loosing
cities
We share more things with others then ever before. Tech, public spaces, offices, cars— you name it. This intensity of sharing has come to a new level in the recent years. Will this mindset solve the problems this generation is facing?
what even are
“Cities”
Cities are by far one of the worlds biggest phenomenons of the 21st century. They have constantly been evolving, created communities, changed the way we live together and shaped culture— they are still doing so today and will probably for ever do so. Cities are fascinating and we are still trying to figure them out, as there is no right or wrong definition of what is a city.You could put it like this:
Cities are alive. They are directly influenced by the people living and working together, creating networks and structures— Like one big organism. Morphing to societies demand.
One big, flowing structure.
Statistics show that this form of living is getting more and more popular: While in 1950 only 29,6% of the worlds population have been living in urban areas, this number is estimated to grow up to 68,9% until 2050. In 2022, around 55% are living in urban areas.
On paper, this sounds incredibly good for urban communities and urban culture. More people means more exchanging and socializing, right?
On paper: Yes.
29,6%
cities + boundaries
why we can't keep expanding
Expanding
Cities only exist to this extend because we can profit from one another. We form networks and build connections to make our lives easier. In suburban areas, inhabitants most certainly miss out on the main benefit— the social part. By always continuing to expand cities, we start to tear this flowing structures of communities apart. The city starts to get less dense and dilute.
the thing with
Over
crowding
Overcrowding happens, when there aren’t enough “third places” for people to distribute. A healthy and dense city offers enough spaces for people to distribute to and therefore share share places with one another. So a dense city doesn’t represent an overcrowded city. By forcing everyone to stay inside city boundaries – without changing the current urban situation – cities might get overcrowded. The quality of live will beginn to lower due to insufficient space for each individual or group.
a new trend
Thinking small
For decades having a lot of private space has been what a lot of us have been striving for. To achieve this dream – owning a block of land with a free-standing home – we need to build them further away from cities, on ground that could otherwise be used for agriculture or similar. This “old“ way of thinking about property is not very sustainable in terms of economics, environment, affordability and social live. Big apartments come with a huge price – they are not very affordable, hard to find and most of the time hard to reach. On top you get higher electrical and heating bills and need to take care of more ground overall.
Having a smaller apartment gets rid of all these problems – you can reduce your overall footprint on the city ground. And you don’t really need to compromise on features that make quality of live either. Don’t have an a room for work-stuff? Just grab a coffee and bring your devices to a public park, or rent a desk at a local co-working space. You are missing some green? Just head to a park or urban gardening area.
Whatever you need, it’s probably in reach if you live in a city – we just need to adjust our mind to share those spaces with others instead of having all of that in our own four walls.
Instead of expanding the city beyond it’s boundaries, we need to share public spaces with one another and start to think smaller, not bigger than ever.
covid +
perceiving
our cities
struggling with
Solitude
The covid pandemic has been changing the way we live and socialize over night. Keeping distance to one another, spending as much time as somehow possible at home and wearing masks whenever you step outside the door. We all were isolating ourselves to keep us and others safe. No public meetings, no shopping when it’s not necessary, no going out at bars/restaurants/cafes— no nothing except four walls.
During this main episode of isolating, loneliness became a huge factor for a lot of people sitting alone at their small apartments struggling to stay motivated to get out of bed. Everybody started to understand, how important socializing is to us.
Isolation made us very aware of what exactly are the main benefits of our cities. Throughout the city can now be seen that cities inhabitants have a rising need to be outdoors.
We start to realize and express our shared human affinity with nature.
The post-covid city
adapting to these new feelings
For better or worse, Covid made us very aware of what exactly are the main benefits of our cities. This gives the chance to recognize what’s good about our cities, do more of it and do it better. We are now able to more clearly detect what exactly are factors, that drag the quality of live in cities down and in the same time push other approaches and ideas of how to further adapt the cities to peoples needs.
we startet to put
Profit over
People
The main problem the current housing market is suffering is the building process of new properties— it clearly puts profit over people and happiness. Imagine having 20 people, building a development to their specific needs. By the time the building is finished they already have established a huge commitment to that particular area.
This would be a much better way of providing housing, then this mass-produced model we’ve gotten ourselves into which has taken people away from their own housing.
cities are flooded with
Lazy
Places
Everybody knows lazy places that have unused potential sleeping inside them. Picture a big, double-sided parking lot next to great infrastructure like supermarkets, cafes, cinema and so on. Why is this places exclusively reserved for cars? Why can’t we simply build apartments on top, so that this space is used way more effectively?
This effective use of so far poorly used space for housing delivers potentially people closer to opportunities and infrastructure whilst also delivering safer places: if people are living in places crimes don’t tend to happen that often— People always take some sort of ownership of their streets.
a new
hope:
we are
trying
melbourne,
The Munro
Project
The Munro Project in Melbourne is currently in construction and will be finished in 2023. It’s a so called mixed-use development, meaning it’s offering its inhabitants affordable living space, supermarkets, day care for children, small public spaces, underground parking and more. This is a perfect example for small living: because there are public spaces directly incorporated to the building the apartments don’t need to feature everything you could imagine.
new forms of architecture-studios
Not-for-profit
For the past few years more and more of so called „not-for-profit“ architect studios are coming up that deliver people friendly, carbon neutral and over all affordable housing. Their developments often feature plans for „social housing“, meaning for example the first 20% of the apartments are reserved for community workers – doctors, nurses, baristas, cashiers and so on. So that everybody needed, to keep a socially rich community running, can actually afford their housing.
the main goal
Greener Cities
With rising demand for greener spaces we are probably going to see healthier building design that is better connected to outdoor spaces and features more built in green areas. Additionally the size and amount of communal outdoor spaces is going to rise with this demand. Even privately owned and maintained parks, that are open for public use, are on the rise all over the world. The sky garden in Melbourne would make a good example: it features bookable meeting rooms with wifi and power as well as just green space you can exercise in or just sit and enjoy the green.
For this thinking small thing to work in the future, we need to aim for good public realm within ~20min of walk. This way we prevent overcrowding and create a mixture of public and private space, operating sort of at a local and neighborhood scale.
participation
+ happiness
One of the key ingredients for happiness of people living in urban areas is, that they feel included in their city— that they are a part of their city. That means stepping out the door and knowing people in the street. Leaving your keys at a local store if you expect visit while not being home. This is community.
The sooner and more we understand how we can fulfill our needs with less space and that we can and need to share places with other—not just our immediate circle but with foreigners as well—we can start contributing to this idea of living small while simultaneously maximizing the spaces where we connect.