Q// If you love nature, don’t live in it.//
Ted Talk by Vishaan Chakrabarti – architect, urban theorist and all round Big Thinker
Chakrabarti succinctly explains why cities are our future and how to make them timeless…
Pair with Chakrabarti’s A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America to feel truly enthused about urbanisation, its potential to improve humanity and, counterintuitively, our environment.
In summary, Chakrabarti argues that we are more productive and energy efficient when we live in cities. We spend less time in traffic jams, more time working and enjoying a greater variety of leisure activities.
As Chakrabarti points out:
Q// If all 7 billion people lived at the density of townhouses instead of single family homes, the entire planet’s population would fit in the state of Texas surrounded by nothing but nature and agriculture.//
Vishaan Chakrabarti, A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America, 2013, p.21
This density isn’t as intimidating as it sounds. In fact, the idyllic townhouses in London’s Kensington are 10 times denser than typical suburban housing and each resident has a 20% smaller carbon footprint.
Imagine a world full of cities, full of Kensingtons. We cannot deny that would be a better world in which to live…
People | Spaces | Places 
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