Smart phones keep chirping with unpleasant news. Millions of refugees on the move worldwide, Britain leaving the EU, IS attacks on a gay nightclub in Orlando, a French City on the Cote D'Azur celebrating the national holiday being ambushed by a radicalized truck driver, Istanbul on lock-down because of a military putsch, over a hundred square miles of precious forest on fire near Monterey, California thanks to the ongoing severe drought, locally, near Baltimore, a quaint historic little town dubbed "Main Street America" by Senator Cardin devastated by torrents stemming from a rain fall that should occur only once every thousand years. Even the Olympic games garner more headlines for polluted waters, political instability, the big Brazilian drought and the Zika virus than for the athletes.
People around the world feel insecure and some are beginning to doubt what they have considered proven and true until now. The crazy turns of the US presidential election alone can make one lose one's bearings because none of the old rules seem to apply. So, instead of giving in to summer and its usual sluggishness, let's question if one of those ironclad certainties, the global growth of cities, is really such a certain and such a good thing.
That age of cities is cherished by those who also believe that multi-cultural diversity is good, that nations should open their borders to each other, that data should be open, that collaboration is better than isolation, that partnership beats isolationism, and knowledge beats ignorance. Cities are the best manifestation of all these virtues. In that narrative, cities are the zenith of civilization. Is this notion ready for the dustbin of history?
Community Architect: Do Very Large Cities Have a Future?
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Nikolaus Philipsen FAIA
Archplan Inc. Philipsen Architects
Baltimore MD
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