{"id":690095,"date":"2019-06-28T09:00:07","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T07:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/?post_type=articles&p=690095"},"modified":"2019-06-28T09:21:40","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T07:21:40","slug":"more-human-cities","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/articles\/more-human-cities\/","title":{"rendered":"More Human Cities"},"featured_media":690091,"template":"","meta":{"_has_post_settings":[]},"schools":[28,33,35],"areas":[20,23],"subjects":[],"class_list":["post-690095","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","schools-architecture-and-design","schools-human-sciences-and-technology","schools-university","areas-human-behavior","areas-smart-society"],"custom-fields":{"wpcf-article-leadin":["With cities growing at a relentless and ever-increasing pace, urban development models are more important than ever. Sustainability, integration, and the resilience of city inhabitants are fundamental objectives. To achieve these goals, city managers must address six major challenges\u2014and get citizens on board with these efforts."],"wpcf-article-body":["Migration from the countryside to cities is an unstoppable\u2014and accelerating\u2014global<\/a> phenomenon. Cities are currently responsible for 80% of global GDP, 70% of global energy consumption, and 70% of all CO2<\/sub> emissions. There is only one way forward: we must create more sustainable cities and communities\u2014a challenge addressed by Sustainable Development Goal #11 in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development\u2014while also working towards social goals that will make cities more inclusive, cohesive, and resilient.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nSix major challenges<\/strong>\r\n\r\nCities must address six major challenges, with citizens playing a key role in these efforts.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n1. Creating communities<\/span>\r\n\r\nThe only way to make cities more human is to focus on creating communities. As we have advanced along the path of progress and individualism, community has gradually fallen by the wayside. Nowadays, this concept is a sought-after value that is enjoying a resurgence in new lifestyles that emphasize community-building.\r\n\r\nIn this cohesion strategy<\/a> focused on creating communities, one element\u2014culture\u2014stands out as the main engine of development. Culture works to strengthen people\u2019s sense of belonging, social cohesion, and collective identity.\r\n

\"Ciudades<\/a><\/p>\r\n2. Compact cities that encourage interaction among residents<\/span>\r\n\r\nOne of the keys to making cities more human is to create big \u201csocial cohesion\u201d spaces\u2014streets, buildings, neighborhood associations, etc.\u2014that encourage people to interact with one another. In places where social encounters are more common\u2014for example, villages\u2014people tend to live longer.\r\n\r\nThe Italian village of Acciaroli is a fine example of this tendency. Researchers from the University of San Diego and the Sapienza University of Rome took an interest in this 700-person hamlet, whose inhabitants seem to cheat death with their unusually long lifespans. Among many other interesting conclusions, the study found that residents of Acciaroli converse with their neighbors and get some sort of exercise\u2014gardening, walking up and down the village\u2019s steep streets\u2014on a daily basis.\r\n

In places where social encounters are more common, people tend to live longer.<\/blockquote>\r\n3. Pedestrian-scale cities: the concept of walkability<\/span>\r\n\r\nHaving one\u2019s workplace or cultural and recreational offerings within walking distance is seen as a luxury\u2014but it\u2019s more affordable if you live in the city center. Walkability is a factor of cohesion and economic activation for urban centers, but it also offers enormous benefits to society as a whole. The populations of less walkable areas tend to be less diverse and have lower incomes, higher unemployment rates, lower access to education, longer commutes, and less space for recreation.\r\n\r\nThe big challenge for city planners is to create new urban fabrics that respect the principle of walkability. But they must also regenerate existing neighborhoods\u2014most cities are built on top of existing settlements, not from scratch\u2014and transform them into walkable, human-scale cities.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n4. Green cities<\/span>\r\n\r\nThe notion of green architecture is not limited to buildings; our cities as a whole must acknowledge their environmental responsibility. Nowadays, architecture is clearly focused on green certificates and the use of technology<\/a> to increase efficiency. The construction process needs to be based on the circular economy and support the fundamentals: sustainable building, optimal resource management, the use of natural and recyclable materials, and energy efficiency.\r\n\r\nResponsibility at the city scale is also crucial. Urban voids and \u201cfifth facades\u201d must not be neglected: they can be landscaped, thereby increasing the overall amount of green space. The expansion of landscaped surfaces in public spaces and buildings generates a sense of well-being and encourages interaction with nature. Contact with nature and landscaping has been shown to reduce stress and increase productivity.\r\n
The big challenge for city planners is to create new urban fabrics that respect the principle of walkability. But they must also regenerate existing neighborhoods.<\/blockquote>\r\n5. High air quality<\/span>\r\n\r\nUrban air quality is a global<\/a> challenge. In major cities, high air quality is an indicator of excellence. Nearly 80% of cities have air pollution levels that exceed the limits established by the World Health Organization and nine out of ten people worldwide\u201492% of the global population\u2014breathe polluted air. The main sources of air pollution are transport, household energy consumption, electricity generated from \u201cdirty\u201d sources, and improper waste management.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n6. Participatory and connected, all day, every day<\/span>\r\n\r\nCitizens want open cities that are active 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Nowadays, nearly all companies are online, with a near-constant flow of information. Shouldn\u2019t the same be true of cities? And shouldn\u2019t civil society be involved in city management?\r\n\r\nThese are the six major challenges that will set cities on the path towards building socially and economically sustainable communities and making their inhabitants more inclusive, more human, and more resilient.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n\u00a9 IE Insights."],"wpcf-article-extract-enable":["1"],"wpcf-article-extract":["By Carmen Panadero<\/strong>. With cities growing at a relentless and ever-increasing pace, urban development models are more important than ever. Sustainability, integration, and the resilience of city inhabitants are fundamental objectives."],"wpcf-article-summary-enable":["1"],"wpcf-article-summary":["As urban areas continue to grow, cities need to establish development models that emphasize sustainability and integration. However, we mustn\u2019t forget that citizens themselves have a key role to play in the configuration of these models. In this article, Carmen Panadero, Director of the Master in Real Estate Development at the IE School of Architecture and Design, describes six major challenges that the cities of the future must address in order to become more sustainable and make their populations more inclusive and resilient."]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/690095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/articles"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"schools","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/schools?post=690095"},{"taxonomy":"areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/areas?post=690095"},{"taxonomy":"subjects","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/subjects?post=690095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}