Can Cities save us?

Pandemic lockdowns, rising fuel prices, the climate emergency. All powered and perpetuated by a relentless expanding populace, and their unstoppable, unquenchable consuming.

The modern metropolis finds itself at the eye of these ‘storms’. But is this simply a lazy archetype? A ‘no win’ scenario for our inevitable futures? Or can the challenges faced by today’s cities and their inhabitants, create tangible opportunities, if we embrace them now?

History repeating?

The late 1800’s saw London grappling with a seemingly unstoppable public health crisis; how to rid the capital of cholera. Doctors and scientists argued that this ‘Victorian Plague’ must be airborne, and therefore impossible to contain and cure.?

Apart from the rampant spread of disease, the River Thames had been used as a dumping ground for human excrement for centuries. Public outcry led to one of the greatest advancements in urban planning - Joseph Bazalgette’s sewage system.

Bazalgette’s new subterranean design rid the city of poor sanitation and subsequently water borne disease. More importantly, his ambitions were reflected in the system’s epic scale, oversized far beyond what was required. This futureproofing was such that much of London still utilises the same sewers to this day.

?And the inspiration didn’t end there. Engineers also crafted smoother paving slabs, which were easier to clean than cobbles, thereby helping remove more horse manure (the transport ‘fuel’ of the day) from the streets, faster. Once industrial fabrication techniques were developed that allowed production at scale, the mass adoption created much of the same streets we still stroll around in 2022.

Green shoots

Reacting to Victorian London’s clear and present problems provided the impetus for transformative ingenuity. Today, our climate crisis and ever expanding populace are providing visionary thinkers with equally challenging motivations.

C40 group is a network of mayors of nearly 100 world-leading cities collaborating to deliver the urgent action needed right now to confront the climate crisis.

Originally setup to tackle climate change, this international alliance now works together to respond to the pandemic fallout, focussing on developing city spaces that promote biodiversity and increase wellbeing. The partnership is designed to put into practice what central governments struggle to agree upon, or action, in their respective cities.

So far, the group has guided Toronto to establish into law that all developments above 200m2 must implement green roofs, supported Melbourne’s ongoing efforts to become a net zero city, and encouraged London’s bid to launch the largest car-free zone in history.

?To overcome the traditional mix of scepticism and apathy, the collective will have to make good on their manifesto promises; Intelligent densification, creative retrofit of existing buildings and infrastructure, and use of offsite construction techniques to build in challenging dense locations.

While the appetite for genuine, Bazalgette-like once-in-a-generation projects are thin on the ground. But there’s plenty of bright, bold action taking place.

Many cities are tackling small-scale, front and centre environmental and infrastructure problems, allowing them to utilise renewable energy and new materials to make inroads in their net zero targets, while establishing much needed new policies along the way.

In Oslo, 62% emissions come from transport, with 25% of that total attributed to construction equipment. The solution? Sourcing and developing new, renewable energy powered kit as part of a city wide programme to overhaul the procurement process, while lowering emissions. The Norwegian capital is now on target to lower CO2 emissions by 40,000 tons a year through this scheme alone.

Vancouver, Canada is targeting their legacy housing problem. 80% of its 5,000 rental apartment buildings were constructed before 1970. Working closely with local landlords, the city’s Operation Co$t Cutter programme offers advice and support to instigate smart, efficient eco-refits. So far the scheme has already prevented thousands of CO2 emissions. But most importantly, it has shown that collaboration and support can sow the seeds of effective change, fast.

And the world watches, listens and learns. So these successes can hopefully be replicated in other like-minded metropolises.

Away from the sprawling cityscapes, trouble is brewing. Swathes of the countryside continue to fall to poorly built, out of date housing layouts (usually with space for two or more cars per household).

This profit-centric cycle continues to perpetuate antiquated building techniques, generating huge amounts of waste, and solving neither housing crisis, nor environmental legacies. While hybrid working becomes a viable alternative to the 9-5, commuting continues to?rack up millions of tonnes of carbon emissions. Which keeps the internal combustion engine in prime position as the easy solution (until fuel prices really bite). But we shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bath water. The fuel and method of transport we use is the issue, not the nature of city densification itself.

There are no easy answers. Now is the time for our planners, architects and engineers to answer the call and find some of that same Great British ambition and ingenuity that powered the Victorians; embracing the new climate and philanthropic challenges of our cities with innovation, cunning and positivity.

*Extracts from discussions held at Futurebuild 2022 - Digital Impact Panel