmill. Water can be reused several times before dumping it via the sewage system; grey water can be used to flush the toilet. Natural heating and cooling can reduse home energy use with one thrid.
Traffic congestions
Traffic congestions in cities are the result of personal transport (mainly commuting) and inner city goods transport.
People tend to have a strong desire for mobility. Mobility is embedded in our daily lives and has a very high value (in a social, cultural, psychological and economical sense). Our freedom of acion is the power to overcome the restrictions on physical movement in space. But, is mobility really the need? Access could be considered as more relevant than mobility. In this sense, it is very arguable to hold video conferences and telework from home, to save the time and environmental impact of travelling to meet or work at an ofice. Another kind of access can be achieved by building city blocks, which contain all essential functions at a distance which can be travelled walking. These compact cities could function to a certain level as an autarkic area. So, increasing mobility might not be a lasting option in the future, but a switch towards a focus on access to what people need is more essential. In the meanwhile, we also need sustainabile innovations on a product level.
The transport of goods should be kept out of the innercity areas where possible and executed in a sustainable manner when transport is really needed.
Teleworking is the perfect solution for reducing commuting traffic, but does it give the same productivity to companies? Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV’s) could theoritically erase traffic jams (and accidents!) Personal innercity vehicles for rent like presented by MIT could make driving a service instead of a product (like owning a car).
Health problems
One of the categories of environmental impact is health impact. Urbanization is one of the biggest health challenges of the 21st century. The impact of urbanization on health can have various forms, like: substandard housing, crowding, air pollution, insufficient or contaminated drinking water, inadequate sanitation and solid waste disposal services, vector-borne diseases, industrial waste, increased motor vehicle traffic, stress associated with poverty and unemployment, among others.
Health problems differ greatly between countries; while US citizens are facing problems with overweight, citizens in developing countries are facing the opposite. Important meassurements to fight basic health problems are: clean drinking water and hygienic santitation. To fight modern health problems, sports and healthy food are essential.
Limited green spaces
Green spaces seem to be the enemy of urbanization; green spaces disappear where urban areas are expending. Green areas can however be part of urban planning, but due to the high price of land, green spaces are less valuable than profits on commercial and residential buildingplanning.
The solution seems simple: save land for parks and green spaces, like Central Park in Manhattan, or integrate green spaces into with buildings; vertical gardens or lift the original vegitation like McDonough proposed for a huge city planning project in China.
Poverty and malnutrition
Urban poor, unlike the rural poor, are the most vulnarable population group, since there is no social structure in place for them. The urban poor can not live indipendantly and are stuck in the high costs of living in urban areas. Poverty is in large cities concentrated in slums, where sanitation and safe drinking water are commonly not available, thus creating a source of health problems.
The right to own property is probably one of the best methodologies to alleviate poverty. Governments are creating a context for ending poverty; good governance is very important and the Mo Ibrahim Prize is an example of a stimulus: it supports great African leadership. KIVA is an example of a microfinance institution, providing loans via crowdfunding to entrepreneurs in developing countries, dramatically cutting costs in interest rates for those entrepreneurs. Mobile phones are amazing tools for every micro and small entrepreneur to access information (eg: the current rate at which their crops are bought).
Social security and public safety problems
A city’s citizens have very different geographical origins. This melting pot of different local, national and international cultures can result in an absence of social cohesion, segregation and eventually anonimity on an individual level. The lack of social security can result in public safety problems.
Growing online communities like MeetUp are more and more replacing geographical communities by linking people according to their interests. But our houses stay geo-local and local coaches can help control the cohesion: both in rich cities in Western countries and in slums in Africa.
Posted by Gijsbert Koren 
