DEC 08

Thanks for sharing Yoni. The graphic makes it seem fanciful, but really it's not that far from the rooftop gardens already sprouting up in a lot of cities in the US now.

I think this is more about using plants and greenery for decoration, rather than something that will actually make peoples lives significantly more eco.

It does look cool and futuristic, but a lot of artistic renderings do, and then the actual thing doesn't look nearly as good, but here's hoping this one does.

The best way to be green is to not build anything new. Put the effort into renovating already existing cities to be green.

They take down the houses in the country side and build these kind of apartments on the land that previously had small houses on them.
Maybe it is worth putting 77,000 people a new home, and building it a bit greener, but It's not too fun for those who had owned the house for over 10 years.

Seeing as how the norm is celebrated here in South Korea, I doubt that if the actual construction plans look anything like the rendering that it would pass.

Why do so many future-city imaginers seem to look straight back to Le Corbusier?

(Do a Google image search for "Le Corbusier ideal city".)

I think a lot of people in the urban U.S. associate Corbusier's stand alone towers amongst greenery with their failed manifestation in low-income housing projects.

Chicago tore down all of its Project towers in favor of (not very well or justly implemented) mixed income, mixed use community plans. I think "green" plans should do the same.

Ant hills.

What's going to work best for ALL of us - in personal terms, and in terms of business, education, the environment and peace?

Until we start asking questions that unify, empower and inform us, we'll continue to mindlessly follow the lead of our sex and hunger drives, which results in unlimited human reproduction and endless growth. We need to be honest with ourselves and consciously manage our energy, not let IT manage us.

Researching for greener environment.

I can't believe there hasn't been a single positive comment on this. One of the biggest problems cities are facing today is traffic - it eats up resources, space, and your personal time and life quality. It's ugly, noisy, polluting, and basically unnecessary. This concept would solve the traffic problem by "access by proximity" (s. Richard Register's "Ecocities - Rebuilding cities in balance with nature"), and in addition all the green would save energy and improve the inhabitants' quality of life considerably.
Also, aren't they tearing down old stuff in Asia all the time? People there are used to it... The existing structures of our "modern" cities are built for cars. If we want to live in cities for humans, starting from scratch is the most reasonable thing to do.
I was very happy to see that they might actually start to build a city like the proposed one, but if not even the ecogeek community is open for it then I guess there's no chance that mainstream people will ever accept it.

A city where people don't need road or rail? Think of what a huge difference that would make compared to the way many cities are set up now! I'm in the U.S. and it's a country where you pretty much have to have a car to get around. If most of the world can drastically cut down on cars and transportation, there would be cleaner air. There would be much less extracting, processing, and burning of oil. Lower living expenses as people would spend less on fuel for transportation. Food and other things would be cheaper too because currently when fuel prices rise, food prices and other things usually rise too! There would be less pollution. There may even be less wars! To build a new city that is environmentally logical and sound seems like a good idea. If it truly works and is the best way for cities to be built, then this may serve as a model that others may eventually adopt. Otherwise when new developments are made (and they will be) they will just go by the same models that have been in use, which are dirty and contribute to pollution and burning of fuel and such. Saying not building anything new is greenest is not realistic. There is going to be new building and new development. If they are made correctly it will be much better than building them the way they've been!built!