النمو الحضري ليس مشكلة بل هو دعوة بيث موسينثال TEDxMileHigh

we are living in the era of cities migration from the country to the city hit tipping point in 2008 more people now live in cities than in rural areas in the United States staggering 8 out of 10 people live in cities and this number continues to grow if you are one of the eight you're one sleepy city probably wide awake maybe you live in city with an exploding startup scene an economy supported by diverse industry or the rare city still dubbed affordable maybe you're enjoying new cultural amenities and the job opportunities that bustling city provides more likely you're feeling increasingly frustrated by traffic congestion the increasing cost of living and lack of authenticity in new construction as resident of Denver one of the fastest growing cities in America feel the growing pains I've witnessed my commute get longer I've wondered about housing decisions my family will make as prices continue to skyrocket and I've watched as soulless apartment buildings pop up on what seems like lot after lot throughout the city our neighborhoods and our cities are changing before our eyes at times it feels like urban growth is happening to us that we have to sit back and watch as the familiar becomes unrecognizable but as an architect I'm here to tell you you have more power than you think believe the architectural process provides us with different way of thinking process that is collaborative and imaginative and might help give us agency to shape the connected urban lives we aspire to lead now and in the future but how do we engage in this process and what do architects actually do decided wanted to be an architect at the age of three my parents were happy to facilitate my interest in buildings rather than Barbies and provided me with an arsenal of wooden blocks Here am at age seven constructing my favorite building typology zoos to further cultivate my interest my parents introduced me to the most famous American architect of the 20th century Frank Lloyd Wright was hooked as learned about Wright's uncompromising almost militant approach to realizing his sole design vision imagined right to be the example of what all architects must be like lone inventors imagined Wright sketching buildings cantilever in over waterfalls and ascending into spirals only to be built in matter of days for an open-ended school project took the liberty of recreating Wright sketchbook on the last page before the days of Photoshop collaged myself next to right bit awkward in my eighth-grade dinner-dance dress we stare out into the future imagining the epic visions and realities to come so fast forward to my first year of architecture school where quickly learned and humbly learned that what thought architects did and what most architects actually do are two very different things as it turns out architecture is fundamentally collaborative process this Frank Lloyd Wright ideal of solitary creation it's myth and there's good reason for that buildings last fifty to hundred years if not longer and they impact countless numbers of people so the role of an architect it's to discover rather than to invent to listen to the goals and ideas and desires of the client and the community and to work through many different iterations until you find solution that works best for everyone and at the heart of this architectural design process is not accepting what is but imagining what could be to be an architect is to be futurist we know how to design building that works for people in 2017 but how do we design building that works for people in twenty sixty seven how and where will people work where will people live when we've run out of land space how will people arrive at buildings how can building design accommodate constantly evolving solutions for technology human connection and occupant health these are questions architects ask themselves now because well-constructed building it will last that long one example of forward-thinking design is Denver's Union Station it's hard to even remember what the building used to look like but the 120 year old station was an island stranded in sea of parking meanwhile Denver was experiencing profound transition from declining polluted city into vibrant urban hub the downtown needed physical marker that reflected what it could become to create this vision not only was the station renovated but two winged buildings were added on either side the captured space between the buildings was then imagined as public plaza rather than parking activated day and night by seating fountains and most importantly people this is what Union Station looks like now by asking what if the many contributors to this project transformed an urban artifact into beloved city landmark so I've been practicing architecture for almost decade now interning and working in cities like Shanghai Chicago New York and Denver I've worked with public private and nonprofit clients on range of projects and because I'm constantly engaged in this design process started to see and think about the world differently I've come to see the field of architecture as optimistic by asking what if rather than accepting what is we're forced to imagine possibilities rather than dwelling on ideas with limited potential or that simply don't work so let's go back to that thing that isn't working urban growth yes it's true our cities are evolving before our eyes that is an opportunity now more than ever we need everyone to engage in the question what kind of city do we want to live in because live in Denver I've spent lot of time imagining possibilities for our city like many American cities Denver is experiencing rapid growth the city is currently experiencing five-year building boom with two and half billion dollars worth of development and 3 million square feet of new construction added to the