The Future of Cities: Seeking Answers About Our Urban Future by Oscar Boyson
Geschreven op 1-9-2017 - Erik van Erne. Geplaatst in Milieu
More than 31 cities around the globe with populations of more than 10 million people are considered megacities. As the number of city dwellers increases, so do problems like overcrowding, pollution, housing and aging infrastructure.
The online mini-documentary, The Future of Cities, explores the ways citizens are mobilizing to address these issues.
In pursuit of examples, Oscar Boyson fired off a quick YouTube video soliciting suggestions for places and projects. His effort generated 1,500 responses across 75 countries. Boyson had immersed himself in urbanist texts by the likes of Jane Jacobs and Jan Gehl, to name a few, but he wanted to, as he puts it, take a “quick trip around the world and see what is sticking.”
So he ponied up for one of American Airlines’ round-the-world tickets, and, over the course of two weeks, jetted from New York to Santiago, Auckland, Sydney, Singapore, Seoul, Mumbai, London, Copenhagen, and Venice. Back stateside, he hit Detroit, L.A., and Boston.
This is a conversation starter first, a video second. I’d love to hear your thoughts on cities, the future, and this project. Note that the first shot in the movie a “Garbage Truck in Taipei” is actually in Changhua City, also in Taiwan. Thank you Taiwanese friends for pointing this out!
Thank you to everybody who contributed! Trust me when I say that even if I didn’t get your footage in the cut, we can feel it in the finished product. I want to keep telling urban stories and building on these ideas - hope you do too. Knowledge is Power.
See also: What is Urban Metabolism? We Need to Achieve More With Less
