[P2P-F] Fwd: [P2P-URBANISM] vertical!

[Michel Bauwens]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Stefano Serafini <stefanonikolaevic at gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Nov 13, 2014 at 6:56 PM
Subject: [P2P-URBANISM] vertical!
To: p2p urbanism list <p2p-urbanism-world-atlas at googlegroups.com>


Dear friends,

please check it out:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rayking/vertical-city-a-solution-for-sustainable-living

Sustainability and skyrocketing got married. Of course the book looks like
a propaganda pamphlet, but I think we should consider this trend seriously,
and not dismiss it with easy jokes. We cannot dismiss these people simply
by saying that they are paid by multinational real estate companies, or
that they are lobotomized and/or evil. This is not the point.

Of course "urban islands" (or "continents") in the wilderness sound to me
like a nightmare - especially considering all we know about
neuroergonomics, biophilia, nature-deficit disorder, etc. But possibly this
is were the market is leading, helped by the rethoric of "green economy" (I
guess that all the industry plants will be settled on Mars, right?).

The authors of the book write down: "Our team is a group of architects,
entrepreneurs and visionaries who believe that Vertical Cities are a
potential solution to many of humanity's greatest problems. We meet
regularly in Portland, Oregon.
Our Mission is to create a healthy, harmonious, sustainable and dignified
life for everyone through the emerging technologies of Vertical Cities."

We should analyze again the urban future these people are preparing. Why
they are doing it, their reasons, their scientific and technological
ground, their urban and political ideology, and the reason why things like
a "Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat" exists and is funded by
somebody.

They look like sharing the same old dream of LeCorbusier, just on a larger
scale, where "les machines-à-habiter" become whole cities instead of
buildings. Possibly, they reflected about the mistakes brought in by that
model, and tried to solve it by transforming cities into (huge) buildings,
and buildings into cities.

The main reasons for a vertical growth seem the need for setting more
building-free land, in order to preserve "nature" and food production and
reduce human footprint. In fact the monstruous urban growth of several
metropolises since the '90s seems to substantiate such a point of view.
World population is growing and it's becoming urban at a hugely accelerated
pace. Are there enough data to corroborate that compact traditional-like
cities are a solution out of modern horizontal sprawl? What about
land-hungry Countries like Japan?

All the best,

Stefano

Dr. Stefano Serafini

Research director, International Society of Biourbanism
www.biourbanism.org | www.biourbanistica.com
Managing editor, Journal of Biourbanism
www.journalofbiourbanism.org
Tel./fax (+39) 0695190008 - Mob. (+39) 3939426561
stefano.serafini at biourbanism.org
Via G. Giardini, 15b - 00133 Roma | Italy

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