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2 Housing 2.0 Reading: Sustainable cities Green building does not only mean to construct economically friendly houses, but refers to the whole of a building’s life-cycle: designing and constructing, then maintaining and renovating and eventually demolishing a building. The aim is to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on human health and the natural environment by efficiently using resources, protecting the health of the builders and occupants and reducing waste and pollution. a) Read the text about sustainable city design. Complete the sentences (1–5) using a maximum of four words. Write your answers in the spaces provided. The first one (0) has been done for you. The three big ways sustainable design will shape future cities 1 By 2050, 70 per cent of the world’s population will live in urban areas, so our cities need to adapt to sustain this population influx. While digital transformation and the Internet of Things (IoT) certainly will define the cities of the future, so will radical infrastructure and architecture. 1. Cars will disappear Urban space is valuable. And cars take up too much of it. Between roads, bridges, parking spaces and physical vehicles, most downtown areas actually give away 50 to 60 per cent of space to cars – a trend that, frankly, makes for uglier cities. Congestion also highly contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to 5.5 million deaths a year. The Spanish city Barcelona is making strides to significantly reduce cars. It plans to use its superblocks – closed off, tiny neighbourhoods that cars can drive around, but not enter – to relieve 60 per cent of streets from cars and reduce traffic by 21 per cent. 2. Higher density While residing in the countryside may seem green, it actually increases a person’s carbon footprint. New Yorker writer David Owen argues that those living in rural areas are likely to drive long distances to work and heat larger houses, while city-dwellers live in smaller spaces, use less electricity and, most importantly, walk or use public transport. Consider that a trip on New York City Transit produces one-tenth of the carbon dioxide emitted from the average car journey, and you’ll see the point: High-density construction is the key to sustainable cities of the future. Cities will be designed and built on smaller areas of land, making it easier for us to walk to shops, schools and restaurants. The land that we do use will work harder, so the areas under bridges and on rooftops will make for creative use of space. 3. Buildings will get taller While supertall buildings are perceived as novelty now, they’ll be required building for high-density cities. And as it seems, so will superskinny buildings. A few new residential projects in New York City, for example, are some of the skinniest skyscrapers in the world. According to the Council on Tall Building and Urban Habitats (CTBUH), we’re actually entering a “megatall” era, as buildings taller than 1,969 feet are set to double by 2020. While only three megatall structures exist at present, in Dubai, Mecca and Shanghai, three more will be completed in the coming years in Wuhan, Kuala Lumpur and Jeddah. In fact, the Jeddah Tower will be the tallest in the world, standing at an incredible 0.62 mile tall. While it’s easy to argue vertical cities will be the magical solution to our population influx problems, there is a limit. Cities are breeding grounds for innovation and close exchange. So while we focus on building high, we also need to think about the street life below. In an era when flying cars actually are starting to be developed in a joint effort by Uber and NASA to take back our street space from vehicles, much of our urban development also will be focused on ground-level, pedestrian-zone urban interactions. All in all, we want to make sure these high-tech cities are actually places we want to live in, not isolating cells in the sky. (Ramona Albert, www.greenbiz.com ; adapted) 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 24 Saving the planet Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eig ntum des Verlags öbv