Summary
Highlights
Urban planners, architects, and administrators are already implementing these concepts. The video highlights examples like the Garden Cities movement in England over a century ago, Paris's '15-minute city' model where essential services are within a short walk or bike ride, and Copenhagen's green incinerator with a rooftop ski slope and climbing walls.
Sustainable cities also incorporate culture and knowledge. The California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, designed by Renzo Piano, is an eco-friendly museum with platinum eco-sustainability certification, featuring a green roof for natural lighting and ventilation, built with recycled materials. Innovative housing solutions are also emerging, such as Stefano Boeri's Vertical Forest in Milan, a skyscraper that hosts a vast amount of greenery, absorbing CO2 and fine dust.
Like the Renaissance ideal city, the sustainable city is anthropocentric. However, the anthropocentrism of the 2030 Agenda focuses on human needs, especially where they are most acute. It also emphasizes the anthropocentrism of responsibility, meaning the success or failure of the project depends on collective effort.
The Renaissance ideal city, characterized by anthropocentrism, reason, and perspective, contrasts with the labyrinthine medieval city. The video asks what the ideal city of the 21st century looks like, defining it as a sustainable city. With over half the world's population living in cities, the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development dedicates one of its 17 goals to sustainable cities.
The 2030 Agenda teaches that sustainability has three facets: environmental, economic, and social. Therefore, the sustainable city can be summarized in three words: environment, well-being, and sociality. The video then explores whether this vision is utopian or becoming a reality.