What innovation—technological or otherwise—would make any city a substantially more livable place?
We put this question to urban leaders and our own readers.
Image: Scientific American
As soon as our species abandoned the daily grind of Stone Age feast-or-famine, we went straight to town. Çatalhöyük, Eridu and Ur were the London, Mumbai and Tokyo, respectively, before 5000 BCE. Çatalhöyük's maze of dwellings are now nothing more than archeological digs. But some things have remained steadfast through the course of millennia. The city then and now is a place to go to break out of old molds and find opportunities. More than half the world population now lives in cities, many migrating to urban centers from rural hinterlands, a trend that shows no sign of abating. That overpowering demographic means the fate of cities will determine the fate of the planet.
Scientific American asked opinion leaders from government, academia and the social network of our readers to answer a simple question:
What is one innovation (technological or otherwise) that would make any city a substantially more livable place?
A selection of the most inspiring answers are printed in the magazine's September issue. Additional impressive replies, edited for brevity and clarity, also appear below.
Clusters
Within cities, there should be clusters of tall buildings, designed to leave most of the ground free to be re-naturalized or left in its natural state, providing an urban park with easy access to the building dwellers. Each building or building cluster would have basic services such as commerce, administrative offices, sports facilities and such. The high- density model would greatly simplify transportation and utility networks, while at the same time providing easy access to the natural world, which would be literally an elevator ride away.
Vítor Pereira, Porto, Portugal
Bioreactors in the Walls
We should place sealed containers of algae-based, photo-bioreactors into the sides of buildings to produce biofuels and sequester carbon; as the algae grows it sucks up CO2 from the surrounding air which can then be stored.
Violeta Roxin, Agence de Developpement et d'Urbanisme, Pays de Montbéliard, France
Brain Training for Buildings
The single most important technological innovation that can make cities in industrial countries livable would be development of affordable "smart building" retrofits—a smart building would monitor the quality of indoor air, mechanical and electrical systems, and self-diagnose any faults. For example, it would self-adjust its indoor environment in anticipation of outdoor weather conditions, and warn the occupants of mold problems. Currently, almost all buildings are only reactive, and a large fraction operate with unrecognized faults. With an innovation of affordable retrofits to make existing buildings smart, consumers can save 20 to 30 percent annually on their electricity bills, as well as lead healthier lives since we spend most of our time indoors.
Ashok Gadgil, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
The Walkable Metropolis
I'm excited by the prospect of new technologies improving our future lives, but I'm still waiting for old technologies to improve my current life. I've never lived in an American city where I can walk to shops and to a pleasant cafe, nor one with a reliable or affordable public transit system. In fact, I'm searching for ways to move to such a city as soon as possible because I loved the lifestyle in my years abroad. Even striving to live close to the places I frequent, they are never found near each other, and none are accessible by anything but a parking lot.
Michelle Bennett, Chattanooga, Tenn.
Socialized Health Clubs
Gymnasiums that are free, staffed and open seven days a week for all people, with special activities for men, women, children and families.
Brenda Piquette, Nainamo, British Columbia, Canada
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6 Comments
Add CommentWe are living in the most remarkable period in our planet's history, where food, energy and jobs have been accessible to anyone who wanted them. That must transition to something else that requires no petroleum or coal, as these 2 resources will have disappeared within the next several generations!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy not build a 100% sustainable global infrastructure immediately, while we still have the resources to build anything on the grand scale that it will take to support the world's current population, to say nothing of its future population?
Please view the designs for such an infrastructure that I have been developing for the past 31 years, inspired initially by the ideas that occurred to me as I staggered, walked and jogged more than 330 miles to recover the abilities to walk, speak and remember that I had lost when my heart stopped for 10 minutes following a car accident in Kenya in 1980, at www.greenmillennium.eu
I challenge you to do better...for the sake of the components of our genes, which have existed ever since life first began on this planet. They may still be here in 2000 or 200,000 years if we are successful!
Thank you, on their behalf!
Funny how what always seems to be missing from these stories is the age old concept of having people work from home where possible. Especially in this age where such a large percentage of people drive to an office to sit by a computer and or phone all day. Just think how much simpler doing most of the above would be if all those unnecessary commuters could live in small towns and stay off the roads. Not to mention the savings in infrastructure needs and company overhead. And the best part is we do not need to wait weeks much less years to start seeing returns. The only reason not to have your people type at home appears to be the lingering beliefs that employees need to be watched and a big image needs a big office. Companies need to start asking themselves is it REALLY worth the cost of all that office space? Plus green is IN. Nothing is more green than people working from home.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCities will not only need to be designed in a way to use less resources, alleviate congestion, and provide necessary services to a growing population. Cities must also foster a shared communal experience, one that gently forces people to interact and collaborate with their fellow citizens, that creates mechanisms for shared accountability, and fosters a culture of empathy and concern for one another. These may not be the things one would consider innovations for improving the quality of life in cities, and they are not. They are however, the goals that the mentioned innovations should be trying to achieve.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf you've never lived in an American city with those things, you're choosing that. I've never lived in American city where I can't walk to the store, and I'd never want to.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat you said already exists. It's called telecommuting. It's already been done and will probably be more common, but I guess this article is focusing beyond the usual future green things. Plus, not everyone likes telecommuting so it should at least be an option rather than mandatory. Plus not everyone has sufficient resources, shared tools is greener than buying one for each home, working on big projects, etc. would be better in person.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOn the same subject, what's funny is how what always seems to be missing from these stories is the age old concept of people that DON'T work in offices, and couldn't telecommute if they needed to. How are you going to manufacture your items, transport your items, and office service to your items if they all telecommuted, eh?
Too many ideas are either done or dumb. Bike sharing exists, car sharing exists, though cart-sharing could only work in limited areas designed for that. Social housing is too obvious if people behave or dress differently...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDial-a-ride is called POD cars in England's Heathrow. Self-organized carpools can be done online, and a car that drives itself is lazy. Bus banners subsidize the cost of public transit needed.
Someone ends up paying for 'socialized' health clubs. Do you? There's YMCAs for that or public parks! Walking Metropolis is Hong Kong...