Future thrills

Several cities in the world are now becoming good at creating fine environments for all.

An example of urban development and renewal is Hamburg, Germany. The old shipping and transit town by the river and water is making part of the old harbour areas into a modern city. Some of the old quays are changing into modern urban areas, and the thinking behind it is good and deep. Some say it has to do with crazyness what they do – especially with reference to the new concert hall.

Hamburg already has Elbe, Alster, Port City (13.000 seagoing ships arrive every year), Storehouse City, Fish Market, Reeperbahn, cultural activity of all kinds, and the special attitude to life is the most characteristic – you have to find out for yourself.

New developments are under way, and people love what they see and are moving in. It may be that culture is the engine of creation, and the Bilbao effect is also mentioned.

Hamburg now get several spectactular buildings like the new concert house Elbphilharmonie, a tower for viewing the harbour, big office buildings with a temporary architecture. Landmark buildings like the science museum and other museums are also there. The public areas are spacious, the thinking is about sustainability and community living.

The aim is to make this a city of short distances, so that walking and cycling is possible, all supported by a good public transport system. Underground parking is ample so that visitors, both business and tourists, have easy access. Other functions like eating, shopping, cultural activity are also rich. A cultural melting pot is considered by inviting individual participation into activities. The conscious city is what it is about.

There are many new homes on the waterfront, and people become more outgoing and participative, with good neighborhoods. There are meetings, community web-sites for information and opinion, and home offices are common.

The thinking is about balancing work, life, leisure by mingling residential and working areas including sport so that they are side by side.

So a grand city is in the making.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 at 3:56 pm and is filed under Deep ecology, General, What humans do. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.