Starting Over

For a number of years I have been teaching Engineering and Computer Science students, and this summer I have been teaching art and design students. Despite these divergent backgrounds the focus is clear, how to build a better world. There are, of course, disagreements about what a better world looks like, but they know that they can’t carry on like this. So, what are some of the best ideas I have come across for the city of the future?

First of all, the city of the future has to be built around the pedestrian and public transport not the car. The car lobby in just about every country is so powerful that we have been trapped in this spiral of congestion, building roads, more cars using those roads, congestion, building roads, more cars using those roads, and so on ad infinitum. In order to end this spiral I would make the inner part of the city car free during the day. Deliveries could be made during the times of the day where the fewest people are about. That way, cars and lorries would become far less dominant.

Next, I would make each home fit for the future by installing solar panels, roof gardens, water recycling and small wind turbines on and in every building. In our climate ravaged future we will need air conditioning not heating in the UK, so that would be built in to all new homes. Heating can be provided by electric heating which is centrally installed. In this way, the climate will not continue to change at the pace and to the extent that it has over the last two decades.

Finally, I would ensure that the city of the future has green spaces everywhere that they can be put. Trees reduce temperatures and increase wellbeing amongst residents. So, green parks would be built to replace the car parks we will no longer need and the roof gardens I mentioned earlier will provide further nature on our doorsteps. With fewer car parking spaces needed, we can reintroduce gardens as we remove the paved over entrances which replaced them to the detriment of the environment and which increased the flood risk by a huge amount.

So, there you have it. The new city of my dreams, the city that shall remain in my dreams because no politician is far sighted or caring enough to do something that will really help people. We are going to face a horrible future of climate induced misery because of the primacy of fossil fuels and the big businesses. Remember there is no Planet B.