Silent parks . Designing for disabilities . Human - powered datum . Garbage anthropology . World - class sidewalk . Floating favelas . blusher as infrastructure . These are the key to the cities of the future , according to the most recent TED league , City 2.0 .
Last year , for the first time , theTED Prizewent to an idea — the futurity of the city — and a million dollars was divvied up amongten granteesall over the cosmos . Last week was the first - everTED City 2.0conference , boast several of those grantees plus many other urban leaders discuss their melodic theme for the future of the city .
In many way of life it was a typical TED event : There were 24 speakers broken into four cluster , each loosely organized around a motif . The speakers came from implausibly divers backgrounds , and additionally , over130 groupsaround the world livestreamed the group discussion as part of their own TEDxCity2.0 events , which made it feel like a unfeignedly spherical conversation . ( You canwatch the entire Clarence Shepard Day Jr. of talksonline orread the liveblog . )
But what struck me as I sit in the interview was how many of the theme were so simple . These were big idea , yes , but they centered around the most elemental concepts , each seek not to dramatically metamorphose the way we live , but to boost more human fundamental interaction between us . Here are seven of the brilliant urban futures I find out at TED City 2.0 .
Silent parks . As more humans crowd our cities , the estimate of still will be a commodity , posited player and creative person Jason Sweeney . His project , Stereopublic : Crowdsourcing the Quiet , serve citizens to find quiet , broody places in their cities . By downloading his app , you could map out a quiet blank space , record sound recording , and call for compositions from artist to exemplify these silent home . One can reckon volume - mandate public spaces offer suspension from our busy animation .
design for disabilities . One of the most knock-down presentations total fromChris Downey , an architect who recede his sight . From crosswalks to signage , our urban center require to be design for people of all abilities , not only for the mass we traditionally think of as disabled , but also for children and the aged — which is specially important as we live longer and urban populations age . I particularly loved Downey ’s closing sentiment : We all have disabilities , some of us just have n’t get a line them yet .
Human - power information . Code for Americais well - known for recruiting designers and developer to solve urban problems with glorious tech root . But in Honolulu the biggest challenge was the metropolis ’s own site — hundred of pages featuring the typical bureaucratic paries of textbook . developer createdHonolulu Answers , one of the most fascinating projects discussed by Code for America ’s Catherine Bracy , a disjoined portal which could well and plainly answer the situation ’s most frequent requests . However , since the website had to beget real response for canonic metropolis questions , someone had to write them — so Honolulu hold a “ write - a - thon ” where local citizens could author and edit the questions . The data was actually populated by real people , who even get credit for the answers they wrote .
Garbage anthropology . In her bookPicking Up : On the Street and Behind the Trucks with the Sanitation Workers of New York City , Robin Nagle yield incredible brainwave into the hulking yet invisible systems that clear our curbs day by day . As theanthropologist - in - residencefor the city ’s Department of Sanitation , she looks at not only what we discard , but where it actually goes . Nagle strives to give a boldness to those sanitation workers who have some of the most grave jobs in the city yet are not discover as civic heroes like fireman or policemen . We spend so much time gouge our hands about consumerism but very little time examine the civilization of waste it develop . Every metropolis needs a garbage anthropologist to help us call up what happens when we cast it all away .
World - socio-economic class pavement . Many of the case ’s speaker system focused on expatriation , but the most sinewy point came from walkability expertJeff Speckand former Bogotá mayorEnrique Peñalosa . Both speak of a radical idea — to make pedestrians the true first - class citizens in our cities for both financial and social reason . Peñalosa showed an exceptionally powerful image of a raw cycle and walker path in Bogotá alongside a road for cars : The bicyclist and pedestrian were give a pristine medallion of pavement , while the cars were force to rumble along on a dirt road . What an easy way to encourage people to take the air .
Floating favelas . We see photos of slum in aloof cities and think of them as urban exception . In reality , these slums are the average — statistically , these straggling , high-pitched - density conurbation are where most of the world ’s population lives . But the limited resources of these communities are also what enliven some of the most striking examples of design innovation and textile reuse , like theMakoko blow Schoolin the lagune of Lagos , Nigeria . lensman Iwan Baan usually flies around the world photograph glistening newfangled construction , but his images of the floating school suggest that this structure and other marginalized societal spaces are not only photogenic , they are suitable of our globular aid . Hopefully designers , designer and planners are looking at these unexampled solutions for living .
pigment as infrastructure . New York City transportation commissioner Janette Sadik - Khan spoke about thedramatic transformationshappening on the city ’s streets , park and shopping center . These changes have not only esthetically meliorate the city but get booming business and increased revenues to local merchandiser . In most cases , the change take place on the streets themselves , with little more than a few cans of pigment to define where the railroad car and cycle and bus should go . city pass so much fourth dimension and money carving out public spaces — it turns out all most cities really need is a little gullible paint .
[ ikon : TED , Stereopublic , Honolulu Answers , Iwan Baan for NLÉ ]
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