City Design

I am fascinated by CIty design, I love walking cities, trying to see how they have developed, and what is being developed, but I have yet to see how a city can transform the way this article in the Guardian article outlines.

I love the idea of a city thats truly green, a city that smells right, not of car fumes, and a city that loves light. but most of all a city that might live, not envy at night.

Lets get this straight though, it will not be easy, the article covers a lot of ground, and misses some vital points, services, existing services, and transport, but its a start.

The article might be a dam good two hours CPD, with all the followup and research, plus sketching, and looking at your own city. As I stated, I walk my own city a lot, and dismay at the lack of care, the waste, and road structure. But love the way some people can take an old building and bring it to life after so long in the back streets of industry.

Planting out a city takes time, and its not an instant thing, it takes an army of people to care for plants, I know this from our small garden, I can imagine this on a city scale, the water requires, the soil, the containers the leaf trimming, and the season effects, of changing planting at the end of summer.

Insects will once again become the norm, and we will have to get used to it, bees will flourish, and thats a good thing, after all, no bees or insect, no humans.

So there it is, an excellent article, and one that needs a lot of thought, Its not just the planners, its the human race that needs to take a action, the planners work for us, not the other way round, demand action, but don't think it is a one sided problem, we all need to get on board to achieve green cities.

In a few weeks I will visit Paris and one of the "To Do List" items will be to walk a long park thats been made out of old railway and industrial areas right in the centre of the City, can't wait.