downtown in 2016 alone so today in the spirit of architectural optimism and to hopefully start dialogue I'd like to share few design scenarios I've created that I'm imagine the future of Denver and really imagine the future of any growing city in America by drawing inspiration from cities across the world we can imagine new but importantly viable strategies for transportation ideas of how we might use public space and most importantly how we might experience our day-to-day lives in the years to come so first what if Denver was seamless City Denver is and always has been the trading post of the West across the country there is untapped potential in regards to high-speed rail well-established technology throughout Asia and other parts of the world not capitalizing on high-speed rail seems the continued missed opportunity that would position Denver as critical link in national network moving people Goods and ideas imagine popping over to LA for the weekend without ever getting on plane or heading to Boulder for meeting or hike and arriving five minutes later what if Denver was truly active City traffic is one of the ugliest byproducts of urban growth as one of the fittest cities in the country and already equipped with robust bike share program could we now look to cities like Beijing and Copenhagen and consider elevated all-season bike paths that would connect our downtown's seamlessly with our many urban neighborhoods and given Denver's athletic climbing culture why not utilize big blank walls on buildings and infrastructure as climbing walls so to take this idea one step further let's look at two major forms of urban and suburban infrastructure roads and shopping malls as society shifts to driverless cars and e-commerce aka Amazon Prime what if Denver was self-sustaining City the United States currently has two point six five million miles of paved road the Dutch companies Solar Road has developed road and bike path that doubles as solar panel now we know Denver has 300 days of sunshine if not more could we maximize our climate and new technologies to shift the balance towards renewable resources and on the building scale let's look at wait for it Cleveland Cleveland is in the process of repurposing shopping malls as greenhouses so imagine your mall that you go to sometimes now imagine your mall but it's equipped with hydroponic systems daylight harvesting atriums and farmers market that you can go to every weekend to buy fresh produce all year round one question we are probably all asking ourselves daily is what if Denver was more affordable city maintaining affordable housing options omits gentrification it's an age-old problem Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena has successfully designed incremental housing in which the government funds the construction of half good house in other words home without any embellishment but all the necessities as time and resources allow home owners can add to their home with things like personalized finishes landscaping and even infill in close square footage where you see those empty Bay's now given Denver's dire need for entry-level housing near the downtown could we follow suit with more agile housing strategies along those same lines what if Denver was wild and equitable City as cities continue to densify there's often redistribution of public and private space one of the more successful models of maintaining public access to private buildings is San Francisco where private buildings of certain size must designee space for public use so as your city continues to develop and densify imagine being able to visit the downtown and being able to access network of public spaces ranging from galleries to rooftop gardens to lobbies that would facilitate much-needed Culture leisure recreation and amidst all the servants ssin sustained connection to nature lastly wide if none ver was bold city much of downtown Denver was developed in the 1970s and let's face it it feels like an endless grid of Windows building owners are in the process of repositioning these buildings with new designs to appeal to new generation of tenants could these renovation projects also be seen as an opportunity to transform our urban image from the mundane into the dare say it whimsical embrace change and bold visions let's treat our city as an architectural laboratory unlike New York and Chicago developing cities are still teenagers they have not experienced hundreds of years of maturity marked by history and density and development these cities are knee-deep right now in exploring design solutions that will address urban growth in the next few years decisions will be made regarding transportation public space open space not to mention the addition of hundreds of new homes and buildings we already passed them every day these decisions will change how and where we live so how do we all play part in imagining what could be before we're asking ourselves what could have been the design process only works if it's collaborative and based on shared vision and perhaps the first step is just engaging with your city in different way the next time you're out and about or asked to weigh in on design decision pull out your own pair of VR goggles and try to imagine the what-if scenario with the greatest long-term impact we are living in the era of cities our urban lives are busy they require constant balancing act between the personal and the professional at times it's understandably really easy to forget the biggest driver of development that no matter which city you live in cities are made by people for people we are all architects trying to build lives defined by options and experiences that give our days meaning now if we could collectively apply that sense of care and thoughtfulness to the development of the cities that we live in it's hard not to get excited about the what-ifs