#100resilientcities

La sfida per il clima si gioca nelle grandi metropoli se considerate che nei prossimi 30 anni due cittadini del mondo su tre abiteranno in una città.

C’è un network di città sparse per il mondo, si chiama “100 Resilient Cities”, che fanno resilienza urbana. Vuol dire prepararsi a fronteggiare gli shock fisici, sociali e economici che le città subiscono causa il cambiamento climatico. Come a esempio le emergenze, dovute alle alluvioni, gli incendi, il crollo di infrastrutture, ondate di calore e altri disastri, sia le situazioni croniche che avvelenano le città: inquinamento, disoccupazione, povertà, iniquità sociale.

Le sfide che le città affrontano oggi costringono a trovare soulzioni nuove e innovative per il futuro Le città hanno bisogno di pensare alla resilienza.

http://www.100resilientcities.org/video-urban-resilience/

¿Podremos transformar la arquitectura y el urbanismo de una ciudad como Vitoria-Gasteiz?

Según este artículo de ‘El País’ ( http://ow.ly/7gsa302aEL4 ) el futuro de las ciudades pasa por seguir un modelo camaleónico. La arquitectura y la forma en que está concebida Vitoria-Gasteiz ¿permitirá este cambio? Esperemos que así sea… ‘la sostenibilidad de las urbes pasa por la constante adaptación ante los efectos del cambio climático’.

Ciudades que sean ‘elásticas’ y se adapten a las migraciones, los cambios climáticos o a la forma en que fueron creadas. Parece que la palabra ‘resilencia’ se abre paso también en la arquitectura y el urbanismo;  ‘Resiliencia es tratar de sobrevivir y prosperar independientemente del desafío’. Las pautas de cómo actuar nos las dan iniciativas como www.100resilientcities.org con novedosas propuestas como el metro de Santiago de Chile que funcionará con energía solar o eólica; proyectos para evitar que existan ‘personas sin techo’ en Miami, o las propuestas de Rotterdam para ser una ciudad más flexible, más inclusiva y más ágil.

Announcing Urban SOS: Fair Share

The sharing economy is revolutionizing industries worldwide, and people’s appetite for borrowing, renting, and sharing continues to grow.

With this in mind, we're excited to launch Urban SOS: Fair Share, a design competition that challenges students to apply the tools and technologies of the sharing economy in support of more equitable access to resources, sustainable built environments, and enriched lives for urban residents. The competition is co-presented with AECOM, in partnership with 100 Resilient Cities — pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation.

Fair Share asks interdisciplinary teams of students to join forces and address the social complexity of the sharing economy. Successful proposals for this project will:

1) Identify a problem or need at a specific site and city around the world, and a population that current infrastructure struggles to address.

2) Develop an idea for how design and technology can create a sharing system with both digital and physical components that addresses this need.

3) Go beyond the app or digital device and create an engaging physical intervention in the city you choose.

Entries should be submitted by midnight EDT on September 12, 2016, here. Expert juries of global thought leaders in five cities around the world will select competition finalists, who will advance to the final round in Los Angeles to present their proposals before an interdisciplinary panel. Winning teams will receive a combination of cash and in-kind support from AECOM to help bring their project to life.

I grew up in the suburb of Vancouver (though to be fair, Vancouver is a suburb) where when I shovelled snow in the front yard or blew pine needles with the blower, neighbours would smile and warmly say mind your back from the strenuous constant bent over gesture. I believe everyone greeted each other with smiles and generously asked how are you sweetly followed by the words sweetheart and dear. 

It's also common practice to open doors for each other, apologise when one accidentally hits another and say thank you when seen fit. These I gathered as basic manners one carries with them no matter where you are based. Little by little my preconceived notion of the world was challenged as I moved from city to city, only to have come to fully experiencing no smiles, no words of endearment, and certainly no one holding the door and apologising in the fast paced Hong Kong. My mum's explanation is that no one has the time, but is it about time, or is it about values. 

Hong Kong is a resilient city. This has been proven through the decades it's survived with the British classism during the 'take over', to post world wars, the revolution, the hand over back to China, and most recently the SARS pandemic. It is a city filled with change - physically-with it's constant land reclamation projects, emotionally and mentally - being overseas British nationals to being Chinese again. Hong Kong citizens are chameleons needing to adapt to the many changes quickly leaving the city and it's habitants disconnected from one another. It would be a light suggestion to line roads with trees or finding better usage to regenerate under developed communities, because in truth, this is a city that perhaps most need smiles, doors opened for one another,  and to apologise rather than push someone out of the way. All cities lack in time, to ask a culture to slow down would be an impossible task, especially in the city of Hong Kong- as the momentum is to accelerate. This was adopted since the 70’s as Hong Kong’s economy blossomed from finance to manufacturing. Through the acceleration, the city forgot to turn back and remember where they came from, the journey to their achievements, but most importantly the values. Has the resilience instigated a new generation of detachment?